Step Into My Place

Collection Contents

#		Title	Length
1		Tribute	0:59	Play
2		Waiting	4:22	Play
3		Take It	4:13	Play
4		Crazy Ride	2:59	Play
5		Love Is In The Way	4:31	Play
6		Veronica (Spanish)	4:54	Play
7		La Sangre	3:43	Play
8		You Changed Everything	4:03	Play
9		Step Into My Place	4:39	Play
10		Used To The Silence	3:12	Play
11		Mystery Of Life	4:12	Play
12		Ron lala (Spanish)	3:59	Play
13		Ojos cordobeses	5:57	Play
14		Will You Be Mine	4:58	Play
15		Veronica (English)	4:53	Play
16		Ron lala (English)	8:00	Play

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Bitmunk Marketplace Service	USD $0.98
CD Baby Artist Royalty	USD $5.97
CD Baby 9% Digital Distribution Cost	USD $0.54
Bitmunk Download Service	USD $0.92
Bitmunk MicroPayment Service	USD $0.01
Total	USD $8.40

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Description

Javier Mendoza's musical journey has been filled with twists and turns. But it almost wasn't a musical journey at allwhat he really wanted to be was a soccer player. "I wanted to play in the World Cup," he says. "That was my dream." When a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) sidetracked that dream, he began pursuit of another. "A lot of people have maybe one dream, and that's it. But I had two."

Born in Virginia and raised in Spain, Mendoza picked up his father's guitar at age ten. aHis sister taught him church songs, and his brother taught him "Wish You Were Here" and "Stairway to Heaven." Music was always a passion, but it was soccer that brought him back to the States.

Mendoza came to St. Louis University on a soccer scholarship, but when the ACL injury kept him off the field and in the trainer's room, he found himself picking up the guitar more and more. Though he had no designs on a career in music at the time, he was soon writing songs. He wrote in English, his second language, until a fellow musician encouraged him to try writing in Spanish. He wrote his first Spanish song, "Despierta," in philosophy class.

"Despierta," which means "awaken," proved to be an awakening indeed. When Ken Hensley at St. Louis Music heard a tape of Mendoza singing, he knew he had found a new talent. Three months later, Hensley played one of Mendoza's songs over the phone at the Latin Billboard conference, and soon Mendoza was signed to a music publishing deal with Warner-Chappell.

"That was the time I said, Okay, I'm in it,'" he recalls. "They paid me an advance and I quit my job. I just went for the plunge. That was the point I became a full-time musician." Mendoza's road to rock 'n' roll success, however, has been long and winding.

"If I were in it to get rich on this," he says, "I probably would've moved to Miami and gotten my sideburns fixed." Instead, he's stayed in St. Louis, recorded and independently released three albums, 1998's Tinta y Papel, 2000's Step Into My Place and 2001's Beautiful, and built up a loyal following throughout the Midwest.

"Hope is my biggest theme," says Mendoza to describe his approach to songwriting. "I believe that if you persevere in anything, you'll get there," he says. "But I also know that even right now, I'm living a dream."