#OffTheDome minisode 1: Gera MX - Suelo Soñar, Correr y Tropezarme

Hoy que mis sueños son tan grandes parece estoy a la altura
Mis benditas estructuras construyen un buen futuro
Cuidé de mi locura para caminar seguro
Y aunque el camino fue duro no doblaron mi armadura
Gera MX - Suelo Soñar, Correr y Tropezarme

I spent last week in LA at the Spotify office culminating the first-ever SoundUp Latinx program. It was the first time most of us met in person. Even our facilitators, Isis and Maria of Pizza Shark, hadn't seen each other in person in a really long time so this was something truly special.

If you don't know, Sound Up is one of Spotify's programs designed to help "underrepresented creators get their feet—and mics—in the door for podcasting" (Spotify Newsroom.) There are a bunch of editions all over the world - SoundUp Argentina, SoundUp Brazil, SoundUp UK, SoundUp India, and more.

I was part of the first-ever SoundUp Latinx which is based in the US and focuses on Latinx creators. Because of the pandemic, we couldn't do the traditional 4-weeks immersive in-person program, and instead, we had an EIGHT-MONTH-LONG virtual SoundUp program.

Last week, we went to LA to present our pilots and officially end the program. It was an incredible experience to connect with so many amazingly talented people from all walks of life. I learned so much from everyone and I cannot wait for the world to hear their shows. I won't spoil them so we'll just have to wait until they launch to talk more about them.

A by-product of being in a place like that with a lot of people like them is an unmanageable amount of inspiration and creativity. It's hard to go back to the boring 9-5 after all of this so I decided to start yet another side project: #OffTheDome.

Off The Dome is a series (sub-series? is that a thing?) within Lo Que Ando Oyendo. If you've heard me talk about LQAO, you'll know it's hard to explain what it is succinctly.

Off The Dome will help with that. In Off The Dome episodes, I'll share a song that's been in my mind lately and provide context. Context about why it's in my head lately, about the artist, the song's making, the lyrics, the music. Essentially, explain what it is that I hear when I listen to this song and why it's so relevant or impactful or shocking or fun.

In this first episode, I talk about the song Suelo Soñar, Correr y Tropezarme by Gera MX. Gera was actually playing in Los Angeles the week I was there. He's touring the United States for the first time ever. Lots of "first-evers" this week. He has a very successful career at 28 but about 10 years ago he released his album Precipicio where you can find this song. He was about to quit trying to rap professionally; things weren't looking too good and this was his last attempt. If the album didn't do well, he would quit. That's why he titled it Precipicio.

The first four lines of the song go "Hoy que mis sueños son tan grandes parece estoy a la altura / Mis benditas estructuras construyen un buen futuro / Cuidé de mi locura para caminar seguro / Y aunque el camino fue duro no doblaron mi armadura" and that's how it felt in LA last week. It seemed like we were all at the precipice and we had these huge dreams and we were eye to eye, a la altura, with them.

The first episode is 10 minutes long, please give it a listen on Spotify