Jorge Drexler: “I wear my white belt again on every record”

Jorge Drexler (Uruguay, 1964) repeatedly getting out of his comfort zone: It is the formula of seeking originality, breaking out of stereotypes and not becoming stagnant. He is also a valiant man who runs away from the fear of blank pages. He patiently prefers to change. Now he’s immersed himself in the promotional tour. New album ‘Ink and Time’implying the mantra repeated without writing in front of the paper.

You repeat the scenarios, but this time with a new band and a new record.

I have a group of three men and three women who accompany me wonderfully. They each have their own personal project, they are very successful and they are big musical figures in Madrid or Catalonia, Argentina and Bilbao. It is very nice and very generous of you to set aside your projects for a few months and set out with me.

Then you come with a good friend.

I accompany very well and moreover, the band is very well shot. We have already given 30-40 concerts in many countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, United States, Puerto Rico, Spain. And well, also a new album that gives us so much joyextraordinary amount of happiness.

This plaque, ‘Tinta y Tiempo’ has a white cover, which you say represents the struggle against the blank slate you find yourself immersed in. How was this process?

The album cover is a tribute to the blank page. In addition, stage presentation, the stage is also a big blank page. White floor, white cyclogram in the back, a white wall in the back, very few lights and projections. All this to make it clear who commands is a blank slate, just like in the creative process. When you eject a disc, in this case, you show the ten battles you’ve won on a blank page, but for every battle you’ve won, there are ten battles you’ve lost. Writing for me is a lot of humility, patience for not being crazy and impatient when things take time to come out, it always takes time for them to come out, at least in my case, because it’s hard for me to write. So the song ‘Tinta y tiempo’ talks about this, about try not to be impatientIt’s almost a kind of personal reassurance, as if it were a mantra: Let ink and time do their thing. Trying to understand that you cannot fully control the composition process. It was also very difficult to compose in a pandemic because many conditions came together. They came together so I’ve been in my career for 30 years and the difficulty is increasing, the difficulty of finding a place for songs is something new that will get you excited again when you already have 14-15 albums. After that, there was a team change and I started working with another record company. I really wanted creating a good working environment, create good songs for my new label team to work with. Along with the isolation, the pandemic has made it especially difficult for me to complete. I wrote a lot, but I had a hard time finishing the songs. Until we reopen and see people back.

The first song on the album, ‘El Plan Maestro’, is described by Jaime Altozano as “the most scientific love song in the world”. You were a doctor, and as a musician, science always finds its way into your songs. Do you think music is an exact science?

Song is not an exact science, on the contrary, it is not even an imprecise science. I actually have a song that says just that: songwriting is not an exact science. In any scientific process, you can quickly find a cause-effect chain with some degree of predictability. So you can repeat the experiment and you will definitely get the same result. This is one of the most useful properties science has. None of this works in music, none of this works in composition. Actually nothing works. As Leonard Cohen said, there is a beautiful phrase that says ‘nothing works’. Nothing works in composition. Sometimes you write a song and it comes out the first time you’re sober, sometimes it’s no use getting drunk, no use being sober, no use sleeping soundly, no use being sleep deprived, you say there. Cohen said that there is no use in being happy, there is no use in being sad. Let’s just say none of this works like a scientific recipe. Also, “If I knew where good songs come from, I would go there more often,” says Cohen. It’s a word I love.

in the song ‘Tocarte’ with C. Tangana, there is a departure from the rhyming structures you usually use to urban forms that are not very unspoilt. How comfortable do you feel with this style? Do you see yourself doing something like this without collaborations like C. Tangana’s?

There are indeed many places that are easier to reach with collaborators. Let’s just say the nice thing about their collaboration is that in my album these were never industrial decisions. They’re not decisions made by the record company. I met AC Tangana at an awards ceremony and we bonded and we wrote to each other and looked for a place and let’s say the record label found out after they made this song. They are decisions that have nothing to do with the industry.. It is the decisions about the subject we are talking about that take you to a place that you cannot reach on your own. And I would love to have such unexpected connections like C Tangana’s again, and I would also love to immerse myself in the new business codes that urban music has that appeals to me but is not easy to obtain. Not from that generation, not from that aesthetic. But I am very willing to be an apprentice, roll up my sleeves, and let myself be taught. I love it.

“I am very willing to apprentice, roll up my sleeves, and let go of teaching”

when you get all 7 Latin Grammy Awards You recently said congratulations, by the way, that if there is an answer to what has happened to you, it may be a permanent search for truth. Why this call? Do you believe the truth exists?

This is actually my answer to a journalist who asked how I explained what happened to me. Well, how do I explain a record from a handmade project… Mine is a relatively small project, especially when compared to major media heroes with the same classification range, not just the most used people. As in the case of Bad Bunny or Rauw Alejandro, figures around the world rested in Latin America. And they asked me how that could happen, what is your quest… I have no idea, really. I said it because I don’t know how to search, because it’s true (laughs). because I always tried to really work, to choose real people, real producers., my real musicians write from their own truth, a real connection to what I feel. Now, is there absolute truth? No, I am the enemy of one-sided and indisputable truths.

“There is nothing more frightening than a man who accidentally says that he has an absolute truth and that truth is his own.”

What I want to say is that I speak of facts in terms of an attempt at originality, that what I write tries to be original, and that artistic decisions respond to a quest for authenticity, not absolute truth. The question you asked is fine because it’s good to clarify. The word truth has many meanings. First, it has to do with authenticity, reality, the connection is real, I’m trying to make it real, make it authentic, make it true. But it has nothing to do with the concept of my pursuit of absolute truth, far from it. There is nothing that scares me more than a person who says he has absolute truth. and moreover, that truth belongs to the person himself by chance.

“The algorithm is likely to know better even what I have to say in terms of the media”

In the song ‘Oh, Algorithm’ you talk about how many times our desires and desires are conditioned by external factors, in this case an algorithm. To what extent do you think the algorithm affects your music? And in your life?

my music? I really don’t think much. There is a bit of irony in this song, not that I actually resorted to the algorithm to help me write it. Not that I said, “Tell me what to say, O algorithm,” and that’s true. Not that I use algorithms to know what to write about. There is a humor and irony in the song, it is not taken seriously. This is a song about free will, freedom, decision making, and how easily we sometimes give up that freedom and let go of decisions in the name of the new world prophecy, which are the different algorithms we resort to. My life is pretty much determined by algorithmic stuff. In a practical sense, not in an emotional or spiritual sense. In practical terms, you and I are currently talking about a robust encryption and decryption algorithm. This thing between us is an algorithmic system that converts images into a digital system and turns it back into an image on your computer. So when I get out of here and get in the car, I’ll turn on the GPS and the algorithm will show me the currently most recommended route. I always bow to the algorithm in these practical decisions. It helps me choose cheaper airfare, so I don’t let the algorithm have a say in important decisions. It wouldn’t even occur to me to ask him to choose a wife. I’m late for Tinder (laughs). The vital questions, the important questions we ask ourselves about life, about our children, about how to write a song. That is why it is said humorously: “Tell me what to say, O algorithm, I know you know better than I do.” The algorithm is likely to even know better what I have to say in terms of media.. But I don’t feel like looking at him. Because it seems to me that it’s my decision, and because I write songs not just to work for the media, but to reflect me emotionally and to help me write the best song I can write. as an artistic genre. First of all, the song is an artistic genre for me, which is very important. It’s a way of making a living, but above all an artistic genre. It’s a way of communicating with others but primarily an artistic genre. It’s a way of understanding the world and placing myself in the world, but above all an artistic genre.

How do you avoid stereotypes when approaching themes like love musically?

You probably won’t always get it. Thank you so much for thinking that way. Yes, the most important thing is not to fall into the temptations of blessing, so when you have a certain number of records and they come out more or less well, offers such as blessings begin to appear to lower your protection. repeating previous schemes little by little, such as working with the same team, same group, same genre of songs, same themes, same record label, not trying to look for new things, and taking risks, not subjecting yourself to a blockade. Exposing yourself to creative blockage really takes some courage. It is not in vain that you sit in front of a blank page and refuse to use this scheme and previous techniques, which you control very well but do not want to repeat anymore, and stay there, without using that tool without using anything new. some patience and courage to face the suffering of composition. it seems to me always trying to be an apprentice again. Trying to avoid the teacher figure.

Putting on your white belt again, referencing your song.

Getting my white belt back on every record and doing it wrong, getting me in trouble, stepping out of my comfort zone. To put it very briefly, I am stepping out of my comfort zone.

Source: Informacion

Popular

More from author

Russian Ambassador Antonov evaluated the possibility of improving Russian-American relations 04:22

There is no point in waiting for relations between Russia and the United States to improve under the Joe Biden administration. This was...

US military destroyed four Houthi UAVs 04:02

4 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) belonging to the Houthi rebels affiliated with the Ansarullah movement in Yemen were destroyed by the US army. ...

They want videos of murder and torture to be blocked on social networks in the Russian Federation 04:27

Russia has proposed banning videos showing murder, torture and violence from being published on social networks. The newspaper writes about this "News". The proposal...

Scientists discover why workplace boredom is harmful and how you can beat it 02:28

A group of American scientists led by experts from the University of Notre Dame studied the impact of boredom on the performance of employees...