OUTSIDE INTERVIEW

Why did you write My Little Town, and what made you write it?

My Little Town is just one of those songs that felt chill talking about what I was experiencing in my little town, Colonia Juarez. One part that I really like in the song is that when I go to the store with my cousins, and we end up spending a lot of money. We also go to our grandma’s house and her food is delicious. Y'all should try it sometime if you’re in town. It’s the song that made me feel naming the album Outside, but then the next few songs I wrote made it feel a lot more like naming the album Outside.

Why did you write Feel Your Love, and what made you write it?

It’s meant for my older self when I’m bigger in the music industry and I have a fiancée. I sing about that, I can’t wait to finish the show and spend time with her eating some left-overs and watching a movie. I include in the song that we’ll get married and have a family. I tell her, “we need to feel each other’s love when we’re going through hard times / I wanna feel your heart next to mine / coz I wanna feel your love.”

Why did you write These Little Birds, and what made you write it?

I tell a story of grabbing my guitar at 7 AM and going outside to write a song. I was having a hard time tryna write a song, and all I could hear were the birds chirping in the trees in my backyard. I tell that the birds helped me write the lyrics to this song and then when it’s 10 AM, there’s not many chirping birds around. I struggle with finding words, so I say that “I guess it is my turn again / I have to write the rest of the words.”

Why did you write Day of Life, and what made you write it?

I just say that I was leaning on a wall playing my guitar and check the time that says 1:04. So, of course, every day shouldn’t go to waist, so we might as well keep living, and eventually we’ll die. I tell that I get like a throwback of my memories, and that as we get older, some fade away. I wrote this song on May 3rd, 2020, the day right before my dad’s birthday.

Why did you write Hey Little Brother, and what made you write it?

I wrote this song for my brother because his birthday was on Friday, May 8th. While I was trying to fall asleep around 9 PM on Thursday, May 7th, I got a melody stuck in my head. I recorded some voice memos on his Apple Watch and thought, “What a great idea to give Jace (my younger brother) a song for his birthday!” I quickly got out my notebook and a pencil and went to the bathroom to write the song because that’s the only place I had light. At 12 AM, I looked at my watch and whispered to myself, “Happy birthday Jace.” I say in the song about all the cool childhood memories we had together and how I’ll be there for him and him to me and that we’ll have our businesses, me with music and him with cattle. In the morning at around 7 AM, I went outside with my guitar and started humming the melody and finding the right guitar chords for the song. After I got the guitar chords, I went inside to modify the lyrics I wrote because I thought they didn’t really go along with the song and the meaning of it. After lunch, I played the song in front of my family. The next day I went to record the song. Later, Jace asked my if I’d send him the recording of the song and the lyrics to the song. This is the story of how track number 5 “Hey Little Brother” was made.

Why did you write Sunset, and what made you write it?

Well, I wrote it basically for the same reason as I did with You Are Perfect back in 2019. It’s just one of those songs that in real life, I’m not dating anyone or anything, but it’s just a nice love song that just felt nice. I just share what I’d do like when I’m needing loved, just call or text her, so I can come over and “we’ll watch the sunset / behind the mountains / We’ll watch it go down / west from this town / I’m in the backyard / playing this guitar / on the third fret / singing ‘bout this sunset.”

Why did you write I Can't Sleep, and what made you write it?

Well, it’s in the title. It was around 3 AM, and I was so bored I couldn’t do anything, so I was like, “What if I just start writing a song about how I can’t sleep and just listen to the noises around me and think about life?” And so I did exactly that.

Why did you write Many Places, and what made you write it?

I was really wanting to go many places. I had this upbeat melody, and it was perfect for the kind of song I wanted to write. I was in Phoenix when I finished writing the song and recording and producing it. I say, “I want to go on tour when I get famous, and play for sure in many places”. You just gotta listen to the entire song to understand what I’m saying.

Why did you write Right on Track, and what made you write it?

So, Right on Track is a song I wrote in mid 2020 when Covid was still hitting bad. So many things were happening and people were going crazy. People either got lazy and ate junk food all day, or they were using water jugs as homemade lifting weights. Everyone was stuck with a phone to their face and were always relying on the internet.“When we all come back / We won’t be right on track.”

Why did you write Better Tomorrow, and what made you write it?

So everyone says things like, “this song is awesome, but it woulda sounded better in a studio.” Especially to independent artists who do everything at home. I told them that I try to practice playing guitar every day and that I’m still learning to be a better music and I got new equipment to sound better. “Coz I’ll be better tomorrow / with a beat and a tempo / I can feel it in my veins / it won’t be the same / Please don’t hate me / coz I’m still trying / to practice daily / I swear I’m not lying.”

Why did you write Dream Plan, and what made you write it?

Well, just like this one, with the title, coz I had a dream plan that I wanted to tell in this song. I was bored, like usual when wanting to write a song, and so I just started with some lyrics, and soon enough, I had an entire song written from what I had experienced and wanted to soon experience.

Why did you write Outside, and what made you write it?

I wanted to write something metaphorical that would make sense, and so I came up with a story that was a little bear cub that really wanted to go outside and just see farther than the trees, see butterflies and the big blue sky and experience it no matter what. He was so tired of being stuck in his cave all day, and he didn’t care if it was raining outside, but only “when lighting strikes / come home to mother / I better hide / from all the thunder”. In quarantine, everyone had to stay inside all day, and we were that cub that was saying “Oh I wonder / what it’s like / to be out there / outside.”

Why did you write Outside the album, and what made you write it?

All these songs just totally fit the atmosphere of being outside or fit how you feel on the outside. My Little Town with walking outside on the street with my cousins, Feel Your Love with me playing a show that could be outside, These Little Birds with the birds that are outside, Hey Little Brother that playing rodeo is usually outside, Sunset that we’re outside watching the sunset go down and that I’m in the backyard, I Can’t Sleep by mentioning the moon and the dogs barking outside, Many Places with the bird I thought was a plane and the places being outside, Right on Track that we’ve had to deal with a virus that when we’re mostly outside, could catch, Better Tomorrow, because people judge by the outside, and they don’t really know what’s going on, Dream Plan, that I wanna head to the States and play my music there, and finally, Outside with a little bear cub who wishes to be outside coz he can’t stand staying in and needs his exercise.

Therefore, I present to you, my debut album: Outside

Thanks y'all for reading this self-interview today!