We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Fernando Martinez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Fernando below.
Fernando , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your career and how did you resolve those issues?
My favorite problem solving situation didn’t actually come from a professional situation but was actually on my wedding day. We had a friend scheduled to play piano during the ceremony, with solo piano arrangements of some of our favorite songs for each of the groups coming down the aisle. Over the course of two months prior to the wedding, The pianist and I would discuss the piano arrangements and order and he would send me demos of his progress via Dropbox.
When it came time for our wedding day, there was a major water main break in the Holland Tunnel, causing severe delays for people entering and leaving New York City. This meant that much of the party was late, including our pianist. This meant that we wouldn’t have time to set up or sound check.
Cut to about 20 minutes before we’re supposed to start walking down the aisle, we need to discuss a backup plan as it was starting to become a strong possibility that we would not have music for our ceremony. I remembered that we had all of these great demos recorded in Dropbox. I shared the files with our DJ and walked him through the run through. Since they were simple piano arrangements, the demos sounded as good as we’d need.. They had the natural flubs that a live player would encounter and still had dynamics of a real player (rather than cold and even MIDI performances).
So, we decided to go with the demos. It was showtime, we went with those instead. Awkwardly, the pianist showed up just after our vows, keyboard in hand. We had some words, he was obviously miserable about it. Thankfully it all worked out.
Everyone praised the great piano music (they assumed he behind a curtain, especially after seeing someone with a keyboard in hand later)
When it comes to demoing music, aim for the highest quality demo that you can achieve because there’s a chance it may end up being the final product without you knowing it. Oh, and always plan on arriving to a gig an hour before they ask you to be there. You never know when you’ll sit in traffic forever due to a water main break.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Hello – my name is Fernando Martinez. I am award-winning experiential producer based out of New York City. By day, he helps some of the world’s largest brands develop innovative experiential solutions in the AR, VR and mobile gaming space. At night, I write and compose music, particularly for documentary film scores. Some of my work has been featured at the Tribeca Film Festival, Hot Docs, New York Times, New York Latino Film Festival and others. My most recent film contribution is “A THOUSAND PINES” directed by Noam Osband, which will have its broadcast premiere on PBS in April.
These two sides help inform each other quite often. The creative collaboration in composing music for film helps in developing a language set that helps better articulate abstract ideas to creatives during my day time work. It can be a challenge to discuss the unprecedented.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
There is incredible potential for NFTs; maybe not in what we’re experiencing as the digital asset that we call NFTs but rather in the grander scheme of things. The concept of access through blockchain is much bigger than monkey JPG. Even that group, while they have had their issues, have proven that NFTs will show us the next phase of the social club or loyalty program – what it means to be a part of a collective with a shared purpose, with access to each other, access to create something together. We’re not there yet and so much needs to be worked out from a security standpoint and common understanding of what is legal and isn’t There is also so much on the horizon when it comes to smart contracts – Musicians having the ability to grant access to their collection to a limited few for sampling or licensing. From a non-creative standpoint, using block chain for authenticity can be very powerful. Imagine your car as an NFT. That VIN number is non-fungible. So, imagine having every oil change, car accident and parking ticket and logged to a single source. Now imagine that with health care – people being able to move from state to state, with a single source of truth about their medical history. Still much to be figured out and there is alot more to mess up before we really see its true potential.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
One of the biggest ways that we as a society can better support artists is to help open each others’ eyes. I think one of the best ways to do this is to encourage travel. While the internet has opened doors and brought foreign sounds and visions into people’s homes and that’s great but it is also very easy to fall into an echo chamber. By encouraging people to see a new landscape or city, it exposes them to new ideas, new color palettes, new foods, new music. Some will shrug it off as weird but others will fall in love with it – maybe add a new spice to their cupboard, maybe pick up a new instrument, maybe hit up Etsy to find some art for their house.
Contact Info:
- Website: fernandomartinezmusic.com
- Instagram: fmrtz