A Story in Every Song
Israel Gonzalez is a musician and composer in Portland Oregon. His music comes from a place of deep emotions and life experiences.
Mary Funk 00:00
Hi, I'm Mary Anne Funk. Israel Gonzalez is a musician and composer in Portland, Oregon. His music comes from a place of deep emotions and life experiences. Israel shares his music with me today. And what goes into every song he composes.
Israel Gonzalez 00:13
The emotions are a big influence on what I compose.
Mary Funk 00:19
Is there a particular song that you've written that comes to mind and that you wrote it at a time in which you were experiencing something and that particular song expresses that experience?
Israel Gonzalez 00:32
I believe that one of my pop most popular ones, it's a song called realize, I mean, simple questions is right up there as well, which I've performed for you before in other words, but I do have one question to song about, you know, finding, finding love and, you know, wanting to act on the feelings that were there. You know, I liked this girl a lot, made her the song and I showed it to her and she was like, Oh, my God, that's awesome. Just, I'm not allowed to date till I'm 16. For for reference, I'm, that was when I was. I was like, 15 at the time.
Mary Funk 01:26
What age did you first start playing music.
Israel Gonzalez 01:31
I started playing keyboards at the age of six, I learned to play the bass at nine, the drums at 10 the guitar at 11. From then on, I was just kind of my own band in the sense, I could play all the core instruments and sing. But I just I didn't have the technology to bring that into something solid.
Mary Funk 01:53
What has been your biggest challenge musically
Israel Gonzalez 01:59
I've been visually impaired since I was born. So in my left eye, I can see light shapes, colors, they taught me how to read. But it has to be really large print. And to give you guys some perspective, I think what the doctor said a long time ago, is anything that a normal person can see 2000 feet away, I can see 20. So pretty bad. My right eye has a little bit of light perception. It's very, very little. And I think I have a narrow field of vision in that eye as well. Because I can't really see too much it's like it's like a little dot.
Mary Funk 02:41
It's important for Israel to have accessibility tools to compose his music. In this next clip, Israel shares a recording he made at home to show us how he interfaces with his editing software using a screen reader.
Israel Gonzalez 02:52
When I go and look what I'm doing in timelines is through the tracks view. And I'll go ahead and show how to tracks it tracks. The tracks in track tracks contents in tra ck two audio one, workspace tracks zero untitled underscore one, the region starts at nine bars one beat one division one, two and ends if we won bars for these three divisions 234 takes. So we go to 41 bars 1111 untitled track 41 bar, and then split there 41 bar one beat one division 1200 untitled underscore one number oh 6.2. And those are the little regions. So I just had a command on my keyboard. And it just tells me from where to where it goes.
Mary Funk 03:34
How have these these tools, the technology that you're using the readers that help you to know which sound you're listening to and where you're placing it on your timeline? How have those tools helped you to grow as a composer?
Israel Gonzalez 03:48
I'm able to do a lot of a lot of things that that I wasn't able to do before. So that's, you know, a huge help that's in there. That's a huge step in the right direction. For you know me to be able to express.
Mary Funk 04:03
your experiences go into your music. Can you talk to me about that?
Israel Gonzalez 04:09
I've always felt that like songs have had a story. I mean, that's that's really what I meant about expressing my experiences for music is just you know, each song has a story to tell. And there's always a story behind most, if not all of my songs.
Mary Funk 04:26
What do you hope people learn about you, when they listen to this?
Israel Gonzalez 04:32
that that limitation should never stop you just because you have a limitation of physical limitation or just any kind of limitation even mental and it shouldn't stop you from pursuing your dreams because if you have enough of that passion and love for that drive that desire that limitation should never stop you.
Mary Funk 04:51
That was Israel Gonzalez, Portland musician and composer. This is Mary Anne Funk with seeing through hearing. Thank you for joining me today.
Hi, I'm Mary Anne Funk. Israel Gonzalez is a musician and composer in Portland, Oregon. His music comes from a place of deep emotions and life experiences. Israel shares his music with me today. And what goes into every song he composes.
Israel Gonzalez 00:13
The emotions are a big influence on what I compose.
Mary Funk 00:19
Is there a particular song that you've written that comes to mind and that you wrote it at a time in which you were experiencing something and that particular song expresses that experience?
Israel Gonzalez 00:32
I believe that one of my pop most popular ones, it's a song called realize, I mean, simple questions is right up there as well, which I've performed for you before in other words, but I do have one question to song about, you know, finding, finding love and, you know, wanting to act on the feelings that were there. You know, I liked this girl a lot, made her the song and I showed it to her and she was like, Oh, my God, that's awesome. Just, I'm not allowed to date till I'm 16. For for reference, I'm, that was when I was. I was like, 15 at the time.
Mary Funk 01:26
What age did you first start playing music.
Israel Gonzalez 01:31
I started playing keyboards at the age of six, I learned to play the bass at nine, the drums at 10 the guitar at 11. From then on, I was just kind of my own band in the sense, I could play all the core instruments and sing. But I just I didn't have the technology to bring that into something solid.
Mary Funk 01:53
What has been your biggest challenge musically
Israel Gonzalez 01:59
I've been visually impaired since I was born. So in my left eye, I can see light shapes, colors, they taught me how to read. But it has to be really large print. And to give you guys some perspective, I think what the doctor said a long time ago, is anything that a normal person can see 2000 feet away, I can see 20. So pretty bad. My right eye has a little bit of light perception. It's very, very little. And I think I have a narrow field of vision in that eye as well. Because I can't really see too much it's like it's like a little dot.
Mary Funk 02:41
It's important for Israel to have accessibility tools to compose his music. In this next clip, Israel shares a recording he made at home to show us how he interfaces with his editing software using a screen reader.
Israel Gonzalez 02:52
When I go and look what I'm doing in timelines is through the tracks view. And I'll go ahead and show how to tracks it tracks. The tracks in track tracks contents in tra ck two audio one, workspace tracks zero untitled underscore one, the region starts at nine bars one beat one division one, two and ends if we won bars for these three divisions 234 takes. So we go to 41 bars 1111 untitled track 41 bar, and then split there 41 bar one beat one division 1200 untitled underscore one number oh 6.2. And those are the little regions. So I just had a command on my keyboard. And it just tells me from where to where it goes.
Mary Funk 03:34
How have these these tools, the technology that you're using the readers that help you to know which sound you're listening to and where you're placing it on your timeline? How have those tools helped you to grow as a composer?
Israel Gonzalez 03:48
I'm able to do a lot of a lot of things that that I wasn't able to do before. So that's, you know, a huge help that's in there. That's a huge step in the right direction. For you know me to be able to express.
Mary Funk 04:03
your experiences go into your music. Can you talk to me about that?
Israel Gonzalez 04:09
I've always felt that like songs have had a story. I mean, that's that's really what I meant about expressing my experiences for music is just you know, each song has a story to tell. And there's always a story behind most, if not all of my songs.
Mary Funk 04:26
What do you hope people learn about you, when they listen to this?
Israel Gonzalez 04:32
that that limitation should never stop you just because you have a limitation of physical limitation or just any kind of limitation even mental and it shouldn't stop you from pursuing your dreams because if you have enough of that passion and love for that drive that desire that limitation should never stop you.
Mary Funk 04:51
That was Israel Gonzalez, Portland musician and composer. This is Mary Anne Funk with seeing through hearing. Thank you for joining me today.