Franco (Mexico) (Franco Niro) MUSICIAN / GUITARIST / COMPOSER / ARRANGER

Deer
May 1, 2013
4 min read

Is it possible you were just born with it?

Some people are definitely born with. I most certainly wasn’t, though. I believe that how good you get at something is only a reflection of how much you truly worked for it. Conscious and dedicated effort will always pay off, one way or another. And I’m still trying to reach a level where I’m fully comfortable as a musician.

Looking at your recent work Ive notice a sophisticated sound , almost flawless. You do not look for a form of trend to follow in fact your music in not at all what most people our age would do. It is a much more timeless sound. Who inspires you?

Who inspires me? This is a difficult question, actually… RecentlyI’ve been trying to dip into everything and anything, so there are nospecifics. But if I had to narrow this down to two or three people, itwould be the group of composers know as Pentakill (League of Legends),Hans Zimmer, and Michael League (Snarky Puppy).I grew up listening to a lot of flamenco music and classic rock. Mymom loves to dance sevillanas so there always was a lot of flamencobeing played at home. My dad was more of a rocker on what he listenedto. He’d play The Rolling Stones, Beatles, Led Zeppelin… All thegood stuff. Ironically, non of this music had too much of an impact onme (or at least I don’t think so). It was not until my middle schoolyears that I began listening to progressive rock and metal. That gotme right away.

The work you do is very specific, almost as if you were already working for a client and always hitting the right spot. Lets talk about your favorite project so far. How did you choose it and what process do you follow once you know what you are working on?

Thanks! I’m just trying to become more polished in my writing andhoping someone will like it.So far, I think my favorite project has probably been working on aLeague of Legends video called “The Curse Of The Sad Mummy”. Althoughthere are some things there that could use some tinkering, that piececame about fairly quickly (to my standards, at least).I came across because my brother is a huge LoL fan and he was showingme some of the music from the game, and one of the tracks was the “SadMummy”. I instantly wanted to take my own spin on it, just for thegiggles.It’s all just experimentation, really. Sometimes you write a part outthat pretty much transitions itself into something else. What is hugefor me is just listening to copious amounts of music in the style Iwant to emulate or to expand from.

In terms of dedication, how do you abstain from being a ¨workaholic¨? do you have a get away? how important would you say it is to balance your passion with your personal life, or have you merged those two together?

I’m not fully a workaholic because I procrastinate a lot, but I’mnot too far away from it (although my girlfriend would definitelyfight this statement). I stopped counting how many times I’veforgotten to eat because of what I was working on at the moment. But Ido give myself time every now and then to binge watch some Netflix orgo to the gym. But because I’ve been mainly focusing on music for TVand film, whatever I do ends up going back to work. It’s awesome andextremely annoying at the same time.It is important to have a balance. I think it all just falls back inhow you manage your time. You will always have time do to everything.Although sometimes (especially during the developmental years), beingjust flat out focused on just one thing is the only priority.

From where I stand it is easy to see in you there is an artist, would you consider yourself one? From where YOU stand how do you see yourself now?

I don’t consider myself an artist. I’m still too green to be able toconfidently give myself a title like that. Right now I see myself aswhat I really am, a student. I’m learning new things everyday andstruggling to internalize them. All I’m trying to do in this moment isfinding myself in music, and working on every little detail of mycraft. There are an infinity of things I’m still trying to get betterat.

If your were already celebrated around the world , known for master pieces and endless compositions ; how would you say you got there? was it all slow ? was it sudden? what do you believe in ; fate or dedication?

If I were at that point in my life, I’d imagine it would happenslowly and suddenly, all at once. You work on your own thingseveryday, trying to improve more and more. It’s a process that neverstops. And one day you start getting praise for things you neverthought much of. I honestly can only speculate that that is the wayit’d go.Regarding fate and dedication, in the music business as in any othercareer, they are both equally important. You need to have the rightthings at the right time and hope it goes well. Everything you dofalls in place, most of the time at points in life where you’d leastexpect them, and I belief it is a product of the amount of effort youput into it. We don’t realize how hard we work on something untilsomeone calls us out on it.

Lastly what do you think our generation is missing in music andwhat do you think our generation has too much of?

This is the toughest question! I cannot generalize, because there is a lot of really great music happening right now. But a lot of the mainstream material out there right now lacks valuable intellectual content. I mean this both to a lyrical and instrumental level. A lot of songs have the exact same beat, feel, subject matter, etc. And it’s pretty bland regarding instrumentation, most of the time there is nothing exciting going on.