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Dark times are nothing new for an artist trying to break through the ultra competitive music industry. The song is apropos for the movie but even more fitting for the 36-year-old Orlando native who has had his shares of ups and down.
“I just identified with the main character [Henry Poole],” said Irizarry. “The images in the trailer when I saw [Wilson’s] face look down and out; when I saw that and when I saw his face; I could identify those times in my life.”
In the late 1990’s when he began his career, he thought his career was on the rise. For two years, he toured with and opened for mega boy band NSYNC. He also opened for Jordan Knight, Pink, Sisqo, and Mandy Moore.
Hanging out with Justin Timberlake and the other artists had a profound impact on Irizarry. He thought he could branch off on his own but he soon found that individual success was harder to come by.
“I got turned down by a lot of record labels,” he said. “Add that to personal things and it just collided and made a perfect storm of negativity and I fed into it.”
He said about five or six years ago, he sat inside his living room depressed contemplating about where his career was heading when an interesting news program turned on. The program featured an author who wrote a book about keeping hope alive.
The author was Studs Turkel and his Hope Dies Last book struck a chord in Irizarry. He immediately bought the book. The first page he turned to read La Esperanza Muera Ultima or “Hope dies last.”
“I got that tattoo on my arm,” he said. “It’s for whenever I need something to look at, I know there’s hope and this is all about hope.”
From then on, Irizarry said he rebounded from that negative experience and kept a positive outlook.
Music has been his career since he could remember – his dad took him to a concert at the age of 13 where he knew this was his career passion – and giving it up was too unfathomable.
He began to tour the college circuit nationwide and for two years from 2003 to 2005, he received the “best solo artist” award in the college scene.
“It’s always good to be recognized,” he said.
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