The Essence of Songwriting
Fernando Ortega has a gift for affecting audiences with sentimentality, inspiration, and laughter. We asked him what goes into his creative process.
by Michael Herman | posted 3/08/2004
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Fernando Ortega is an extremely engaging artist from the stage. At his concerts you'll see people laughing because of his humorous remarks and crying because of his beautiful and meaningful lyrics. Fernando is one of the strongest lyricists in Christian music today. We talked with him about his songwriting process and how others have strengthened his skills over the years. His ever-present humility matches the high level of his talents. That's understood in the first minute of talking with him. Fortunately, we had a more time than that with him, and he gave us a true peek into the passion of the music in his life.
Through all the years of writing and performing, how have those processes evolved over time?
Fernando OrtegaThat's an interesting question, because recently somebody gave me a cassette of one of my first performances when I was 21. He said, "You sang at our church in Colorado." I remember the concert; it was part of a youth group or something, so I was kind of anxious to hear it. It was on cassette and I could only listen to about three minutes and then I just … Oh gosh, I can't believe I ever did that. I was so overwrought and maudlin.
I think my style has really evolved. It's a way softer approach to singing, a gentler approach to singing than I used to have. My first record was called In a Welcome Field, and it's pretty funny because it's all these power ballads that have electric guitars and choruses cranked up real big, and it has lots of background vocals and larger stuff in the background. It's almost like Richard Marx or something along those lines. It's really taken a lot more of a folk kind of turn over the years.
Who were your early music influences?
OrtegaThere are a few really key influences. One was a piano teacher I had named Ralph Burkowitz. He taught me a lot about refinement, a whole lot about subtlety and my approach to the piano, about building phrases, and about lines in music and how interweaving lines run through a song and how to sustain a line.
Another was a fiddle player I played with, a woman named Sharene Taylor. Now she's a principle second violin at the Metropolitan Opera. You can learn a lot just by hearing a violin player play. You learn a lot about the length of phrases and where things grow and where things breathe and all that.
Then John Schreiner is a friend of mine who produces all my records. He's a frequent song collaborator. I'd say he's a really big influence on the way I think about songwriting.
There are two other huge influences—my neighbors, Peter Morrison and Elaine Rubenstein. Aside from the fact that they taught me a lot about the power of words, I also learned about how to write songs where you're not trying to tell the listener how to feel, but in some cases you're just making observations about what you see. It requires skill. It requires thought. It's not just writing what you see and what your experience of a situation is. There's a way of writing that allows listeners to experience it for themselves. You have to say things in a universal way. They helped me a lot with lyric writing on that level, but also they turned me on to a whole lot of really good music that I didn't know about back then. Their CD collection is immense.
Do you tend to generally listen to the styles of music you perform?
OrtegaWell, I just bought The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan CD. I've been listening to that a lot in my car. And we drove down to San Diego the other day and listened to Beethoven's Sixth Symphony. It runs the gamut, everything. We listen to a lot of world music, African folk music, and Irish folk music. We listen to all kinds of pop music. I still play a lot of the newest Sixpence CD. I still don't own anything by Britney Spears.
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