M.A.D PRODUCTION THOUGHTS

 

Back when I started recording M.A.D the only professional equipment I had was my Roland 1680 workstation, my ZOOM rhythm machine and a Yamaha keyboard. The guitars I had were no more than $400.00 worth. A playmate by dean that I've had since day one, a Jackson PS-4 Performer, my classical guitar and a very cheap pedalboard  ZOOM 3030. Also where I was living I was forced to record my guitars directly in from the preamp to the Roland without using any mic on the cabinet, because I didn't have the studio foamed properly for good acoustics. Which was ok cause later on I realized that the sound I was looking for is actually recorded that way, directly in. That sound I'm talking about is the sound you find in industrial bands like NIN or Ministry. Best way to explain it is by imagining a synthesized thick saw sounding guitar which my 3030 was capable of providing. Now, for the classical guitar sounds I used my classical guitar, but not acoustically. The wood was not expensive enough. So, I plugged it in to use it's bridge pickup. That way no matter how cheap the wood was the recording came out cleaner than a true acoustic $10,000.00 classical guitar. As for the rest of the equipments like drums, bass and keyboards sounds I already had exactly what I needed. To be honest it all worked out for me in the end. The lack of one thing offered a better alternative all the time. It's just funny how things work out in the studio sometimes.

 

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MEANINGS OF THE M.A.D PIECES
 

I named this record Mutual Assured Destruction, because I made the two most powerful styles of guitar playing that have shaped the music world like no other instrument has ever done collide with each other in this album. Classical guitar and Modern Electric Guitar playing. Two very different, but powerful styles of guitar playing that are almost like enemies in the music world. The reason for those two styles being almost like enemies is because of their techniques. If you learn from one it will affect the techniques from the other. That's why no classical guitar teacher will ever recommend you to take electric guitar lessons, on the contrary. They forbid you to keep playing MegadetH songs and such. Basically stay away from the electric guitar and that's something I didn't do. I always believed that there was a way to manage both styles and at least have them in a professional level without sacrificing to much techniques from both sides. In my case I chose the classical guitar to be my main instrument. That way the only technique that I will lack from the electric guitar style would be the eight finger tapping and I always found that technique to be useless and offensive to the guitar. It is as if the player wanted the guitar to be a piano and if I'm going to do that I rather just play piano and call it a day. So, as soon as I got my priorities right and I assemble my own practices I got to manage both styles.

 

PRELUDE (Personal Experience)

I have heard a lot of people playing this piece and so far the best has been Segovia. But, as a musician, I’m never satisfied with somebody else’s version of something no matter how good theirs is, it can always be played better. For example, in my version you can tell the difference by listening to the sound and dynamics, which are very updated. I also changed the ending of the piece, because in Bach’s times monophonic was still popular. Then, I analyzed it and added other notes forming chords or intervals to have a more updated sound. I also think that the piece sounds better played with a guitar instead of a piano. Although, it was written for piano.

 

 

DYING Composed on 1996 (Personal Experience)

I finished writing this piece a week later of having an overdose of acid in the year 1998. I really wasn’t thinking of a specific meaning for this piece. But, the fact that I recorded it during that period of my life, made me name it Dying and I also feel that it captured what I was going thru. Which, is hard to explain without words, but the piece speaks for its self.

 

 

CRYING FOR FREEDOM Composed on 1998 (Inspired by the movie Virus)

C.F.F is about a technology that enslaved us for their own survival. At the beginning of the piece you will hear me saying crying for freedom with a pitch delay on to create a sense of a machine attached to me. Along with that, there is a sound of a big machine on the background that gets stronger every time. The first solo was like a sad, but yet strong cried created by my guitar. After several phrases, there is a part where the solos disappears into playing the main rhythms. That creates tension for something that’s about to happen. All of the sudden, I begin playing very aggressive solos. I call this sections, “the battle.”  Then, you hear an explosion far away. The solo becomes more complicated and it fades away into the part where a machine with a really bad quality of sound says, “This is a warning, a count down of three seconds is going to begin. We must abort this planet and destroy human race.Thank you, for your cooperation.”  There is no more crying for freedom (solos) after that, only joys of strong rhythms as we destroy this life form that you will hear die at the end as the sound of its artificial heart stops.

 

 

THRASH IT DOWN Composed on 1998 (Fiction of my Imagination)

This one is a fictional story about a girl that thought she had the perfect relationship, but got cheated. In the first phrase you’ll hear 12 harmonic notes that stands for the day she met her boyfriend. As the relationship grew, it got better. But, she started to feel cheated on the part where I play the skipping arpeggios with the phaser on. Tension starts building like always and she sees them together where I start using the harmonizer, and she decided to go back to his apartment to thrash the place down all the way until the break. That break is the silence you hear in the song, which is when the boyfriend comes home and sees the place Thrashed Down. On the second part of the song after the brake, she feels relieved, and she moves on, forgetting about what happened. That is represented by the decaying delay at the end.

 

 

DEATH METAL Composed on 1995 (Personal Experience)

This piece is dedicated to CANNIBAL CORPSE, the best death metal band that ever existed. Since the first day I heard the name of this band I was hocked. But, when I listened to their albums, I was blown away since then. All I’ve got to say to them is, thank you for all of those wonderful records that influenced me into becoming whom I am today. Keep spreading powerful music.

 

 

INFLUENCES Composed on 1998 (Personal Experience)

Some people believe that giving a minute of silence after someone dies shows respect. In this case, I wanted to give respect to those who came before me and influenced me, by playing their music for one minute. (OVERKILL, MEGADETH, SLAYER, PANTERA, ANTHRAX, METALLICA, and SEPULTURA). This piece shows a little bit of everyone of those bands in my playing. It was a really good experience recording this one.

 

 

PARADISE LOST Composed on 1999 (A Book I Read)

This was the first book I read in my life. I remember how it impacted me the first time I read it. Some people say it was all fiction, some say it was true. To me it is a fictional story we should learn from. On the piece I tried to get every event the story has. The best thing to do is to learn about the story and then listen to the piece. You’ll understand everything after. But, if you just want the meaning for the piece, this is it. The piece is formed by 11 phrases and each means a different thing. First, the creation of life, 2nd Adam in the garden of Eden, 3rd Eva was created, 4th spending time together, 5th god’s commanding to name the animals ext, 6th curiosity about the fruit, 7th the snake, 8th eating of the fruit, 9th when god found out, 10th when god threw them away from the garden of Eden, 11th the present, Paradise Lost.

 

 

TECHNARYTH Composed on 1999 (Personal Experience)

TECHNARYTH is a word I created. It represents technology and rhythm but without the h between the r & y. It’s a piece very much influenced by my machines in my studio. Although, I was composing every note, my composition changes if I’m using a machine instead of a guitar. For example, some of my pieces where composed on a machine first and then I’ll transpose them to the guitar, it was a really cool procedure. I’m planning to compose more using that approach.

 

 

LAGRIMA Composed on 1999 (Personal Experience)

Jose Adam one time gave me an assignment called Lagrima. I have never heard that piece before in my life. When I started to learn the piece in my studio I couldn’t believe how beautiful the piece was.  I still think it is a very melancholic piece. So melancholic, that the day I played it when I was recording it, it came out more melancholic than the real composition due to the way it made me feel. There are some parts on the piece that were changed for the better if you ask me. But, it was not intended. Sometimes when I play a piece I add things to them depending on how I feel that day or how the piece makes me feel. I love the way this piece came out.

 

 

FUNK YOU!!! Composed on 1999 (Personal Experience)

This piece is more about kicking ass then anything else. It has such a grove that I can’t stop playing it sometimes. I’ve never even thought of the name that was going to end up on the record for this piece before I composed it. The only thing I was sure of was that the piece was going to be funky and aggressive. After playing it a bunch of time it felt right to name it Funk you, wish in actuality stands for Fuck you. Anyway, I had a blast composing and recording this one, oh! and it was composed on a classical guitar. Figure that out.

 

 

CUBA Composed on 1999 (Personal Experience)

I love Cuba. Although, I’m not proud of its present government, I’m proud of its combination of Caribbean and Spanish culture. The Caribbean percussion in Cuba came mainly from African families, and the flamenco and classical music came from families like mine. My family came from Pravia, a town in the providence Asturias located in the north of Spain. The land where the guitar was born. That means that if it wasn’t for the Spaniards, there would have never been any blues, metal, funk, Jimi Hendrix, or even me. Which it’s funny how a lot of African Americas and British people take credit for everything that happened with rock and roll. But, I have never heard any of them giving the Spaniards credit for creating the guitar and be masters at it. So, the fact that I am a Cuban that has both Spanish and Caribbean cultures made me name it, and dedicate it to Cuba.

 

 

JUST ONE FIX (Personal Experience)

Ministry to me is the greatest industrial band. My friends and I use to go to this park named Coconut Grove in Miami to trip on smiley pyramids (LSD) and to listen Ministry. We use to get there around 11:00pm and live around 6:00 am. Now, if you where there at that time in the night, you were either on something or up to something. Well, there was this group of rappers one night two cars away from us listening to crap. We started listening to Just one fix as loud as my car speaker could go, head banging, tripping, fighting, just being young. We got so excited that I threw a bottle of beer that I was drinking to one of the guys from the other group braking on his feet. They looked at us and wanted it to do or say something. But, some how the combination of how we looked and how the music sound it, scared them away. I would have kicked the hell out of that guy anyway, but I was blown away of how effective that music was. But, the main reason that this song ended up in my record as a piece, is because Ministry did a great job. I always felt that it needed more solos, so I decided to do a shorter version with solos of my own including every rhythm of the original version, but with less repetitions to make it even more interesting.

 

 

METAL STRENGTH Composed on 1999 (personal Experience)

I dedicated this piece to a really good friend of mine called Alberto Peralta. I use to call him Beto. He was six to seven years old when he saw me for the first time on a Super Market with his parents. I was walking by to enter the store and I saw this kid running up to me saying, cool, a rocker, what a nice shirt, is that PANTERA?  I told him yeah and I remember feeling really proud of him. So young and he knew about that band. It turned out that he was my girlfriend’s brother, who I did not know about at the time. A week later she introduced me to her family and he knew who I was. We are not friends anymore, because the girl and I broke up and I haven’t seen him anymore. I miss that family a lot.

 

 

PAVAN #6 (Personal Experience)

This was the first time I heard something like this. I’ve heard weird this in the past, but nothing compares to taking classical music and adding instruments that does not belong to the same era. There wasn’t any emotion behind it or a meaning besides creating something new. I simply liked the original piece and one day I thought of taking it further. I got the original version on paper and started learning it. Then I added the drums and the bass following the original piece with the music paper in front of me. That way I don’t have any wrong notes or anything like that. The bass is doing the lowest notes of the piece and the guitar is playing every voice of the piece. The drums are completely mine. This was the coolest thing to do. I also will be doing more of this.

 

 

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT Composed on 2000 (Personal Experience)

I dedicated this piece to a very special girl, Yuli. Not every relationship was found on love at first sight. But, mine was and I can tell you that it was the greatest thing to fall in love just by looking at her. It is very hard for me to explain everything I felt and feel in words. But, it was really easy to reveal it with my music. There are specific meanings for every phrase, but the best thing to do is to use your imagination with your own experiences to know what it means.

 

 

POLITICAL STATEMENT Composed on 2000 (Personal Experience)

You want progressive?, It doesn’t get more progressive than this. It's so heavy and fast that I feel like biting the hell out of someone when I’m playing it. Anyway, this pieces demonstrate how unsteady and aggressive the government is. That’s why I didn’t have any main lead guitars in this one. I Thought that by not having a main melody it will create more tension. It’s always changing just like politics, getting bigger, united, and in some cases destructive. But, if you think about it, humanity is more important then politics. That’s why I decided to have an impacting end for this piece. Illustrating that it doesn’t matter how confusing and strong the government can get. What matters is what we have been forgetting, us.  (This is not about one country only, all of them)

 

 

RHYTHMICALLY INSANE Composed on 2002 (Personal Experience)

Since the age of 16 I was influenced by Dream Theater with their weird intricate rhythms. I’ve been listening to their music for so long that it felt right to do something like this. I started composing it on my rhythm machine and took it from there. Thank you guys for giving us, music junkies, a new reason to practice. You’ve always shown what a human can do if he set his mind to it.

 

 

ETUDE #6 (Personal Experience)

A piece composed by a Cuban named Leo Brouwer and played by a Cuban named Arsenio Oro. How ironic, don’t you think?  I am very proud of having a composer as big as Mozart, or Beethoven, born in my country. I’m also happy to say that his personal student Carlos Molina use to test and teach me with Adam at every jury of every semester. Also, at every form where every classical guitar player gathers and plays infront of several teachers and the best students of classical guitar. Just, to hear their opinions and advices about my playing. It is also a lesson of controlling yourself in front of other musicians as good as you. Which, is equivalent to probably millions of regular people. That helped me get this pieces in a few takes. The hard rhythms with the electric guitar where very easy to do. Because, I just had to analyze the piece and build the chords after hearing the idea of Adam. He was the one that gave me the idea of adding those rhythms to the piece. Although, I composed everything added to it, giving me the idea makes Adam part of this pieces. Thank you Adam. You’ll never be forgotten.

 

 

THE EVIL INSIDE ME Composed on 1999 (Personal Experience)

Religion to me is a world of oppression. An old government that never worked. Although, it taught me a lot to be a Jehovah's witness. But, there are somethings in every religion that sounds like a little bit too much. My parents almost had it to drag me to the reunions when I was a little boy. I felt that I was wasting my time.  That created me to have a lot of evil ideas in my head. The worst things you could think of. Why do you think the most evil people in the world have been oppressed by religion when they were younger. It took me and my parents a long time to grow out of it. They just wanted the best for me and they did gave it to me. I just didn’t want my family to be lied to. For example, one time there was a reunion and this guy was talking about how god helps us. He said that god literally doesn’t reach his hand and saves us, he saves us all in mysterious ways. Like, if you where spiritually lost, he would send you a friend to give you the right guidance. That’s why I don’t understand why they blame the scientist for everything they do. They think that the scientists are the antichrist or something. What if god helped us by giving us a brain to survive and we are still waiting for him, instead of using it. That’s why I think that this world would be a much better place without religion. Religion divides people, that's all. It creates conflict and makes us not get along. But, don't get me wrong, is not that I don’t believe in god. I believe there is one, but we have misunderstood him. One day hopefully there won’t be a religion, or any modern government to be oppressed by.



Thank you for taking an interest in my art. I hope you’ve had fun reading the meanings of the pieces. I thought this would be a good idea, since I don’t have any lyric content in the record. Which, I think it is a good thing in my opinion. Because, music is an international language and also this way I don’t harm a child with bad words or wrong idealism for his age. Thank you again.

 

Arsenio Oro. Feb 1st, 2003.