Artist: Mando Saenz
Hometown: Corpus Christi, Texas
New Album: All My Shame
Nickname: Mando Calrissian
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
I’d have to say film or film/documentary informs me the most. It’s the closest thing to actual life observation there is for me. I get lost in good movies and forget it’s acting. When I write, I write scenes of movies I make up in my head. When I sing, I sing shapes and colors of movies I make up in my head. I can feel them leave my mouth. I swear it’s better than dreaming. Good movies are like good dreams. Can’t put a price on them.
How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?
Quite often actually. I never did it consciously at first. Now I just kind of accept that when I’m singing about someone else it’s usually about me. My mom, who’s a counselor, told me years ago that I was singing about myself. Eventually I gave in and agreed. There’s a song off my new record called “Shadow Boxing” that kind of comes to terms with that: “Some say they’re better, yeah, but you’re the best. That gets the best of me.”
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?
I was in my last semester of graduate school in San Antonio. I was miserable so I started to write songs. The moment I finished my first song called “Rusty Steeple,” I decided that I wanted to be a singer-songwriter. That song and the next nine I wrote ended up being on my first record, Watertown.
What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?
Writing a song I have called “Hard Time Tennessee,” which fittingly took a couple of years to finish. Not sure why, but it was just something I had to keep coming back to. I think I was just trying to make each line as meaningful as the last. Perhaps the line I’m most proud of ever writing came out of that song though: “I wanna see what the blind man sees when he paints a picture in his mind.”
If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?
To create music that’s true to my heart. Put as many willing ears on it as possible. Collaborate with those who inspire me.
Photo credit: Chris Bickford
