It´s funny because when I was travelling to the place I usually busk at I saw my reflection in the window´s train and I thought to myself: if I was a painter I guess I´d do a self portrait. 

Be careful with what you wish Jorge because sometimes it can happen. In this case, it wasn´t me who did it but a gentle man instead. His name is Dennis and he was mesmerized by my voice and so he stayed for 3 songs included one of my originals and was even more mesmerized after I finished playing them. He gave me this drawing you see in this post as a present and told me he had had one of the best times in his life experiencing the little metro concert I gave away hahaha. 

Anyways, this event led me to think that I should share more of these little stories as if they are happening, because they are hahaha but also because there is a saying that bad things make a lot of noise and it clouds all the good things that happen in the world, every day at every moment because they are small and not loud enough. Not to get too cheesy because that´s not the point. The point made is that all these little things make life worthy and engaging instead of drowning in the madness fed by the media and sorts and mainly negative people. I am negative sometimes but that doesn´t define a person.

I hope if you read this and have had a bad day you cheer up mother******** hahaha and if not, stay in your misery. We´ve all been there, just punch a wall or go busking or do nothing, it´ll go away

Love you people

Today, the usual spot was taken and even at a late hour. I don´t blame the weather. It´s just the way it is. In any case “the other spot” at the same station was free and, to be honest, I enjoyed playing there. I was in the mood for performing and even if I forgot my harps I didn´t care really. Guitar, voice and a good mood is what a man needs in this case. 

I started with Blackbird followed by While my guitar gently weeps by The Beatles. They are actually a good warm up for the voice and they are also mellow so the general mood settles in after performing songs like that. Then I decided on Stand by me to cheer things up and after thar, all the classics and not so classical ones that I play. It always happens, every time I play I feel this meaningful feeling that I am doing something well, maybe not everything but I am glad I am performing this music and that I am singing. It´s so relieving and necessary for me. Tomorrow I´ll go early in the morning and hopefully I´ll grab a spot for a couple of hours. Sunday bloody sunday hahaha just a joke. I actually appreciate other people playing music but it´s frustrating when the place one is used to is taken.

Anyways, I don´t own the metro.

Regarding the interaction of the day. Nothing too special happened. Just a hint of what I can do better with a song that I perform called Ojalá by Silvio Rodriguez. I respect the song maybe too much so I don´t let myself go with the flow enough so the performance is a bit held back. I realised this,especially, after a man showed me his thumbs up as he liked my performance but then he made a gesture indicating that I should gear up and squeeze the song to make it shine. It´s basically what I did and it felt more genuine and poingnant. I felt better overall after that realisation and I wish to lose a bit of that rigidity in my playing earlier whenever I perform that song again.

I hope you guys understand what I write because sometimes I can tell it´s hard to follow my random “prose” hahaha

Anyways,

Thanks for reading so far

Yours truly,

George of the jungle

Last but not least, I guess I´ll keep some of the stories for myself for some time as I feel I am repeating myself a bit. It´s also good to keep things for yourself sometimes. In this case, I would have gone either way, sharing it or keeping it.

I am talking about the busking session of the day. It´s being a bit hard to get a good spot these days as it is quite rainy and many musicians are playing non stop in the subway. I don´t blame them, I´d do the same thing hahaha but I also know and I am not a morning person so fuck it! I go veeeeeeeery late instead, just when everybody gives up on busking but me hahaha. 

However, I just arrived back home at 1.11 am and I am bit tired but hell yeah it was definitely worth it. I made my living and met nice people by performing live music. It´s a pity people don´t consider it more and many are on their phones non stop. I don´t blame them, we are all guilty of that. Nonetheless, looking on the bright side of things. When I was packing up to go back home, a gorgeous lady came up to me while I was fiddling around with some blues lines on my guitar and somehow it captivated her and so she stopped by and after talking a little bit about guitar she asked me if I could perform an original song for her. I was a bit nervous and ready to pack up completely and leave but no person should miss a chance like that. I guess as musicians, one of our goals or, better said, one of my goals is to connect with myself and with people. I started tuning the guitar to play my song called Rivers which is great for unplugged situations like that but the third string snapped hahahah nooooooo problem she said, Just figure it out, I know you can do it. It was true, I figured it out with one less string and I pulled of a heartfelt performance of my first original song for this project. She said she was gonna give me a donation via bizum and that I should expose my project more to the world with bigger letters and so on for everyone to see. I thanked her for listening to my live performance and for her encouragement.

I must say she also showed me a song on her phone called After dark from the soundtrack of the movie “From Dusk til Dawn” by Quentin Tarantino and it inspired me to watch the movie again and listen to the whole thing.

Just a random thing: One of my favourite movies ever is "After sun" by a scottish filmmaker called Charlotte Wells. It has nothing to do with Tarantino´s movie, it´s just a name coincidence sort of thing but I encourage everybody to watch it if you are into independant movies.

It´s about a relationship in between a father and his young daughter while being on holidays in Spain and it´s so full of symbolism and realness one just have to love it.

Anyways, I guess I´ll write less often but I´ll keep things running in the real life as usual.

Love to everybody

Hi people, today I was a bit low in energy when busking but sometimes one needs to rely on the songs and hope for the best. I wanna mention an specific song´s been with me for many years, especially during the street sets. It´s a song probably written in 15 minutes but it´s more trascendental than most popular music nowadays. 

I feel sometimes quick inspirations like that make the difference. In art, there are not really rules of what works of what doesn´t, it simply does or doesn´t. By the way, I said the song was written in about 15 minutes because the author said it himself in an interview which doesn´t take away the fact that sometimes it´s like that. I believe things are simpler than we think they are or maybe it is that art gets to the point and simplify it for everybody. Kind of as if we knew the answer already. 

Being an artist or, I guess a person that speaks for himself makes my life a bit brighter. In fact, It´s a lovely job that I am doing and I haven´t given up of being a kind of channel for people or just a soundtrack for their lives. I hope you guys enjoy what i do.

The song doesn´t really need to be more known than it is or maybe it needs I don´t know but I´ll mention it again, Its name is blowing in the wind.

I wanna thank Robert Zimmerman for sharing that inspiration with us and make us feel more connected.

P.S I am sure this song paid most of my bills when I lived in Vienna and I was playing it on the streets non stop hahaha

Here it is a live TV performance of the song I really like

I hope you enjoy it too and have good night sleep

Love and all

I realised it´s almost never too late to do my set. I get a nice response from people and, I dare to say, it´s even better during the small hours. I almost lost my chance to go out and play because I was a bit wrecked from a rainy moody day. It´s Spain, I know, but it rains and also people die too. We get sad and depressed at times. Sorry for being so blunt hahaha but I hate stereotipes.

Anyways, shit aside, I enjoyed playing and eventhough I had it going I almost passed on performing one of my original songs, maybe out lack of selfconfidence or, more certainly, I was worn out because it was at the end of my set. However, I remind myself everyday why I do what I do and self-expression came to mind. As not only artists but as people, I believe we need to express ourselves. It´s actually a cure for depression because one stops repressing whenever one expresses one self and it´s even better if there is an understanding on the receiving end and if there is a response from the receiver, even better! 

I don´t get tired from saying that´s what saved my life. I am yearning to share my first original solo album with everybody. It was such an experience to make it and record it and I just can hope it gives something to people, on the receiving end. If it doesn´t, it doesn´t matter completely, as honestly, I had to do it anyways.

Today I remembered one of my deepest influences when making my original solo music. His name was John Martyn, an amazingly creative acoustic guitar player and heartfelt singer. In some ways when I started writing my own music I realised about our similarities. 

When I write, I don´t think that much from where I get the inspiration from but rather expressing one self and enjoying the process, whatever it takes.

Anyways, have a good night and god bless you all (whatever that means)

P.S I hope you guys are taking something out of this that I share online

I leave one of John´s most influencial pieces at least to me

Small hours

Love and peace

Hi,

It´s kind of late to be writing this entry but better late than never. After my street set I had to go to rehearse with some friends in a new musical project we have together and I didn´t have enough time to write this entry before. 

Being that said, who cares? hahaha anyways, today it was a nice busking day but not because of my playing only but also because there were other musicians in the other parts of the station where it seemed to be a more open session with a singer and a guitar player chipping in for a song. It makes me happy to think I am not the only one doing this kind of stuff and how people wherever they come from they get involved in music, especially live music. I hope we don´t lose that as people and people remember that the experience of music is about connecting with one self but also with other people.

I´m gonna keep the interaction for the day blank. I guess there were some nice ones to talk about but I preffer to keep them for myself today.

Have a good night and sleep tight 

Hola people,

People because “gente” sounds too vulgar I´d say. Say what you mean, mean what you say. Nobody cares Jorge!

Enough!

I hope you haven´t given up on reading this already. I must say I have fun writing it but I don´t know if you have fun reading it hahaha. Whatever it is, thank you for keeping up with the reading. I love sharing my stories especially if they are meaningful and you get something out of it. As you can see I am not a writer in the sense of a "motherfucking writer" as Santiuve would say (it´s a hiphop artist from Spain you should check out). I promise I am not drunk when I write these words :).

Anyways, I must say I had fun playing today. I released myself a bit more and I also understood I was playing for people no matter how many seconds of attention span they have or the amount of time they have to listen to me while passing by. It´s a “hard” job with, sometimes no reward from the people you poor your heart out for, As a very good friend of mine said to me when I started doing this episodes/diary/just f******* busking thing. Jorge, the main thing is that you are alright, that you are fine, that you are enjoying yourself, people will feel it so do you. It´s interesting to put oneself out there in such a way. I must say I don´t regret any decision regarding this. It´s totally conscious and the more I do it, the more I understand why I do it. We can all run from ourselves but not really, I understand more about myself through music and I hope, as I said, you guys get something out of my performances and original music.

Regarding the interaction of the day I´d say it was more like a moment when I “grabbed the bull from the balls” and I told myself, fuck let´s do this song “Valiente” by Vetusta Morla on 5 gear and see what happens. People were passing by and thumbing me up, greeting me and enjoying themselves. It´s a song in my mind about being brave, but in a sense that´s tangible and elusive at the same time. We all portray versions of ourselves at times but when it makes a difference it´s when one puts oneself openly acknowledging the bullshit. The less bullshit, the more “me” but there is bullshit to air up. 

I hope it makes sense. If it doesn´t I hope you haven´t denied me forever.

Take care of yourselves and enjoy life

Too short to complicate it (heart shaped emoticon ;))

Today I came earlier than I used to to the spot I normally play on but there was a man playing Paranoid by Black Sabbath, It frustrated me that the spot was taking but oh man, that song. He had an Iron Maiden t-shirt on and the man was genuinely a good electric guitar player. I regret I didn´t talk to him but he was already talking on the phone with a friend so loud all the passage knew was he was up to.

Anyways, in these cases I try to find another spot.  I brought high spirits with me so I decided on taking another 8 stops in line number 5 to get to Acacias station. There is a nice passage in between Embajadores from linea 3 to Acacias and it´s generally a good spot for what I do. However, today I didn´t feel like it and in 40 minutes I made only 3 euros and not much connection with people. Being that said, a middle aged lady came back after listening carefully to my performance and gave me 2 euros out of those 3. One never knows completely but I´d say that wasn´t the place to be.

I decided on trying again at the same place the heavy metal man was playing before and it was free but it was way later. In my experience, unless it´s really close to closing time it´s good to play at Diego de León. My music fits the small hours and people give money and appreciation. I made it to my usual rate and there was a man who gave a couple of coins which is what he had on him and said to me he really loooooooove my cover of Redemption song. It seems to me that he has been passing by a few times before and it wasn´t the first time he´d heard me play that one. As I said, in one of the earlier entries. I am happier because Bob Marley existed. I could only aspire to keep writing music and maybe one day somebody would play a song of mine and make that connection. Call me a dreamer but whatever, it´s late and I am tired. 

As Eddie Van Halen once said: I am telling you, keep playing man, you gotta keep playing. It´s the only thing there is: music man, keep playing, alright? or they are gonna come looking for you if you don´t.

I am all over the place and it´s late as I already said. I am probably not making any sense.

Later and love

If I survived the 27th episode I am sure I´ll live through way more. Today, I beat my own record of the amount of hours busking. It was kind of insane but I had to try it and feel it for myself. It felt like a marathon but I divided into two passes so I could rest in between and recover some energies for the later one. In total I might have played for 5 hours at least making it into a full working day if someone could say that. I feel miserable and proud at the same time but also happy to do it and still see people keep on acknowledge my presence there by greeting me as if they knew me which, in some sense, it´s true as I open myself up out there at most times. However, I sometimes don´t remember the people that wave me but I do remember some of them very well. 

If I had to pick an interaction for the day I´d mention one I had, in fact, twice. There was a man who has given me a coin every time I play “Peces de ciudad” by Joaquin Sabina. He met me during both passes and asked during the second one if I had been playing all those hours in between, I replied I had a long break of 2 hours at least but he was like wtf?. Anyways, that´s one of my favourite songs by Joaquín and that´s why I decided to give it a try during my set. If you hadn´t heard the song and you don´t understand spanish I am sorry but the song is freaking brilliant. Just give it try for yourself, have a listen.

Love and peace

Well, it´s not all “butterflies and flowers” hahaha. Today, I got told off by a metro worker because of the volume I was using when playing. He was right, it was loud and he understood that with less volume people would hear me anywhere around and even better. As with everything else, any progress comes with trials and errors. It´s important that people tell you the good things about you but also the bad ones. Nobody is perfect neither am I. The man actually told me to turn the volume down respectfully. So, I turned the volume down played 3 more songs or so and went home.

On the other side of things, which might be the same side hahaha people were receptive to my music and my singing generally speaking and I did not get any mockery or anything like that. As I usually tell in these stories, people are very appreciative of my playing. At this stage, what encourages me the most is that I see quite some times the same faces of appreciation from the same people and they keep giving me coins and emotional support. The lady giving me dinner, I take it as a trade union right to this point hahaha (joking). Better said, I ain´t taking it for granted. I love when people do things like that. It shows the bright side of humanity in a nutshell. I hope you feel inspired and spread love and understanding wherever you are.

No more “butterflies and flowers” I promise

Love you people

Hola, I am writing this after eating my dinner. I feel satisfied and connected. People today were very welcoming towards my music and I hope they got something out it. I feel like a squeezed lemon, I am not acid anymore hahaha. I gave what I had. No juice left.,,

There was a moment I would dare to say, “magical”, when a few people who have seen me day after day, renovated their support by looking and thanking me while giving me coins and a fresh dinner ;). Yes, the young lady from earlier entries came back and she was as giving as usual .

I´d dare to say it´s not just because of me playing there everyday but also the music I play. People connect with it and my way of delivering it. It hit me when I was singing I wish you were here. It´s funny but the lyrics made sense at that moment when all the random “strangers” came at the same time to support me emotionally and economically. I feel I am building something quite touchy. I hope people feel it too.

If you are one of those random “strangers” I´d like to say thank you,

Love

Hi everybody, I didn´t think much yesterday during my set and I played a lot (almost non stop for 3 to 4 hours) I think I´ve never done busking that long. It gets you into a zone where one lets go but it becomes at times more dreary. On the other hand there is more chances to connect with more people. Like with everything else there is pros and cons. In regards of how I feel about it, I would say 3 hours should be max. After that, either I go home or I take a lunch break.

 I certainly need to try my set in other places other than the subway, maybe in El Retiro park which is an open space and there are other street performers on a regular basis. I remember when I was a kid, my brother and I would watch those puppet shows artists would pull off. I hope somebody still does them these days :). Maybe during my breaks I could just watch some of those with a nice sandwich.

Regarding the interaction of the day, I consciously decided on this one when it happened. It was quite sweet and kind. A young lady called Olga, stopped by to ask me if she could listen a little bit more to my playing, especially the harmonica playing. I agreed and said there was no problem as well as getting filmed after she asked. I decided on Dont look back in anger by Oasis which is a great song for harmonica and it´s the one that started me into playing guitar and singing  at the same time as well as playing harmonica for the first time in a song. 

She was astonished by how it sounded and she congratulated me on my talent. I thanked her and replied I was really learning harmonica on the spot and eventhough knowing some music through learning guitar helps me understand the instrument I was really a beginner (at least in my mind). She told me she had a harmonica and I encouraged her to learn the instrument, even if she needed help I would help her with what I knew. She gladly accepted and also was interested in my music. In the end, we talked about that whether it is an excuse or not, music at any level is great for connecting with people and especially in the subway where there seems to be a lot of people but not persons, in the end we are all individuals living in a society. After all, eventhough I take it as a job, busking (in my mind) is about connecting with people and I hope it brings joy and all kinds of emotions in people´s lives.

I hope Olga, if you read this, you had a nice time and enjoy learning harmonica if you decide on going that way,

Thanks to everybody

I don´t know if 22 is my lucky number but I was during my set. A lady with some dinner came up to me and gave me a delightful tuna sandwich and croissant filled up with some cheese and ham. It was very tasty I must say and she just gave it to me out of kindness. After that she asked me politely if she could film me singing Soldadito Marinero by Fito&Fitipaldis (one of my biggest influences in regards of songwriting from Spain) and she even considered not filming my face, which I guess should be normal but nowadays everybody is filming everybody and everything most of the times without asking. It brings me back to the topic of alienation and how people see other people as objects rather than other people. We all deserve respect no matter what we do or what we expose ourselves to, I am glad this encounter happened and I hope she´ll have it as a nice memory, Wherever you are, random angel, thank you

I hope everybody has had a nice day too.

Love

Hi people, how are you? Today´s busking was a bit low in income but again I´ve been procrastinating arriving kind of late to “my” spot in the subway, I guess there is some inner struggle which sometimes leads to complacency and not facing my everyday´s chosen life. 

Freedom comes with a burden and basically it is a mind struggle I´d say. Sometimes people from the outside see one´s life as romantic or platonic but in the end, especially in my chosen path, sometimes it´s hard. However, as Robert Frost once put it, I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence; two road diverged in a wood and I--- I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference from the poem “the road not taken”. It is a conscious choice at least and I am confident and realistic about it, The same old story, no love no glory as Damien Rice wrote in one of his songs.

Anyways, no more hitting around the bush. Today´s interaction I´d say it was more like a meeting. Right when I was thinking about finishing up my set a tall man with a guitar came up to me while listening to my ending riff from I wish you were here by PInk Floyd and asked me if I was gonna play long or if he could play instead. Doubtly I answered I was not sure maybe 30 minutes more? I didn´t know really. I go with the flow sometimes while busking. I let him the spot after I played a couple more songs and he kindly applauded after I finished each one of them, all while he was setting up for his set.

What´s interesting is that he reminded me of me and my friend Javi when we used to busk in Vienna. No amplification and more moving around and even dancing with people while playing guitar, harmonica and singing. He was talented and happy doing what he was doing. What can one ask for more?

His stage name is @countryhatseventos and his name is Gonzalo. He was a gentle man and I am happy to have met him. I hope you guys enjoy the video I made of him performing a song from Loquillo called Cadillac Solitario I posted on the instagram story.

LOVE to everybody

Hi, how are you? Is there anybody in there? I wish you were here is kickass song in my street set list at the moment. People connect with it most of the time. I also relate to some of the lyrics, especially the part when it says “Did you exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage” I sometimes feel that way and the hard part is acknowledging that one needs to move his booty and check on the real world. After my set I met up with a couple of good friends and we were discussing where the world is headed. Especially in terms of isolation and eventually alienation for some people as we live in our phones most of the time, bombarded by self improvement tips that eventually make you worse. It´s impossible to say for everyone but for me. It is usually right when it feels right, if it doesn´t, there is something wrong in what I am doing. Busking is one of those things where it feels right most of the time eventhough it´s not a piece of cake emotionally speaking I feel fullfilled and as a perk I feel I´m “creating” my own part time job right now. It connects with me and with people and hopefully that´s a lights that cuts through all the bullshit.

Anyways, too heavy for the morning as I am writing this entry the day after my set hahaha

In terms of an “interaction audience/passer by pick” I´d say I had an awkward moment when a french couple (or at least they were speaking in french) started arguying quite close to me and at that moment there weren´t many people around and it was very silent if only for my album version of the song “Lucha de gigantes” by Nacha Pop which literally means “the giants´ fight” the meaning of the song weirdly took a different turn. Of course, in my mind hahaha and probably too much of a turn.

 I´d say in this kind of situations I still try to be a light and perform my song in the most honest way I can with self preservation and understading.

I hope you guys don´t get lost in all my bullshit but honestly it feels good to share it with you. Nonetheless, I know things are simpler :)

Take care of yourselves and listen to Edith Piaf,

Love

Well, today was just another day at work I guess. I feel people are most of the time receptive to my playing and singing and today was no exception. What I would say is that I came a bit late to the spot where I usually busk and there wasn´t that many people passing by. Maybe I´ll try to work that out for the future. Being that said, as weird as it might seem I sometimes enjoy performing with less audience than with a big crowd. I can open up more in some ways and connect with individuals in ways that wouldn´t work with a big crowd. 

I honestly can´t pick an interaction for the day but for the sake of doing this, I´ll just say that there was a hot minute while perfoming Stand by me when, people really felt my performance was top notch and many thanked me with their looks and coins. I sometimes feel it really doesn´t depend on me what happens but one has to play its role. I can always try to do my best and that´s the best I can do.

Anyways, I hope you are all well and thanks for reading my stories

Good night

Hola people, today there is not much to say but I´d say i felt really good while playing today. It felt like work but more like something I already turned into a routine in a healthy way which was one of my goals. Keep moving and keep doing. My singing is improving by singing. It sounds obvious but sometimes when people tell me I have a nice voice or that I sing very well and that´s something I was born with I´d say most of it is practice and passion and I guess a sensibility for art and expression. Again, being vulnerable out there pays off in different ways. It´s making me stronger and more determined.

Regarding the encounter of the day, if I had to mention one, I´d take the one I got from apparently a person with not much money (seemed to be like a beggar) he came up to me in the middle of a song and he had like a couple of euros in coins in his hands and told me, that´s what I can give you, take it. So I stopped playing take it graciously and thanked him for the gesture no matter what, if he interrupted the performance or just did not get the fact that was a guitar case open with coins already. He genuinely felt touched by my music and gave what he had moneywise to thank me.

I can´t really explain how mindblowing that is to me. I´ve got it many times but I hope I´ll never take it for granted.

P.S in the video I added to this episode a man in a similar fashion as the one from the story came up to me drunk and told me I had a really nice voice and so on but he didn´t give me money or anything else after my performance but a wise advice on my music career which I hope I´ll remember forever 

P.S 2 The man in the video actually ran an art gallery in Vienna where I used to live and busk many years ago and he ran into one of my flatmates at the time but he didn´t remember anything that you see in the video hahaha the magic of alcohol

In the end there is always something to talk about if you dig deep enough

Thanks for reading and I promise I´ll keep this up as long as I am able to

Besos

Hi guys, first I just wanted to say that today was a bit of a shame because for whatever reason the battery didn´t last much. Don´t ask me why as I am no technician but I´ll check it out tomorrow again and maybe it´s just a matter of recharging it and hopefully it´ll work as new.

Regarding playing and connecting with random strangers. I would say they stop being strangers when meeting through music, a song or just one look while performing a song can change that status. Today I took the risk of focusing on the look of one young man who I realised was singing along the lyrics of a song I often play busking. The song is the extremely known Ojalá from Silvio Rodríguez. If you haven´t listened to it yet and you enjoy singer songwriter music please do yourself a favor and listen to it right now. It´s probably one of those “stream of conciousness” songs that came about, maybe not in the way as I wish you were here from Pink Floyd came about as Roger Waters once put but in this case as SIlvio said in one video showing early recordings of the song “it just came at once and it was pretty much done”. How lyrics and music work together on that song pretty much trascends the creator to this day. It´s intergenerational as I know it for instance by heart now and that young man who was singing along knows it too, and let me say, knows it well. 

Funny thing is it really touched him in a way and he had to stop and sit down to finish watching the whole performance and record it with his phone. I didn´t mind and I felt it was an important moment for him, as for me, I realised I was playing an important role in that moment and the performance became quite meaningful. 

The young man called Gonzalo, was curious about my music, gave me some money and added my solo project to his social media. All kindly and gently. I wish all the encounters were like that.

I ain´t complaining but I feel sometimes awkward when people just take a video or a picture in your face without even saying thank you or may I? In general I can feel if they do it out kindness and also self interest in a healthy way or out of self interest in a way that I feel no more than a object and kindness kind of slips away somewhere else. I guess it´s something I can´t control but as the Monthy Python many times said “Always look on the bright side”.

Thanks for reading so far and if you are keeping up with reading all the stories I post, congratulations. I know I am not an easy nut to chew but “nuts” I am hahaha enough Jorge!

P.S In the picture it´s Eric Idle from the mighty Monty Phyton singing and playing guitar (Image credit: MItch Dalton /L.Cohen/WireImage) 

Please watch everything by them ;)

Well, this one was a night time performance. If you think about it, in Madrid´s metro it´s always the same light since there is no sun in there nor darkness. What i guess affects the time I play is the amount of people passing by and their moods.

Being that said, I haven´t found a perfect time for me to play since every time there is something going on, usually in a good way. In terms of my feelings and my daily schedule, 20,00 to 22.00 seems to be best but today I had really nice encounters with people, acknowledgement and support. I also threw my heart out there but there is a payoff  everytime, 

In today´s case, the deeper connection I had was with a young lady who stopped by at a kind distance from me to watch the whole performance of my version of Heart-shaped box by Nirvana which, by the way, is my favourite song from them. In fact I learnt it on drums too and I am performing it on the drums in a newly formed band with old friends from Madrid these days. 

Anyways, getting back to the lady. After I performed the whole tune she came up to me and acknowledged she had all kind of emotions going through her body during my performance and I should never ever quit music. Period. 

It´s been a great but also tough night for the late shift I decided on taking but, as usual, it paid off in different ways.

Loved it and I´d do it again 

Well, today was a big day of busking in terms of income and acknowledgment, Being that said, there were some kiddos that made me laugh and get a bit angry at them because there were making fun of my way of singing the beginning of Redemption Song. I let it pass and it went away. 

However, if I had to pick an interaction for the day I´d pick one with one lady that I guess proved me right when it comes to decide on which song to play during the set. I explain myself. I sometimes play a song called “Y los conserjes de noche” by Quique Gonzalez. He is a very accomplished and kind of known singer-songwriter from Madrid, Spain. He is actually one of my real favourites. His way of writing lyrics and honest way of singing them make him one of the greatests if you asked me. 

A friend of mine, called Javi, with whom I used to busk a lot in Vienna and still do at times in Madrid introduced me to his music. It´s maybe the reason why I am learning how to play harmonica now. Of course, beginnings are hard but I´ll eventually become more proficient at the instrument, at least to make some lead lines in between verses.

Long story short, I sometimes feel I shouldn´t play certain songs because I expect them to not bring any acknowledgement or cash but reality proves me wrong. If we were to choose what “works” all the time we would miss the magic of the weird ones. Especially, when you connect with somebody through an specific song that maybe most of the people don´t know about but you and that person really know and love. Of course, this is in a busking context but I just try to portray you how it feels to do this and take some risks. Sometimes, it´s disappointing and even if one plays a very known and “working” busking song as Redemption Song it doesn´t always work. These experiences basically encourage me more to think outside the box, if there was one of course.

That´s pretty much it. I recommend anybody reading this listening to “Y los conserjes de noche” by Quique González. Especially the live versions :)

Love and peace 

This busking day was legendary for me. For two reasons. 

First of all,I started to realise on a deeper level that being consistant and dedicated gives its pay off and, the second reason, is that exposure is key, not only to connect with people but also, while playing music, why not connecting with other musicians?

In this case, it was Adrián, a guitar/singer/saxophone player from Malaga who was just passing through Madrid and just passing by my side during my set. He didn´t need to play at first but he wanted to find the nearest exit and he asked me for that. 

One thing led to another and we ended up playing a couple of bluesy improvs and somehow a little piece of a waltz. Interestingly enough, when we played together, a lady stopped by and said we were incredible and she asked if we were going to play at a bar or somewhere else. We replied that that place in the subway was where it was happening and we had never played together or seen each other before. She was astonished. It´s not a rare thing for people who don´t play music to not understand that two musicians can just come together and play music and make it work. 

In essence, music is a language and like with every language you need to know some basics and being sensitive enough to one self and others or the other way around. A kind of conversation rather than a monologue. 

It was a lovely experience and it made me realise how fortunate I am to have decided to start learning how to play guitar when I was 14, a thing that never ends if one doesn´t stop learning. Adrian showed my a couple of things with the harmonica and gave me a recommendation to improve my blues guitar vocabulary. It´s never too late if you want to do the work.

P.S If I had to pick a song for that day I´d say Stand by me by Ben E. King because I sang it to Adrián as he asked me kindly to sing something for him and I decided on that one :).

Cheers

Dancing in the dark. That´s a bit how I felt busking today. It´s a song by Bruce Springsteen with a meaning that I guess anybody can relate to. However, in my case, it shed a light in two ways. Because of the lyrics´meaning as well as a song I could really learn and perform for my street set. 
 

Both made sense when I was playing another song (weirdly enough), when a lady in her early 30s maybe, made eye contact with me while passing by and, out of nowhere, she dropped me a coin, no words needed, just a smile and an understanding that a little connection was made. 

The lyrics “ come on baby give me just one look, I need a love reaction” followed by “you can´t start a fire without a spark” made total sense right after. Nothing too crazy but my performance lit up and more people starting to show appreciation with gestures and coins- Nonetheless, I was singing another song but the meaning of Dancing in the dark made quite some sense to me in that moment.

Who knows? Maybe I play Dancing in the dark another day but for better or worse it´ll be a different moment and it never happens in the same same way. One can´t rely only on an specific song or skill but rather by consistency and vulnerability. 

P.S There was another lady, more in her 50s who dropped me a coin and said meaningfully to me: God bless you

It was kind of embarrasing but I took the compliment and I akwardly replied: God bless you too.

It´s kind of hard for me to accept that kind of flattery or appreciation but again, when one is open out there, nobody knows what can happen.

Let´s call it a day and rest,

Goodbye

I say 12 because I´ve been probably out or better said, in the subway busking for about that amount of times since I arrived in Madrid. It´s no wonder I am late, if you know me, you know I prioritize other things just like playing and practising music than posting about it but today, I realised it was a good idea to be sharing my busking experiences with people online in a kind of blog format. Maybe just to kill some myths people have about busking and shed a light on what being an independent artist means but mainly why I do it personally and what brings me apart from joy and money. 

I encounter a lot of people while doing this or better said, they encounter me. I get different reactions everytime but I can´t really complain as most of the time (I´d say 90 percent of the time) encouragement and money is what I get. The other 10 percent is people who basically disrespect the fact that a person does his/her art in such a vulnerable way, which probably makes them feel awkward. Either way, it doesn´t matter. The point is that I feel this is a good way to connect with other people and I´d like to start sharing not all of the interactions I have every day I go out busking but maybe, pick one or two. For each day´s busking diary, 

So today, I am gonna talk about this one kid, which was almost a teenager who told me he had to go back down all the stairs in the metro station again to see me and to listen to me play. 

I get nervous when people do that. It´s also encouraging but it feels like f*** and I cannot f*** up now and I have to give it all. Being that said, I try to not take myself so serious because it kills the mood and ultimately it kills the magic. This thing is about being vulnerable but with some limits and especially understanding that shared moments through music are prieeless but If you think about it, it is kind of begging what buskers do. However, I take it as a job in some sense now and it brings some responsibility even if that word is too big for what it really is. 

Anyways, long story short. I was singing, as I now acknowledge as one of my strong parts of the street set, Redemption Song by Bob Marley and what brought me understanding and meaning was that the kid told me he heard me singing that song and he had to go down to tell me also that Bob (Marley in this case) is his favourite singer, who by the way was an amazing singer to say the least. Which people sometimes don´t acknowledge as he gets more recognition for his songwriting. Either way, thank you Bob. 

In a nutshell and to call it a day, these kind of things make me proud of what I do and I feel somehow I am bringing a bit of a light in people´s lives through songs that brought me light and still do in some way too (I remember sharing plainly with somebody that I was greatful that Bob Marley have existed and that our existance is better by that fact), 

I hope you people enjoy reading my stories as I will keep posting my little adventures and so hopefully somebody will feel inspired too ;) 

and if not, don´t read them. Easy peasy 

All the best and cheerios