The patio of Pablo Lopez (Fuengirola, 1984) is not as dark as the song’s video made it out to be. It is spacious, bright and cozy. The artist receives EL MUNDO right there, on a sunny morning of this “April without anesthesia”, as one of his last lyrics says. He smiles and introduces himself, head down, as if we didn’t know whose house we came from.
More than 15 years have passed since Malagueo participated in Operation Triumph, when this is still broadcast on open television. Since then, Pablo López’s life has been a roller coaster with many loops and a beginning with more slopes than hills. Despite finishing second in OT by popular vote -David Bisbal and Manuel Carrasco occupied the same position before him-, Risto Mejide He predicted that López was doomed to remain a “pianist in bars, hotels and cruise ships.” Time will contradict him and extract an apology: 10 years of career, four albums and numerous participations in programs such as The voice They have established him as one of the most praised Spanish musicians on the current scene.
“To the artists who have just come out of the OT Academybecause anyone who gets on stage and tries to convey emotions is no longer just a triumph, but an artist from head to toe, would tell them to be clear, that they have not entered any strange world and that success depends exclusively on them, not on what each other tells them,” says López. ” Some may have to fight a little more to sign a contract, but it is better not to make any movies and know who you surround yourself with. I had to learn it a while ago.”
He confesses that it is very difficult for him to give advice. But what would today’s Paul give him, who fills theaters and concert venues, to the young man who played in those bars, hotels and cruise ships? “That he didn’t worry so much about the logistical details, that he didn’t waste a minute letting himself be carried away by fear. And, above all, that he enjoyed it, because we don’t have to take anything for granted in this life,” he maintains.
And since he doesn’t take it for granted, he just lives it. Without rushing, without pressure, without envying the person in front of you. Without allowing themselves to fall into the maelstrom of prefabricated songs and the bizarre marketing strategies of the industry. For the Malagueo, it is practically a privilege to be allowed to release music at his own pace. “The other day I heard news about five thousand songs being edited a day. With all this AI, it seems like it’s as easy as clicking a button and lo and behold, you have a three-minute song that sounds almost identical to another. I’m a little bit outside of all that dynamic because, If one day I was afraid of missing a train, I promise you that I don’t have it right now.” he says, shrugging his shoulders. “I still go to the supermarket and be able to pay my bills and, above all, feel very comfortable with playing every day and, if a song comes out of that every four months and not every week, then so be it. be. “I like to do things little by little, with soul and with love, because that’s how my family and my audience have raised me.”
As you may have guessed by now, Pablo López He has no intention of releasing an album for now.. Three years have passed since his album came out unicorn, already in the throes of the pandemic. In a hopeful gesture, he launched the first single of what his next work will be – still undated, to the impatience of his fans and the exasperation of the media -, Quasiin December 2022. Since then they have arrived, as spaced as they are resounding, The biggest hug of all time, April without anesthesia y Look how they dance. “This last one has a very special meaning, it is a story with an outcome that no one expects. Someday I will tell it,” he says, mysterious as he is.
“It may seem to the public that I make more abstract themes now, but I think that I have never written more clearly about my life, about what is happening around me, in recent months. I just don’t give him a first and last name,” she says.
Pablo López is pure naturalness. She shows us the garden, where her two cats stretch and lick their lips, looking at the pool suspiciously; the orchard, where he plans to grow a lemon tree and a rose bush, and his home recording studio, where he spends hours “banging” on the piano. He turned 40 a month ago, but he still stuck in his thirties. Or better, in childhood. She refuses to abandon the child she was; With him he shares the enthusiasm when talking about what he is passionate about, and also that shyness that prevents him from holding his gaze when he has to answer any question.
“The hug of a child is the most beautiful thing that exists. You put an Israeli child and one from Gaza, and they will end up hugging. It shows that it is something absolutely natural, intrinsic to the human being, ancestral and primary” . But, what would be for Pablo López the biggest hug of all time? “I don’t want to do cheap populism, but right now, that of Putin and Zelensky. It is an impossible hug, although of course, with AI you can quickly have an image of the two having a mojito on the beach,” he says. Claim the hug as the most effective weapon to make love and not the war: “It seems as if it were necessary for a meteorite to fall for us to really shit ourselves and stop arguing so much.”
The musician The tour started in February where he commemorates a decade on stage, touring his discography throughout Spain and traveling through Europe, the United States and Latin America in the fall. Valencia, Vigo, Valladolid, Granada, Gijn… until reaching two nights with everything sold out in the Palau de la Música of Barcelona this April 10 and 11. In mid-June, Madrid lbeniz theater host four López concerts as part of the Universal Music Festival. “I’m singing a song that I wrote 10 years ago and, five minutes later, another that I wrote three months ago. It’s crazy, it seems like they both challenge each other, that they laugh at each other. But I feel like I enjoy them equally.” “I have the same respect for them, and I realize that the public does too,” he says.
Composing entire albums, recording all the demos and then choosing among several dozen the 12 or 13 that finally make up the album does not suit him, he confesses. She admires artists who are able to do it, but her mode of operation It is very different. His team doesn’t get involved and lets him do it; geniuses have to be left alone. “I am very anxious. As soon as I throw up the songs, I want the public to listen to them. I compose constantly, but only those that I feel really proud of come out, there are some very embryonic ones that remain in ‘halves’ or ‘three quarters’.” ’cause I show them to my friends and then I get discouraged Antonio. [Orozco] say what many die of success without seeing the light because of me”, re.
A few months ago, and thanks to Victoria -his work as a lyricist for Raphael- he had the opportunity to record in the studios of Abbey Road in London. 20 years ago, López lived in the English capital, singing in its streets. On the way home, he made a detour to pass in front of the emblematic place where his admired Elton John, David Bowie and Pink Floyd performed magic. “I recently found a poorly recorded video on an old cell phone that I sent to my colleagues, where I, with my bad boy face, joked: ‘Guys, did you see this? I’m here, but inside, it’s shit.’ Look, he was a prophet and he didn’t know it,” he says, laughing.
However, he acknowledges that there was nothing ceremonious about those recordings at Abbey Road: “I have realized that I am above fanaticism and temples. “I can allow myself to get excited at 7:50 while I finish having breakfast, but at 8:00 I am aware that you have to take advantage of every minute in that magnificent room, it is a total brain sweat that prevents you from getting bored and wandering.”
With all the dreams and achievements, is there something that particularly bothers Pablo López? “Personally, I regret many things. Here where you see me, I’m a guy with a masochistic sense of responsibility. Sometimes I haven’t wanted to get to know someone well for fear of falling in love, because I didn’t think it was the time.” In the professional field, there are also things that I have wanted to do, but I don’t throw in the towel: “No. I am very featurings Although I know they are fashionable, I need to find meaning in them, but I would love to do some collaboration with StromaeHe seems like a barbaric guy to me. And also with Rob Iniesta, from Extremoduro. “I have dreamed about him these days.”