Bonus: The Music of Timestorm Season 1

MUSIC: THEME SONG - "IN THE TIMESTORM"

Witness. Find. Remember.
The hidden past seeks its dawn,
showing us that we belong.
Horacio, Alexa, and Beni take back time,
find history in the timestorm.
Witness. Find. Remember

MICHAEL:
Hey, hey, listeners. I’m Michael Aquino, audio engineer, sound designer, and composer for Timestorm. You just listened to our theme song, In the Timestorm. This bonus episode is a dive into the music of Timestorm: Season One.

A WHOOSH.

MICHAEL:
Creating music is one of several things I do for Timestorm. And I want to quickly talk about a couple of the other hats I wear because they’re related and sometimes overlap with music. As an audio engineer, I make sure that everything sounds balanced and pleasing to listener ears—like yours! And then as a sound designer, I create or find all the sound effects that paint the action and environments in each episode.  

SFX 1
SFX 2
SFX 3

MICHAEL:
Now, back to me as a composer. I create music for different reasons. First, let’s take a look at  transition music, which sets the tone and helps you, the listener, know the time and place of the scene. Let’s revisit some of the transition music we created for season one! 

MICHAEL:
Home.

MUSIC: TRANSITION - “HOME”

MICHAEL:
Taíno Comics and Games.

MUSIC: TRANSITION - “TAÍNO COMICS AND GAMES”

MICHAEL:
Bell, Locker, Class.

MUSIC: TRANSITION - “BELL, LOCKER, CLASS”

MICHAEL:
Into the Timestorm.

MUSIC: TRANSITION “INTO THE TIMESTORM”

MICHAEL:
Library Magic.

MUSIC: TRANSITION - “LIBRARY MAGIC”

MICHAEL:
Mario’s Pizza.

MUSIC: TRANSITION - “MARIO’S PIZZA”

MICHAEL:
The Outside Life.

MUSIC: TRANSITION - “THE OUTSIDE LIFE”

MICHAEL:
Disco!

MUSIC: TRANSITION - “DISCO!”

MICHAEL:
Okay, those were very short pieces of music. Of course, we also use full-length songs in the series. When recording these longer pieces, I use a combination of live instruments — like guitar, bass, and percussion — and something called MIDI: Musical Instrument Digital Interface. MIDI is a computer language that allows you to play instruments digitally. Want a grand piano from the nineteen forties on your song? You can do that! Want to play an electronic drum kit that sounds like it’s in an arena? You can do that too! Or maybe the Puerto Rican cuatro? Wepa! You can. MIDI is so much fun! For episodes four and five, I reworked a song I composed a few years back as a theme for Maestra Celestina Cordero. In this recording, I played an acoustic guitar and used MIDI to create the classical strings. Let’s take a listen to “So Long, and Thanks.”

MUSIC: “SO LONG AND THANKS”

MICHAEL:
Now, if you’ve listened to the first season, you know Sonia is a budding songwriter! We even featured this character and her songwriting process in a minisode, “This is Me.” For this original song, I played acoustic guitar with Jessica Bracken on vocals. Here’s “This Is Me.”  

MUSIC: “THIS IS ME”

SONIA:
I’m at this party, they stare at me, 
whispering, “She talks so funny!”

All I want is to stand and scream: This is all I’ve got. 
This is me.
This is me!

Hey, I don’t know what you are like. 
No, I don’t know what you are like. 
So, I don’t know what you are like, but this is me!

Waves that flow from my head
My skin, my eyes
So misread
This is me.

All I want is to stand and scream: This is all I’ve got. 
This is me.
This is me!

Hey, I don’t know what you are like. 
No, I don’t know what you are like. 
So, I don’t know what you are like, but this is me!
But this is me!

I grab my hand, years ago.
I hold it tight and won’t let go 
Fly to the sand and waves of blue 
We sing so loud...
We sing so loud...
We sing our truth!

Hey, I don’t know what you are like.
No, I don’t know what you are like.
So, I don’t know what you are like, but this is me!
But this is me. 
But this is me. 
But this is me.
This is me, yeah.

This is me.

MICHAEL:
Now, there are times when I need to bring in a musician who can play an instrument that I don’t—like the violin. In the episode Broken, we wanted to include the song ”Consolación” by Cuban violinist Claudio Brindis de Salas. The song is in the public domain, which means no one holds a copyright so it’s freely available to be performed. We enlisted the help of our friend and uber-talented violinist Aurora Méndez to perform this nineteenth-century masterpiece.

MUSIC: ”CONSOLACION”

MICHAEL:
As a bonus for episode seven, Aurora also played violin on an alternate version of our theme song. Here’s a clip...

MUSIC: "IN THE TIMESTORM" (VIOLIN ALTERNATE)

The hidden past seeks its dawn,
showing us that we belong.
Horacio, Alexa, and Beni
take back time, find history in the timestorm.

MICHAEL:
Here’s a secret about our theme song. It took many revisions to arrive at what you hear today. We had friends, family, and young listeners give us valuable feedback on the song. And what you’re about to hear is the very first version of the song. We thought it might be interesting to hear the creation process—where art starts.

MUSIC: THEME SONG FIRST DRAFT

MICHAEL:
Who knows? Maybe what you just heard will show up in a future episode. 

We hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes peek at the music of Timestorm. If you have questions or thoughts about the music and audio of Timestorm, please write to me at cocotazomedia at gmail dot com. That’s c-o-c-o-t-a-z-o media at gmail dot com. I’d love to hear from you!

This bonus episode was written by Michael Aquino. Audio engineering, sound design, and original music by, me, Michael Aquino. ”Consolación” was composed by Claudio Brindis de Salas and performed by Aurora Méndez.

We want to share a review that we got on Apple Podcasts. OJKaus wrote, Loving this new podcast, it's got my kids asking about our family history and heritage and also gaining an appreciation for another culture. Great storytelling and very well produced, a joy to listen to. Wow. Thanks. We’re so grateful for listener reviews. If you haven’t already left one, we’d love to hear from you, too.

Timestorm is produced by Cocotazo Media and is a proud member of TRAX from PRX. Support for TRAX comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. To learn more about TRAX, visit TRAX dot fm: that’s t-r-a-x-dot fm. Additional support comes from the PRX Google Podcasts creator program.

If you enjoy the show, ask your parents to subscribe to Timestorm on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or the Kids Listen App. A quick message for our adult listeners: please be sure to check out our free resources, including episode guides and transcripts over at Timestorm Series dot com. And if you're interested in more bonus and behind-the-scenes content, we hope you’ll consider joining our Patreon community over at Patreon dot com slash Timestorm. You can also show your support for the series by sharing it with a friend or leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Podchaser.

Timestorm is produced in Essex County, New Jersey, which is situated on the traditional territory of the Leni Lenape people.

As always, thanks for listening.

ATABEY:
Witness. Find. Remember.