It’s Friday and home Juanes There is a lot of activity. A group of wellness “influencers” have arrived very early for a yoga session with Karen Martínez, the singer’s wife, and after the practice they are getting ready to watch two exclusive videos that the Colombian has yet to release: “Cecilia” and “May”. . The plan is as follows: By Wednesday, Juanes will open the doors of his home to key people involved in the activities that are part of his daily life and who describe the concept behind Daily Life, a new album for It’s About Him about human relationships and “everything that belongs to life”.
SEE: Juanes is part of the first preview of Pablo Milanés’ posthumous album
The artist will host emerging talent from the Antioquia scene to show them how to weather the rigors of the music industry, but he will also be teaming up with some of his country’s cycling heavyweights along the Via Don Diego in Llanogrande, an exclusive sector in Medellín , Riding a bike where well-known names in Colombian music call their home: Maluma, J Balvin, Karol G and of course Juanes, who is usually seen at 5am starting his day with a “roll” through the mountains full of greenery, the neighborhoods are so nice.
WATCH THE VIDEO INTERVIEW:
Juanes opens the doors of his house to El Comercio and talks about his new album. (Source: The Trade)
“Medellín is my city, it’s where I was born in 1972 and it’s a magical place for me, especially here at home,” the artist is the first to tell us when we ask him about the unusual decision he made he has taken all the publicity for the release of his album in such an intimate place. But Juanes points out that his songs are also like this during this phase: they tell a lot about his private life and the sounds come from the rhythms with which he decided to become an artist; rock and pop music.
Juanes, smiling, at home during one of the Everyday Life promotional activities. (Photo: Trebol Communications Group)
—You come from Origen, an album where you showed how diverse your influences are. But I feel like “Daily Life” is a homage to an essential part of your DNA, which is rock.
I think I went back to all the origins of my music. Popular music was my first approach. I learned to play the guitar by listening to Latin music. My father played tangos and my brothers sang them too. I’ve heard Los Visconti and Los Chalchaleros, as well as boleros, rancheras, vallenatos and cumbias. All of this sounded in my house. But then I got crazy about rock and metal. That changed my life forever. On this record he returned to the place where I feel I belong and it’s a special place because it fits pop music but also rock. There, in the middle, I think it’s a bit my style.
—They are sounds that communicate very well with each other.
I don’t speak English very well, but I can play the guitar in English because I grew up with it. This is very strange because my songs don’t sound like Metallica at all, but I’ve listened to Metallica so many times that the technique I play the guitar with, the “downpicking” of the pick with the strings, gives me a special sound that comes from it comes from playing metal for many years. Sometimes people ask me why you hear it like a Cumbia Metallica, but I like both parts. I don’t know how to explain it to you. I want to dance, feel this indigenous and African mix with the most Anglo-Saxon part.
In “Everyday Life” Juanes enjoys rock in its various forms: indie, progressive and more pop. (Photo: Daniela Betancur)
—In the lyrical part, this album is a photo of your family life. As a parent, you watch your children grow up, and that involves some distance. In the song that gives the album its name, you sing: “I’ve lost my values in my way of worshiping you, but I want to confess to you that I curse my mistakes. See that you bring color to my daily life and I can’t go another week without finding myself in your gaze“. What moment inspired this harsh text?
A situation with Luna, my eldest daughter who was a teenager at the time, she was 17 and transitioning from being a girl to being a woman. That moment was unimaginable for me. I couldn’t understand what was happening. Even though I knew I had experienced the same thing when I was his age, I was confused and found it very difficult to understand. This led to many conflicts and discussions, it even led to disagreements with my wife. All of this made me sad. I got to a point where I was invisible to my daughter. I kept telling her, “You have to do this and that,” and she felt like I was always scolding her. When I realized what had happened to us, I was able to write those words down. This feeling springs from an immense love. Like a father, you make mistakes, but because of the love you have, sometimes we don’t understand the freedoms children need. There is a balance between discipline and morality, but also in your freedom.
“Are you a very strict father?”
Zero. In our house we were flexible, we left them alone. Of course we try to pass on the values we learned from our parents. But today, in this complex society, there is not only education, but also social networks and the street. Years have passed and today Luna is 19, she’s a mature woman and it’s very cool to sit down with her to talk about it, show her the song and feel like we’re best friends.
“As a father you make mistakes too, but because of the love you have, sometimes we don’t understand the freedoms that children need.”
Juanes
—This recording is part of your personal story along with the music as you include your family in the videos. And in Venom, Dante, your youngest son, makes his acting debut. How did the idea of recording it come about?
We had thought that the video would be about a boxing match between a giant and a smaller child and that this child would represent my inner child and my personal struggle against my demons and also against toxic people. And Dante has been engaged in karate from a young age, since he was 7 years old. He later did jiu-jitsu and wrestling. Then he’s a boxer! Sometimes he says to me: “Dad, what if I want to box?” And I tell him: “Let’s see, wait…”. But he loves it. So we invited him, we asked him if he wanted to do it. He accepted, he came to Medellín and we recorded. He did great, he’s a natural actor. It was very exciting to work with my son who represented me in a way.
—How much of the teenager you were do you see in Dante?
I see my children much more mature than me, they are like an “update” for me, for my soul, for my wife. Much more developed characters, 100%. And not only them, but the boys of this generation.
– You shared on your Instagram a video in which Dante admits that he’s not a big fan of Metallica. I realize that you don’t influence her taste in music. Are they affecting yours now?
I had an impact in the beginning when they were younger, but I lost total control from there (laughs). They listen to a lot of reggaeton, trap, hip hop and bachata. They generally like Latin American music. They influence me because I always listen to what they hear, because they are at home all day and they make music every Sunday. Sometimes I ask them what they’re listening to and tell them I like it and it’s very cool. I like that they find their way. I’ve already seeded Queen, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Metallica. Eventually they’ll get a taste for it again.
—Karen, your wife, is also an important part of the album. You dedicate two songs to him that I know you wrote during the pandemic, depicting different moments in your relationship. In Gray you talk about a crisis you experienced during a pandemic and I think a lot of people can relate to that because it was a time that shaped a lot of people’s relationships. How did that affect you?
It was very strange. On the one hand (the pandemic) gave me (free) time that I didn’t have and I felt relieved to be at home with my family because my normal life is to travel. I didn’t have time to sit in the house and suddenly I started looking at the furniture, moving it around and arranging the pictures… I had never lived in the house for so long, it was cool to share, but it was so difficult too to live together. In relationships there are disagreements. With my wife there were sometimes disagreements on this because of the way we think, because of the way we raise our children, and that brought us to a point of monotony, of constant arguing, that we thought maybe it was the end may be . This feeling was too sad. I’m very thankful to have music that expresses all these feelings because somehow there’s a filter through the guitar and the vocals and for me it’s like everything goes through that filter, the ugly and the beautiful and everything in the end be a song. It’s like therapy. And “Gris” is a reflection of that critical moment. “Cecilia,” the other song, is the moment of reconciliation that gives us a chance to be together.
—If you do the math, your daughters Luna and Paloma were born around the time of Mi sangre, the album that made you a global phenomenon and which I imagine you enjoy when you’re not usually at home are, At that time you were very far from your family. Did you feel like you sacrificed your children’s childhood for your career?
Naturally. In the first ten years of my career, from 2000 to 2010, I never stopped working. Luna was born in those 10 years, at the time of the album Un día normal, and then Paloma more due to the release of Mi sangre. Dante was born in 2009. I think while I worked and felt very successful at work, I personally got worse and worse over the years. In 2010 I got to the point where I said I couldn’t take it anymore. I have to stop now because I’m going to destroy myself. I think it felt like I was losing a lot of time with them and not being as close to my kids as I would have liked. But there it was. It’s like going to a Formula 1 race and not pitting. At some point you will run out of gas, your brakes will loosen or your tires will burst. I think at that moment I couldn’t summon up the courage to say, “I need a break.” In the end I was comforted, burned, I didn’t even want to know about my music, I didn’t want to listen to myself, I hated myself myself. It was a very crazy thing. Imagine what I could feel, my deep sadness to say that I don’t understand why I hate what I love most, which is being on stage. And we’re talking about 2009, before mental health was a thing.
“You needed a break.”
I needed a little rest, nothing more. There I began to rebuild myself. From that moment, 12 years ago, I first started to rebuild my life. I needed a place of stability where I could say, ‘I love music, I want to make music, but I also want to be with my family.’ It was a very beautiful build. I’m very happy for what I had to live, I don’t regret any decision because despite the fact that there were difficult moments, now I feel in absolute abundance. I make the music I like, apart from the ‘likes’, ‘views’, fame and popularity. I make the music that comes from my soul and to be able to say that it gives me a lot of peace of mind. Add to that the fact that I have the best relationship with my wife and children, that we live together and that we can even work together at this moment, that’s a very happy moment for me.
Juanes and the Peruvian cumbia
tropical sound
In this interview, as you can see in the video accompanying this note, we also spoke to Juanes about the influence of cumbia on his music. Regarding Peruvian cumbia, the artist confessed that it often happens that he hears a song, “some very popular guitar riff” and realizes that he is Peruvian.
“Not just with Peruvian cumbia, but also with Peruvian punk and how they were influential long before Colombia or Mexico. I like it a lot because there’s something psychedelic about that sound, even the Peruvian cumbia, which I like a lot.” said the artist, who admitted that his plans include producing a cumbia as well as producing a solo metal album -Album heard.
“I believe that cumbia is one of the great riches of Latin America (…) It’s becoming increasingly popular, young people understand how important it is (…) I think cumbia matters and it does. “ comes very strong. I think it’s happening and there’s more to come,” explained the artist, to whom we gave a gift of a 10-45rpm vinyl boxset released in 2022 by famed Peruvian label Infopesa, featuring iconic Peruvian cumbias like “La Danza de los Mirlos ” .
– On all your albums you always do an exercise to commemorate the drama that your country and especially your city has experienced. This album is no exception and we found a song like “Canción desaparecidad”. Now that the vision of Medellín is changing, especially through music, especially reggaeton, how do you see this new perception of your city?
To be honest I like it too much. Medellín has seen an incredible, brutal transformation. What is happening here with music, reggaeton, producers, performers and composers is amazing. But not only what belongs to the “mainstream”. What is happening here with fashion, for example, is crazy. Architecture, literature, poetry… the new directors are super young people who are doing incredible things. The city is vibrant with creativity like never before. We live in a very dark time, unfortunately it was a time that still stigmatizes Medellín and Colombia a bit in the world, but the people who come here realize that it’s crazy and wonderful. Walking in Medellín today is crazy because you pass the tables of a restaurant and most of them are foreigners, we had never experienced that here. Many people travel through Medellín and Colombia knowing that it is a country of contrasts. Of course there is beauty, but there are also difficulties, but I am very happy that the perception of this city has changed.
Social networks
viral moment
In an interview with El Comercio, Juanes also said that during the various visits to Peru he found out that his stage name was a typical dish from the jungle and humorously took the video of his show, which went viral in Lima, as Fonseca , in which a fan pulled a Juane during one of his songs.
– From the beginning of your career you have also defended singing in your language with the famous phrase “Se habla español”. Do you feel that time has proved you right? Now it’s clear that singing in English isn’t necessary to be a worldwide phenomenon.
Yes, in any case. Mainly because when singing in another language, the mere exercise of the tongue muscles and the pronunciation reduces the feeling. Sometimes you think about how the words are pronounced, but you don’t think about what you’re saying. Of course there are people who did very well and it went very well, but I’m very calm and today I don’t even think about it. On the contrary, today it’s okay to sing in Spanish.
Next to…
New album
Everyday life, Juanes’ new album, was released on May 19th on all digital platforms. The album also includes “Cecilia,” a song in tribute to his wife Karen, in which the Colombian sings a duet with Juan Luis Guerra.
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