This song started by my obsession with a drum sound. I played a drum pattern with my fingers on my MPC 1000, and wanted to write a song where the drums would drive the track and stand out so you had to pay attention to them.

Then my friend came over and showed me The Two Escobars and another obsession developed. I saw a lot of attention paid to Pablo Escobar, but virtually none to Andrés Escobar in the media outside of the documentary. Meanwhile Andrés was an honorable and tragic person who deserved to be remembered for trying to be a role model in such a corrupt place.

I was determined to make this track I was fooling around with into a piece dedicated to the memory of Andrés Escobar. The synth is what made this song into what it is. I searched very hard for a compatible sound and luck had me land on the right sound that had a distinct growl to it. Somehow I didn’t struggle too hard with finding the melody I wanted to use to represent Escobar – something noble and honorable yet eerie.

Looking at the video it might seem like the passages were composed to the video, but they weren’t. The track was completed first, and the video came after, borrowing scenes from The Two Escobars. The horn section was recorded to represent some kind of part where Andrés would honor his country, which he prided himself in so much. In the video, there are glimpses of that, but it’s more focused on the death threats and things going wrong in the FIFA tournament.

The bells make this track stand out as a good song, and were played to represent all the things going wrong at the tournament including the own goal made by Andrés that cost him his life. In the video, this section only manages to show the own goal. I spent a lot of time finding the sounds for this song, but when they clicked, I didn’t hesitate to commit them to print. The bells were obvious for me to have a place on the track, and it didn’t take so long before a melody came to be.

The gong like bells at the end of the track were deliberate and the only part that looks like what it sounds like. With the song alone, it was only supposed to evoke the memory of Andrés Escobar, but the video showed a bit of why he died and his funeral, which is cathartic. I chose to include an afterword with a statement from Andrés Escobar because I wanted to reinforce his message and also show why he deserved the dedication.

Inspired by The Two Escobars (Los Dos Escobars), an ESPN documentary, this music video looks at a hero that stood opposite in poise to the notorious Pablo Escobar. Ironically, without the drug kingpin’s protection and after government crackdowns on involvement with him through narcosoccer, the Colombian team that rode strong into the 1994 FIFA World Cup tournament came crashing down. This is meant to serve as a tribute to the lesser known Escobar, Andrés, a hero who stood for what was right and good. Amidst a cruel and corrupt reality he hoped to fix and tried hard to represent, he was killed like a dog by crooks in the Colombian cartel, and this song/video shows that men like him will earn homage and tribute, while the memory of those evildoers will go to die.