After five years of record silence, Jorge Drexler presents ‘Tinta y tiempo’, a monologue about creativity, senior experience and ephemeral things emerged as a result of a creative crisis. Album features clear echoes of incarceration, when Drexler fights against ghosts like vertigo or blank slate. Example of this fight are the 10 songs that make up his new album. And she has already announced that the real celebration can be the reality of fulfilling one of her dreams, starting a band with her friends. Throughout his career, he has been recognized with an Oscar Award (2005), five Latin Grammys (2014, 2018), a Goya (2011), and a Silver Biznaga.
You’re back on tour. Is it hard to get back on the road?
The fact is that the body no longer gets used to the intensity of work so quickly. But despite everything, my body is happy to be moving again. I feel the blood returning to my body. It’s been a great time so far.
How did you find your audience?
Very exciting. With a tremendous desire to go to concerts. A very striking enthusiasm for music, where the difference between what people felt before the pandemic is clear. I’m shocked. Saw it on six different stages in Latin America. 1500 people every night, I’ve never done this in my life. After the summer, I will return to Brazil and Colombia, and also visit the United States and Puerto Rico.
How are the people of Drexler?
covers a very wide age range and that makes me very happy. I think my audience is uncatalogable, very stable, yes.
You’ve played in Valencia many times and most of them remember your first contact with the city almost 30 years ago.
It all started in Valencia. I played at the Café Berlin del Carmen. I was told it no longer exists. This coffee became essential for me, it was very important in my life. I would put ‘plaquita’ at the entrance. It should now be a grocery or nut shop. I can say: “Jorge Drexler gave his first concert. received 5,000 pesetas“It was an exorbitant amount for me at the time. There were eight people in the audience, and basically six friends and two acquaintances were half pensive. That night was very important to me because I learned that I can perform in public.
It’s been 30 years since their debut album ‘La luz que saber robo’ was released. Will you celebrate your anniversary?
I would love to, but I don’t know how yet.
You said in an interview that you wanted to start a band, is the anniversary a good reason to go on an adventure?
I’ve always dreamed of having a band, really. Being part of a whole. I don’t know if I’m on time. I have a great band that goes on tour with me. But it touches my repertoire. I want the composition to be a collective work. I think I will. Very soon.
Have you already tried one?
The possibilities are many. I have many musician friends that I want to interact with.
‘Tinta y tiempo’ talks about crises, creativity and little things. Its cover is a tabula rasa.
This album is a tribute to the blank page. It’s true that this is part of a tabula rasa, because the blank page was the biggest winner of the first phase of the pandemic. I still managed to beat this block. I present the 10 battles I won against the blank page on the disk. But I honor the other hundred people I lost on the cover.
what happened to that quarantine?
It was very difficult for me to write. Very complicated. She couldn’t find the many words she wanted to say, nor the voice she wanted to tell him. I imagine this is an isolation product. A blank page is for me the maximum degree of creative potential.
How to overcome such a ‘crisis’?
Writing. You have to keep looking for your inspiration because at some point it will come. After trying many times, one day everything changed. Effort is what makes the difference, sometimes.
Does it transform the experience?
Yes, or at least I try. In this case it worked for me. I clearly won. I was very happy to know that I could get off a block.
Was it different from what you’ve experienced before?
Unfortunately yes. I think expectations are to blame. If you’ve been in your career for over 30 years and you’re lucky enough to be successful, the challenge is getting bigger and bigger. Your vision as a musician becomes more demanding and ambitious. I had to learn how to carry “this star”, how to dominate it, because in the end it weakens you.
You dedicate a song to explain it to yourself.
Yes. In the song ‘Ink and Time’ I begin by saying to myself: “What I leave in writing is not carved into granite. I just throw it into the wind. Intuition. I want what I need. Ink and time, ink and time”. So, I say to myself: “gain weight. To write“.
Do you think the way we relate today has anything to do with this vertigo? i’m talking about change social networks. Now, one ‘tweet’ can end an artistic career, and practically anyone can ‘smash’ online.
I imagine something from this, but I am not afraid of social networks. In this scenario, something goes as it comes. This is a very volatile, ephemeral terrain and I have never denied the ephemeral. I think it’s beautiful actually. It feels good to me that things don’t take long at all. You can hear a solo at a jazz concert that will never be repeated in the same way.
Although Drexler is not short-lived.
(Laughs) No, but look, we’re all going to get lost in time. Everything we do as a species will be forgotten. The death of things, for example, is extremely important on an ecological level. We are now leaving footprints on the planet that will last for tens of thousands of years. The supermarket bag we take home will outlast us. In other words, there is nothing wrong with forgetting.
And you dedicate a song to the ephemeral. It’s called “Art Love”. Interestingly, you compare people to an ‘insect’, just as we call coronavirus.
Yes, a song that surprised me. Because it came naturally. It’s a theme where I argue there’s nothing wrong with being just a part of this universe. Humans are tiny creatures. And there is nothing wrong, you just have to accept that and know that it is worth being happy with how little we have on this planet. The coronavirus is a part of this world just like us.
How did you live with the virus these two years?
Well, at first with fear like everyone else. But we already want to act a little bit like we did before.
You studied Medicine in Uruguay. How has this affected your daily life in the early stages of the pandemic?
More. During this time I made a commitment to the medical staff who did a great job. But I think my knowledge of health is making people more angry with fake news and people who don’t want to understand that it’s serious, that the virus kills. This affected me a lot because I saw that he could not tolerate these conversations. Understand me, everyone may think they want it, but in situations like this, people need to be careful, especially when it’s not an area they have control over.
Source: Informacion
