At 54, Antonio Birante he is happy to have discovered it New ways to channel your creativity. She has published her first book of short stories (Three) and a completely different album from ¡27! what did you do beforestrings). Also, he ended a two-year hiatus in his acting career.

Having never played in any band before, She has been a solo artist since her first album, in 1994.. However, in recent years you have put together various projects, such as a job with his father, die (the last mountain), dead languagess with Ariel Minimal Sanzo, e Flowers in Versailles with Marcello Filippo.

-You seem to have indulged yourself in doing things that you had in your portfolio or that were presented to you.

-I feel that sometimes I am more comfortable with the unexpected. I feel more real doing things that are a little out of the ordinary. These are projects that I do first because I like them and then I also like that they are not so conventional.

– They take you out of the rut of making one solo album a year.

-Clear. And it’s led me to make way more albums than I would have if I’d stuck to “Every two years I release an album, in quotes, normal.” I think if you melodise poets, as is the case with minstrel trade (2018), you don’t sing as if the lyrics were yours. And if you compound one record with another, you’re not even in your world and you’re fitting in. They were adaptation jobs, because they weren’t what he was doing.

-Your last “normal” album was “El interior del volcán”, in 2020, but it wasn’t even that normal.

-I recorded it in its entirety at my home during the pandemic and it had no formal presentation. It wasn’t even that normal because I took the audacity to record everything myself, and do it entirely at home, which I haven’t done since. Random25 years ago.

A disk with strings

The brand new and exquisite record strings is another of the rarities of Antonio Birabent’s discography, which he sings only accompanied by a quintet of viola, two violins, cello and double bass

“The interesting thing -he points out- is that it led me to have to sing, I don’t know if in any other way, but the keys have changed a lot, generally upwards. There’s no rhythm, there’s no drums and everything is in a much more ethereal place.”

Being very meticulous, this is not the first time he has recorded with an orchestra, as in the 90s he sang slum tune at the Cervantes Theater with the Juan de Dos Filiberto orchestra, for a tribute to Gardel.

“In recent years – he adds – I have participated in tributes where there was an orchestra, and this put me in the situation of a traditional singer, like a crooner, who sings with an ancient sound. The project this year is to be able to present the album as much as possible in that format and also in bigger formats, because it’s a nice project to sing”.

-How did you come up with the idea of ​​re-recording your songs with strings?

-The truth is that the idea came from Víctor Volpe, with whom we made many records together, many. A couple of years ago he said to me, “Hey, this came to my mind: why don’t we take ten songs we made together and reinterpret them for a string quintet?”

-Did it cost you to listen to yourself so stripped, without a band?

-At one point we considered singing live with the orchestra, but we realized that it would give us more than it would give us. Studio owner Ion was very happy with the sound, because we did it with Beatles-era mics and system.

One detail is that I went to the recording of the orchestra and hummed while they played, so that afterwards I could have it in my memory and sing knowing how they had sounded. There was no battery and no clicking, so it was a great learning experience.

The book “Three”

A year ago, at the Book Fair, Birabent presented his first book of short stories, entitled Threein reference to texts closely related to the relationship with his father and son.

For someone so productive, breaking new ground is sure to bring more books.

“I think this world of writing – he says – will accompany me for a long time. Maybe always. I feel that it is an activity that has another time and another need. And even if for now everything I write in this first book is short, what I’m writing now is much longer. Hopefully, a new book will be released in 2024.”

And he adds: “Three It’s a book between family and urban observer, two things I like, but I opened the door and I started to maybe channel what I’ve always had, which is writing fiction texts, without anything autobiographical. I’m very excited.”

go back to acting

According to Antonio, “Up until last year I had self-retired from acting. I hadn’t acted for two years. But I said to myself ‘I’ll be back now or I’ll never come back’, and I’ve worked on three series and one film, though none of these was premiered”.

Refers to the second part of josithe second season of The days of the roostera Paramount series with Landia and a film he shot in Bariloche with Elena Roger.

“I’d like to act again this year,” he concludes.

more projects

Birabent hasn’t played with Ariel Minimal in the group for six months dead languages, but he’s not worried: “We both always knew it was a weird band and when that happens, we’ll play.”

As for his shows with diebelieves that currently “the adventure is over and I don’t think we will play it anymore”.

In his more solo vein but without strings, he recently played in Tecnópolis and put together a new format with drummer Nacho Svachka. who is also a classical percussionist at the Colón and plays the vibraphone and glockenspiel.

-Have you kept in mind that it will soon be 30 years since your first album?

-Someone told me recently, so I will re-record a song as a tribute. I’ve already booked a studio to do it and I’ve written a new song for Palo Pandolfo. It will be simple with these two themes.

-What do you remember about your musical debut, did you look for it or was it born singing in “Tango Feroz”?

-I didn’t look for it, but I did many things to make it happen. It’s not like I said ‘I want to be a soloist, make records and go with that’. But if I’m here it’s not by chance. I remember a lot about the recording of that first album, which was done in Soda’s studio, with Carlos Narea as producer. Those were different times, because we went to Madrid to mix and the recordings were still on tape.

I remember Narea teaching me a system for choosing voices. Modestly, I’ve learned this and I’m good at choosing the best part of each take, both for myself and for others. It’s a vocal chess that I love.

-You enjoy your free time but you are more productive, right?

-Yes. Doing nothing backfires on me. That’s why I think I’ve done so many things in music, acting, radio (N.de R: he won a Martín Fierro a la Radio in 2017) and writing.

The beauty of writing, in particular, is stopping time a little. It’s producing in a capsule and it’s good now that the environment is very bad.