Progressive Metal Guitarist MARTIN GONZALEZ About Solo Debut Suspiro

0:04 Hey, you have unto censure. Wow for you young Wake up America. It's time for the Adventures of pipe Man on W four c Y dot com. West pomp Beats is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man. Sorry right say right shah show a shaw very. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio.

0:55 I'm very excited about our next guest because I just love love musicianship, and that's something that you don't know. We's see nowadays and the way music has become. I think sometimes we've lost some musicianship, but then there's also a comeback of artists like this next one and a lot of others that are bringing that back. So let's welcome to the show the amazing progressive metal guitarist and Martin Gonzalez. How are you yo? What's up? Man? And thanks for those kind of words. I'm good man, how are you? Oh? I'm great? And my pleasure because it's true, you know, like listen, nothing takes the place of good musicianship. You can push buttons all you want, you can use AI all you want, and that's all good for enhancing in my opinion, but not as a replacement, right, I can't agree, man, especially with that AI stopped going on as a lately scary man. It was scary way back when, Like in the eighties, I remember telling people like, I don't like this. The machines are going to take over, you know, and here we are it's like reality now. But yeah, but there are a lot of artists like you that are bringing back what things were I say, more like in the seventies and the eighties and the sixties, where it was all about musicianship and you know, especially talking about guitars, Like songs nowadays are written without guitar solos because

2:30 of the attention span of people out there, but also because I don't know. I think some of these musicians nowadays they're not even learning how played guitar. They're learning enough to get by and then they use all the you know, technology to do the rest. Right right now, now, I feel like people could consider their laptops as instruments, which yes, it's nothing against that is incredible what you can do with a lot to But now I feel you my passion is guitar late left to be secondary. Have you ever seen the there's a meme out there that shows a picture of the rock star in the eighties and the rock star now have you ever seen this meme? Right right? Yeah, that is like people partying and like drinking beer and then just like a nerd sitting in front of his computer. Totally. Oh that it's so funny, you know, because it is pretty true. And I mean there's a positive side to that too, because a lot of musicians down nowadays they are more professional and serious about it and they're you know, straight edge a lot of them, whereas back in the eighties that was true.

3:42 It was you know, massive amounts of partying. But I think that also holds to what's benefit nowadays of artists like you being able to get out there and make your own music opposed to record labels telling you what to do, because I think well happened in the eighties. It's record labels through so much money at these young kids and basically told them what to do that and they set them up with the party, and they wanted them party and they wanted them you know, doing all that, so they could you know, to be blunt scrow them over right right. It's definitely part of their image too, yeah, which is so funny. Let's say like one of my like one band that I admire a lot that kind of has that like rock and roll energy still is probably Polifia. They still like they're I assume they're definitely like nerds because of the music they do, but at the same time, they have that like rock and roll energy that is like, what the fuck are you've been doing right exactly? So a lot of your fans know you best as a composer, and what I think is really cool about it.

4:53 Okay, so you're the composer for poppy around my franchise Rooster Teeth and r W B Y Rooster Teeth, And uh, what's interesting I find about that is so I saw this band back in the eighties when I was a freshman in high school. In the beginning of the eighties, I saw this band. They played in my gym in high school. And now the singer for that band is one of the biggest composers for like everything ever like Batman and The Simpsons, and that's Danny Elfman from Oingo Boingo and Oingo Boingo played in my gym. So immediately I saw that that's who I thought of. So that's pretty cool. Tell us a little bit about that. Man. Yeah, so that the company who makes the anime is Rooster Teeth and then the anime is called Ruby, and say I said it wrong. It's it's been a cool geeg man. It's like like the first time I got to do something for like a TV show, And to be honest, the TV show is as good as it can get at the moment. It's been like a TV show that started kind of like as a YouTube thing from like kids that didn't know what they were doing, and now until there where they have like a budget where they have like real animators and real things, and it became

6:27 so popular. I was surprised to how popular it became. But the cool thing is I'm doing like metal music for it. I'm doing like Prague and I'm doing also like orchestral stuff. So I was getting paid for doing the music. I really love, man, I love it. I love it. I feel like sometimes for composers, it's like you take the gig that you have to take right. Sometimes you're like hired to do I don't know music for in the style of blah blah blah blah blah blah. But in this case, I was literally hired to do music the style of music that I really like to do. So I was like creatively, very free. I like wrote that stuff, obviously with direction from like the directors and so on, but I was just man. I was just happy playing guitar and being like paid for playing it. I love it, and it's so cool that it kind of blows my mind as somebody it's been metal head since like the late seventies, Okay, that you can compose metal music for a TV show in twenty twenty four, it's like totally cool to me, you know.

7:38 And it's funny when you said about it, because you know, The Simpsons, which is like the longest running TV show ever, started as like a little clip on this show called the Tracy Omens Show. It wasn't its own show. It was like a little clip, and it's just become this phenomenon right right, And I feel like Danny Elkman right now, he's even playing at like metal festivals. Yeah yeah, yeah. So I go on tour and I do coverage of festivals throughout US, the UK, Europe, and he's on a couple festivals that I'm looking at that I might do press for, and it kind of blows my mind because he hasn't really done that that I've seen in a long time, Like I'm sure he has, but not unlike major festivals like that. So it's kind of wild going back to his roots kind of right, right, I feel like especially now that that particular world of like composers and like actual metal musicians, like they're starting to merge. I know of a couple other people that are like in bands and like doing metal music that are actually writing music for video games and TV shows and film and stuff like that. So some somewhat like metal hits are taking you know where that stuff as well. It's pretty cool. And look and look at what happened with stranger things too, Like that's even wild. Yeah, And what's interesting too, if you travel the world, you don't realize

9:13 how metal has a place and places you won't even think of. Like currently right now, I'm in Costa Rica and I had no clue, but there's like a huge underground metal thing going on here and it just it's really cool. Blows my mind though, because I would have never thought of that because there's like one major festival here and it's not metal and so and I'd been talking about like yeah, i'd like to. I'd like to start my own festival in Costa Rica. And then I came down this year. I came down. I come down every year, and I was talking to somebody that actually does different festivals and bensing It's like, oh no, we do a lot of metal stuff. It's all kind of underground type of thing and that that reminds me of the good old days too. Man, that's awesome.

9:58 I honestly, if you have recommendations for like metal musicians or bands that I should listen to from Costa Rica, I'll take them in. I'll have to find them. There is one that I'm forgetting the name of the band, but I was in Bali last year for two months, and there's this band there that they're they're kind of like maybe pop punk combined with metal and punk, and they have a song called Kuda rock City. I'm trying to remember the name of the band right now, I'm losing, but like, they're really popular there and I listened to them, like, man, they're really really good. Again. Never expected that in Bali for sure, you know.

10:43 And it's just really cool. And then I was just in Mexico a couple of months ago, and I saw metal stuff going on there and I'm like, man, that's just really speaking of which, have you ever seen that band that does the metri riachi metal maybe maybe do you know the name? Yeah, like like being senile today, I like, right, but it's really I know it and it's like really good. I like that's pretty cool. Yeah. There's this Mexican artist called the Josse Makario. Okay. He like he's like one of those musicians that like play a bunch of different genres from like literally like Mexican popular music to like Mexican gent. Like it's super weird, man. But he came up with this album that blew my mind as recently, I think, like a new album that released like a week ago or two weeks ago. Uh, And the band is called Ladni's.

11:45 It's like the Thieves, and it is the weirdest fusion of music I've heard in a while. It's like imagine like Mariacchi singers with like hip hop influence like stuff, but also with gent in the background, with like actual machuga going back in the background, and like what I mean. I liked it though, but but he's really weird music. One that is coming up from Mexico especially, I think, you know, would be kind of cool if you had like and I'm saying this because it's funny. I just took a lesson and I noticed and it wasn't because him, but like because I'm in Costa Rica. But uh, I know it's Jose from Serious Exam.

12:31 He just took a lesson too, likes Toya of his comfort zone. Toya mine on like sosa and marengue, And I'm thinking, how cool would it be to have a mosh pit that was combined with salsa and marengue and brachata, you know, and you're doing that in the pit. That would be so funny and funny. I'd be in the pit right there, dancing and hitting people right right. That would be so cool. And then there's this other thing. I don't know if you know this or not, but there's a big thing going on with yoga to metal, which I love that because everybody associates yoga with mellow and you have this mellow like spiritual music in the background, and me, I sit there, even though I do it, I'm like getting bored after a while. If you were playing like Slayer while I'm doing my yoga. I would do yoga all day, damn dude, Honestly, if I find it funny how some people really find like that type of stuff relaxing. Like I feel like I don't, dude with Slayer, I would like no relaxing. Oh, Slayer, I would find relaxing.

13:43 I don't find the mellow relaxing to me. It's weird for me. It's like I get antsy, you know. But if you give me a Slayer, I'd be totally into it, and I'd be It's funny because I'm also a motivational speaker, and when I go and do seminars, I will crank up stuff like Slayer and Slipknot to get myself pumped up to do a seminar. Dude, that's so funny. That's awesome though, right right, you know. And that's the power of music. And that's why I love musicianship too, because it just takes you somewhere else and away from all the bull crap that's in the world. And I love that. You know, a couple of singles on your new record, they're both different, okay, so oh yeah, And what I like about that is who does want to listen to the same song over and over again, even if it's your favorite band.

14:39 I like to hear variety, Like everybody throws shade up, bring me the horizon for doing different things. I'm like, more power to them because I like hearing the different things. But also for the artists. I feel good for the artists because it must be boring as could be if you're just doing the same songs over and over again with the aim chords and the same riffs, and you know, I'm sure as a musician you'd rather just experiment. Honestly, Yeah, dude, I feel like, uh, well, that's That's the cool thing about being independent too, is just nobody tells you what you can do or what you should be doing, and it's just cool to like not depend on anyone else's opinions or like things that they think they should be doing for them. I just do it for myself, to be honest. And every song has a different purpose or like background of where I'm coming from, which this record is really personal to me. It's like every song has a has a meaning. It's just not God damn it. And we're sing like a thousand texts and I don't know how to put my computer inside. That might be the that might be the record company saying, because like, what are you saying? You're gonna get fired? But you imagine just like I was saying. So, Yeah, every song has a particular meaning to me. For example, the first song, it's like a song

16:10 about self sabotage. It's like about like, really, how I'm responsible for my own type of outcome I have in life. And so I decided to do something very like heavy and aggressive, or as aggressive and heavy as I can get. I've never done a song like that before. And then I had my wife sing on it, and she's like, she's a freaking talented man. Now music is subjective, but I think she's a really sick singer. Nice. I hope so, because otherwise you're in big trouble. Not because she's my wife by any means, but because I just think she's a great, great singer. And yeah, that song in particular was just like a song that I was like, has to be heavy. I've never done something like this, and it has to be really like when in company, my guitar playing as a whole versus The second single, the one featuring Richard Henschel from Haking it's more of the positive side of my life. It's more like just looking forward to like waking up every day and having like some sort of purpose or some well the song is called purpose, but some sort of meaning, something that excites you to live your life and just try to be happy. So two very different concepts right when. It's like, oh, I hate myself, and the other one is like, nah, dude, you're gonna find see. I love that though. You know why most people don't admit it. We have, all of us, even the most positive of us, have all those sides, you know, right, you know

17:41 that we're not so narrow like, there's so many dimensions to our personality that I think we need those multiple things to kind of be balanced, you know. And you know, even somebody like me, I can relate to both of those songs on you know. And that's the thing too. When you're a speaker, motivational speaker, people are like, oh, nobody could be that positive all time. I'm like, no, nobody is that positive all the time. It's how much you let it affect your life and for how long. You know, we're humans. Shit happens to us. We're humans, and we have emotions, and we have things that affect us, but then we have tools that can help. And to me, music is one of the greatest tools and one of the greatest therapies. Man it is that is true. I'm glad. I'm glad like you can you can see it also that way lots of people think of like, well, they think of music as like they go listening to an artist and they expect something to sound the way they want it, and then when they don't, they're like, oh, what if the start is doing and it's like they're probably just being honest about how they feel or whatever they're doing, and that's why you don't like it, right, And that's my WIYH. A be a good artist is to just be yourself. If you're trying to do things for what other people want, you're not gonna be as good. You know, forget the fact that somebody's being fake, just the fact of how can you be good

19:12 at your craft when you are faking it? You know, if you're just being yourself, it's easy. It's just like I tell people with radio shows or like you know, like we doing this interview or stuff like that, I don't script it, I don't prepare like, you know, there's a little bit of preparing obviously, but I don't sit there like, oh I got practice, But I just get on and be myself because that's what people can relate to. I'm glad, dude, same can here absolutely unprepared. Good. I love it because the one thing and I don't get it often. But when artists or pr people are like, can you send me to questions, You're gonna ask them like no, because the interview takes a life of its own. And like, if you have asked me before this interview, if we were talking about some of the things we've already talked about, I would have said no, because I didn't even think about it. Like the key to anything in life is laying life happen and then taking those life events and that makes the conversation. I agree, dude, I totally agreed.

20:26 So how do people connect to you on socials on the web? How can I get your new album? Merche anything? Right? So I always go like at Martin Gonzales music and that's on I think Twitter, YouTube, No, that's on Instagram, on YouTube, and then on Twitter or now x for whatever, I go buy Martin Yo Nar. Then I'm like it should be super easy to get to like how to buy the album or how to get to my Spotify or everything from there. Just look it up. It's Martin Gonzales in band camp, in Spotify and basically every streaming service you can think of. And in band camp, I'm currently running a pre order and then as I'm releasing the singles, you can download the full quality version of the singles as in like the full audio quality version of the singles as you as your preorder. And the album is coming out on March twenty second, and the next single is coming out on Friday this Friday, March first.

21:34 WOA And that's another song with vocals too, So I'm pretty pretty excited about this one. This one in particular is my favorite. So I kind of like connect with me and you'll be informed of when this drops out. Very cool, And so tell us about the solo record coming out on the twenty second if you were to say, what really means to you and like what made you come up with the name for not not because what does the name mean, but more of what it means to you, right right right, So this record is basically a way of me trying to like breathe out all the shit that I've been living for the past couple of years. I had like a year or two where I was just like confused to what I was going on with my life and just kind of like maybe doing music that I wasn't passionate about. And this is just kind of like a way to reinvent myself, to feel good about myself and to write music for me because I low it, right So this record was like a reminder to myself about like why I'm doing this and why I want to be a musician, and why I will never stop doing it. So that's what the record personally means to me. The name of the record is Hospito, which means like cy It's like a heavy like so that's why I named it like that. It's

23:07 just a way of like expressing myself to my honest self right now. This is like as good as I am in right now. There's a lot of room to grow, and I hope that the next music I do is always going to be better. But this is kind of like a testament of like this is me right now, this or my abilities, this is what I love to do. This type of music is the one that resonates with me personally the most, and I decided to bring some friends along the way. Like, as I told you, my wife is on it, which means a lot. Then I have another friend of mine called Chenk, which is a friend I met at Berkeley College of Music and he's now living in England, so we're really far away, but he was always like an important due to me. And then I also collaborated with sex Singer, who is a super sick wind like all types of wind instrument player. He's playing auto sacks in one of my songs. And then Richard Henschel, which is the guitarist from Haygen, which is like a dream come true because I used to listen to Haygen since like an early teenager. So having the record also mean a lot to me. And it's just a way of like bringing people that I think are both talented and that I care about into my own music. And it's just very fulfilling man. So that's basically what the record is to me.

24:37 As I said before, it's a way of like letting my negative energy go and keep pursuing music with all I got. It's good that that's my first record as a solo artist too. I think it has a great meaning. So for whoever listens to it, I just hope they can get to meet me better as a person, not just as a guitar player, because right everyone can play it nowadays, but maybe they'll meet me as a person just by listening. And as always, music is subjective, so whatever the music does to anyone who listens to it is super welcome, and I'm super interested to know how it touches people and whoever cares about it to I love it, and that's why I asked that, because you know, one thing you said to me like really hit home, like you had that rough couple of years, and then like making this album is like a big sigh from that rough couple of years, which goes, you know, to the point of what I said of it's the best therapy, not just for us as a listener, but us the artist. So this expressing on this album is getting out all that negativity and things that happened over the past couple of years.

25:51 And I think that that's way healthier than any of the big pharma drugs that people give. I agreed, man, I agreed, love it well, thanks a lot for giving us great music and being a great musician, and thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Dude, thank you so much for having me. There was a pretty dope chat. Hope he's not the last one we have to it won't be. And I love hearing that feedback too, because sometimes for artists, doing press is not the fun part of the job, and that's why I'd rather make it fun. So all right, Well, it's Harrely a Pendon man, but you're you're a cool guy, so I look forward to talk to you again some time.

26:33 Dida, absolutely thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man. I'm w for CUI Radio.