Regarding the release of three songs compiled in an EP entitled “Toca Madera”, we spoke with Jorge Villamizar, who told us about this product, his plans to come to Peru and why he stopped proselytizing. “The song ‘Knock Wood’ is not centered on an older love, although the video is. The theme talks about a flirtation, a first date, in an adult language, but that does not exclude either young or old. When making the video I said: ‘We are going to make a nice one, with a 70-year-old couple and a guest artist over 90, a street dancer. We hope that it will give joy and hope to people who feel that they are being left aside for not being young, because age is carried in the soul,” said the Colombian via Zoom from Miami.
Bacillus was dissolved for ten years. The reunion took place in 2017. Can you say that they are still living the honeymoon?
(Laughs) Before we were a trio, now we are a duo and we are working in another way, on another level. And yes, well, you could call it a honeymoon. We have a good time in our work environment and that is transmitted to the media and the public. Energy is a snowball, what you have to do is get to the place where you feel good, and that’s what we did bacilli.
YOU CAN SEE: Avril Lavigne in Peru: find out how to get pre-sale tickets for the artist’s concert
You said that the pandemic had been bad for business, but not for music.
Yes, for me it was very hard financially, it was difficult, but the pandemic did not stop creativity. I realized that it wasn’t all that bad, I saw myself with my children, I was at home, something that artists don’t do because we live running nonstop. But suddenly we stopped and were with the people we loved. In our case it was a nice moment to share.
A newspaper in your country has said that you are no longer interested in doing social criticism. Is it so? Why?
Look, it’s very complicated. The older I get, the more I realize that it is very difficult to judge people, their political opinions, their past, where they come from, their experiences, their condition, all of that. There isn’t a sheet that covers everyone, and I’m not a politician, they’re not going to give me the London Embassy for throwing myself under the bus, do you understand? I make songs that make the military, the guerrillas, the industrialists, the day laborers happy, I know, I’ve seen it. They gave me a gift that was to bring joy to the public and I don’t want to skew that energy, I don’t want to damage it by letting people know my crazy political ideas, because if I spoke, they would throw me into the sea with stone shoes. It’s hard for me, I grab a chair to bite my tongue.
Bite your tongue and tie your fingers so as not to comment on any social network…
Which I have done. I’ve done all kinds of barbarities and at one point I said to myself: ‘What’s the use of this’, and I realized that it hurt people’s feelings. It is difficult, very difficult, but cobbler to your shoes. At one point I tried to make music with certain social contents and things like that, but I don’t feel that it has had greater importance, I think that joyful and happy music has had greater importance.
YOU CAN SEE: Could Gian Marco compose for Corazón Serrano?: “If they call me to do cumbia, I’ll be happy”
At what point did you feel you had to stop?
When I see my colleagues saying a series of barbarities, I say: ‘I don’t want to do that, I don’t want to be there or use my gift for that, I don’t want to get involved in those things’. I’m not saying never, but I try not to anymore. When I start thinking about social songs and some things make me angry, I say to myself: ‘That’s not me’. When you’ve already had your heart broken so many times, lying politicians, broken promises, it’s very difficult to proselytize in music. I have also seen great artists who have done it and get hurt, make a fool of themselves, fill themselves with enemies and many of them are my heroes, but not so much anymore.
Who are you listening to?
To Joao Gilberto, to Juliana Velásquez and also to Dua Lipa. Everything around her seems funny to me. Regarding what is coming, there are plans to return to Peru, although the pandemic changed our dates. We hope to go with some very important colleagues. I hope it materializes.
#Jorge #Villamizar #spoke #throw #sea #stone #shoes