Flipsyde’s Dave Lopez on Allen Ling’s song Closer: ‘It’s a song you would want to get married to’

American singer-songwriter Allen Ling is thrilled to be in India for his debut musical tour with the guitar maestro Dave Lopez (of Flipsyde) who has performed in India multiple times. The duo’s latest song Closer was released recently and is described as a ‘love ballad for all times’. Before the duo kickstarts their tour in Delhi this weekend, we chatted with them at the Hyatt Centric Hotel in Juhu, Mumbai about their songs, tour, friendship, their favourite Indian music, and more.

I believe both of you met through a mutual friend…

Allen Ling: My ex-girlfriend knew Dave for a long time. Dave is established in the music industry. But that’s not how Dave and I got to be friends. I do comic book publishing. Back then I was doing my first comic book and I wasn’t able to finish it. So, Dave got his friend to help me. I did attend one of Dave’s concerts too, but I just didn’t know Dave in that way.

Dave Lopez: The first time I met Allen was at a Flipsyde concert. His girlfriend at the time brought him over and it was a short meeting. She would always tell me about his comic books. I heard about his challenges with the comic books. I had a friend who was kind of a well-known guy in the comic book industry. He helped Allen get his comic book launched. We became good friends. I had a song that I wrote about my daughter. Allen helped me write the lyrics because I’m not very good at lyrics.

Allen Ling: I love Dave’s passion for people. He loves his family and he loves his friends deeply. I asked him to tell me stories about his family. I used Dave’s stories to finish writing the song. We did the song out of love.

Also read: Brahmastra actress Rashi Mal: ‘Music is my way of expressing things that I feel deeply about’

Dave, is it true that Closer was the first song of Allen that you heard? What was your reaction to it?

Dave Lopez: I loved it. I thought it was a classic song. It’s a timeless song because of the strings. It’s a song you would want to get married to or graduate. When I first heard it, the production was a little different. We’ve still used the same tracks but I just changed it a little. There was a lot of more distorted guitars. It was taking away from the strings. And the strings – that’s the glue of the song. So, I added twelve-string guitars and acoustic guitars. And then I added a solo at the end so it keeps growing and building. I’m proud of the work we did. It’s really good.

Allen Ling: We used Paca Belle’s Canon, which is the wedding march. That was the foundation of the song. We added a melody and everything to it, too. I hired a string quartet to play all the actual strings. We used live instruments and live musicians. We didn’t use synthesizers. That’s why the song sounds kind of old-school or classic. I didn’t want to do something that sounded like everything else.

When did you decide to go on a tour across Asia, starting in India?

Allen Ling: Summer of 2023. We worked together in spring. We just met Malvika Nanda of The Big Beat and signed her on as my agent. And before we knew it, it was like, okay, we’re going to go on tour in India. But I’ve never been to India. Dave said, “This is an adventure for you. You should take it that way.” Then he had me sing in front of hundreds of people to open for one of the concerts. I hadn’t sung in front of hundreds of people for decades. I found out, oh, I could do this. I had no stage fright. Just go up there and sing. So, Dave encouraged me. If it wasn’t for Dave, I wouldn’t even be going on the tour.

Dave Lopez: I was in India with Flipsyde. Last year or 2022, we did a song in collaboration with Gajendra Verma (music artist). I got to know Malvika through that. I told her that I was working on this project and she really liked it, and that’s how it started.

I love India because I came here so many times with Flipsyde, and it’s very open-minded. You guys like good music. You guys have a good year for instruments and that’s what we try to do, quality and organic stuff. So, here we are, and I’m bringing my friend, showing him this new adventure.

Also read: Ihana Dhillon on Je Paisa Bolda Hunda: “Handling acting and production together was challenging” – EXCLUSIVE!

Dave, you performed at the Orange Festival in Arunachal Pradesh. How was it received by the audience there?

Dave Lopez: It was very emotional. This music came out 17-18 years ago. A lot of people grew up to this music. Those songs mean a lot to them. So, when we performed these old songs, they were very emotional. It was very emotional for me too. Very humbled to be able to perform the songs that we wrote years ago and they even knew our newer songs.

You’re very welcoming in India, and so I wanted to show that to Allen. It’s exactly what I thought it was going to be because that’s how I remember when I first came here. Everybody was so nice and welcoming. Now the songs are instilled in people’s lives. We hope these songs that we’re presenting with Allen will do the same.

Allen, coming to your ‘heartbreak trilogy’. Was the singer-songwriter in you born because of a heartbreak?

Allen Ling: Yes. You get your heart broken, but after that, everything’s open. It was horrible to go through the heartbreak. So, I started to write the music, and before I knew it, I wanted to do a music video because only music wasn’t enough. I wanted to show how bad it was. That kind of got me started. Dave actually met the person who broke my heart. Dave and I have this very interesting history.

Anyway, I wanted people to witness my journey through the whole thing. And I think got the kind of closure that I needed. Earlier, I didn’t understand what happened. But then over time, I could see why it wasn’t meant to be forever. Then I met somebody else, and that kind of helped too. I just realized that I could see my future again.

When you’re in a dark place, you don’t really see a future. So, I was just trying to be present and write music to get my story out there. Now that I’m performing, I can sing my message out to people. And I think that’s going to probably heal me more. Heartbreaks are bad, but from there you can only build yourself up to be stronger again.

Also read: Actress Madhurima Tuli: “People can pull you down, but you have to just move on in life” – EXCLUSIVE!

Do you listen to Indian music? What kind?

Allen Ling: Dave has got a head start on that by years. I’m just starting to learn. I’ve listened to a lot of Lucky Ali stuff because I liked his music videos and I like how he has kind of incorporated the art of visuals with sound. And then there’s Asha Bhosle. What I like about her so much is that she’s still doing it, she’s still relevant, and she’s an icon in the culture. She’s ageless, in a sense that young and old all admire her. I think we don’t have that in our country. We are ageist. Old people are almost discarded.

But Dave and I have this foundation of mutual respect for others, as well as very strong family ties. I take care of my 91-year-old mom. Dave took care of his mom. I think that’s why we have so much in common. What is important, I think, that I noticed here in India is that people respect each other and communicate. You could just see how people drive. Even though they’re right against each other, they never touch. No one gets hit, no one gets run over. I’m like, wow, that is an amazing form of communication. You can see how society, no matter how chaotic, still runs smoothly.

Dave Lopez: One of my closest friends is Jason Becker. He’s a famous virtuoso, a legend of guitar. I used to take lessons with him when I was a kid. He got Lou Gehrig’s disease like Stephen Hawking. He couldn’t play guitar anymore, so he started composing with his eyes. And he became all the more incredible. He was so into Indian music. The Indian rhythms, the time signatures, the instruments, and the different scales. It’s like one note away from Latin scales. It’s all connected. So, he taught me a lot about that music.

Also read: Fighter villain Rishabh Sawhney: “I’m open to playing more negative characters, but…”

We were supposed to collaborate with the great tabla player Zakir Hussain. So, that kind of stuff, instrumentalists, sitar players. But then being in Flipsyde, a lot of the hip hop in the early 2000s was sampling big songs from here, Bollywood songs. So, we’re being accustomed to a lot of the rhythms.

And obviously, Lucky Ali, he’s like the Bob Dylan of India. There’s just so much talent in India. Even at the hotel that I’m staying at, I see this guy playing Indian music with a flute. You guys are all great musicians.

I’m from Chile. In our culture, we’re all about guitars. Everyone plays the guitars and we sing. In Chile, I’d be on a bus, and there’d be guys in there singing better than any professional musician. It’s the same here in India.

Where are you going to perform on your Asia tour?

Allen Ling: We’re going to perform in Delhi on March 15 and 17. Then we’re going to go to Dubai to do a private performance. We have to see what the response is. I’d like to come back to India. We’re looking at possibly going to Indonesia and Singapore as well.