Pablo Alboran: “I am not selling my life; I sell my music "

When at the end of March almost all of Spain was paralyzed by the coronavirus pandemic, Pablo Alborán made a decision: to set up “a piece” of a recording studio at home.

“I renovated it entirely.

I decided to put it together well.

I was afraid that everything was going to get worse and so I said: 'If I know how to work with a laptop, then it's over.

I'm going to get to know how to set up a good study with a computer ”, he says.

He called in his engineers and the first thing he wanted to know was the microphone model he had used on his previous album.

From there, he consulted them about everything until he got to work in order to record a new album, which is already finished, it will be called

and it will be released at the end of the year.

“The studio is my grandfather's garage from the seventies,” explains the musician.

“It is smaller than a normal classroom.

I say it is a tube.

Little by little I was putting it together.

At first it was a rehearsal room, but I transformed it into a studio, incorporating Wi-Fi, microphones, programs ... I even bought another acoustic guitar.

It was like Christmas for me! ”He exclaims with a smile.

He had been working on a few songs for a while and, in the midst of the advance of the coronavirus and with the country confined, he ran into a dilemma: stop or "continue as it were."

“I thought I was stuck there for half my life and I didn't want to stop.

More people were working with me on those songs and I didn't want to stop everything. "

Alboran talks quietly in a Madrid restaurant.

Hours before, he has been in an intense photo session for this magazine in a club of vintage vehicles where he moves like a fish in water under the guidelines of stylists and photographers.

At the beginning of September, he is also involved in the recording of a video clip.

As is usual with him, he quickly checks his mobile between gaps that the day leaves him.

He communicates a lot with audio messages, writes quick replies on WhatsApp and checks the reactions to his posts on social networks.

Before eating, when he sits down at the table with the rest of his team, he pulls out an agenda full of appointments and plans, goes over the new commitments for the end of the month and with a pen he writes them down as if he were a high school student from before.

American Vintage sweater.

Papo Waisman

This paper agenda is very different, although no less useful, to the “Google Calendar” to which he refers on more than one occasion to talk about the process of creating Vertigo, his fifth album since he started uploading songs a decade ago to YouTube and became a musical phenomenon in Spain in a matter of months, eventually signing for a major label and publishing an already successful first album that sold 240,000 copies.

With

, he has entered into a creative process new to him.

“I worked remotely with the producers.

I would send an idea, they would give me theirs, I would send another and then we would make the potpourri ”, he says, waving his hands as if to indicate in the air the dance of ideas that fit into that kind of shared calendar.

A medley that also ended up finding elements of reinvention in his own music.

“I wanted it to be a different album.

There is hardly any

in my voice.

I sing in a drier way.

He wanted to be more introspective, closer.

I did not want to be heard from a distance.

Therefore, I am more whispering ”.

There are also songs with homemade sound effects, like those of his nephews "running around the house."

"I think the situation made all of us put a little more of ourselves in the process and in the end we went for it."

They went for it all, but learning as they went.

Used to being in a recording studio for hours, Alboran had never worked remotely.

“It was difficult because at first it was more cold, but then we all handled ourselves well.

We were more direct, we did not make as many jokes as in a studio and we could not get involved going to eat and spend hours on food ... In the end it was enriching.

You could even work in a tracksuit! ”, He confesses with a half smile.

"What seemed impossible, in the end became possible", sentence.

That Google Calendar included his regular producer, Julio Reyes, from Miami;

the musician Lolo Álvarez for the guitars, from Seville, and he, who was from Benalmádena, Málaga.

From his lifelong home, that of his parents.

In his circle of trust, always away from buses and interviews, it is easy to hear him speak with pride of his family.

"A great family, really," he shoots when he runs out of more good words.

He talks about his parents, but also about his brothers and his nephews.

He comments on the latter and shows a video as if they were his children.

The musician has always defended that his family is his great pillar.

During the confinement, he was with his mother and father.

"It was a joy," she says.

Since he became a pop star, 10 years ago "non-stop", he had not had the opportunity to be with them for three months, "day and night".

“Putting everything away from the coronavirus, it has been one of the best times of my life.

I have had a wonderful time with both of you.

I have had talks, I have walked with them in the garden ... With my mother I have cooked like never before and I have even dyed her roots, which I had not done in my life, although I left her hair orange.

Chicken hair, ”he confesses with a laugh.

One day, his mother came to pick him up and, happy and excited, told him: "Pablo, what is happening has given me time with you."

“A father told me that his son played the video I published to tell him that he was also homosexual.

it is one of the many stories that I have "

Alboran and his family have not been oblivious to "what is happening", that is, the pandemic.

Both he and his parents suffered from the coronavirus in March and had a difficult time with the death of an uncle from the disease.

The musician also talks about close friends who lived alone in small apartments, who were depressed and who could not help them.

He acknowledges that, despite being "hyperpositive" and enjoying the company of his parents, there were nights, "in the last 10 minutes in bed in the dark", that he felt "very bad."

"You feel terrible for feeling good, but also for not knowing how to help," he explains.

For this reason, in April, he and Antonio Banderas, both from Malaga, jointly donated 200,000 euros to finance a Spanish respirator designed in Malaga to assist the most serious patients during the health emergency.

Unlike so many people, confinement brought him happiness and also helped him think more than ever.

In full de-escalation towards the new normal, Alboran, who, unlike other stars, controls his social networks, surprised everyone when on June 17 he uploaded a video in which he reported his homosexuality.

Now, after a long after-dinner talking about the extreme sports that he would like to practice one day, sitting down and relaxed, he asks for another coffee to calmly comment on that message.

“It was not an act of bravery as some said.

For me it was an act of dignity, ”he says emphatically, and insists that he did not feel any responsibility towards anyone, but, according to stories that have come to him, he is happy to have helped many young people.

With nearly 5.8 million followers on Instagram, 4.2 million on Facebook, and 3.8 million on Twitter, his message reached everywhere.

“A father told me that his son played the video for him to tell him without words that he was also homosexual.

It is one of the many stories I have ”.

The artist Pablo Alborán wears a Louis Vuitton jacket.

Papo Waisman

The video, just over three minutes long, was featured in newscasts and debated at length on television shows, including some politicians.

"I knew there was going to be a nativity scene ... but not so much," he says with a laugh.

He received many displays of affection and applause, but he was also criticized for a message that, in his words, was "a clean statement."

“I was surprised that it was said that why I had come out with this message in the 21st century, in 2020. That at this point it no longer made any sense.

I dont know.

I did not think about that because I did it because I wanted to, without further ado, but, come on, if there are television programs and media debating about it, it is that not enough progress has been made yet ”, he reflects.

He also assures that he was "very funny" to see in various forums affirming that the video was part of a marketing strategy.

“But they don't see that I come out looking you in the eyes, calmly, and I tell you that this is me.

And that's it.

What marketing?

I got to do several test videos that morning, mulling over what I was going to say, but I went to eat, then I took a nap and with my pajamas [“with the pajamas!”, He repeats] I did it, I went up and I didn't look at him anymore.

Few people know that Pablo Alboran did not make communion of his own free will.

At the age of nine, he told his parents that he did not want to do it and, although they counted on him to do it like all the children in his class, they respected his decision.

"In my family, freedom always prevails," he says.

He assures that he has never had a single conflict with his homosexuality at home, even, he says, outside it.

That is why he recognizes that, if anything, the only problem he had in his head with the issue of his sexuality, and that also led him to share the video, is that sometimes part of the media environment speculated and gossiped, making him feel like he was he could have “taken by the balls” for not expressing himself publicly, and he did not like that “nor was it true”.

“I was not asking for permission.

There are people who are always looking for something to hurt me, but when it hurts they won't find out because I won't sell my life.

I sell my music, and in my music there is more life than all I can sell ”.

Selling music knows how to do it well.

Very good.

His albums are always among the best sellers in Spain, and his tours, among the highest grossing.

The new album will arrive at very turbulent times for the fragile music industry.

“I wonder many times if it is good to publish an album in times of a pandemic.

I'm scared, but I've already decided that I'm not going to stop.

I'm sure another moment is better, but I think we have to be brave and, even if it doesn't turn out as we hope, I'm sure it will be good for all of us to squeeze our heads ”.

Although

will arrive as a shot of energy in the sector, it will be necessary to squeeze the head more with the concerts.

More than him, who is a star of large pavilions.

The majority of Spanish musicians cannot afford not to go out to play and he knows that he is a privileged person who can afford it.

"It is very worrying.

I don't see myself getting out in the current circumstances.

You have to find a way to do it.

Now I don't have a plan B, but I will look for it ”.

T-shirt, jacket and jeans, all from Dior Men.

Papo Waisman

"Connect".

It is the word that he repeats the most when referring to everything that has to do with music, but also with life, in this era of pandemic.

Connect with others, but also with yourself.

This is what Alborán has done in recent months, so much so that, after all the success achieved and waiting for a new album already on the way, he would like to reinvent himself outside of music.

His eyes are on the movies.

There has already been more than one trial and error conversation.

“It would be a great responsibility because I am not an actor and I respect the trade very much.

It would also be a big effort because I would have to stop everything related to my career ", explains the musician, who has starred in the photo session that illustrate these pages inspired by Ryan Gosling -" an actor with a magnificent cinematographic evolution, "he says. the movie

He confesses that he did a test - he prefers not to give the name of the project - and it turned out well, but he also loved it.

Encouraged by people dedicated to casting who see qualities in him, he is now excited about the idea.

“I would like it only if it is something that implies a real knowledge of the environment that I do not have.

A great effort.

I would not play a role that is similar to what people see in me, quite the opposite.

Something darker and that detaches me from my public image ”.

Any wish?

“I am a good friend of Bayona and I think so.

I would love to work with Almodóvar because I love him, but I don't know if it would suit him.

Outside with someone like Ryan Murphy. "

Before saying goodbye, with his usual backpack always accompanying him, where he keeps the paper agenda in which he notes all the tasks that come with the preparation and departure of

, and his mobile, with which he connects with millions of fans every week , compares the adventure of acting to that of cooking, which he became "very fond of" during confinement.

“I didn't know how to make a fried egg.

And now I'm like my grandmother, who cooked for me and kept looking at me to see if I liked it.

The best thing is that I experienced again that feeling of starting from scratch and wanting it to go well for you ”.

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