User:Elgranchobi/sandbox

Name:
La Obra De Marte is a Spanish singing rock group from Puerto Rico (USA territory). Co-founded by José (Jowy) Berríos and Emmanuel Rivera Santiago, the band makes references to romanticism and to the overall world of literature and arts.

The name "La Obra de Marte" (which literal translation to English is "The Work Of Mars") pays tribute to arts in all its forms. In the Spanish language the phrase "la obra de arte" is an idiomatic and colloquial expression that in English translate to "The Work Of Art"; also in Spanish the name of Mars (The Planet) is written and pronounced as "Marte". In addition to making reference to art, and to Mars as a Planet, the name of the band makes reference to Mars (the god) which is referred to be the "god of of war and also an agricultural guardian". In addition, making reference to Mars as a Planet, the name wishes to evoke the sense of an unknown world that is surreal and fascinating; A possible future "promised land" and a World of new opportunities, like love can be sometimes. Because of this La Obra De Marte's lyrical content talks about love in all its facets.

History:
La Obra De Marte was founded officially in the year 2012 by Jowy Berrios Lopez and Emmanuel Rivera Santiago. Before establishing the band officially, Emmanuel Rivera Santiago and Jowy Berrios were composing songs and trying to put a demo together. They composed a five (5) song demo titled "Soñadores Diurnos, Amantes Nocturnos" (translated to English as "Daydreamers, Nightlovers". This demo had such a great impression in the local rock scene that the internet media and underground zines started to cover it, and asking the "band" (which was not yet officially formed), when they were going to play live. Due to this Emmanuel and Jowy decided to start looking for musicians to form the band. So the first line-up of the band was finally formed and the musicians were; Emmanuel Rivera Santiago (Singer and lyric composer), Raffel Cruz Rodriguez (2nd Guitar), Jowy Berrios Lopez (1st Guitar and music arrangement), Ito Drums Figueroa (aka Juan Pablo Figueroa) (Drummer), Hernán Ríos (Bass). With this line up they started playing the local live shows and they stated a great local scene following. Not long after the first few shows, drummer Ito Figueroa had to leave the band due to other musical endeavors, and drummer Xavier Izquierdo became the new drummer of the band continuing the line of live shows for the band, and also recording half of what would become the official first full length album of the band "Punto De Partida".

In 2015 La Obra De Marte released their first album titled "Punto De Partida" (translated to English as "Starting Point"). This album was recorded by the band with the recording engineer Alexis Pérez (owner of Highway Studios, Guitarists for Kalavera Inc., Holy Crackers, music teacher and session musician). The band line up that participated in the recording of this album was Emmanuel Rivera Santiago (Singer), Jowy Berrios Lopez (Guitars), Raffel Cruz (Guitars), Ito Drums Figueroa (recorded drums for the songs "Punto De Partida", "Incertidumbre", "Amar Diciendo Adiós", "Quiero Ser", and "A prueba De Balas"), Xavier Izquierdo (recorded drums for the songs "Tres Almohadas", "Entre El Amor Y Otros Mitos", "Cita Con El Pasado", "Heroína", "Entre Comillas", "Escrito En Piedra"), Hernán Ríos (Bass). After touring locally for their album the band consolidated as one of the top local bands, and they started to get attention from other latin american countries that started to take notice of the band from their youtube videos, album, and underground zines coverage.

During the final months of 2015 and the first half of 2016 the band had line up changes for different reasons. Xavier Izquierdo (drummer) was called to duty as US Military member, and after he came back there were some tensions on the group so the group and him took different paths. A few local drummers covered the drum position in the meantime for live shows. Other members who left the band were Raffel Cruz (former 2nd guitarist), for creative differences and pursuing a professional career not music related. Also Hernan Rios (former Bass Player) had to step down as the bass player but this was more because of family and work reasons; Hernan found new work opportunities outside of Puerto Rico and that was the main reason he had to leave the bassist position open. During this time the only original members of the band were Emmanuel Rivera Santiago, and Jowy Berrios (the founding members).

Composing and Recording of E.P. Las Dos Caras De La Moneda Parte 1: La Cara:
During the period from the second half of 2016, up to summer 2017 the band was again leaded by their only two members left, Emmanuel and Jowy. Decided to not end the band's journey here, they decided to keep composing their second album (or, what was planned to be an album back then) titled Las Dos Caras De La Moneda (translated to literal english as "The Two Sides Of A Coin") which comes out of a Spanish language idiomatic phrase that says "Las Dos Caras De La Moneda", this phrase refers to the fact that each story has more than one perspective (At least two). The original album was planned to have 13 to 14 new songs. However, during the period of time they were composing La Obra De Marte had some economic constrains, so they decided to turn this constrain into an opportunity, and they divided the full album in two parts. The first part is called "La Cara" (The Face, as in The Face side of a coin), containing 7 new tracks. And the second part of what was going to be the album, now the second E.P. will be called "La Cruz" (Or the "Tails" side of a coin). The main reason for this is that the first half of the album is intended to narrate things from the perspective of "his" side of a relationship, and the second part is planned to be the story from "her" perspective of the story.

Both of the E.P.s cover art are worked by Shane Rice, from Exothermic Designs. The cover art of the first E.P. presents us a circle divided in two hemispheres (North and south), with "him" the man of the relationship walking in the North hemisphere of the circle, searching for "her", but he is searching for "her" during the day, and in a different place. While in the south hemisphere of the circle his counterpart "her" is walking at night, searching for "him", in a different place. The only variation for the second part E.P. (La Cruz) will be the colouring of the cover art, and that for then, "she" will be walking during the day searching for "him" in the north hemisphere of the circle, while "him" will be walking through the south of the hemisphere searching for "her" at night.

The musicians involved in the recording of Las Dos Caras De La Moneda parte 1: La Cara, were: Ito "Drums" Figueroa (initially the band's drummer in their first demo release) now as a session musician, Emmanuel Rivera Santiago (Voice and Lyrics), Jowy Berrios Lopez (guitars), Alexis Pérez (recording Engineer, Producer, and session bassist for the E.P. recording process).

Las Dos Caras De La Moneda Parte 1: La Cara Release:
The "La Cara" e.p. was officially released on OCT. 20, 2017. The original plan was to release the E.P. in August 2017, but due to delays with the companies who were manufacturing the physical cds for the e.p., it took up to September to become available for the group to be able to distribute. Also during this time (exactly on September 20th) hurricane Maria hits Puerto Rico, being Category 5 Hurricane, and becoming the first CAT 5 hurricane to hit the island in a period of a 89 years. Maria caused a lot of damage and destruction to the Puerto Rico power infrastructure, and overall structure in the island. This caused that the release of the E.P. had to be pushed even further. So the E.P. was officially released on OCT 20th 2017. The shortage of power, the lack of reliable power source, internet signal, and overall economical aftermath that the hurricane caused affected the early months for marketing the "La Cara" E.P. However, the E.P. started to be noticed by the media starting the year 2018 when the recovery of the island post Maria Hurricane was getting to a better shape even though it was far from getting back to normal.

Actual Line Up (Circa 2018)
As of middle 2017 and up to the actual date, La Obra De Marte's musicians line up is: Emmanuel Rivera Santiago (Voice), Jowy Berrios Lopez (1st guitar), Hilmaris Sepulveda (Bass), Pete Holliday (2nd Guitar), AJ Rivera (Drums). The musicians Hilmaris Sepulveda, Pete Holliday and AJ Rivera all played in the band Break 'em Kid (BEK)

Articles:
1) Musica De Marte Con Sabor A Bayamón

2) Achtergrond: Introducing La Obra De Marte

3) Inclusion in the article "Best Indie Rock Bands from 2017"

4) American Pride Magazine: "After The Storm La Obra De Marte and the 'Cycles' They Have Been Through"

5) A.V.A Live Radio with Jacqueline Jax: "Behind The Music with La Obra De Marte" (recorded Interview)