Sounds like a lie, but at 29 and with four albums already releasedright now Benito Cerati began his career as a soloistwith the release of his brand new album Shasei.
The explanation is simple: his previous jobs were with the band he led, called zero kills, where he displayed a variety of resources and ideas, while growing in public, singing first in English and then in Spanish, heating in the porteño below and occasionally performs live in tribute to his father Gustavo CeratiTo the group stereo soda and also to Charlie Garcia.
Benedict today begins his solo career with an exquisite albumare undoubtedly the most impressive and direct of his career, where there was almost always a good deal of experimentation and variety of concepts.
Second bill. the new songs are inspired by their experiences during adolescence, the intensity of their first love encounters, the mistakes they made, the passage of time and the coexistence of nature and technology.
As the first sample button, he released the single in August black hole (with a remix by Audia Valdez and an instrumental version). Then in October she pulled out Hi love, also with a remix (this time by Sobrenadar) and an instrumental version. Finally, a month ago she posted Shasei.
“I think of records as movies”
-You must have enjoyed the challenge of making a different album.
-I loved it, it was wonderful!
Was there a theme that led you to the rest of the album, or did you just decide to make an album with this sound and concept?
-I always think about records. It’s like thinking about movies. Well, you can also make a short film, but I think big. Everything I wanted to show was out on the last Zero Kill album, so I thought it was time to do something new. YY the truth is that I am happy with the album. It’s the first or second time that I can 100% capture the record that I imagined in my head.
-How do you see the whole Zero Kill phase now, with so much learning and experimentation?
-It was great! I listen to records and I love them. It seems to me that I was making the music I wanted to make at the time, with varying levels of success in terms of capturing what I set out to make. The truth is, I listen to them from time to time. I understand ideas, I understand where they come from and I like them.
-At the time of Zero Kill you didn’t want to go out with your name in front. Why are you excited now?
-I was not a person who liked to speak out, and if I ever did, it wasn’t intentionally, but because I was naive and didn’t know the scope that words could have. The truth is, I’ve never cared reflector. I’m fine with the possibilities I have, I do what comes to mind at the moment and I’m obviously very grateful.
-Maybe you feel more confident.
-Yup. It has to do with the faith and trust I have throughout my career. They’ve been doing these things for nine years now, and I’d tell you that a lot has happened in the last year. Maybe I feel more capable. There were times when I felt like I had to downshift or that it wasn’t the time to go all out. Now I stretch more. Possibilities present themselves and I choose to take them.
Thanks Totals and other tributes
-How did you spend participating in the Gracias Totales tour; Did the decision to join it cost you?
-I think doing such a thing is difficult for any artist, not just for me. I may have extra weight if I can think of what people may say, but I’m not interested. From the beginning I felt that they had every right to do it because it was their songs, and they (Zeta and Charly Alberti) wanted me to participate much more than I ended up participating. Maybe for a matter of pride I made a song and nothing more. And I didn’t go to most of the shows.
I thought it was great that Soda Stereo was still honored, but I wanted to keep doing my own thing, maybe because of how I was raised. I just wasn’t interested in propelling my career from that, which is easy.
-Perhaps you felt you could or the CCK when you were calm that you had your path well mapped out.
-The CCK thing happened at a completely different time, when I felt I had already achieved what I wanted and was happy with what was happening to me. I felt I had the rest to pay homage well done. I had a really good time there, with Soda and with Charly García’s birthday; I like that they consider me. And the guys from Virus always call me to do something together. I feel honored and super grateful.
-Surely the same thing happened to your father: he reunited Soda when he was confident he already had a well-established solo career.
Exactly the same thing happened to him. Otherwise it might not have happened. My old man had to fight a lot with the Soda shadow and had a hard time getting rid of it. I even remember that Natural strength They covered it when it came out, and now it’s “the masterpiece”! Many times things are re-evaluated later, or a new, less prejudiced generation arrives.
“Sometimes I think this is like a debut”
-Are you already playing the songs of “Shasei” live?
–Yes, the entire disc. We are not doing Zero Kill tracks. We started in Rosario and I a band with Juliana Isas on viola and acoustic guitar, Gimena Alvarez Cela on keyboards and electric guitar, and Pedro Bulgakov on drums.
-In the album there seem to be influences ranging from Massive Attack to David Arnold, the composer of the James Bond films. Were your references for strings, for example?
-Yup. golden finger (from James Bond) is one of my favorite soundtracks. I also went back to what I listened to a lot in my teens, because there was a lot written from that point of view. It was a little reimagining of the first thing I did with Zero Kill, but with everything I did after that. He was also a healer, because in those years he had a lot of shame and insecurities. Sometimes I think this is like a debut.
Could it be that among those records you listened to as a child was “Earthling” by David Bowie? There is some drum and bass in “Shasei”.
-Obvious. It was my favorite Bowie record. I really liked Nine Inch Nails and all that industrial world. There’s something I didn’t use here because I wanted a more cinematic album, but there was a time in my life – at 16 or 17 – where I made all the songs scream. My grandmother used to tell me: “Isn’t there one where you don’t yell?” Now I wanted to move on to the next side moody. There are some dark spots, but it’s a pretty bright record. Except for a couple of songs, I think it’s the first time I’ve done something more classical.
topic by topic
-The album begins in a very epic and dramatic way, with “Your sword in me”.
-It’s the 70s theme, with that romantic thing.
-Then there is a kind of chacarera. Have you ever done something so folkloric before?
-No, but in September I sang a cover of Mercedes Sosa in Nacional Rock with Mavy Díaz and Teresa Parodi, which inspired me to put something together. Also, in March this year, I went to Jujuy to film landscapes, because I want to do a film afterwards Viewer of the disk. The record also features some flutes and norteño stuff.
-Since there is a line that is “We are already old enough not to ask for forgiveness”, it would be easy to say that it is the album of maturity, or of stopping and looking.
It is contemplative, yes. At the same time, I am going through a re-adolescence moment in my life. At 24-25 I was more tortured and didn’t go out, but now I really enjoy it. I was not very well in 2019 and in quarantine I had a drop. All gloomy, all black and white. Now I’ve been in another place for a year and everything is color.
-“Black Hole” was the first advance and it showed that epic and dramatic touch that we said before.
-I think it’s the most James Bond of the whole album, because of the trombones and strings. A home detail is that the demo was called bajofundo.
-The title track is instrumental, almost like an interlude.
.-Shasei It’s a routing problem. It was the first thing I did for the record and the sunniest. It’s pure joy. I was quite inspired by Morcheeba and Moby.
-Towards the end there is a very slow song, with a lot of climax, which is “Virus”.
– There’s Gillespi on trumpet, who plays a solo that disarms me every time I hear it, because it’s beautiful. We hadn’t done anything together until this year where we did a lot of things: he invited me to his show and he was also with me at the CCK for the tribute to Dynamo Y holy colors.
-Finally, how do you imagine the presentation of the album?
-I imagine live in a theatre, with a good setting of lights and scenography. I want to go back to that: a musical show where staging is secondary. Even Soda has never used giant screens but fabrics and lights. It’s not a danceable album, although there are well played songs, but there is a lot of atmosphere.
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Source: Clarin
