"Here we were thinking anything was possible..."

Rob in Alaska, circa 1995

"... and starting a new song put that to rest pretty quickly. My vision for "Cold Day in Hell" was a tongue-in-cheek folk song. I wanted to capture that bittersweet sound that I heard when I lived in Alaska from so many folk artists there. The feelings are supposed to be complicated, not the song. It should be straightforward and clean.

This one was on the back-burner for quite some time. It was written before "Inner Voice" but didn't gel right away. One day, I woke up early in the morning and heard the steady rain on the roof. Suddenly, it was like I was back in Alaska and I knew what I wanted to do with the song. I could hear it, the soundtrack to my rainy day. I had it all, music, lyrics, feeling. It had to be a slam dunk. It wasn't. Veronica was like, "Folk? You want me to do what?" Suddenly the path was not so clear. I explained to Veronica what was needed for the style. She seemed unconvinced. She gave it a try and I could hear the magic sparking but not quite making the connection. For the style, the vocals needed to pull slightly flat for the ends of the lines to convey that wistful feeling.

Now, I've tried before to advise other musicians on things that fall outside my instrument. I always got push-back. They'd say that since I don't play drums/sing/bass, etc, I had no right to say squat. I was adamant in this case. I wasn't just writing guitar, so we needed to have the discussion. We did, and it was contentious. I felt a little discouraged. I didn't want Veronica to be a folk singer, I wanted her to interpret it in her own way. After all, I'm interpreting the hell out of anything that isn't metal, right?

Once she had her tracks recorded, I realized that she did understand. I had to smack my forehead! She had it! That little lilt on the ends of the phrases, it wasn't full folk, but it was flavor just like I wanted. It gave me a lot of confidence about writing for the vocal melody, but that did not mean a free ride. I'll tell that story later. 

I just have to say that Veronica might have pushed back at me, but she came through like a professional. I think that is the way it works if you are going to be original. Preaching to the choir was never news. It doesn't seem as strong as our other songs because it is so laid back. It really is its own experience. It is the gateway to our music for the adventurous folks, the ones who understand that adventure is found not only in a backpack guitar on the mountain, but wherever you take your passion.

After all, you bring all your problems with you; what you love follows you, too."

-Rob

The birth of our music

Here is another view of how our music process has been working so far, with details from Rob:

"Before Lucia, I was in an indie project that was a blend of not so mainstream styles, kind of a departure for me. I had been brought in to add some more edge to the music. In my personal studies, I had made great progress with modal guitar theory. The light turned on, as it were. I wanted to do some stuff in natural, melodic, and harmonic minor as well as leveraging the 7 tone scale on a 7 string guitar. I don't think I was able to fully connect with the author of the indie project and he eventually advised me that they were going to go with someone more melodic.

So there I was, at a loss for what my second project should be. I considered joining a metal band that was ready to go. But I'm already in a metal project. I wanted to be an all-around musician, not just a metal guitarist. I heard Veronica sing before, so I floated the idea of collaborating on a song to see what would happen. I was tired of jamming with people who didn't have their shit together in one way or another. But here was a singer with real talent. So I put together some test snippets of original songs. It didn't work. Swing and a miss each time. No fault to it, just no understanding of how to bridge a vast gap between our styles. We had about given up when I heard a song on the radio that struck me as something Veronica could just kill. It was the Lacuna Coil song "Heaven's a Lie." I put together the backing music (learned how to properly license a streaming cover) and waited for Veronica to drop me a track of vocals. When she did, I was blown away. That's when I knew our collaboration had a chance of success. 

Then it dawned on me what I needed to do to accommodate Veronica's singing style. So I buckled down and eventually produced the music for Inner Voice. My vision (every song has a vision or mission) was to take the Spanish flavored Phrygian mode and make it more exotic as harmonic minor. I wanted to create a song that touched the heart of Spanish speakers. But it needed to be dynamic to convey the right level of passion. After I combined it with a half-time salsa beat, I seemed to have the magic captured. I had lyrics for the song but Veronica insisted that she author the lyrics. A singer writing lyrical melody sounds great. What could go wrong? 

The track she created was a real surprise. At first, I didn't know what to make of it. She had played off the salsa beat by actually using salsa syncopation for the lyrical melody. I was not very familiar with that vocal style. I eventually came up with a word to describe the result. Genius! But something had gone wrong in the chorus. The sharp 7th in the E harmonic minor was clashing with vocals. Veronica had actually followed the overlaid melody track but used natural minor. She was unhappy that it didn't work and wanted to redo the vocals there. I said, "Whoa, full stop. Give me some time to play with the guitar line. I do like what you did and natural minor is not technically out of key." It was just a little glitch. I reworked the rhythm to be a little jumpier and changed the melody guitar to more of a sweep that skipped the sharp 7th and went over root straight to 3rd in the next octave. Bingo! Veronica now had a solid base to work with and rerecord the final vocal track for the song. 

We had a great recording but it just didn't sound mastered. I test-drove some mastering software and we had to have it. Inner Voice was our first mastered original song. It did not spring full blown from our imaginations. It had to be painstakingly grown until it reached maturity and we could see if it was beautiful. We knew then what we wanted to do and anything was possible."

-Rob

The other half of Lucia

I've been sharing with you my point of view, which is mostly reflections about life, thoughts, emotions, etc., as it relates to the music Rob and I make. This time you're getting Rob's point of view. He brings a different view on the music, more details on what we do and what he's envisioning:

"I just wanted to get some input here about what we are doing. It might get a little technical but some may enjoy that. For starters, much of the stuff we do is using harmonic minor. I'm placing this in the Phrygian mode. The struggle with this key has been the coexistence of natural minor that is supposed to happen on the descending scale. Sharp 2nd and 7th gives it a very exotic feel on top of the mode we use it in. The resolution to key with that amount of tension can throw a singer that has not reviewed the scale. 

Veronica has been very patient with me. Since I started working with her, it has been a struggle to match up the specific affinities we had for various styles into a coherent structure. My vision was to expand my horizons as a musician. Problem is, not everything overlaps. I learned to do some things and I was unsure of the result. Veronica experienced the same. She tells me most of what I have done is good to go. I advise her similarly, too. 

Breaking new ground really requires a lot of effort like an actual shovel on dry ground. But everyone would do it if it were easy, right? I think what is most helpful is our agreement to not be afraid to throw something overboard if it does not work. Our disparate music styles produced a number of non-starters. These compositions might be reborn someday, but we did not waste our mojo trying to force it to work. The clean female vocals with rock and metal seemed to me for some time a style whose time had come. Passion and bitter-sweetness. What genre is that? This is Lucia. Out of pain is born something beautiful. 

As a metal guitarist, I worry whether I can live up to the feeling. Veronica certainly has been encouraging in this respect. I can certainly offer any amount of passion required on guitar. But passion isn't just one aspect. It isn't how fast you play or even what notes you play. It is that intangible connection you have to the people that appreciate what you do. They feel what you do and you express it. Veronica is a fantastic and passionate singer and I hope to continue to support her in this venture."

Check out Rob's other project, Corpus Bellum, to hear another dimension of his talent and creativity. 

The mirror to my soul

Being a romantic person, all my life I've daydreamed of my true love, my Prince Charming. Yes, it's a silly fantasy reserved for little girls reading fairy tales, but I guess I just didn't want to give up on the idea of meeting my perfect match. In this case, perfect doesn't mean being flawless. It means that the person is just the piece that's missing in the puzzle of your heart. After many attempts at love and relationships, one can become very cynical and even hopeless. Someone else can become very closed-hearted for fear of being hurt again. Yet another can still believe there is a chance, however slim, to find that soul mate, somehow, somewhere out there in that great, big world.

Internet dating... So many different opinions on the subject. I first tried it back when you had to use your landline to connect, and no one could use the house phone at the same time. It was not very common to date online and people were very skeptical about it. I drove far to meet him, but I was really hopeful that this would work. We ended up getting married about two years later. We were married for ten years and four months, separated for four years now. Our divorce was made official a week ago. We were not meant to be together and we both know that now. It was bittersweet. A friend of mine said that the marriage had a long illness and it died, so I was mourning that loss. I miss how much fun we had as friends, but now we can't even be that anymore.

Well, damn it, I still couldn't give up on real love. Something in me just had to try again. So there I went, I met someone online. Then I met him at a coffee shop about a month later. We had lunch. We talked for hours. We both were nervous and shy, but before parting ways, we kissed goodbye. And what a kiss! It was electrical, or like fireworks. I had never felt that before. I thought about that kiss constantly for the next two weeks as I anxiously waited for the chance to see him again. Our initial connection was intensely felt from the beginning and it becomes more so as time goes on. I know I am safe with him. I can talk about anything and everything and he really cares. Since I've met him, he has been a huge part of who I have become; he has made me better. He is my home and I am his. I can be the real me, faults and all, and he won't judge, reject or try to change me. We are highly empathetic with each other. He reflects my dreams, desires and deepest needs. He is the mirror to my soul.

"Million Pieces of Me" is a song that speaks about this wonderful treasure in my life. It's not perfect and flawless, but it is perfect for us.