September 20, 2022 • 15 mins
The band VON BORA is a brother and sister songwriting team; and Jesse and Karina have a long history of writing great songs together in both English and Spanish. You may even have heard their music on multiple movies and TV shows. So lean back and enjoy the deep conversation of a family writing team that works hard, believes in the power of music and is deeply committed to the songwriting process. Songs: "Fantasma" and "Vagabond".
Discover more music on Von Bora's Website
Discover more of Von Bora's music on Apple Music
Discover more of Von Bora's music on Soundcloud
Visit www.livingcrazybrave.com for more information
Visit Barnes and Noble to purchase Lisa's book "THE CRAZYBRAVE SONGWRITER"
OR purchase a SIGNED COPY of Lisa's book from Lisa's website
+
Host: Lisa M Arreguin @ LivingCrazybrave.com
Recorded @ LoveandLaughterMusicGroup.com
Podcast Music: Joey Arreguin
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the crazy brave songwriter
podcast.
This is a podcast about themagic of making music.
One song at a time.
My name is Lisa GUI.
I'm happy to be your host fortoday.
I'm so happy to bring to you thedynamic songwriting duo a VOR.
(00:20):
In this episode, they sharetheir stories on success and
their experiences in thesongwriting process.
As a brother and sistersongwriting team, they have a
long history of writing songstogether in both English and
Spanish, their songwriting,versatility and tenacity has
garnished success with multipleplacements on movies and
(00:41):
television.
The two songs we'll be listeningto today are F and vaon so lean
back and enjoy the deepconversation of a family writing
team that works hard believes inthe power of music and is deeply
committed to the songwritingprocess.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Check one, two, check one, two testing testing.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
The moment we started really getting serious was when
my dad became a pastor and wewere filling in a lot of shoes
filling a lot of need.
And, uh, I think we got alittle, not say bored, but let
let's say motivated to be alittle more artistic with the
(01:36):
music we were doing every week,you know, week after week
service after service.
And so we started putting in ourown blend to that music and then
eventually led to writing ourown lyrics, you know, from
creating our own arrangements.
Let's say of just common EV youknow, Sunday morning music.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
That's exactly what I was gonna say.
The, um, doing our own twist towell known songs was the prelude
to us actually starting to writeour own music.
I think one of the funnierstories related to music and it
set Jesse on the course that youare in now, we call it the
(02:19):
native American drums.
Boom, boom,
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Boom.
Oh yeah.
Boom, Boom, boom.
A little bit on that story.
We, a friend of ours was gettingmarried mm-hmm and,
uh, asked us to perform at herwedding mm-hmm and
I don't sing.
I'm not a singer.
I mean, everyone sings.
I just don't sing wellbut I, I, I have a good enough
year to know that I don't singwell.
So, uh, you know, usually mycontribution is usually in the
(02:45):
music, right?
So anyway, my sister was gonnasing play guitar.
We decided to bring in some,some, um, uh, percussions.
So it was just the floor, Tom,when we rehearsed it and it
sounded great.
And now what was the song?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Ingrid Michaelson, Ingrid
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Michaelson,
Speaker 4 (03:03):
And, uh, love
Speaker 3 (03:06):
That song.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
You call me baby or something like that.
So
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Decided to just kinda do some rim shots and hit the,
the floor Tom to, to addpercussions.
Boom, my sister played guitar insaying, and it sounded amazing.
We rehearsed it.
Yeah.
We had some, the room we wererehearsed it and some, I think
it great reverb.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
When we performed it at the ceremony
Speaker 4 (03:29):
In this high ceiling,
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Completely different in
Speaker 4 (03:33):
It, their chapel.
Yeah.
The acoustics were so differentfrom when
Speaker 3 (03:36):
We were rehearsing.
It sound, it sounded like anative American drum circle
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Drum.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
And I, and I heard it as soon as started playing, but
at that point it was just toolate.
I was
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Hitting something different.
What can you do?
Stop playing?
No, cuz that what we were likeliterally in the middle of the
ceremony,
Speaker 3 (03:55):
But the, the funny part is there was a, a beautiful
gal in the back, like what theheck is going on here?
And she is now my wife
Speaker 4 (04:16):
FMA started off as a way of retelling a story,
filling in the blanks is what Iwas say.
And so it's actually based offof a, a biblical story.
And there's, there's a scenewhere disciples are in the boat
and there's a storm.
And then, you know, they'refreaking out and they see this
(04:37):
image coming through the water.
They think it's a ghost.
Peter is walking on the water,but before he sees Jesus again,
there's this storm, the, thedisciples art and the boat, they
, and they already lived a lifewith Jesus.
So they were very well aware ofthe things that could happen,
um, while you know, beingfollowers of Jesus.
(04:58):
But they found themselves in astorm.
They see him walking on thewaters and they're scared, but
then they, when they realizeit's, it's him, Peter gets out
of the boat and actually walkson the water firmly towards
Jesus.
But then the Bible story saysthat he, um, became discouraged
(05:19):
because he saw the waves.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
It's a test of your faith.
And it's a challenge to step outin faith, step out into the
unknown, right?
And even, even, even if after itwas proven to, to Peter in the
disciples of the miracles thatthat Jesus has, uh, performed.
When you're walking in themiddle of a storm, it's easy to
(05:44):
lose foot and start drowning.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
There's so many areas of my life where I'm thinking,
you should know this.
I always tell myself, you are agrown woman.
You should know this.
Like this should not be thathard for you.
But I find myself kind of likeI'm missing the basics.
Sometimes
Speaker 3 (06:15):
My sister takes care of most of the lyrics and I
review and comment and viceversa with the music part,
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Take an ax to it.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Correct.
But
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Line it on fire.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I have heard songs that connect with the thing I
wanted, that I was feeling morethan speech.
I, I can relate that to thatsound a sound sound.
If it's a court progression orif it's a, a melody, right.
Or even the way they're singingit,
Speaker 4 (06:41):
We have this ongoing dialogue with other writers.
They don't know.
They don't know that becausewe'll hear their song.
It speaks to us it, they saidsomething to us and then we're
responding back out withsomething else.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
But I think as, as far as lately organically, we've
like are working on one song andcome with these different lyric
ideas and or melody or differentmelody ideas where I'm like,
this is great, but this iscompletely different song.
And we start out of one songsplit into like four other
(07:15):
songs.
Sometimes as far as the approachto who brings the rhythm, the
lyrics, the melody harmonies,it's, uh, um, Karina handles
most of the lyrics.
Mm-hmm,
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Take your head.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
And, um, you know, and I'll give my, my review on
that or, or my 2 cents.
And then I usually will takecare of more the, the
arrangement, the music part, uh,then deciding instrumentation,
deciding where, what rhythm itshould have.
And a lot of time it's veryexperimental.
So outside of getting togetheronce a week to music, right, you
know, I'll work on thingsthroughout the week to later
(07:56):
present, uh, to Karina.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Um, when I first started writing, uh, and other
songwriters might relate to this, uh, was very protective of my
babies.
The songs were my babies and howdare you call it ugly?
How dare you call it lopsided?
How dare you say it's too heftyor too thin or not enough.
(08:26):
I would always get my guitar anduse it as a way to put my kids
to sleep years ago, I would hearabout certain songwriters that
quote unquote wrote a new songevery day.
And I'm thinking, how couldthey, that's impossible.
But I'm seeing that it's verypossible when you just get in
this flow and just give yourselfthis permission to write.
(08:49):
I think that we've, we've hit alittle closer to that.
We're not doing a song a day,not even a song a week.
right.
But we're closer to just beingfree to write.
I had been working with at riskyouth.
(09:10):
And, um, if anyone's ever workedwith any at risk populations,
domestic violence victims, childabuse, uh, teenagers, homeless,
things like that, there's thisbalance, um, of wanting to be
helpful and then wanting to doeverything for them.
People who need to be able tohave that drive within them to
(09:31):
change their own situations.
And I remember I was workingwith a particular young person
and who was really strugglingand kind of like on the wagon,
off the wagon, on the wagon.
And I didn't wanna be someonethat was an annoyance to him.
I really wanted Tim to see me asI'm here.
If you need my help.
I said, when you disappear onme, you, I have your permission
(09:52):
to go hunt you down.
And he said, yeah, sorry.
I don't know why I'm gettingemotional.
Just think about it.
But I remember asking him, do Ihave your permission to find
you?
Because I was really concernedfor him.
And he gave me that permissionand I that's, I had that in my
head.
And I don't know what drew me toask him that question, you know,
(10:13):
can I find you, can I search foryou?
And he said, yeah,
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Now for your listening pleasure, the song VA
played in its entire.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
Um, for me, seek me out in the alleys where I hide.
Would you recognize me?
Adored in fear ring was mamamistake, and you it's taken so
(11:23):
long to find some gray sign a tomy whole of life.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
The,
Speaker 6 (12:53):
My heart.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
This is Lisa again.
And I wanna take this moment toapplaud the team at love and
laughter music, group.com, asafe and knowledgeable spot for
musicians who wish to learn moreabout writing songs and
recording great music.
This episode is a product ofliving crazy, brave.com.
Another hub where musicians cancultivate new awareness about
(14:21):
what it takes to honor thesacred art of making honest
music.
Let me leave you with this workhard at your music, and don't
let up, despite the distractionsand pockets of time that slow
you down as Leonard Cohen says,it takes a great deal of time to
find out what a song is.
(14:42):
In other words, be steady, slowdown, take your time and stay
committed to the practice.
You are listening to the crazy brave songwriter
podcast.
This is a podcast about themagic of making music.
One song at a time.
My name is Lisa GUI.
I'm happy to be your host fortoday.
I'm so happy to bring to you thedynamic songwriting duo a VOR.
(00:20):
In this episode, they sharetheir stories on success and
their experiences in thesongwriting process.
As a brother and sistersongwriting team, they have a
long history of writing songstogether in both English and
Spanish, their songwriting,versatility and tenacity has
garnished success with multipleplacements on movies and
(00:41):
television.
The two songs we'll be listeningto today are F and vaon so lean
back and enjoy the deepconversation of a family writing
team that works hard believes inthe power of music and is deeply
committed to the songwritingprocess.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Check one, two, check one, two testing testing.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
The moment we started really getting serious was when
my dad became a pastor and wewere filling in a lot of shoes
filling a lot of need.
And, uh, I think we got alittle, not say bored, but let
let's say motivated to be alittle more artistic with the
(01:36):
music we were doing every week,you know, week after week
service after service.
And so we started putting in ourown blend to that music and then
eventually led to writing ourown lyrics, you know, from
creating our own arrangements.
Let's say of just common EV youknow, Sunday morning music.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
That's exactly what I was gonna say.
The, um, doing our own twist towell known songs was the prelude
to us actually starting to writeour own music.
I think one of the funnierstories related to music and it
set Jesse on the course that youare in now, we call it the
(02:19):
native American drums.
Boom, boom,
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Boom.
Oh yeah.
Boom, Boom, boom.
A little bit on that story.
We, a friend of ours was gettingmarried mm-hmm
uh, asked us to perform at herwedding mm-hmm
I don't sing.
I'm not a singer.
I mean, everyone sings.
I just don't sing well
year to know that I don't singwell.
So, uh, you know, usually mycontribution is usually in the
(02:45):
music, right?
So anyway, my sister was gonnasing play guitar.
We decided to bring in some,some, um, uh, percussions.
So it was just the floor, Tom,when we rehearsed it and it
sounded great.
And now what was the song?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Ingrid Michaelson, Ingrid
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Michaelson,
Speaker 4 (03:03):
And, uh, love
Speaker 3 (03:06):
That song.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
You call me baby or something like that.
So
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Decided to just kinda do some rim shots and hit the,
the floor Tom to, to addpercussions.
Boom, my sister played guitar insaying, and it sounded amazing.
We rehearsed it.
Yeah.
We had some, the room we wererehearsed it and some, I think
it great reverb.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
When we performed it at the ceremony
Speaker 4 (03:29):
In this high ceiling,
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Completely different in
Speaker 4 (03:33):
It, their chapel.
Yeah.
The acoustics were so differentfrom when
Speaker 3 (03:36):
We were rehearsing.
It sound, it sounded like anative American drum circle
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Drum.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
And I, and I heard it as soon as started playing, but
at that point it was just toolate.
I was
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Hitting something different.
What can you do?
Stop playing?
No, cuz that what we were likeliterally in the middle of the
ceremony,
Speaker 3 (03:55):
But the, the funny part is there was a, a beautiful
gal in the back, like what theheck is going on here?
And she is now my wife
Speaker 4 (04:16):
FMA started off as a way of retelling a story,
filling in the blanks is what Iwas say.
And so it's actually based offof a, a biblical story.
And there's, there's a scenewhere disciples are in the boat
and there's a storm.
And then, you know, they'refreaking out and they see this
(04:37):
image coming through the water.
They think it's a ghost.
Peter is walking on the water,but before he sees Jesus again,
there's this storm, the, thedisciples art and the boat, they
, and they already lived a lifewith Jesus.
So they were very well aware ofthe things that could happen,
um, while you know, beingfollowers of Jesus.
(04:58):
But they found themselves in astorm.
They see him walking on thewaters and they're scared, but
then they, when they realizeit's, it's him, Peter gets out
of the boat and actually walkson the water firmly towards
Jesus.
But then the Bible story saysthat he, um, became discouraged
(05:19):
because he saw the waves.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
It's a test of your faith.
And it's a challenge to step outin faith, step out into the
unknown, right?
And even, even, even if after itwas proven to, to Peter in the
disciples of the miracles thatthat Jesus has, uh, performed.
When you're walking in themiddle of a storm, it's easy to
(05:44):
lose foot and start drowning.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
There's so many areas of my life where I'm thinking,
you should know this.
I always tell myself, you are agrown woman.
You should know this.
Like this should not be thathard for you.
But I find myself kind of likeI'm missing the basics.
Sometimes
Speaker 3 (06:15):
My sister takes care of most of the lyrics and I
review and comment and viceversa with the music part,
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Take an ax to it.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Correct.
But
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Line it on fire.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I have heard songs that connect with the thing I
wanted, that I was feeling morethan speech.
I, I can relate that to thatsound a sound sound.
If it's a court progression orif it's a, a melody, right.
Or even the way they're singingit,
Speaker 4 (06:41):
We have this ongoing dialogue with other writers.
They don't know.
They don't know that becausewe'll hear their song.
It speaks to us it, they saidsomething to us and then we're
responding back out withsomething else.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
But I think as, as far as lately organically, we've
like are working on one song andcome with these different lyric
ideas and or melody or differentmelody ideas where I'm like,
this is great, but this iscompletely different song.
And we start out of one songsplit into like four other
(07:15):
songs.
Sometimes as far as the approachto who brings the rhythm, the
lyrics, the melody harmonies,it's, uh, um, Karina handles
most of the lyrics.
Mm-hmm,
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Take your head.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
And, um, you know, and I'll give my, my review on
that or, or my 2 cents.
And then I usually will takecare of more the, the
arrangement, the music part, uh,then deciding instrumentation,
deciding where, what rhythm itshould have.
And a lot of time it's veryexperimental.
So outside of getting togetheronce a week to music, right, you
know, I'll work on thingsthroughout the week to later
(07:56):
present, uh, to Karina.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Um, when I first started writing, uh, and other
songwriters might relate to this, uh, was very protective of my
babies.
The songs were my babies and howdare you call it ugly?
How dare you call it lopsided?
How dare you say it's too heftyor too thin or not enough.
(08:26):
I would always get my guitar anduse it as a way to put my kids
to sleep years ago, I would hearabout certain songwriters that
quote unquote wrote a new songevery day.
And I'm thinking, how couldthey, that's impossible.
But I'm seeing that it's verypossible when you just get in
this flow and just give yourselfthis permission to write.
(08:49):
I think that we've, we've hit alittle closer to that.
We're not doing a song a day,not even a song a week.
But we're closer to just beingfree to write.
I had been working with at riskyouth.
(09:10):
And, um, if anyone's ever workedwith any at risk populations,
domestic violence victims, childabuse, uh, teenagers, homeless,
things like that, there's thisbalance, um, of wanting to be
helpful and then wanting to doeverything for them.
People who need to be able tohave that drive within them to
(09:31):
change their own situations.
And I remember I was workingwith a particular young person
and who was really strugglingand kind of like on the wagon,
off the wagon, on the wagon.
And I didn't wanna be someonethat was an annoyance to him.
I really wanted Tim to see me asI'm here.
If you need my help.
I said, when you disappear onme, you, I have your permission
(09:52):
to go hunt you down.
And he said, yeah, sorry.
I don't know why I'm gettingemotional.
Just think about it.
But I remember asking him, do Ihave your permission to find
you?
Because I was really concernedfor him.
And he gave me that permissionand I that's, I had that in my
head.
And I don't know what drew me toask him that question, you know,
(10:13):
can I find you, can I search foryou?
And he said, yeah,
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Now for your listening pleasure, the song VA
played in its entire.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
Um, for me, seek me out in the alleys where I hide.
Would you recognize me?
Adored in fear ring was mamamistake, and you it's taken so
(11:23):
long to find some gray sign a tomy whole of life.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
The,
Speaker 6 (12:53):
My heart.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
This is Lisa again.
And I wanna take this moment toapplaud the team at love and
laughter music, group.com, asafe and knowledgeable spot for
musicians who wish to learn moreabout writing songs and
recording great music.
This episode is a product ofliving crazy, brave.com.
Another hub where musicians cancultivate new awareness about
(14:21):
what it takes to honor thesacred art of making honest
music.
Let me leave you with this workhard at your music, and don't
let up, despite the distractionsand pockets of time that slow
you down as Leonard Cohen says,it takes a great deal of time to
find out what a song is.
(14:42):
In other words, be steady, slowdown, take your time and stay
committed to the practice.
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