Just before the end of the year, Peter Aznar had the pleasure of releasing a new album, which he christened The world wasn’t made in two days and which could very well be subtitled “And neither is this record”, because It took four years and it’s a double jobwith 20 songs.
The result is an exciting synthesis of his busy and exciting career., which included joining legendary bands such as Madre Atómica, Serú Girán and the Pat Metheny Group. He manages to bring together his most extroverted and introverted facets in the same work, sanctioning his talent as a composer of popular songs and as an “adaptor” to Spanish of hits by other authors, just as he did with his greatest success: At first sightby Chico Cesare.
“It’s My Most Personal Album”
In the artist’s own words, it’s his “most personal album in a long time”. And he adds: “I started writing it in 2018 and then its composition was nourished by the experience of the pandemic, which led me to a very deep introspection and to manifest a more deeply involved vision of the world, due to the urgency it has given to our lives, that global tightrope between life and death”.
The lineup includes a Spanish adaptation of a beautiful ballad by John Legend,All of Meand stylistically covers a wide field ranging from rock, soul and jazz to ballads, folk, neo-baroque, classical, trap and reggaeton.
The themes addressed are personal love with its heavens and hells, the global environmental crisis and the carelessness and inertia of governments in this regard.
It has the participation of his stable band: Julián Semprini on drums, Alejandro Oliva on percussion, Matías Martino on keyboards and Sebastián Henríquez on guitars, plus the contribution of guest musicians Federico Arreseygor on organ, Juan Cruz de Urquiza on trumpet, Pablo Moser on tenor sax and a 23-piece string orchestra.
“I put all the meat on the grill”
You say it’s your most personal album in a long time, but one could assume that every solo album is very personal.
-I consider it my most personal album because it messes everything up. It touches on themes from the spiritual, mythological and archetypal world. It’s the first album that contains more songs that I dreamed, that came to me in dreams. Sometimes I wake up and have the melody, a piano arpeggio, a guitar phrase, a title or a piece of text.
I think it had to do with what happened to us during the pandemic, with that kind of forced stop and that deep look inside and out, a little forced right now, even if I welcomed it. It was kind of like a gap year that I never took.
-It’s not that you dedicated yourself to doing nothing! You have given zoom recitals, written and composed many songs.
-I felt it necessary and I saw that it wasn’t just my anguish, but that the whole planet was the same. We were all scared, shocked and with a level of uncertainty like never before. I asked myself what I could do or contribute, and I said “I know how to do it”. I love music and literature, so I sang songs I like, read stories and thought out loud. It was like saying: “I’ll accompany you like this”. And it was divine what happened in the return of it.
-Your first Facebook Live recital was like throwing a message in a bottle into the sea, not knowing what was going to happen. But then you saw what was happening and it was impressive.
-Exactly. There was clearly a lack, a need for some sort of virtual hug. And it was amazing how people all over the world reciprocated. It’s as if they gave you carte blanche: “We’ll make you a bank, come on, guess what you’re doing, it’s very good for us, thanks”. Then I put all the meat on the spit!
“It’s a more ambitious painting”
-Each song on the album is a very different world from the others. Weren’t you afraid of losing a certain unity by switching from English folk to reggaeton?
-I wasn’t concerned about variety, in the same way that it didn’t always bother me. My albums are usually varied. And this, being a dual carriageway, is a multi-lane avenue. There was also that blank check from people, which is so loud, where you hear them say, “Let’s go with whatever you want.”
I’ve never had any doubts or resentments about the variety of styles. Either way, you can approach all music with an attitude of respect, dedication, and good intentions. Later it will be seen how much you achieve it or not. There are many double albums that are an example of how, having a larger canvas, you can set out to make a more ambitious picture.
-Do you feel that over the years you have said more things and in a more concrete way?
– Yes. There are many artists of these styles who are seriously committed and say important things, for example Wos, Trueno and Residente. Many Calle 13 songs are posters.
-As for Wos, have you ever had contact with him, for obvious reasons? (his father of him is the percussionist in Aznar’s band)
-We haven’t met personally, but I went to see his recital in Argentinos Juniors, which was a bomb. They touched everything and what he did was total magic. The freestyle with her two companions was terrible, they unstitched it! The show was a beauty.
-Didn’t making a rap remind you of your experience with Enrique Pinti?
-It’s not similar. Pinti’s was in a satire and comic key, while this one goes in the opposite direction, even musically. But it is still a first approach.
-The song that gives the title to the album looks like a manifesto in rap rhythm.
-I wrote that first song early last year, kind of like I was freestyling, improvising on the writing and rapping it. I was going at full speed, like a stream of consciousness, throwing one idea after another and getting carried away by the rhyme! I had an idea of what I wanted to communicate, but it all came out by itself, even the “the world wasn’t made in two days” thing. It’s like a kind of manifesto and that’s why it’s the first one.
It seemed nice to me as a declaration of principle and to say “I’m here, this is what I think and what worries me these days”. And I liked that it was at the beginning, like, “Let’s start like this.” It seemed important to me that it was in a privileged place. It refers to the fact that we cannot and should not lower our arms. Important and beautiful things take time and effort. You can’t let yourself fall for a stumble.
-Even the solutions will not arrive in two days.
-Exactly! And you have to keep fighting and fighting all the time for what you believe in. / I love and am very enthusiastic about rap and freestyle because it is a revival of poetry. In the end it is this: poetic art set in motion and with a concept of improvisation. I love improvisation for my jazz side, I love poetry for my poetic side, and I’m a rock musician, so in that dance I feel at home.
-At a time when everyone releases singles, releasing an album of 20 songs is also a real manifesto.
-In this I am very much old school, Old school. I like the fact of saying “Look, I have it, look how beautiful it turned out”. I like it in a work like this that works so well, in my opinion as a complete work it is good that all that coexistence is in a single object.
“It’s my opinion and I say it”
-There is also a very strong criticism of governments and world problems. Didn’t you hesitate in case someone else didn’t feel the same way?
-Any political stance or opinion implies that there will be people who don’t like it. The only way to please anyone is to be dead, and I’m far from dead. You have to play it! It’s my opinion and I say it, and some might not like it, but hey, wanting everyone to like it is a trap, because it immobilizes you. I say what I think and I am as I am.
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Source: Clarin
