Haiku Project is something that I (Gabriel) have been planning for a long time. All the process of making this album, was a way for me to grow as a musician, to settle my artistic vision and my writing style. I jumped from a simple demo on my computer with digital drums to something that I can say with confidence that I like. Everyone who have been with me all this time know how much time, effort, and even money, I put on this to be what I wanted it to be. This is a opportunity for me to combine my both artistic sides; music and writing, things that I've always loved and dedicated my life time.

Haiku Project is a way of combining math-rock music making with fantasy story telling. I began to work on this about two years ago, and after spending months writing songs and putting them apart, I decided I wanted to do something better than I initially thought.
It was my first time working with a recording software, using an interface, and hearing my songs like a real recording
instead of just an isolated idea changed the perspective of what I initially wanted to do with my music.

Thanks to the help of Kevin Moya (who is also the one responsible for all the mixing work), I learned more about recording and production, and began to arrange my songs to a level I really felt comfortable with. Along the way, I decided that both drums and bass had to be real, trying to make it sound as organic as possible,
and I hired James Christopher Knoerl (Drummer from Aviations) to record the drums for our first song,
called "Waterfall" (as well as almost all the other songs), and asked my friend Henry McCormack to record the bass.
Also, my other friend Abel Zamudio helped me to produce the keyboard and synth effects with his high quality plugins,
and did his own arrangements in many of the songs (Waterfall, Raijin Shrine, Akagi).


After the Waterfall's release, the Haiku Project first album was supposed to come out around April or May, but after giving it some thought, I decided that the rest of the songs still weren't what I wanted them to be, so I really took my time shaping the sound I was looking for, until I eventually found it. Adding keys and synth to the songs was definitely what defined the direction I gave to the whole EP,
and Abel's work in Waterfall was a big influence for me to write the rest of the key/synth sections.

There are other musicians that helped me to record both drums and bass. Julian Brunde recorded the majority of the bass
for the album, "Waterfall" and "Tenjin Temple" (recorded by Manuel Tenchio) being the exception. Also there are other two guest drummers, Jon Catanus, who recorded the drums for "Raijin Shrine",
and Jules Jenssen recorded the drums from "Tenjin Temple".

There are two guest musicians that helped us with the Intro of the album, "Dreaming Over the Clouds"; Jani for recording the voices, and Alfonso Daniel Perdomo for producing the strings.

For the conceptual part of the album, when I began to write the songs, I did it with the vision that I wanted to tell a story throughout the EP. Before being a full time musician, I was also a writer (I studied a career related with that at the University) but in the end I felt like music was my main thing, and never got the chance to go back to writing.
For me this was kind of the perfect opportunity, and I began to work on an story that will go along with the album.

Originally I thought I'd do something simpler, by just putting some clues about what the story is about, and then worrying about doing something bigger in the future, like releasing a game of something like that. However, in realistic terms I thought that wasn't going to be possible for a long while. During that time, I had already met Manuel Tenchio, who aside of being a talented guitarist, He also is a very good artist, and I asked him if he wanted to do a manga for the album.
He immediately got into the work, and I began to write the script for the first chapters, and doing all the world building and character development stuff. Also, our friend Daniel Castillo Fernandez, who did the cover art for the album and the Waterfall single, was the one that helped us with the initial character design of Hikaru (the main protagonist) and he came up with the idea that it would be great if the story was based on the sky and people lived on floating islands.

If you buy the album, You will have access to the first chapter of the story. Don't want to spoil much about the story right know, I just want you all enjoy it and getting into it by your own.


There a lot of artists and bands that inspired me to do this, and that keep me motivated to reach my goal: Maybeshewill, Yvette Young, Chon, Toe, Mientras tanto en I:O, Kaguu, The Zeta, God Is an Astronaut, Paint The Sky Red, Sigur Rós, TTNG, and much more.

Also fictional masterpieces and video games, like Avatar: The Legend of Aang, The Talisman, Yuyu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Ponyo, Hilda, Spirited Away, The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Xenoblade, Metroid, Princess Mononoke, and many others, inspired me to write Hikaru Beyond the Skyline, and also shaped my musical direction with this project in some way too.

I don't have much more too say, besides that I'm really thankful for everything and for everyone who has helped me in some way with this.
Thanks to all the musicians who made this possible, and thanks to Manuel Tenchio and Daniel Castillo Fernandez for bringing Hikaru and Kyoru to life.


"So, after many weeks, and hard adventuring, and darkness and despair; after friends found and friends lost again; after days of toil, and nights sleeping in damp haystacks; after facing the demons of dark places (not the least of which lived in the cleft of his own soul)-
After all these things, it was in this wise that the Talisman came to Jack Sawyer".
-Stephen King and Peter Straub, The Talisman.