In studio this past weekend were the gentlemen from Los Ilegales de Lempira, a Norteño band from here in D.C. A busy, working band that plays frequently throughout Northern Virginia and D.C., they are here at ULS working on tracks for their first album, Tequila y Bucana.
The band is made up of cousins Misael Pineda (vocals and quinto) and Edwin Reyes (vocals); Manuel Escobar (drums & bass guitar), Samuel Pineda (accordion), Elvin Lopez (quinto), and Manuel Aguilera (drums).
[blockquote]A quinto is a string instrument, played like a guitar. It’s double-stringed like a 12-string guitar, but there are only 5 courses of 2 strings instead of 6. So it’s useful to think of it as a 10-string guitar. In Norteño music, the quinto typically plays with the snare drum. So in much the same way the bass guitar is the musical component of the kick drum, I’ve found it useful to think of the quinto as the musical component of the snare drum.[/blockquote]
This is our first full-up band session we’ve done here at ULS, where we’ve had all three main rooms linked up and recording at the same time. Misael Pineda, the lead singer and primary quinto player, has been set up in ISO 1, while Samuel Pineda has ISO 2a to himself for accordion. We’ve got the drum kit set up in ISO 2b, where Manuel Escobar has been playing for the studio sessions.
All three rooms are linked up via headphone mix and can see, talk to and hear each other while they’re working.
None of the guys speak very much English, so I’ve asked our good friend Gersy Gastulo-Bravo to help me out. Gersy is also a very capable musician, so he readily follows what we’re doing and why. Having him here with us has been a huge help to me and I am grateful for his assistance!
The band plays a lot of live shows, so they really have all their music in their heads when they arrive. The musicians generally listen to what the singer is doing and take their cues from the lead vocal. So it was clear right from the start of the session that even if we intended to record the lead vocal last, when the rest of the track was laid down, we’d still have to provide some sort of vocal reference for the band to follow as they were laying down the basic tracks. So on the initial “basic track” pass, Misael Pineda would lay down a combined scratch vocal and quinto track that the other players could use to get their bearings in the song.
This first weekend, we’re mostly doing those basic tracks. Next weekend, the guys will be back for another session of pickups and overdubs.
