The Making of an Album | Artist: Jim Rojas | Song: "Jimmy's Here"

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This week I’m happy to bring you the music of  Jim Rojas (jimrojas.net) and the song "Jimmy's Here".  I guarantee that his new Latin album called “Can you Play Latin?” making its landfall at the top of 2023 (March 10, 2023) will put a smile on your face and a mark on the musical landscape for years to come. 

The full album is highlighted by great songwriting, on every cut, and an overall stellar production of original songs brought together by some of the biggest and brightest Latin musicians in the business.

I wanted to sit down with Jim and his producer Joey, to discuss the making of the albums first single appropriately entitled “Jimmy’s Here”. Delivered with a level of passion and heart, I wanted to know how the song was written, the story behind the arrangement and how they managed to capture Jim’s fun personality in the playful and catchy melody of the song.

Discover Jim's music on Spotify
Discover Jim's music on Apple Music

Host:  Lisa M Arreguin
Podcast Music: Joey Arreguin
Sound Engineer:  Andrew Kim
https://www.livingcrazybrave.com/book
https://loveandlaughtermusicgroup.com

PURCHASE Lisa's book "THE CRAZYBRAVE SONGWRITER" SIGNED COPY from her website. 

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Host: Lisa M Arreguin @ LivingCrazybrave.com
Recorded @ LoveandLaughterMusicGroup.com
Podcast Music: Joey Arreguin

Episode Transcript

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.
The artists on the show talkabout the creative process, what
moves them, and why they havechosen music as their means of
expression.
My name is Lisa m, songwriter,author, and studio owner of Love

(00:23):
and Laughter music group, afamily business that lives by
its name.
I'm happy to be your host fortoday.
This week I'm happy to bring youthe music of Jim Rojas.
You may not have heard ofbassist and songwriter Jim Rojas
just yet, but I guarantee thathis new album called Humorously
Can You Play Latin, making ItsLandfall at the top of 2023 will

(00:46):
put a smile on your face and amark on the musical landscape
for years to come.
The full album is highlighted bygreat songwriting on every cut,
and an overall stellarproduction of original songs
brought together by some of thebiggest and brightest Latin
musicians in the business.
I wanted to sit down with Jimand his producer Joey, to

(01:08):
discuss the making of thealbum's first single
appropriately entitled, Jimmy'sHere Delivered with a Level of
Passion and Heart.
I wanted to know how the songwas written, the story behind
the arrangement, and how theymanaged to capture Jim's fun
personality in the playful andcatchy melody of the song.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Check one, two, check one, two.
Testing, testing.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Well, originally I had, uh, scent Joey an idea
about blending both Brazilianand Afro-Cuban styles of music
into one tune.
And it was inspired by anotherartist that I had seen on
YouTube and, and was reallypretty awesome, and I thought
I'd like to do something likethat.

(01:55):
And I, all I did was to sendthat link to Joey.
Then Joey took off with it, andthen he composed Jimmy's here.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Jimmy's here for me was, uh, a lot of fun because
Jimmy and I go way back when wewere very young and our families
have known each other for such along time, our parents and even
Jimmy's grandparents.
Uh, so being able to collaboratewith Jimmy on this entire
project was so special to mebecause we've been friends for

(02:28):
decades and decades, but also,uh, our roots go very deep, uh,
back into generations.
So I wanted to give Jimmy a song as a tribute to his
project, to his endeavor, to hiswriting, to his thoughts
musically and to the focus ofwhat the entire album was gonna

(02:52):
be and sound like.
So Jimmy's here was basically aBen blend of some Brazilian
rhythms, along with some justLatin overall Latin rhythms and
overall just trying tocommunicate what I felt was my
image of who Jimmy is.
And Jimmy has always been a kidat heart.

(03:24):
Unless you know Jimmy, You don'trealize his unique sense of
humor.
, he definitely has avery unique sense of humor and
it's contagious, I must say it,cuz once he gets going, then I
have to jump in as well.
And, uh, throughout our yearstogether, playing in various
bands and, and ensemblestogether, uh, that sense of

(03:47):
humor has never really ended.
It's always been the same.
And so it's that kid in him thatI think we all love and I
certainly love about Jimmy ishe's knows how to really make a
crowd laugh by his, his humor.
Sometimes it's just sarcastic,sometimes has double meaning.
He's trying to, he's saying onething, and unless you know Jimmy

(04:11):
, you have to understand that itbecomes very contagious once you
jump on board and want to joinhim in all his humor.
Sometimes it's pretty raw humor,but if you understand where it's
coming from, then you can't helpbut start laughing because you
know what's going on in hisheart.
And in his heart.
He, he's never changed, and Ilove that about him.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Other people might, might constru misconstrue that
as immaturity and.
That's okay,, that'sokay.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
Because I already knew in my head that I wanted to
write a song just for him, thatit was going to reflect some of
the motifs ideas, malady linesand rhythms that I knew Jimmy
was intending for the project.
So as I began to sit down at thekeyboard and began to outline

(05:07):
the melody line, I really wantedto be something happy and
joyful, as I mentioned.
So I began just basically withthe general melody line, and I
also wanted the song to besimple.
I didn't want it to get toocomplicated, but more than
anything else, I wanted to besomething that had a, a strong
catchy melody motif.
And so we used a flute as themain melody, but that is on top

(05:33):
of Jimmy playing bass melody andalso a acoustic guitar playing
the melody along with it.
So throughout the song you'regonna hear these layers, but
more anything else.
I wanted Jimmy to feature hisown style.
So it was my way of, of creatinga catchy melody that then he

(05:56):
could play over, not just themalady, but also with the other
instruments.
And then he could solo on aswell.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Jimmy Braley was probably the, my most requested
drummer.
I had heard him before and Isaid, I have got to have this
guy play, uh, his Cuban roots,uh, his excellence, the pocket
that he provides.
I call him the Cuban, Jeff Poro,the famous drummer from Toto,

(06:36):
just an amazing player.
And then the other guys, joy LeLeon on percussion, uh, was
another person that I, I didn'tknow him personally beforehand,
but he's an, he turned out to bejust an amazing, amazing
musician.
A machine in the studio, uh,Francisco Lo, who had been Luis

(06:58):
Miguel's MD for many, manyyears, came in, uh, tore it up,
absolutely tore it up.
And then Ricky Zha, who, becausehis name is so long, we call him
Ricky Z, it's like the Swissarmy knife of stringed
instruments.
And so that became the core ofmost of the songs,

Speaker 1 (07:19):
And now the song Jimmy's Here played in its
entirety.

(12:15):
This is Lisa again, and I wannatake this moment to applaud the
team at love and laughter musicgroup.com, a safe and
knowledgeable spot for musicianswho wish to learn more about
writing songs and recordinggreat music.
This episode is a product ofliving crazy brave.com, another
hub where musicians cancultivate new awareness about

(12:35):
what it takes to honor thesacred art of making honest
music.
I encourage you to listen andpurchase Jim Rojas's album.
Can you play Latin as soon asit's available at the top of
2023?
Sign up on his website to getthe official release date.
Let me leave you with this.
Making a musical album at thiscaliber with award-winning

(12:58):
musicians is not an easy feat.
But aren't you happy for peoplelike Jimmy who set out to create
something beautiful and do itwith excellence, who pull out
all the stops, who see it to thefinish line, and who will settle
for nothing but the best?
We celebrate and admire creativepeople like that because we

(13:19):
secretly know what it takes todo it.
What we admire in them, we alsoadmire in ourselves too.
So as a creative human being,put your head down and get that
dream done.
You know what it takes to do it,and you know exactly what you
need to do.