Interview | “I’m fed up with the musical prostitution of some artists and part of the industry”

Is it very different from the previous album?A lot. On that album we tried the obvious El Canto del Loco and with this one we got a very El Canto del Loco album. I think this is a very visceral album, very guitar-driven, very similar to my first solo album. I have taken everything from my stomach, from my gut, and I have told it with all the truth, without any concealment and saying what I felt.

Is he also the most sincere?For me, yes, because, when I wrote it, it came out like this. And it came out this way because I felt the need to criticize at times, the need to talk about my exhaustion with a certain musical prostitution in the industry and with some artists, for having met people in certain places who have generated passion in me. or heartbreak or simply having lived. I believe that, when you live, you then have the possibility to put it on paper.

That’s what it’s about Friday newsa criticism of the music industry.It is a criticism of part of the industry, not all of it. Not the one I live in, which is with my company, Sony Music, which has just invested what is not written in analog studios where we can go and record whenever we want and make non-expired records that stay and last over time. They have not encouraged immediacy, which is what is fashionable. Friday news It is quite explicit, whoever feels offended already knows what to do, and whoever doesn’t feel offended should laugh.

But point out some artists.Well, there are people who are doing wonderful things. There are young people like Dani Fernández who are doing incredible things. The thing is that this is about taste. I talk to you about what I feel and, since I am the creator of this album, I am lucky to be able to say in it what I want. And that enough that appears in the cry on the cover is enough that anything goes, that 150 songs come out on a Friday recorded in one minute.

Is that happening or are you exaggerating?I have seen a kid on Instagram who explains how to make a song in less than ten minutes. It’s cool to make a song in less than ten minutes, in fact, surely God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols was done in five minutes, but because it came out that way. But having someone explain to me how to make a song in five minutes drives me crazy. Time is much more of a friend to the creator, to the one who writes, to the one who can cross out and go over everything again.

Still just as rebellious. Have you ever had to jump through hoops?If I had gone through the hoop I wouldn’t be here. I would be somewhere else, but not here. I have never had to jump through any hoops in my life, because I am not a lion nor do I want to be one. Shortcuts and running away from your truth end up taking their toll on you. I have always been lucky to be able to choose everything just as I have been lucky to have a record company that wanted this artist and not another, they have never wanted to turn me into another artist. And the one that I am defends his albums through the songs, which are the protagonists of everything, and his name.

Do comments about you affect you a lot?Well, I am a human being and we are all affected by being told things. What happens is that, with the passage of time, you learn to give place to the words and to whoever says them to you. If my mother tells me: ‘son, I think you haven’t been right here’, well, I’ll give it a second thought, but if ‘mortadelo134’ on social media tells me that I’m a junkie because I’ve lost weight, a fat person or that my song It’s shit, well man, you give him a couple of seconds to shit on his motherfucker and then you continue. You continue because it is launched from a very cruel, very unconstructive place. You have to know that it is not the truth or reality. It’s just her reality, and it could be expressed a little more lovingly. Anyway, I have to say that I have hundreds of thousands of nice things like stopping to read to four people who, surely, need a hug and a little more attention.

Do you think the day will come when we stop giving opinions about others or, now with the networks, that is impossible?There are people who use them very well, eh? I think social networks are very beautiful. Then there are the social networks of people who want to show us their biceps, their operations, their cars, their houses, their million-dollar trips, the money they spend or how capable they are when it comes to achieving everything in life. Which seems very good to me, but they don’t interest me at all and I think they are not helping much with the education of young people, because they are frustrating them a lot. They are showing them an unreal path, because, if you think that to do I don’t know how many burpees or stupid things, you’re going to have a Lamborghini, well I think… I don’t know, it seems quite absurd to me. I think it is much better to dedicate the time to becoming acculturated, to knowing where love, affection and values ​​reside.

In his case, he also uses them to talk about mental health, becoming almost a reference for that exhibition.The truth is that I believe that I am not a reference for anything. The reference is the people, who have taken to the streets in Valencia with a shovel, a rake or plastic chairs to bail out water. Those are the references that we have to keep in mind. Those who show their face, those who came out during the pandemic to help, those who are going to help the people from Ukraine who arrive in Spain, those who are in nursing homes or those who leave their country to pursue your dream. Those are the people who make me believe that this world has a present and a prosperous and hopeful future.

A present that invites us to live as if it were the last day of our lives. Are we not at risk of living too fast?The last day of our lives It talks about why not dare to enjoy life and leave the phone aside for a while and listen to what the person you are having dinner with on a trip or making love with is telling you. I think it is a device that has tools that can help us a lot, but at the same time. They are condemning us to be slaves to a little machine. Today may be the last day of our lives and if you have not taken advantage of it you will become someone who has not enjoyed life, which I believe is the greatest gift we have.

It is not difficult for him to admit faults or mistakes. Is it difficult to do, and teach, this exercise of sincerity with oneself?What’s up? It would be more difficult for me to show you my vacation, the house we rented and where we dined than to tell you that I was wrong, that I feel guilty and want to apologize or that I want to make a self-criticism. It is one of the songs that make up the backbone of my album and one of my favorites.

In surfer He talks about his personal relationships and the relationship he narrates. Has it happened to you many times? Has fear won the game many times?Many times fear has paralyzed me and caused me to miss out on wonderful people. I can say that, to date, and in a very high percentage, almost entirely, I have met wonderful people in my relationships. The one who missed that something could happen was me. As Sabina says, I will stay alone like an old woman with my cats. The thing is that this is a song composed in confinement and now we are in another stage of life in which I believe I am braver, in which I have given myself the opportunity to work on myself. It is very positive that human beings work, that they try to improve and take steps forward and not stop repeating things that have not worked for them.

And here it is, 25 years later. How have you done it?I believe that there is a very very large element of luck for this to continue working the way it does, but also another of tenacity, of pursuing your project, of giving it the time it needs to cook, of talent if there is any, of jeta, all the that I can have, and, most importantly, really. You have to be truthful, express yourself with your truth. The people are the smartest in the world, when you try to fool them, you may succeed once, but not twice.

By the way, what would you do on the last day of your life?Being with my friends eating pizza and laughing a lot. And, although it may not seem like it, being in my house, which I love, listening to wonderful records and making love as much as I could.