Firehouse Gastro Park Presents David Ramirez
May 4th, 2023
7pm Doors | 8pm show
$25 Advance | $30 day of show
“David Ramirez has a voice like a tall tale, one minute strong and thick, the next threadbare andcareworn.”—Stereogum“Mr. Ramirez is a resolutely hesitant singer, never pushing his hurt, letting it instead decay himfrom within.”—The New York Times“It's not easy for a writer to maintain the aura of the unspoken in a song. Music and the spacesurrounding it intensify the impact of confession; the true challenge comes in giving voice to anarrator who's tongue-tied, or simply reticent. Texas singer-songwriter David Ramirez does sobeautifully...”—NPR Music“Quietly mesmerizing”—The Wall Street Journal“A powerful voice and perceptive pen”—Austin ChronicleHow do you write love songs when you’re heartbroken? How do you sing about hope and passionwhen yours is lost? How do you finish an album when the relationship that inspired it has ended?During the Summer of 2017, David Ramirez had fallen in love with a woman who, despite havingonly just met, felt incredibly familiar to him. There was a scary but comfortable feeling of deja vuwithin their moments together. “In past relationships, no matter how eager I was to feel loved andto give love, there had always been a hesitation to crawl out of my old life. I didn’t feel this withher,” he recollects.Ramirez began to pen songs for his next album and hopeful odes to new love spilled out. Songslike “Lover, Will You Lead Me?” filled with vivid images from the heart:I recognized you from somedistant dream / Like when it rains on a cold day / I had a chill in my bones / Is it true what theysay / “When you know, you know.”These were followed by sultry, romantic ballads about how love matures and grows. He wrote “IWanna Live In Your Bedroom” while sitting on his lover’s bed just minutes after waking up on ahazy fall day. “I was looking around at all the perfectly curated pieces in her room,” he says.“Everything was so intentional and held a story and a place in her heart. I wanted to be one ofthose pieces.”One after another, Ramirez poured his soul into a new work of art that covered both the sweetparts of love and the hard times it can bring. He wrote about potential, survival, hope, andencouragement. He wrote about partnership.But art is often bred from spontaneity and suffers under the confines of routines and borders. Thisis a conflicting dynamic that can cause massive problems when you’re building a partnership,when you’re part of a team. A seeming “whatever” attitude can foster insecurity and doubt in
lover. As more and more troubles emerged in his relationship, Ramirez found solace still at thetip of his pen, holding his guitar, sitting at his piano.“I was born in August of 1983 just days after Hurricane Alicia had hit my hometown of Houston.As my relationship began rippingat the seams, I started to think of this storm as a precursor tomy being born,” Ramirez confides. “Was there something in the universe that imprinted acharacteristic of chaos in my blood during my last few days in the womb? Was I destined to wreakhavoceverywhere I went?”Soon, the relationship that had inspired a new burst of creativity in Ramirez and moved him tostart writing an album unlike any he had ever attempted before, came to an end. And with thatending, he still had one last song to write.His heart exhausted, he sat on his patio one night andtried to process all of the lyrics that he knew he had written, yet now left him feeling like a strangerto his own story. Through tears and muffled whimpers, he started to write down all of his negativethoughts about love and put the pain of his broken heart into words. From this emotional purge,he began to see the beauty in what he had gone through: the struggle, the pain, the confusion.He soon found himself writing the lyrics that would become album standout “Hallelujah, Love IsReal!”“I was reminded of a great line in the film Vanilla Sky, ‘The sweet is never as sweet without thesour.’ I decided to celebrate Love,” he explains. “I wasn’t gonna write about how it made me feelin that moment. I was going to write about its existence and how thankful I am having known it.”This chapter of Ramirez’s life came to a close in the form of his forthcoming 10-song set,My LoveIs A Hurricane, recorded withproducer Jason Burtat Modern Electric Studios in Dallas, TX. Forthe first time in his career, he did no pre-production ahead of time, working from gut feelingsthroughout the process and spending most of his time in the studio on the edge of his seat. Theresulting R&B-influenced, piano-driven production is highlighted by heavy basslines and synthswith the occasional gospel backing. This experimentation with new melodies and rhythms placesRamirez’s deeply personal songwriting on top of dreamy, groove-driven landscapes that heal theheart and promote positivity while prompting listeners to want to sing (and dance) along.My Love Is A Hurricaneis Ramirez’s fifth full-length record and eighth collection of songs. Earlyalbums likeAmerican Soil(2009) andApologies(2012) put him on the map both locally andbeyond, while hisSTRANGETOWN(2011) andThe Rooster(2013) EPs delivered fan-favoriterecordings, “Shoeboxes” and “The Bad Days respectively, that are staple singalongs at hisconcerts to this day. He made his Thirty Tigers debut with 2015’sFABLES, produced by NoahGundersen, which features his most widely received single to date, “Harder to Lie.” While thisearlier work landed Ramirez firmly in the singer/songwriter canon, a need to do more exploringsonically led to the expansive sound of his most recent album,We’re Not Going Anywhere(2017).Influenced by ‘80s bands like The Cars and Journey, it is lyrically reflective of the country’s intensepolitical landscape framed from his perspective as a bi-racial American ofMexican heritage.
As songwriters evolve as people, so does their art, and that could not be more apparent than onRamirez’s newest offering. The soundscapes utilized onMy Love Is A Hurricanemay be unlikeany recording he has previously crafted, but it'snot a departure from his journey. It's a new pathcreated in order to tell a new story. A new canvas needed to hold the scene that his intenselypersonal lyrics are painting
