Marcos Del Moral of Puerto Rico band Glasgow, courtesy.

From the editor: Marcos Del Moral didn’t name his new project Glasgow on a whim. The Puerto Rican’s jangly rock on “Golden Sophism” recalls Scots Two Door Cinema Club immediately. He wrote the song and was going to record it in 2020, but was temporarily slowed by the pandemic. Puerto Rico has dealt all sorts of natural disaster and political upheaval in recent years. Hurricane Maria did serious damage in 2017. Last year started with a series of earthquake that knocked out power and water to a portion of the island U.S. territory. But Del Moral chose to focus on the positives as he was trying to get his band off the ground.

The pandemic has been such a horrible thing for the whole world in so many ways, affecting so many lives, businesses and much more. I believe that the most important thing you can have is your health. As a musician during the pandemic in a place like Puerto Rico it has helped me in a way to better understand and learn certain things I didn’t understand before.

My name is Marcos Del Moral Santos from Bayamon, Puerto Rico and I am a musician. I’m currently studying audio engineering and music production, after studying music for more than three years. I’ve played in many bands, and my current project is indie rock band Glasgow.

I started to make music in 2018 and was set to record Glasgow’s debut EP in March 2020. It seemed like it was about to become a reality when all of the sudden the lockdown came, making sure everybody was inside their home.

In Puerto Rico it began on the day very I was supposed to go into the studio to record the first track.

The best option I had was to build a home studio and record everything myself, produce everything myself with the resources I had. Over nearly four months my friend Manuel Vazquez (drums) and Antonio Monteiro (engineering) worked to mix and master everything.

Even after finishing, there was still the minor detail: most things music-related were strictly limited. Artists have lived without concerts and income, of course. Puerto Rico is a very small island, with a very little population, so even the smallest things can seem like a big deal. More than a year out, we still live with curfews to keep us safe.

The island is in many ways still recovering from Hurricane Maria in 2017. People lost their homes, jobs and lives. The inconvenience was relatively minor for me—I lived without electricity for six months. But the house was basically intact. Still, it was really difficult when it came down to keeping food and communicating with our families.

Then, in early 2020 but before the pandemic, the island had a series of devastating earthquakes. It seemed like all of the progress that we made with fixing up the island after the hurricane seemed to be gone in such a short amount of time.

In my opinion, the independent music scene in Puerto Rico has done a great job trying to step up. Some bands and venues staged virtual concerts to keep momentum and the spirit of their music alive. Finding that motivation to make music during these sad and concerning times has been the biggest challenge for artists here. I wanted to bring people something positive to people here and give them something.

I finally got to release Glasgow’s first single, “Golden Sophism,” last month. On Friday, I’ll release that hard-earned EP, “Claire.” If you’re looking for an uplifting vibe, look my way.

We are a small community and have overcome some big challenges that we thought we might never come back from.

This year will be a great one for music in Puerto Rico.