After being in the studio for 9 months working hard on a project Andrew Maz and his band released their album titled Winter. Maz became inspired by accident to write this album after attending a friend’s annual winter solstice party.
Where his friends would not only get together to party but also to perform.
“ I thought I should write something for that and so I wrote the title track [Winter] for that event. I actually never played it at the party ’cause I ran out of time,” shared Maz.
This track ended up sitting untouched for around 2 years until Maz gained inspiration to build something around his first track.
Maz knew that his concept of the album would be some type of love story but he did not know how the love story would end until he started writing the album. He also had this notion of winter being personified.
And overall romanticizing the season of winter.
“Maybe I was influenced a bit by the ice queen of Narnia or something like that. But I had those kinds of images, and that kind of sort of wonderland and what does that sound like, what does that feel like,” expressed Maz.
“And from there, the album evolved and really became about exploring the concept of lost and losing someone and all the various types of laws you might experience.”
The album itself is a rock album, but many songs have an Orchestra playing. It is filled with emotional symphonies. You can really feel the story that is trying to conveyed.
The last time the band performed was before Covid and since then they’ve gained new members.
Maz formed his band back in 2019 with three of his previous students. Sergio German, Mikey Enriquez, and Joel Alvarez.
Sergio German as the guitarist came back and advised Maz to write some lyrics to one of his [Maz] songs
And Maz answered “If I’m gonna do that, we should put together a band. And he [Sergio] was like well I play guitar.”
Maz then recruited Mikey next who didn’t take Maz class but they knew of each other.
“He knocked on my door [of the practice room] and was like “hey you’re in my band now.” Closed the door, and walked away. I’m like..uh hello?” Mikey laughed.
“Joel was late to class and so hired him,” Maz and the band laugh. They hired him to be the bass player.
Eric Orellana also joined the band because Maz realized it was too much for a keyboardist to handle all the orchestral parts.
The two newest members of the band are Nadia Aponte as a keyboardist and Mars as vocals.
“I brought Nadia in 20’ because this album has a lot of important piano parts and I wanted someone who was really skilled,” Maz states. “ Mars is our newest member. She joined us basically early November. She tracked all her parts in three weeks.”
The band wasted no time after they finished recording the album and went straight to rehearsal a week later.
“I think Sitting with Dr. Maz for a couple hours just connecting stuff until we find something that sounds good. I thought that was really cool not knowing what our end goal was. But when we found it we both knew that’s what’s the sound we’re looking for is a good memory,” shares German
Everyone was able to contribute in their own way as they all came together to find their sound.
The album was also set to originally be released in 2020 but Covid put a halt to a lot of things. But that did not stop the band from completing the album. They are excited to share with you all their hard work.
You can now listen to Winter on Apple Music and Spotify!
