My band Kaktooz has been planning to put up an all original album for months now. Our guitarist Jeph has a few tracks on his mind and I’ve got a couple as well. We are too busy when we are home that we can’t find time to actually finish the songs. Lately we had an offer to play for three days over at Puerto Vallarta in Mexico and Carlo, keyboardist turned singer suggested that we stay there longer and finish the album. It seemed like a good plan so we tried to see if there was somewhere we could actually stay and record our songs with the gear we brought with us. Two weeks would be enough and we could choose from some Puerto Vallarta condos available. Hopefully, we’ll have enough money from playing to rent us a place we could use for a couple of weeks.

We tried to ask our client if he had suggestions and fortunately, he’s got a cousin who owns a place we could use and even offered us a staggering fifty percent discount on the rent as long as they could drop by and party from time to time; since they knew there’s likely to be more party than work. It was a done deal. They say that we are lucky because out of the many Puerto Vallarta condos, theirs had one of the most amazing views and only a few steps away from the beach of Los Muertos. The whole band was excited to go and start on recording tracks to finish the album.

It was off to Mexico after a week upon settling everything. We arrived at the hotel we were invited to and played on the same night at the beach front. From day one, we played our hearts out to audiences who all seemed to be in a spirit of pure party fun, especially after some tequila shots. In the morning after our last day of playing, we packed our things and transferred to the condos in Puerto Vallarta by the beach and we were in for a surprise. The condo units, all four of them, had beautiful porches at which one could enjoy views of the surrounding beach and ocean. It had complete amenities and even an outdoor Jacuzzi! The condo was said to have been designed by a famous local architect. Everything was perfect and I felt I was already a “rock star” even without an album out, though I knew it was only for two weeks. We decided to stay in two rooms, set up one room as a temporary recording studio and one room as the party headquarters.

During our first three days we actually visited other condos in Puerto Vallarta when we were invited by some guests and locals but the one we were at was one of the best. Thanks to modern technology, recording equipment now is smaller and so we were able to bring a full multi-track studio packed in just a few boxes. We were set up in a few hours time. The studio was a musician’s dream since you’ll be able to do your parts with a view of a tranquil beach and sea.

Since we were going to stay two weeks, we decided to take it easy on the first day. Some locals were kind enough to accompany Richard, our bassist, to a local market where he bought some food supplies. Utensils and equipment for cooking was also included in each unit of the condominium which made food preparations easy. We decided on making barbeque and settled to party at the Jacuzzi area with some friends and the proud owner of that Puerto Vallarta condo.

Before we recorded tracks, we decided to refine some of our old songs first and maybe we could also make some new ones. We had early breakfast when the sun came up the next day and stayed on the veranda facing the sea playing guitar and singing songs. We jammed a lot of stuff and somehow, the place just powers us up to do amazing creative things we could never do when in the city. We decided to record at night and the first takes were just magnificent as everything seemed to fall perfectly into place. On the first night, we were able to finish two full songs, a feat which we were never able to do in two months before.

Days passed, and each one seemed to offer a different light on how our album should be done. It was as if we were driven by an invisible creative force of nature during our stay in that condo by the beach in Puerto Vallarta. One song after another we recorded the tracks until we had ten. The album is done; what it needs now is just to be mixed and mastered by our sound engineer friend Norman once he gets the raw tracks. We were actually ahead of time and still have three days from our two week stay. We were so grateful to our client there and the condo’s owner we even decided to give them a free show at the same hotel on our last night. Now, we are home and the tracks are being mixed, we can’t wait to hear the songs which were inspired by such a beautiful place.

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