Doctor T:  Music often reflects the perspective of the geographic setting in which it is developed. Your music, however, utilizes writers and performers from around the world. How does that affect the final product?

Beto Vazquez:  Actually it always was my idea that my music travel’s across borders of Argentina, I know for fact, that the in rest of the world I got more chances to be known doing it this way, that is why always bet on transcending with my music, but in the final result it does not affect at all my way of do music.

Doctor T:  You’ve been fortunate to work with some of the finest singers in the world. Can you describe that experience?

Beto Vazquez:  Yes, it really was a great luck that they all agreed to record for me, which for I’m very grateful, and clearly it made my project to be known worldwide, and it what comes to personally, every time that I have record with each one of them, it was very nice with all of them.

Doctor T:  In addition to vocalists, you’ve worked with a wide variety of instrumental musicians. How much freedom do you give them to express their own individuality in the development of the music?

Beto Vazquez:  It depends on the song and how it was conceived, I gave them a lot of freedom for them to record whatever the music is telling them to do. We’re always in touch with the one’s that are working in each song and we try to arrive to the best performance from both sides.

Doctor T:  The Beto Vazquez approach to music development is significantly different from the traditional model. Could you talk to that development process? How does it work?

Beto Vazquez:  Usually I do the recording demos in my studio and afterwards I think and then call to the musicians that I will like to participate, depending on the music of each song that I’m working with.

Doctor T:  In a previous interview, I talked to Jessica Lehto about developing music from remote locations. She seemed comfortable with that process. Are other musicians equally comfortable with that arrangement?

Beto Vazquez:  I suppose so, as it is a easy and comfortable way for every one of them, as each one can do it in the moment that they like the most and that have free for doing it, and has no pressures over it, not from nor from a company pointing at you with a dead line for finish the work.

Doctor T:  How has your experience of working with BVI been different from other musical experiences you’ve been involved with?

Manda Ophius:  Mostly when I'm asked to work with other artists they already have a song finished, vocal lines and lyrics. With BVI I got the chance to write my own vocal line. Beto came up with some lyrics and I changed them in a way they would fit the vocal line perfectly.

Ivana Anic Lara:  Yes it's different, but in a good way. Most of the musicians today, or should I say, "people that call themselves musicians" are not very professional about their projects, their music, or make promises they cannot keep, Beto has been a great friend, musician and professional, and I am so pleased and happy I met him, got to work with him and sing for him.

Marcela Bovio:  It was a very nice experience! I usually work in a very similar way as Beto and I did for this project, so for that matter. I'm really used to work like this.

Jessica Lehto:  It’s been different in the way of me knowing this music very well even before participating, which is not always the case. I’ve been listening to metal since I was 15 and I discovered the BVI album for which Tarja recorded vocals many years ago. Since then I’ve kept listening every now and then, although I never got a hold of the “Flying...” CD. So this music wasn’t new to me, which helped a lot when contributing with some vocals. I also think these tracks I recorded for was quite easy for me to connect with somehow. Maybe it is that Beto and I have similar thoughts when writing music and what we expect with building up vocals for the music, maybe it’s something else, I don’t know the secret ingredient there, hehe. But it was a nice thing, definitely. I think a vocal collaboration has never been this smooth for me before.

Doctor T:  Developing your music for recording has to be very different from developing it for live presentations. What concerns do you need to address, musically, for live presentations when you are preparing for those occasions that differ from recording efforts?

Beto Vazquez:  Honestly, live presentation are a huge effort as everything has to be fine, because there's fans expecting the best of you and to see you and nothing can be wrong, and unpredictable things can happens, things that in the studio are quiet easy to handle, on stage cant be fixed, live is far more complicated, but is great as well.

Doctor T:  I found it interesting to read some comments from people you worked with regarding how communications take place when they work with you. However, communications have to be difficult, especially with participants having different language skills. How do you address this and what languages do you use or what techniques do you find useful?

Beto Vazquez:  Normally, the language is English which is universal, I got a very basic English, but I got help from press staff, and management which makes it easier for me, for when I have to talk or have conversations with the artist that I’m working, so I can have the less possible errors.

Doctor T:  Do you see individual differences with different musicians based on their geographic areas of residence or does that come into play? For instance, is there a difference between working with European musicians as opposed to South American Musicians in terms of style or working habits?

Marcela Bovio:  Comparing Mexico (my home country) and Holland (where I live now) I haven't seen all that many differences, except everyone is a bit more punctual in Holland! But personality wise I think we musicians are all a bit alike, we can easily find things we all have in common so that's nice!

Jessica Lehto:  No, I’ve not really noticed any differences based on geographic areas. It has of course been a different experience with every person I’ve worked with so far, since people are always different and they have different habits when it comes to how they want things done and what kind of vocals they want etc, but I’ve not really noticed a specific habit that one could say is common for people from this or that country.

Manda Ophius:  No there isn't and there's just a simple explanation for it. Everybody speaks the language of music, so everyone who is musician knows what it is all about. Everybody at BVI was very enthusiastic and very motivated. That's no different from who we work with here in Holland. We recorded a song with someone from Utah for our album In Control Also through Internet. But it was the same!

Ivana Anic Lara:  There are some differences from one musician to another, but I don't think there is geographical difference. I think working habits are bigger problem. Some musicians are professionals, and some like to slack off... It all comes down to the fact on how a person, or should I say musician likes to work, and how much is he willing to invest into his music to succeed. I'm not saying money here, but also time, practice, hard work and many other aspects.

Doctor T:  Beto, your website and other materials seem to have considerable focus on Tarja Turunen. Do you view that relationship as being a little stronger than some of the others? How did that relationship develop?

Beto Vazquez:  With Tarja we’re simply friends from a long time ago, as she is a very important artist, she gets more attention from fans and media, but not at any moment I took advantage of her, in fact if you check out my Official MySpace where all the musicians that worked with me are promoted, in the vocalist section. Tarja isn't at first place, nor is her picture bigger than the other artist, I can only say about it that been from South America I got the privilege of work with her and it was a high privilege for me that she accepted to participate on my project and I’m still personally honored.

Doctor T:  I read an interview with Lanvall of the band Edenbridge where he discussed his involvement in lyric development for a song on an Infinity CD. He seemed to have a lot of freedom to develop those lyrics. Is that typical of how you would proceed with lyrical development?

Beto Vazquez:  Normally I like them to feel comfortable while they work, in case they do a lyric just like Lanvall, I gave them the title of the song, for a guide of what I do want the lyrics to talk about, so they can freely work and develop the subject, that is for when I do exceptions, otherwise I do the lyrics myself. Lanvall is a great musician and he did a great job.

Doctor T:  Ladies, what’s it like working in a “virtual” environment where music is produced by people you don’t interact with on a regular basis?

Ivana Anic Lara:  It is a bit strange, especially if you need advice on something, or not sure how to do your part, in this case, sing specific part of the song. But if everything is explained before and if you are given a bit of artistic freedom, there shouldn't be any problem. At least I don't have any problems when working that way :)

Jessica Lehto:  I’ve only ever worked with other musicians this way, apart from when recording my own music, then I work face to face with people. I begun collaborating a bit more with others in 2006 recording vocals for them and it’s always been through the internet, whether I’ve worked with someone from Turkey, Sweden, Portugal, China, the US or other countries. So this is what I’m used to, and it works very well for me. Some time it would be exciting to also have the chance to work face to face with the people I’m collaborating with from far away, but if that would never happen I still feel fine about the way things are now.

Manda Ophius:  That's very exciting. I always work together with HJ (Nemesea, also guitar solo on mystic) and I know what I can expect from him. This time, with BVI, I didn't know what they were going to do with the things I recorded. But I'm very happy with the result. We had a lot of contact through email and talked a lot about what we both wanted and it worked very well.

Marcela Bovio:  Working virtually gives me personally a sense of more freedom to work through my ideas and singing parts before I send them over to the rest of the musicians.

Doctor T:  There seems to be a relatively consistent direction to the BVI music. Beto, do you expect to see this direction continue and are there artists with whom you would like to work in the future?

Beto Vazquez:  My Albums keep on growing and expanding in style, and adding different shapes and forms between song to song, actually there’s always some musicians that I will like to have, I will keep on trying to call them album by album, and I do wish I can work with some of them.

Doctor T:  Other than Candice Knight there haven’t been a lot of Americans working with BVI. How do you see your music appealing to North Americans as opposed to South Americans and Europeans?

Beto Vazquez:  I know that in Europe people and fans do like a lot what I do, from North America I don't have many media references, but I do have fans from there that indeed write to me, and actually I’m going to keep on searching musicians, maybe there's going to be surprises in the next Album. Thanks a lot to everyone that is going to read this, and thanks to you that took your time to do this interview, and I hope you enjoyed the answers from musicians that worked with me. Music Unites the World.

Doctor T:  ...and thank you to Beto Vazquez and the ladies from Infinity for your comments here on the Sonic Cathedral Web Zine. We look forward to reviewing your Darkmind CD in the very near future.

• Prev
• Next