I like the songs!  In general, they show cool sonic landscapes, that sometimes I relate to The Cure or early U2. My favourite is Grain of Salt , it reminds me of The Black Keys' Gold in the Ceiling  and Lonely Boy. Tribes No More is an excellent track, it needs lyrics! Into The Spring has a great riff, it's has a U2 vibe I love, add it some lyrics too! Last Dance for the Wicked has a cool intro and solid background guitar. In Damascus you are using an Harmonic Minor scale, isn't it? That's what I think you found a gypsy vibe in some of my songs. I loved the chorus of Chop Wood, Carry Water. It remined me of Pink Floyd, The Wall.  Roots are Showing reminds me of some 80's american rock band, I can't recall now. Keep on with the good music!

Regarding my songs, good to know you liked Botinera most. It's about soccer stars girlfriends. It describes in comical way -with soccer lingo- how beauty queens of sorts find a career path by chasing soccer stars. In fact, some botineras actually have more space in the news than their partners   This song and others may have a gypsy feel, as they mix Natural Minor and Harmonic Minor scales, and that coupled with a ska groove, sounds similar to Klezmer, a jewish variant of the Gypsy/Balcanic styles. 

Migrantes is inspired in african and sirian refugees crossing the Mediterranean. Below, a loose English translation of the first half of the lyrics. The poetry is unfortunately lost, but at least you'll get the meaning. Hope you like it.

Cold at dawn,
lost gazes on a never ending flat horizon.
Nothing to lose,
with an illusion clinged to a few vague promises.
A matter of faith.
Intertwined fates,
a major milestone in their lives
No plans for D-Day,
a creed to hope ...

Anonymous trips of joint destination,
Exiles, migrants, their hearts in suspense.
Errants at the seas, weather-beaten skins,
Peace awaits ahead, nothing to be afraid of.
Uh... sleepless night on the high seas, 
so far from home...

Nice one Had a listen to it while making dinner and then another listen with my family while eating dinner My son loves the songs with trumpet in them  (I even had to dance tango with him)
I think all songs are made very well! I like the way you left lots of space for each instrument. Nothing seems squashed in. My favorite seem to be the first 3 songs and it's shame I can't understand Spanish  

Well done Pepe! 

Makes complete sense. Certainly the idea of being a musician was one of many facets of persona that have fallen away. Thank you for the links.

Pah, as if we're having linear experiences anyway

If by pad drums you mean those gadgets with around 6 small pads, and a couple of pressure sensitive pedals, that's exactly what I started with after playing around on a real kit at school. They're actually pretty decent though transitioning from that to a full kit is difficult just in terms of remapping space in your mind (a kid would probably have no problem actually...)

They aren't anywhere near as loud as an acoustic drum kit, but you'll likely have the lovely sound of wood-on-plastic/rubber and floor stomping running through the house regardless!

And no, I haven't played with a band in probably 10 years - these days I mainly play for fun/practice (especially through lockdown), but I'm always approaching it from a kind of concentration/mindfulness perspective. Rhythm itself is this strange phenomena, that we can experience and play around with these divisions of time. Just watching how the body learns to play more and more effortlessly with repetition. Seeing how many different places and phases you can feel your playing from - can I play just focusing on the hands, can I play just hearing the result of the playing, if I lose rhythm, what was the last thing I could note/recognise before the rhythm broke? It's interesting, though not sure how well a 4 year old would be interested in that stuff over just hitting the thing as hard and fast as possible

My top tips for a 4 year old drummer in the making:

• Learn to hold the sticks properly, youtube "stick grip"
• Learn to play using the fingers, hands and wrists more than the arms
• Learn to play things as gently as you can, it's the best way to learn to play with comfort
• Play to a metronome (those pad things will have one built in!)
• Practice those rudiments and stickings until you can do them in your sleep (youtube again)

In many ways I find playing instruments have similar qualities to aspects of practice - the delicate, gentle rest on the object (the rhythm), the rich sensory clarity in the body (the tactile feeling, how you move your body and adjust to accent the playing). Then there's the tremendous creative power, the equanimity of playing perfectly and nailing it, the resistance in the mind and body when it gets challenging, it's all comparative to practice. Similar thing with athletes. It's surprising that these skills don't spontaneously transfer to the domain of mindfulness by themselves. Maybe they do sometimes (perhaps with the right parenting )

When are we gonna create the DhO compilation collab album? Me and Che already working on the first track 

(No musical experience necessary... well, some of us will need to provide music but lyrics are another thing... and never been my strong suit. But thankfully we have a plethora of wordsmiths here!)