It’s no surprise that Miami has been a center for great Latin artists and music, and as such, engineers and producers are making their “Miami Mark” on the music industry as well. SAE Institute Miami graduate and instructor, Franklin “El Medico” Rodriguez continues to make his impression on Latin music as an engineer by adding a 2009 nomination for La Verdad by Locos Por Juana to his list; a list of clients that includes Daddy Yankee and This Big Boss and Calle 13.
After graduating from SAE Institute’s Miami campus in 2002, Franklin began his work as a Supervisor, working in the trenches of the school’s recording studios and helping students refine their styles. During that time he became active in the local Miami music scene, interning and assisting on as many sessions as the day would allow. “El Medico’s” work and dual-determination lead to his rise within the ranks of SAE to an instructor, as well as his rise as an engineer within the Miami scene as an engineer. A major career trigger was when Franklin was recruited by Jose “Hyde” Cotto as his “right-hand man.”
As Franklin recalls, “Ironically, Jose was my student at SAE Miami and we became friends. A year after he graduated he called me up and asked me to help him out on a project and we’ve been working together ever since.� It was with Jose that Franklin had the opportunity to work with “heavy weights� in the Latin Urban scene such as, Daddy Yankee, Angel and Khriz, Hector “El Father�, Don Omar, and Arcangel. Franklin always extends his gratitude to Jose for opening his ear and broadening his musical horizon.
It was however, through Mexican Music Producer Toy Hernandez that Franklin got to “reconnect� with the group Locos Por Juana. “Itagui and I went to middle school and high school together, but we lost touch after graduation. One night, I was mixing a song produced by Toy for an artist named Notch and in the middle of the session, Itagui, the lead singer of Locos, came in to talk to Toy. We were shocked to find each other there.� It was a year from that moment that Franklin was in the studio working on their first song together. He mixed the song Calle Luna Calle Sol, which Locos Por Juana recorded for the compilation album, Tributo a Hector Lavoe.
“After that, we agreed without really talking about it that I would be doing their full album. We started mixing La Verdad in March of 2008 and finished the master sometime in May. It was a major label release but the budget was small. We had to do a lot of in the box mixing, unconventional recording methods, and a lot of late nights. It was a labor of love, as every album should be, though we obviously had our history. To be nominated for a Grammy is awesome, but to be nominated for a Grammy for this particular record, for me, is the greatest feeling ever. My hope is that the Miami Music Industry professionals get behind this record and vote for it, because at the end of the day, this band is a Miami band. To me they are like a microcosmic representation of Miami and the sound you can get from such a melting pot.�
