At some point in the conversation with the Spaniards She goesbefore his show Saturday 3 December at the Teatro Gran Rex, the word “vintage” creeps in. But that term doesn’t have the snobbish meaning that many attribute to it: in his voice it sounds genuine and sincere. “Zero postureo”, as they would say in the motherland.
The excuse for the dialogue with the man born as José Miguel Conejo Torres in a charming boutique hotel in Palermo is the formal presentation of when you bite your lip, his fifth solo studio album, following the breakup of Perezathe group that made it known for these payments.
It’s an album by fourteen songs sung in duet with fourteen women. Zoe Gotusso, Ximena Sariñana, Natalia Lafourcade, Ely Guerra and Silvana Estrada, Moreover.
Leiva comes from being a guest at the show that David Lebón did at Luna Park. together they did Your arrivalsong included in the first volume of Lebon & Co. And with that mention, the conversation started.
“There is a lot of friendship with David. And being able to see Palito Ortega, who has always liked Argentine rock, seemed like a very important page to me. It was a rock filled night on the town as Andrés (Squid) also played. They are both very good friends,” Leiva says.
“I wanted to make the record with friends”
-How did the idea of ”When you bite your lip” come about? How and when did you record it, and how has the pandemic affected that process?
-The disc was born in a very organic way. In my recent trips to Latin America I met many friends, most of them very young, and when I returned to Spain I realized that I wanted to make music with them. I enjoyed the idea of writing a record where the lyrics included another voice’s retort, generating that dialogue and doing it with friends that I greatly admire.
The driving force behind the album was being in the studio with them, and the pandemic hit me in full force, since we were about to start recording, a thousand people a day started dying in Spain. We are talking about mid-March 2020, after Vive Latino in Mexico City, where I played. I returned to Spain, with the decision not to record the album or to record it remotely, which is how collaborations happen now.
But I’m from another generation, and I need to record myself, for things to happen in a studio with other people. I can’t do it any other way because I’m not looking for the result but the process.
So in the midst of the pandemic I went to live in Mexico City, and I managed to record myself in a very acrobatic way: of the fourteen songs, I recorded twelve like this.
-And have they registered with the corresponding Covid protocols?
-Yes, we created a bubble in the studio, and that’s how we rode the different waves of the virus. Living in Mexico those months was a risk, because if someone got sick he would have had to interrupt the whole process, and he would have lost a lot of money.
I have had the opportunity to see how emergencies are handled elsewhere. In my country, for example, an ordinance has been decreed that one cannot go out into the street and it has been respected. In Mexico it’s impossible, because you can’t tell the street vendors not to do their job because they don’t have anything to eat. I had the opportunity to see how that time was lived on both sides.
And it’s inspiring when it comes to seeing how other people handle it. The bottom line is that the record was meant to be and it came out, and in the end it was much easier than imagined. Because, as I said, I still can’t conceive of a remote collaboration.
“I had the license and the freedom to try”
-The album has a soulful sound at times within the lineup you say. Does Adán Jodorowsky’s production have anything to do with it?
-We have been friends with Adam for years, from a gang of rock friends. He and I have the same reference music file, like a kind of brotherhood, with the Collected by Neil Young as a lighthouse. I think if we had met as kids in the same neighborhood we would have had a band together.
We both knew what the record was supposed to sound like, so the job was pretty straightforward. As for the soul there is a song called Arrow that if you rush me, and with all due respect and distance, it sounds like Sly & The Family Stone mixed with the sound of Philly. I took the liberty of playing with guests: having a certain license to rehearse, a certain freedom.
There are stylistic passages within a somewhat vintage world, but all supported by songs. The attraction of the album is not only my comrades but also the songs, which have a high degree of commitment. I’m a storyteller more than a singer.
“It’s Not an Outright Feminist Accusation”
-Since this is an album of collaborations with women, how the issue of women’s emancipation struck you locally, with the promulgation of the law legalizing abortion and green handkerchiefs, and how these situations are lived in Mexico and Spain ?
-If you look back, there has been a lot to strive for and achieve in recent years, but change exists and there is a focus that has been placed on very important points. The advance is great. It is a generation of women who are beginning to be in power to change things. I see a bigger place in the industry and I’m very happy with what’s going on.
My album is not an explicit feminist plea, but it is implied. I finally understood that it was done with friends, that the clips were directed by women, and not by strategy: it was something that happened. Since it occurs in this natural way, there is no speculation possible. In Spain and Mexico the movement is very strong and stimulating and things are changing. I think of Silvana Estrada, who is very young and acts as a speaker to show the origin of her folklore. I really like.
The same happens with hip hop and trap, which have had a male imprint from the beginning, and where today women stand as equals. There is a very special talent in the Argentine urban scene. In these days I will try to meet Wos, whom I admire a lot, and the same thing happens to me with Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso, who are very beastly.
– Presenting a record that has fourteen guests is impossible. How is the “When you bite your lip” tour?
-The show must be built from the spectator’s place. And I, as a spectator, don’t like it when there’s a constant coming and going of guests: I think the rhythm breaks down.
So it was important to combine a voice that had some extraordinary characteristics. And I found an Argentinian called Esmeralda Escalante, who has a duo called Ainda. She came on tour, now lives in Spain and is the lead singer of the band.
“I’m composing with Sabina”
-How is your role as producer?
-After the show in Uruguay I go straight back to work on the new Joaquín Sabina album. We’re finishing it together. He’s going on tour and playing here in March, so we’ll be working on releasing some songs before the tour starts.
And I also have another production with the Zigarros, so next year I have a little surplus that I have to manage (laughs).
-This year marks the tenth anniversary of the separation from Pereza. Do they still ask you about the band or a possible reunion?
-When we separated, something natural happened, which took me a while to understand: the public gets angry. So the first few years it was more difficult and they asked me constantly. But when you’re not speculating about a return, they stop asking. It is true that over time, and more in Argentina, Pereza has grown larger post mortem.
And here in the show that there were more people we didn’t put more than a thousand people. But it’s true that we played many clubs, opened for Paranoid Mice and played with everyone. It’s like asking someone from university: it’s a time when I trained as a professional and I’m very fond of it.
So next year you have your tour, productions and a comeback to Argentina.
-We are thinking about whether the next step will be Works or Luna Park. As I always say: I conquered all the people you see at the Gran Rex one by one, playing, without any media support.
I’ve been living here for a few months, I played every Thursday with a band in Makena together with Nico Bereciartúa, I was part of the scene. Why were Los Rodríguez in Spain what they were? Because they were there. To connect with countries you have to experience them day by day and artistically. That’s why I can brag about my Argentinian musician friends.
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Source: Clarin
