If respect could be measured, Erik Urano would have many zeros in his account. One of the leading names in the genre, the rapper from Valladolid brings together transcendence more than numbers with his songs designed from a gray present that points to a black future. “I see my music as more hopeful, full of an atmosphere of struggle, perhaps a little defeatist in the face of a future I don’t like,” he states in his conversation with this newspaper.
Although Erik Urano is a part of the music industry, he made an unusual decision last week without any reasoning as he moves and thinks without a corset. His concert at the Apolo Hall in Barcelona on October 13 was free due to low ticket sales.. The manual said this could not result in any other way than cancellation. This is something that will be hidden and ‘burned out’ in the cheating culture. “I’m definitely not a Castro supporter, I don’t care about giving a concert to 40 people… I’ve been doing these things all my life, something like this will never happen to me again,” he comments. after the disgust has passed. “Thankfully, I have some remaining artistic self-confidence, aware that my work has a cultural weight and artistic validity that rivals any proposal,” says Erik Urano, 37, a long-time veteran. and has a consistent career behind him (he was part of the Urano Players group).
The response from colleagues and the public was overwhelming: almost a thousand seats were flown within 48 hours after it was announced that entry had changed to invitation. At first he was investigating the reasons for low ticket sales, browsing the calendar (the concert is in the middle of a bridge, after an avalanche of summer festivals…) and arriving at the “root cause of everything”. ” “As a mid-to-lower artist, it’s very difficult to find a place in so many social media algorithms for people to reach your poster,” he reflects. “A big part of the ‘burnout’ of this finale is due to the rebound effect… Shared [el cartel] “Because nothing of mine has ever been shared in my life and probably hasn’t reached many people who would pay for my concert,” he says.
Without romanticizing insecurity
The Valladolid native had already invested in the production, thinking of the new live show and listening to “the artist’s primordial urge” that needed to “make room” for the work he was doing. Erik Urano was able to move forward with the free offer due to the support of his record label, Sonido Muchacho, and the fact that he had another job that supported him financially. “I don’t want to romanticize the precariousness of artists, things have to be paid for and people deserve to be compensated for their work,” he warns.
Erik Urano, who will give a concert in Madrid on October 27 after Barcelona, draws attention to the importance of not hiding his current situation. “I wanted to make failure visible,” he responds forcefully. After pointing out the lies that exist on social media, he adds, “I think it’s very important for people who make music to present failure as an opportunity for change. It doesn’t take you out of your environment or your cultural concerns as an artist.” Cries where “only victory and success are shown”.
The Valladolid native, who has also performed at major festivals such as BBK or Primavera Sound, admits that, yes, sometimes “it’s frustrating trying to channel and even monetize that respect” that he knows he has in his union, in the public, and in the public. critics. . A year and a half after his excellent last work with producer Merca Bae, ‘Qubits’, he has 11,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, for example.
Dictatorship of broadcasting
Therefore, it is clear that Erik Urano does not come together with the culture of “sold out” and “streaming” platforms, which is difficult to avoid and tends to a certain homogenization, expressed through the dictatorship of rankings. commonly heard. “Chain production creates a bit of a factory effect. Everyone is looking for extreme productivity that results in success or profit,” he notes. But for the Valladolid native, the “big melon” to be opened is the current concept of success: “It is often the fault of artists who instill in children a faulty concept of success. Far from personal fulfillment, the concept of success is now a black hole of the ego that you can never fill and “will only lead to disappointment.”
“After all, what we are talking about is art, and it is this commercialization in search of transcendence that it always has to escape from,” he says. Erik Urano, the artist who faced failure and won.