Pablo Leira - Dirt, Wood & Grass (2023) Hi Res

The musician from Mugarde Pablo Leira presents “Dirt, Wood & Grass” (Ferror Records, 2023), a new album marked by the American sound, intimacy and the most personal folk.

Pablo Leira, just 23 years old, has just completed a degree in guitar performance at the Berklee College of Music, in Boston, where he received a scholarship and won awards such as the John LaPorta in 2019 and the Jimi Hendrix award in 2020. At the He currently accompanies Andrés Balado on his tour and also collaborates with Los Eternos. But, in addition, just over a couple of weeks ago, he was recording what is now his first studio album, at Danny Abeledo and Melo García's RRStudios in Ferrol. Talented people such as Álvaro Lamas with his steel guitar, Pepe Coira on harmonica, Rafa Pereira on bass and Cabe García on guitar and banjo have collaborated on the country-style work.

“It all started with my father, who found a job near Philadelphia when I was 17 years old and when he didn't see me for the job of making a career, I seriously considered trying to do this music thing. I had already heard about Berklee and now that my father was leaving the opportunity arose to try to audition. I wasn't very confident, but in the end everything turned out well and I was able to study there, eventually being lucky enough to receive the John Laporta awards in 2019 and then the Jimi Hendrix in 2020 and graduating with a degree in guitar performance in 2021," he says.

His influences are very diverse: “Well, many different ones. When I was a kid I started listening to the Beatles, and then I started listening to groups like AC/DC and Led Zeppelin, which I was obsessed with throughout my teenage years. Then I varied more, I started to be interested in people like Iván Ferreiro and Xoel López, then Los Planetas and The Band, and finally I became obsessed with Dylan for a couple of years. But always listening to a lot of music and very different (and looking for the next obsession)… I don't consider myself a great composer or a very prolific one (but I don't consider myself primarily a writer either). The songs come to me when they come to me, and are generally a reflection of what is happening to me at that moment in my life. I can have a week where I can spit out the general skeleton of 6 songs then go 3 months without writing one. I try that the music and the lyrics reflect the most real feeling that I try to reflect. As for the songs, they all talk a little about the same thing. I wrote this album mostly in New York, where I arranged some songs that I had already written and combined it with the best that came out at that moment, and as I already said, they speak a little about the whole situation that I went through there”.

The recording took place calmly, with the participation of veteran musicians from Ferrol such as former Limones Rafa Pereira or Álvaro Lamas, who contributes his unmistakable steel guitar, Cabe García or Pepe Coira: “the recording was chaos. We were recording firstly between the apartment where I lived and Alec's room, going through a studio once to record some drums. We were mixing and recording it ourselves but there came a time when we realized that we weren't going to be able to. Once in Ferrol I contacted Danny, with whom I had already recorded, and I presented the project to him. After his respective row for all the trouble we made, he went to work like crazy and immersed himself in the task of getting this album forward, re-recording parts that were needed, adding ideas and calling some colleagues to help. they will touch That's when I met everyone, first Rafa, who is an absolute 10 as a gentleman and musician and left a very cool bass. Then to Álvaro, who was quite a discovery, because he is also one of the most musical people I have ever seen, as well as an impeccable instrumentalist. I had already seen Cabe play, and seeing him live playing what he plays was a real pleasure and a spectacle, and finally Pepe, who not only has one of the best personal stories in the world, but also has a taste and a playing personality that is unrivaled”.

Regarding the album, he affirms: “I tried to make the album tell a coherent story, and although it seems that it doesn't, if you pay attention to the details it's there, I just tried hard to hide it behind everything, because it's a very personal album for me and I didn't want to be brutally explicit. Although yes, there is a story, and it is a true story of the months I spent.