David Lebón was born on 5 October 1952 and will turn 70 next Wednesday, of which he has spent the last half century playing with the best Argentine rock musicians, an honor that few can match.
His return to the country, after having lived part of his adolescence in the United States, was with all the enthusiasm of having lived the Beatlemania and having attended the recitals of the same Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and others.
Already on the local scene, he left his mark in legendary ensembles, from Pappo’s Blues (as bassist), La Pesada, Color Humano (drummer), Pescado Rabioso (bassist), Espíritu (keyboardist), Polifemo (guitar and vocals) and Serú Girán (guitar and vocals). In other words, David Lebón played with Pappo, Spinetta and Charly, among others.
Even alone
Today he has been a soloist for 40 years in a row, although his first album dates back to 1973. He crowned all those decades of activity with the release in 2019 with Lebón & Co. Vol.1. It was a milestone that allowed him to appreciate and taste everything he had collected.
He re-recorded his songs together with luxury guests (Ricardo Mollo, Fito Paez, Andrés Calamaro, Pedro Aznar, Julieta Venegas and others) and has not stopped receiving nominations and awards. Even the Gardel de Oro.
now just go out Lebón & Co. Vol. 2where there are other surprises on the guest list, such as Charly García, Vicentico, Fabiana Cantilo, Abel Pintos, Diego Torres, Spaniard Antonio Carmona (from Ketama), Colombian Juanes, Sandra Mihanovich and Knowing Russia, among others.
-In these discs full of guests you have to be patient to coordinate the times. How did you manage your anxiety?
-I had to wait, but I have the Negra who makes me understand how things are. I am very stubborn, Basque-French and used to working with rock. I come from a place where they didn’t even pay us to play. I recorded with the Pesada and with Pappo and I returned home happy even if they had not given me a weight. My mother asked me if I had any money and I said no. But over time I started to go well.
I am grateful because I feel that if I had done things differently I would have done it very badly in this life. If I had had another job, I wouldn’t have been happy. Music saved me. It was the great lifeline my mom threw me, that she trained me as a Williams dad. When we lived in Miami she brought me records and took me to see the Beatles live. One day she even told me not to go to school anymore. Luckily everything went well and then we went back to Argentina.
Rock at 70
– Your birthday soon
-Yup! 70 fucking years! And nothing … I feel the same. The only thing is that things that didn’t hurt me before, like going to check the pacemaker they wore me from time to time, or having to undergo a hernia operation. But I proudly carry the idea of reaching 70.
-Can you imagine continuing to play at 70? Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney have set a great example of vitality.
-I will tell you, and not to argue, that I am not Mick Jagger nor do I have his money nor do I dance so much on stage. He has many homes and I have just taken my first home now, at 70. I want to live in my house, have fun with my wife, have my grandchildren come and travel from time to time. I don’t know what the future will be like after Luna Park, because obviously I will have to work and I know that I will record more albums in my home studio.
-When you started you would never have imagined that you could continue to rock until you were 70-80 years old.
-Worse! Nobody imagined that such incredible musicians as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Winter would appear. When I started I didn’t know they existed, but I kept composing songs like Beatles. Then I liked it when the rock’s born to be wild.
-It is surprising that you now move planes, which you previously avoided.
-Yup. I store things I couldn’t handle before, like airplanes and elevators. I am trying to do whatever Pato asks of me to be better. But unfortunately claustrophobia and panic are in the world. I don’t want to live in a world where people are killed.
the details of the album
-When did you feel like doing a volume 2?
-When I came up with the idea of doing a second volume, I wasn’t so sure, but the guys in the band started mentioning the songs that might be on it and I got excited. There I remembered Ketama and I wanted to locate Antonio Carmona, he is a divine and I became a good friend. It is evident that he had a life very similar to mine and now he is barbarian.
-It also happened that in the Vol 1 I really enjoyed working with Gaby Pedernera as a producer. We were left with the desire to do more duets and covers, so we talked about it and got started. Also, I love to record. Everything went well and there was good will from everyone.
-At that moment you said that you liked to delegate and not take care of everything, as you always did.
-Absolutely. I went, sang and played the guitar. She did me a lot of good because I didn’t have to think about everything. There are also some very good solos by Tavo, and Gaby’s production is very good indeed. What he did with Charly García was magical, because in some parts he was breathless when he sang. There is a sound that is the same as the previous album, because the same band plays, and I like that.
-How the idea of summoning Skay Beilinson was born. A round of ricotta with a Serú Girán!
– We talked on the phone. “I don’t sing,” he told me, and I asked him to play the viola. “Do what you have to do in the place where you want to do it,” I told him. I didn’t tell any of the guests what I wanted them to do. No education or anything. And I loved Skay’s solo. I didn’t know him before. I only met him once in Palermo, the two of us walked incognito. I recognized him because he wasn’t dressed like those who run, and I was the same!
-Juanes goes “I think I’m loose”, with a lot of funk.
-Yup. Juanes was enjoying himself again. It shows when you listen to it. You realize that he is screaming and playing, having fun. And that he seemed like a very serious guy to me when we talked.
-You called Sandra Mihanovich for a blues like “Copado por el diablo”, from your first solo album.
I love what he did. She seemed to me like she was very good at the theme, and she made it very nice, very calm, and when the music goes down, she goes down too. I know there are very good young singers, but I wanted to do it with my friends. (pause) I need to do something with Lito Vitale, even if it’s a single on piano and guitar.
-Another surprise is the appearance of Abel Pintos.
-It was an idea of Pato, my wife and manager. we have proposed The tiger and the dragon, a complicated song, with a lot of high notes, and it turned out great. Even her voice wasn’t very good that day, and it comes out a little broken and it’s better.
-In “How Long Will It Take” are Kevin Johansen and Rosario Ortega.
-The song is short but deadly. She makes a low voice and Rosario sings very well; Charly is fast and called her before anyone else.
-What topics are you particularly excited about?
-Look, I listen to the song with Antonio Carmona and cry. Really! I know everything that’s been going on lately, that he’s been in a coma for a week and the effort is to sing now. The same thing happened to me when I recorded with Diego Torres, I met him at the time of Golden rocket and I saw him many years later and he told me he would like to sing seminary with Me. The version is amazing. Tune in like a son of a bitch and sing to perfection! Of course I told him that I recorded with his mother.
-They managed to make “Seminare” sound valid and current. They even made a video of us.
-Yes, as it is. So it’s a whole new thing for me, like the other day I sang seminary with Tini at the Gardel Awards. I’m still doing what I’ve always done, which is playing. I remember the first time I played live was in school, in the US, and there were only three people in the audience. That’s how I started.
“The audience gives me love and receives love”
-Has it happened to you later in your career to get to a show and there were very few people?
-Yup. Many times. It also happened to me that the place was full of people and the organizer says he honestly he doesn’t have enough money. What are you going to do? to knock! There is nothing more. In Carlos Paz they hired me for a show, I went with a small band from Córdoba and when I arrived I saw that the boy was already crying that it would go wrong, so I gave him a nice hello. I played for an hour and off we went. The boy was very grateful.
I like that the seats are full, but I don’t want to do two Rivers. This funfair thing makes me a little nervous because I wouldn’t like it not to be full. And if it doesn’t fill up, I wouldn’t mind and give the best show. I have the audience that I have, and that audience is the one that understands me. I really enjoy hearing that they understand me and give me love and receive love.
Are you enjoying the present moment with so much success and recognition?
-It is actually a difficult time for me, due to the deaths of Tayda and my older sister, Mabel. In recent times many musician friends have also died, like recently Marciano Cantero, of Enanitos Verdes, whom I loved very much. The best moments were when I got together with the guys in my band to rehearse.
– Music is good for you.
-For me it is very clear that music is the only thing in the world that is right at the moment. I love that Coldplay make Ten River, because people are going to be filled with music! I feel that those of us who were in early bands have really achieved what has been achieved in the world with artists like the Beatles and Elvis Presley.
More projects
-Can you imagine what can happen after this Vol. 2 with the guests?
-I want to make an album in English; This is something I have pending. I need to make an English record with the songs I liked as a child and also the ones my mother liked, like Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Ray Charles and Barbra Streisand. (murmurs People)
-As Rod Stewart did with “American Songbook”,
-Yes very good. And he made them divine. The other day I went to see Palito Ortega, who is doing these kinds of songs, with an orchestra in the background.
-He has produced three thematic volumes, one of rock, another of romantic themes from the 60s and another type of crooner.
-This is what I want to do! Not that I want to copy it, but I’d like to make a record with Beatles songs and bands like Procol Harum and Spencer Davis Group. (murmurs I’m a man). And then another with the songs my mother listened to, to whom I owe a lot. are ideas …
The session with Charly García
-A few months ago you were very happy because Charly told you she wanted to participate.
– He went to the studio! I didn’t know I was going to actually go, so when I did I really appreciated the effort because it’s hard for him to move. When it started, we looked at each other with Gaby Pedernera and we almost cried, because we saw how strong he was and it was not yet clear what he wanted to do with the song.
He asked me to be with him and I sat next to him, as I have done millions of times. First he started playing keyboards and I told Gaby to let him do it quietly, because something good is sure to come out of it. That’s right: there are divine strings that he made with his fingerboard, softly, playing with one hand. Then he messed with his voice. He made a low voice where mine rises, and it was spectacular. I know him and I know that he was afraid and with a lot of respect for me, because he wanted to do it well, like when we were together with Serú.
Did he tell you something when he heard the final version?
-When the album came out, Mecha called me to tell me that Charly was listening to him and was crying with emotion.
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Source: Clarin
