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I revisit my conversation with singer-songwriter, Aireene Espiritu. She's an inspiration and I just had to listen to more of her words and music.
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So JD, grandson number two, comes to me the other day and asks me if I could make a sound like a frog. I looked at him and I go, why would I do that? So he responds very earnestly that Grandma told him that we would be getting a larger house with a big backyard and maybe even a swimming pool.
SPEAKER_00As soon as Gramps croaks, you're about to hear something sweet. Talking about Gramps. He's been lots of places and seen many faces. Now he sits around and something telling you something funny. He's not asking for your money. Just another way to waste your time. You might save your life with a piece of advice. But Gramps just make shit up.
SPEAKER_03Hey kids, it's Gramps again. Now, this episode is a bit of a revisit of a conversation I had with Oakland, California-based singer-songwriter Irene Espiritu. Maybe you've been lucky enough to see or hear her play somewhere here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now, Irene was born in the Philippines, but she moved to the United States with her family when she was just 10 years old. Musically, she was heavily influenced by listening to her uncle's Filipino folk guitar music. And that really shows up in her ukulele and guitar picking. But add to that work that she discovered totally by accident of music documentarian Alan Lomax and his field recordings from the southern United States. Well, let's just say that she became one with the blues. Irene's music is playful, soulful, and just plain wonderful. And sort of reminiscent of the good old Americana front porch storytelling and picking. Let's listen in and enjoy.
SPEAKER_02If I pull the trigger with it set me free, but I got too many songs to sing. I got the song to say.
SPEAKER_03I'm doing well. Why don't you introduce yourself?
SPEAKER_01I'm Irina Spiritu, based in Oakland, California. I've been making music full time since full-time for 10 years now. I play Americana, mix of everything, and I have a project called Color Coded Symphony, and the aim is to encourage curiosity to other cultures using music.
SPEAKER_03I was wondering if you could tell me your earliest memory of music in your life.
SPEAKER_01Oh yes. Can I give you two answers?
SPEAKER_03Of course.
SPEAKER_01The first answer is I grew up with music. Filipinos love to sing. And so my uncles, my two uncles actually got me or were the ones that were a huge influence in music. For me, they have records and they have they play guitar and they would always have a guitar on hand. And whenever there's a family gathering, they would always pull it out and they showed me Filipino folk songs, and the whole family would sing along. So that's my first influence. And number two, the first sign how much I love music was when I first moved to the US, we lived with my auntie and uncle and their kids in Dumont, New Jersey. And I found this cassette in their basement. And it was, of course, I'm gonna forget the name now. It was the entertainer and the tape of the entertainer. And what what's the name of the guy now? Scott Joplin. And I didn't know what it was. I'd have never heard of Scott Joplin before. And I stuck the cassette on the player and the entertainer came on. And I swear that's the only song I remember from that cassette. I played it over and over. And every time you play it, you guys listening to songs, you unravel another layer of the music. And I became so addicted to it. So that was my first indication that I of how much uh music was a part of me. And yeah, and then I took flute, it was my first instrument, official instrument. I dabbled in guitar because of my uncles before that, but I wasn't any good on the guitar. But yeah, so that was my first experiences with music.
SPEAKER_03And having a musical family clearly evid your interest even further. Have you stayed in touch with the family in the Philippines that got you started on your journey?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yes. So they are here. Most of them are here now. I do have uh my aunt and and her family there, but most of my uncles are here and aunties, uh, they're all here. We don't really get together as much anymore. They're all in California, fortunately, but somehow the the nieces and nephews and everybody have their own family, and so it's harder to get everybody together. So it's not as much as growing up.
SPEAKER_03You mentioned flute was your first instrument. Because you have stringed instruments in your life and in your photographs. So how did the flute happen?
SPEAKER_01So in the school, the public school that I went to, you were supposed to take an instrument, take up an instrument, and somehow I got the flute and I loved it. I absolutely loved playing, and I thought I was good at it. But then when my parents found their bearings and they got jobs after we moved here, we moved to Yonkers, New York, from Dumont, New Jersey. And they didn't have any flute instructors there, and it wasn't a requirement to take up an instrument at the private school I attended. So I lost my flute classes, which I was really sad about. I really wanted to continue. But what stuck with me were the some knowledge of music, fifth grade knowledge of music at the time. But yeah, I haven't, I stopped. I uh I only played it for however long I was in that public school, a year or so. But something stuck in during that time in me.
SPEAKER_03The guitar and the ukulele seem to be part of who you are as I know you, and of course it's been a very short time. How did you pick up the guitar then?
SPEAKER_01So the guitar, I so my uncle taught me because my fingers were small, they still are. My my uncle taught me how to play the guitar using one string, the E, the high E. So I just knew I didn't know chords, I knew one note at a time. And then I took a guitar class in during college and I really sucked at it. I was frustrated because I just couldn't hit the bar chords. I was like, ah, and then my I had a really crappy guitar that my uncle gave me and it was heavy and it kept going out of tune, and I didn't know what was in tune. And so I gave up on the guitar for a long time. And then I was watching the movie The Jerk, where Steve Martin picks up the ukulele and plays that you belong to me. And I thought, oh, I remember this. I can I want to get look into that. So I bought this cheap used. This is before the everyone got into ukuleles. I got this cheap soprano ukulele airline brand, which is what they used to sell at Montgomery Wards. And I just got hooked. I played that thing so much. I went it was with me in bed. I played it till I fell asleep. And then I by then I thought, okay, I now I love this. What is the sound that resonates with me more? And I found my tenor ook, my Martin tenor ook. Oh, I just said blame it on the jerk.
SPEAKER_03First of all, shame on me for saying ukulele, because I know very well it's ukulele. Oh, thank you. Listen, getting back to instruments, which one of the instruments that you play do you think expresses you the best?
SPEAKER_01I would say the guitar. At some point it was my tenor ook, but I think now, maybe only because I can hear more of the sounds that I want to come out through the guitar. There are some songs that belong on the ukulele only, I think. It doesn't come out, it doesn't translate well on guitar, but overall I think I use the I've been using the guitar my guitar more.
SPEAKER_03And you got that F chord down?
SPEAKER_01Yes, finally, after years of practice. I know I said earlier in my intro, I've been doing it full-time for 10 years, but really I've been doing it for 20-something years, but I've had other jobs in the meantime, but really full-on for the past 10 years.
SPEAKER_03It's fascinating how much ground you cover with your music. I was uh of course, I watch your Facebook and your posts and the social media that lets us know, those of those want to hear your music, lets us know where you're gonna be. And and my goodness, you are all over the west coast here up now, this but Northern California, and thinking, how many miles do you have on your vehicle? Or um do you have a helicopter?
SPEAKER_01I I just inherited this car. I had a Prius before that, which was reaching, I think maybe almost 250, 260 a thousand miles, but it finally broke down and by coincidentally I inherited this car from my father right when the other one died. And so the timing just worked out fortunately for me. So between that and this car, I I haven't checked the mileage on this one. I didn't travel much last year, so nobody did.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. But I tell you what, you made the best out of an uncomfortable, bad situation with everybody being tied to their homes with the use of social media and then the uh the online. Uh, I really love the uh the music that you wrote with the 10 words that were donated from many of your followers. Thank you. But I'd really like to talk more about the color-coded symphony. I think that just fascinates me. Thank you. Uh what's the origin story?
SPEAKER_01It's based on experience myself, just having experienced racism from various levels, some people we know, some organizationally, and straight some from strangers. And so at some point I thought, wouldn't it be nice if we can address racist racism through music? Because that's at the heart of most almost everyone listens to music, and almost everyone gets touched by music. And I wish that people were blind in a sense that we don't get judged by the way we look by, but just by the heart, what their energy. And it was just something in my mind, wouldn't it be nice? And we would we would put people mus musicians on stage, and we'd turn the lights off and just play music with people in person, listening to music in the dark. So I had a gig at the Asian Art Museum under the Little Village Foundation label. We did a tribute to Shigapai DeSanta. So we were playing her music, and I was speaking to the person who was in charge of the education program who did these shows and uh events at the museum. And somehow I just told her about this idea of mine just out of the blue as part of the conversation, not expecting anything. And I thought maybe someday I'll do something in five years or somewhere that along. And she says, I have an opening in nine months here at the museum. The date is yours.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. So I thought, oh, how could I say no? So I said, Yes, of course. So I had nine months to put something together that I hadn't even written down on paper. So it evolved into this three, I've only done it twice because it requires funding and musicians. And so it's a three-part program. The first part is in the dark, and we give everyone bandana so you can wear the bandana or just close your eyes. And we play a familiar and unfamiliar sounds. For example, a lullaby in different languages, a familiar lullaby in different languages, or like some percussive strange sound or something like that. And then this part two will be you can turn the lights on, and part two will be a featured country, music from a featured country. So far, I've done Philippines and uh India. And then the third part is where the audience, I asked the audience to write down their ethnic origin on a piece of paper and I put it all in a jar. And uh for the third part, I will pick from that jar and uh whatever ethnic origin I read, I will play an audio clip. I gathered audio from most of the countries around the world. I I worked with an ethnomusicologist who provided this. So I would play 30 seconds from that, and then the band will create a brand new piece, improvised, inspired by that audio from the audience, from the audience's ethnic origin. So I've only done it twice, so it's quickly changing here and there, depending on how I want it to be better or how I want it to present it. And so far I've gotten a good response. And I want to keep it going. So I'm looking into grants and I would love to take it to schools and cultural centers, and it's but it's a big thing for one little engine like me. So I'm just doing what I can to keep it going. So it's but it's overwhelming. But it's rewarding once it's out there. It's just, I get so excited. I feel like all my experiences, all my life, including my day jobs, have brought me to this project. So I think it's one of those things I feel like I was meant to do on this on this planet. I think my focus now that we're back starting to come back, opening up everywhere. I am not gonna be on the road as much. It's I think we're all kind of finding our new way of being in our day-to-day. And I think for me, I want to connect more with the local community and seeing what I can do here. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I want to ask you so many questions. But is the color-coded symphony project part of an organization, like a foundation or some way to find benefactors besides the state government that are into the kind of support that you might need to continue that?
SPEAKER_01I think I want to take it there at some point. Right now it's just me as an individual artist, but my goal is to take it there to the next level. And I think after the whole process of the California Arts Council Fellowship is over, I'm I'm looking into the fiscal sponsorship so that I can get more funding as far as more grants. And again, it's a whole new it's like another full-time job.
SPEAKER_03It is. Anyone who has had a great idea for a foundation to make the world a better place for whatever cause, they learn very quickly. It's not as easy as it looked. There's legal issues, there's financial issues, yeah. There's all kinds of things in the background that people just take for granted. But uh so the Little Village, I delved into them a little bit and they're a support as an organization of the color-coded symphony, right?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah. In man in many ways. They a lot of the people that are part of the organization are the musicians and the color-coded symphony band. So yeah, they're a big part of it. And also the connections I found are some of them are through the Little Village Foundation because their goal is to go out and look for artists that they believe need deserve a wider audience. And some of those are different kinds of music you may not necessarily hear or have easy access to. So yeah, so I've tapped into the roster, like Aki Kumar, he was number two on our show, which brought in Manesh Judge, who played Tabla. And yeah, so everyone check out Aki Kumar. I think it's all a network of musicians and community. And luckily here in the Bay Area, there's so much diversity here that I can tap into. Yeah. So I'm grateful for that.
SPEAKER_03Yes, the right time, right place. That's right. You had mentioned on a couple of your the writings on the different websites, you had mentioned people like Alan Lomax as an influence. Did I get the name right?
SPEAKER_01Yes, that's right.
SPEAKER_03And thank you for turning me on to him. What a pioneer he was in so many ways, and the the breadth and depth of the music that he was able to capture. Has uh and you mentioned, I think, in in one of your uh bios that he was an influence, or not he himself, but uh the music that he captured was a an influence on some of the work that you find yourself doing. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
SPEAKER_01Sure. I think one thing that drew me to his recordings, first of all, I didn't know anything about him until I was just in a bookstore and the book fell off the shelf. I don't know what I don't know what threw it off the shelf, but it just fell off the shelf in front of me, and it was the land where the blues began. And it was an Alan Lomax book which talks about the musicians from the south and the Delta, and so I had started looking into it. And I also at the time, I think at the time, my timing is really off. I was dating a blues guitarist. And so between that book and this guy, I got into the blues more. And but what drew me to him more was the stories, which I grew up with, my uncles playing the guitar and singing and all that. And it was about just people playing, not because they want to be a musician, but because they're singing the blues or singing their lives. And I related to it on a personal level because of my families and just singing on the street in our living room. And uh some of his other recordings, not just uh beyond the South, was from all over the world. He recorded people, women, workers, just weaving things and to the rhythm to keep the work going and keep time going. And so I really resonated with that. Before color-coded the official color-coded symphony, I started recording people in their in their homes just recording their music, songs that they grew up with or songs, folk songs. So I it gave me the idea to do that. And so I that was like the pre-color-coded symphony project or path, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, so I collected a lot. I don't know if I collected all of them, whatever I could find, CD's uh recording box sets of his recordings, just to I I really got into it. And so yeah, that's yeah, that was his influence, I think. So there's a website that archives everything that he's recorded.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So that's available. I went to it and it's quite the rabbit hole. You gotta make sure before if you're interested in that kind of thing, you gotta make sure you got a few hours on your hands to because the time goes by so quickly.
SPEAKER_01It's pretty cool, isn't it? And the field recordings is just something else. It just takes you back there, which is very cool.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. The other individual that you've mentioned earlier, her stage name is Sugar Pie DeSantos. Yes, Sugar Pie DeSanto. DeSanto. My apologies to Sugar Pie. But the nature of her work that's influenced a lot of people. But I was able to find some of her recordings at the Apollo and some other venues, working with, let's see, I'm from Georgia's James Brown over there in Augustus was legend there for a long time, and I understand he found her as well. But you did a project, recorded her music, or tell me about that, the connection.
SPEAKER_01So this is through the Little Village Foundation. They I was playing at the Folk Alliance Region West conference in Oakland. It was here in Oakland, and the founder of Little Village was there, and he asked if I wanted to do a recording. It was his idea to record a tribute to Sugar Pie DeSanto. And I didn't know who he was at the time. His name was Jim Pugh. He was an incredible blues keyboard player, well known in the blues community. But I didn't know him at the time. And I said, sure, I'd love to do it. In fact, my friend Maurice Tanne, who you probably also know, a local singer-songwriter here, he called me up. He knows Jim and he said, Irene, whatever you do, whatever he says, don't say no. Trust me. He I said, Of course, what have I got to lose for all the recording costs and production and distribution? And all you have to do is show up and all the proceeds of the sales go to the artist. So all sales of the CDs and digital uh music goes to me. So it's it was a win situation. So we between Jim and I, we chose these songs. And during the process, somehow organically it grew into part tribute to sugar pie and part American and Filipino folk music, where my uncles got to record as well. So back to Sugar Pie. Oh wow. Yeah. So between Jim and I, we chose the songs that we wanted to include. And we didn't want it to be necessarily the most popular ones that she sang. We wanted to wanted it to be some of the songs that kind of deserved some more attention. We chose those songs and she attended the release of the album at the Freight and Salvage in was it 2016, I believe. And it was amazing. I had seen her, I had known who she was for some time. I saw her for the first time at the Rogue Valley uh music festival in Ashland, Oregon. It's no longer, but that was the first time I saw her. And she's I'm five feet, she's 4'11. But she just takes on this. You've seen, I'm sure you've seen videos of her. She just takes on the stage and just puts it on fire with her personality. And she's in her 80s now. And I I think she just released a new record and she's still at it. She's still got that amazing, spicy, spunky personality. I like to call her spicy spunky. But anyway, so she's here in Oakland. She's she also happens to be living here in Oakland, which is very cool.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. What did she think of the performance that evening at the Freight and Salvage?
SPEAKER_01I got the approval, thank goodness, because I was very scared of that she did like kick my ass. She didn't like it. But yeah, she's a good idea. It was. So I didn't find out until that day that she was in the audience. And if you're gonna do a tribute to somebody, you want to do your best to make sure that you get their approval. And she actually thanked me after the show. I got to go say hi to her afterwards and thank her for coming. And she thanked me for keeping her music alive. I'll take that as a few. Congratulations.
SPEAKER_03That's a big win right there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Let's talk about your music for a little bit. And when I first met you there at the mud puddle, the legendary mud puddle. Joan and I were just amazed at your musical talent, but it's for me it was more your lyrics. The lyrics just come together so beautifully. And you're prolific. So silly interview question. How many songs have you written?
SPEAKER_01Uh to be honest, I haven't even counted. So I can't even give you an answer. I don't think it's I don't think it's hundreds. I have a lot of I have a lot of in progress, to put it that way. It used to take me forever to finish a song. Really. I it would take me forever. But what I've learned during the pandemic was oh, that's not true. I used to just blame it on the muse. But if I just put if I just put in as we we started the ten our song plus your ten words, I I wrote a song every week during the pandemic with the ten words, and I realized and I and honestly, even though I say it's every week, I actually wrote the song for almost all of the songs. I wrote it hours before showtime. Because I'm I'm I won't tell anybody. I'm a procrastinator, and I think all creatives are mostly like this. I'm just like la la during the week, and then the day comes and we're all in scrambles and it's like hours before the show. So anyway. So yeah, I don't know how many songs I have, but it would have to include the in-progress. I think now that I know that I can really just focus on finishing a song. I I have some on my list of to-dos is to go back and look at my in progress songs and just finish them and get them out the door as much as possible.
SPEAKER_03The gate question, how do you find yourself documenting what you're writing? Do you write on paper? Do you which I think I've seen some of the evidence of that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's all on paper. I haven't really I guess I tried a little bit on digitally on uh like a word dot, I just couldn't do it. I like writing on paper. I write in my my journaling on paper every day and it's all on notebooks and it's all piles of paper. Sometimes too much paper, overwhelming.
SPEAKER_03And there's a lot of research that indicates that writing on paper uses the brain differently than using word processors or technology like that. Your brain manages the information a little bit differently. Helps you remember it from what I understand a little more. That hasn't worked for me much. I try every trick in the book to try to remember my own song lyrics.
SPEAKER_01I agree, it does help the memory.
SPEAKER_03And with the performing that you do, do you find it uh a challenge to remember the lyrics when you're performing, or does everything crystallize in the moment that it just comes?
SPEAKER_01For the most part, I do remember the lyrics. Of course, now I'm getting older, I forget a lot of things. My forgetfulness is increasing. But overall, I remember the the song by I do a lot of visualization, so it each verse is like a movie clip. So I visualize the movie clip as I as I'm singing, and and also that helps with how you relay the song. You want us to sing the song with heart. So you better know what you're singing about. I may not get the exact words sometimes, but the general message is there if you know what you're visualizing as you're singing the song.
SPEAKER_03Have you found in the moment of singing your lyrics that you actually change the lyrics on the fly because it just makes more sense?
SPEAKER_01I've done that for sure, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I know that the things we create are often like our children. But do you have a favorite album that you've released that you would recommend that I recommend for people?
SPEAKER_01I would definitely recommend a Put Back Charlie album, which was released in 2016. It's mostly original stuff. It was it's got a lot of sentimental value for me because it's the very first released full-length album of my original music. And there's some songs in there about rebuilding myself. I went through a lot ten years ago where I've lost everything, and there's a there's some songs about rebuilding and coming out of it. So I highly recommend Put Back Charlie of all of them. And which song on there? I would say only Rock and Roll. I love that song. Oh, thank you. I to be honest, it was the song that I thought people would like the least. And it was my least favorite song as well. It was so I was surprised when people kept requesting it and people would say that it's that's it's their favorite because I I really didn't think people would like it, to be honest.
SPEAKER_03Wow, see, we're not always self awareness. Very true.
SPEAKER_02So I set out on the road, searching for the one who knows the cue from the desert of Las Vegas. I pass through Silver Lake, the central coast is calling for I hit my San Francisco Bay city used to be my lost and found. But when I reached my hometown, the shops changed all their names, and the birds in every tree I pass have new songs that they play. Nothing ever really stays the same and then I hear a band they start to play It was On Lirkin Rock and Rock and Rock with broad back On Laken Rock Only Ra can rock It was only rack and rock hole with broad back bro on the back of the wizards gave me potions I must have tried them all, but nothing can take away the gray loomed over my head I know what it takes to make it rain and then I hear a bend they start to play It was on the rack and roll On the rack and roo it was on the rack and roll brack On the rack and roll On the rack and roll it was on the rack and roll broke me back Thank you so much, Irene.
SPEAKER_03I really appreciate your time.
SPEAKER_01Thanks so much, Lou. Can't wait to see you and Joan and All right, sweetheart. Thank you so much for the bank. Thank you so much, Lou. Alright, take care.
SPEAKER_03Well, kids, that's a wrap for this episode. I hope you enjoyed listening to Irene's story with me. For more Irene, and who doesn't want more Irene, check out her website. You can find her music and stories there at ireneaspiritu.com. Let me spell that out. A I R E E N E D D. E S P I R I to U.com. Irene Aspiritu.com. And please, watch for the next episode of Gramps Just Make Shit Up when we talk with singer, songwriter, and visual artist Cheryl Caldoll. And a special treat, our mutual friend Joe Peters, pops in for a quick visit. Joe and Cheryl are both from the music and artist community there in Lafayette, Indiana. And they share some fun stories with me. That's next time on Gramps Just Make Shit Up. Oh, and if you would like to support this questionable podcast, please, please, tell a friend about us. I have to go now. It's time for my nap.
SPEAKER_02Charlie's gathered off to the bottomless floor. You said please, please help them make fun of everyone. All is gone, I just won't go back home. You said all is gone. I just won't go back home. Please help put back together. Gather all the feast tonight. Put back to call the noise.