By Victoria Canales
Though Travis Barker and Machine Gun Kelly are just starting to reach the charts again, Laredo has always had HONEYROT. Creating infectious pop punk blended with surprisingly vulnerable lyrics, HONEYROT has been playing show after show and building a loyal fanbase.
HONEYROT’s passion for music started off in middle school when he joined his marching band and picked up the trumpet. At the same time, he got his first drum kit so he could learn his favorite Green Day and My Chemical Romance songs. Once he got to high school, he discovered bands like Modern Baseball that would serve as inspirations for the development of his own sound.
HONEYROT truly began to take writing and performing his own music more seriously once he graduated college. He started playing small acoustic shows with demo versions of his originals, but just as he began to get comfortable with performing, the pandemic hit and his plans had to be put on hold. However, he says that staying inside for so long gave him the free time and motivation that he needed to continue writing. Now that live music is slowly picking up again, he feels readier than ever.
A few months ago, HONEYROT released his first single on Spotify, “Lasso.” He says he’s excited to release more in the coming months and is even working on a music video for his upcoming single. He has big plans coming up, and Laredo can’t wait to hear what he has in store next!
-
Stream “Lasso” on Youtube and Spotify.
By Victoria Canales
Bryan James Ortiz, also known as MAVERICK, has been creating music for years. After such a long time writing, producing, and releasing his tracks, he says he’s got dozens of songs recorded. So how does the prolific MAVERICK stay on top of his game? Laredo Music Scene sat down with him and tried to figure out his process.
-
MAVERICK started off by showing what equipment he uses. His bedroom doubles as a studio; acoustic foam panels line the wall by his desk, and his Apogee HypeMic sits by his phone, ready to record. However, he says that this microphone is new, and he used the built-in microphone that comes with Apple earbuds for years.
Though he has a laptop capable of running Garageband, his DAW of choice, MAVERICK says he prefers using his phone as it’s more convenient. His new microphone is also portable, which he says allows him to bring his setup anywhere! Lastly, he uses a pair of gaming headphones to help him as he mixes and masters his songs.
As for his songwriting process, he says that he usually starts off with the music first. He takes samples of rock and pop music, and he adds beats to them. Once he’s got the musical structure of the song figured out, MAVERICK starts humming a vocal melody that he can then turn to lyrics. He says he loves to harmonize and add vocal effects to add dynamics to his songs. As for timeframes, he says that it can take him anywhere from a night to a year to write a song.
“It just takes a little bit of inspiration to write and make something.”
Now that he’s covered his bases on his equipment and process, MAVERICK explains that this is secondary in his creative process. His priority is the emotion behind the music. He says that when he’s feeling particularly bored, lazy, or down, he starts working on music. “How can I change what I’m feeling into something positive?” he says. Everyone has bad days, and he says he wants to be able to turn these difficult emotions into something that people can enjoy. He’s proud of the relatability of his music, and the knowledge that he’s creating something that could emotionally move his audience drives him to continue working.
“When I was in high school, I started listening to XXXTENTACION, Lil Peep, Juice WRLD. They made me feel less alone, like I could do something like that too.” He says that the deaths of his favorite musicians has been difficult for him, but he won’t get discouraged.
“My dream was always to get onstage and perform with them, but after they passed, I had to think about what I was going to do next. I figured that they inspired me, so I could do the same while I’m still here. I want to be able to pass on that legacy to at least one other person.”
-
Catch MAVERICK at Cultura Beer Garden on July 24th!
By Victoria Canales
Now that live shows are picking up again, it’s time for all us aspiring musicians to get out there and play! Dust off your guitar, forget about the album you said you’d finish in quarantine, and go make some music. If you don’t know how to get started, here are some tips courtesy of Laredo Music Scene.
It’s important to have a social media presence so potential venues and fans can find you easily. Do you have any footage of a previous live show? Any recordings you’ve put together on Garageband? Any phone videos of a spontaneous bedroom cover? Post them! Just make sure that it projects the image and quality you want people to know. Also, if you’re posting any original pieces, make sure they’re properly protected by copyright. Click here for more information on copyright laws to protect your creations.
Wanna play a show but don’t know where? Call or DM venues around town and see if they have any open times for you to go jam! On the Laredo Music Scene website, we’ve got a directory of venues happy to host music around town, and almost all of them have social media, so they shouldn’t be too difficult to contact.
If you attend shows and performances, you’ll get lots of opportunities to network. You can start meeting the people putting on the shows, the owners of the venues, and the musicians that you might one day be sharing a stage with! Take advantage of whatever live music events you can go to and start making friends with the other talented members in the scene. And if you’re just starting out with playing live music, watching these shows can give you ideas on how to have stage presence, use equipment, and interact with the audience. You can’t put on a good show without going to a good show!
Hopefully these tips can help you get back in the swing of things. Let us know what other topics you’d like LMS to cover in this new tip series!
By Victoria Canales
A few weeks ago, LMS published a blog post addressing the lack of an audience at local shows and venues. You all engaged with us and told us about the sorts of events you’d like to see and attend, and there was great communication within the creative community.
LMS, in conjunction with Laredo Cultural District and Frontera Beer Garden, helped put together Make Music Day on June 21st, and with only a week to prepare, it was a complete success! There was a great turnout and very positive reaction. Several artists got to show off their music for the first time, and we were able to introduce some people to their first live music show in years.
After the success of Make Music Day, I started to put together a couple more shows that maybe a few of you went to. Acoustic Vibes at Frontera, Noche Bohemia at La Lunada, and now I’ve got a couple more in the works. Putting together these shows has been a super fun experience, and several people have come up to me and expressed how much they like these shows. They’ve been simple things, powered with little amps and weak projectors, but the excitement and talent are there, and Laredo has recognized that.
So I’ll say it! Laredo, you stuck to your promise. I asked you to give our city a chance, and you went above and beyond. Now more people than ever are chasing their musical dreams and supporting local artists, and I anticipate a flourishing live music scene being built up. To respond to all these events going on, LMS has created an events page on our website, which you can access here. We’re still always sharing cool stuff going on around town, and you can check out our posts about new music coming out!
Anyway, I just wanted to say: thank you, Laredo! See you at the next show.
Hometown heroes Dos Leones just released a stylistic, cinematic video for their single Shotgun. We put together a short Q & A to get a little more insight into how they created this little gem filmed right here in Laredo, TX. (Video at the end of this interview)
SERGIO: The video looks amazing! I can tell you guys are really resourceful to make this look great. I know you’ve been teasing this video for a while. Tell us a little about the process of how you came up with the idea for this video and how it was shot.
JUSTIN: Well first of all we would like to thank you and let you know we appreciate what you’re doing for the community and artists of Laredo. (thank you!)
I’ll try my best to give you everything that would answer the question and not go too much on a tangent.
So we actually had several ideas directions and scenarios that had to be improvised, but it all started in a room with the director Graviel “gravy” Hinojosa.
The song was written with a comedic thought in a way. The point of the song was thinking robbing a bank is easy but of course, it’s easier said than done. I had imagined, before speaking with gravy, if a video was made for this song, the robbery would be sarcastic. Like the clerks of the bank would be dancing and happily putting money in bags. The security guard giving us high fives and what not. When gravy wanted to make it a serious video, I did not expect that the video would be portrayed in that light but we decided to trust him and started to get into the characters he set for us. So he had the vision for the video.
The script actually had the robbery scenario and we were going around asking banks and anything similar to a bank or just anything with plexiglass on a counter look if we could film but of course, no one wants any liabilities when it comes to money. That calls for a big studio room. We did find an old bank called Milmo National Bank which is located downtown, to at least get the pre-break in scene.
Gravy had some amazing shots that we 100% would not have been able to do on our own. He had stabilized cameras on the windows of the truck we were in. Which was probably the hardest thing to set up. The office, Caleb's room, and briefing room were all shot in the same room with some props gravy built.
Also when we were filming outside of the bank we probably did like seven takes. Someone called the police on us, but who could blame them? Four guys with guns and masks jumping out of a truck and running seems like enough reason. So yeah we were surrounded by like 4 - 5 patrol cars. Fortunately, they arrived when we were looking at the final shots so they knew it was a misunderstanding and we spoke about the video. They offered to close the streets up so we could get the shot. That was so beautiful of them, but we had already gotten the right shots.
This song has more of a narrative and a story that paints a pretty clear picture of what the song is about. Do you think you all will make more songs like this?
You know this is weird to say but I would never appreciate my own songwriting. I submitted "Shotgun" to an influencer on TIKTOK and she kept complimenting the songwriting and I thought, okay so everyone is understanding what I’m talking about, so that’s a good sign that I’m not all over the place which I usually am. I would say another song similar to this songwriting is "The Message" off of our Cowboys From Space EP.
So I would say yes, it’s a recurring writing style of mine that lives in made-up lives influenced by real-life experiences.
I noticed that you all have a new member in your band too! Tell us a little bit about him and how he’s become part of Dos Leones.
Yes, his name is Martin Gonzalez. Caleb brought him into rehearsal one day to check out the band and listen, with no agenda. He was timid I could tell. Honestly, it’s weird but I knew I wanted a member who’s not over expressive or confident. There’s magic in quiet people. Well, he was so quiet, I forgot he was there, so when Caleb brought it up that he can play keys and percussion at a moderate level it intrigued me.
You know I knew we needed another member, and I always thought it was going to be a guitarist, which maybe in the future we will add another, but I love having control of an instrument being able to jam and close my eyes and just feel, so Martin helps the band sound full and helps me because I don’t have to stand at a limit of 3 ft from the keyboard expecting to play the next part.
Random bonus fact. Gravy made the script to where Martin was supposed to be the getaway driver and us the three gunmen. That’s why in the intro when I’m calling them, Martin takes off in the truck. I then had to be the driver because Martin who is 16 doesn’t have a driver's license nor did he ever even drive a vehicle. We were actually teaching him how to drive for about 30 minutes realizing it would be a liability if we crashed. So there’s another improvisation to the video!
What’s next for Dos Leones?
Right now we have six tracks that were going to be on an album, and although an album is such a beautiful journey in a moment of time, I don’t think we have enough fan base to get people who don’t have the will to listen to a new band to hear it all. Only fans listen to albums, so first we need to grow our base a bit more before we make that milestone.
So we’re releasing one track every month, and maybe throw in a couple more videos.
We’re finally going to play again. Our first show will be on July 17th where Downtown Drafthouse used to be. After that show, we’re just gonna start booking like crazy in Laredo.
Make sure to check out our page for Dos Leones and follow them on social media for their upcoming releases and shows! Don't forget to like and share their video too. Support our local talent!
