J Rick Flores Perspective on Another Time Another Place

I'm a life-long musician and composer who very recently started to upload my music to Spotify and other streaming services. I started playing guitar at a young age, focusing on classical training. During high school and college days I focused on jazz and rock, playing in many bands and starting to write my own music. In the course of rasing my family, I worked a day gig full-time and raised my family. Now,  I have time once again to focus on my music, both playing live and working with new technologies in my home studio.

There was not a moment in time where I made a deision to become an artist/performer. Its kind of like saying when did I decide to start breathing... Maybe it maight be better said, that at one point I stopped being forced to practice and instead, played all the time becasue there was nothing I preferred to spend the majority of my time doing. That same decison came up again for me recently after leaving my day gig for good.

The development of this song is typical for me, I started with a fragment/ idea and over several years, tried new approaches and structures. My background (i.e. classical, jazz, latin, rock) allows me to explore different genres before finalizing a feel for the song that represents my essence. At my core, I have a Hispanic heritage and all my notes come out with a latin influence.

One of the first things I did, was develop the part that ended up being the intro/outro. Starting with the bass and drums, I came up with the syncopated rhythm that characterizes the section. I then had the idea to add my nylon string on top of that new section. What I heard was a similar vibe to the intro on Santana’s Maria Maria. Additionally, there is a Top 40 tune by Kendrick Lamar and SZA called, Luther. It has a little nylon string guitar in the intro that stuck a nerve. With that, my new section came out. The really interesting part for me was unintentional, the structure of the tune starts in one place, goes to another, and then back again. I can say that it goes to ‘Another Time Another Place’ in the course of the song!  Related to this is the ‘Lighting’ audio I used at 2:52, it turned out to be a great transition between sections, back to another place.

The bass part was played on my midi keyboard controller. This little unit is so cool - M-Audio Oxygen Pro Mini. One of the great things about midi is the ability to quantize. That bass line is really solid thanks to the quantization. In general, using this keyboard allows me to hear some things that I wouldn’t think of if playing guitar. I developed the chorus section fundamental  melody line using the keyboard. My personal favorite part of the song is at 2:35 where I played a chord using the PolySynth sound on the M-Audio. 

I used my Kemper Profiler (digital amp) extensively for the ‘rockish’ guitar comping part and of course, the leads. I kind of stumbled into doubling the lead parts, I realized as I was recording the second part that its sounded really full. The last chorus doubles the lead but also adds a third part so it gets thick by the end!

I really love a reverb unit I ran across recently. It’s called, Perfect Room 2 by Denise Audio. This thing is very clean and has several parameters I have not seen on similar plug-ins. I used a ‘reverse reverb’ for the guitar solo in the middle of the tune. I liked the spacey sound that I got for the solo.I think the reverb is also key to the lead sounds throughout the song. My nylon-string Martin on the intro also uses a healthy dose of this reverb.

This is always difficult for me to identify my music into one genre. This is becasue I am naturally pulling from my varied background. For this song, I would say the intro/ outro feels Latin becuase of the nylon-string guitar but the main parts of the song are rock because of the electric guitars. 

For me, the most beautiful thing about music, is the ability to communicate with another human being at a deep level,. The communication is a connection in the mind (e.g. evoking memories, associating with one's own experiences) and in the heart (e.g. raising the listener's emotions both happy or sad).

Yes, I practice on a daily basis. Early on, I practiced classical pieces because I participated in competitions or perhaps learned cover songs to play in a band setting. Later, 'practice' has really become spending time with the guitar in my hands, either creating new ideas or evolving song fragments into full songs. 

I've had many jobs including music teacher, sales, bartender, etc. I spent my career as a software engineer/ architect at General Motors.