The afternoon begins to fall in Madrid when Alizz (Castelldefels, 1984) appears smiling with sunglasses and a vibrant red sweater. We are at the door of the offices of Little Spainthe audiovisual production company of his friend and fellow success C. Tangana. We go up in the elevator and upon entering they greet each other briefly and say “when we’re done, we’ll talk” with their eyes. Two of the most decisive artists in the change in the Spanish musical landscape in recent years do not need much to understand each other. Together they have renewed pop, and along the way they have won awards such as tres Grammy Latinos What was the album worth to them? The Madrid.
“I always see it as a compliment that we are related,” he says. Alizzwhich is actually called Cristian Quirante. “It’s not something I run away from. I even often bring up the topic myself because I feel proud of it,” he adds. The Catalan, who achieved popularity as a producer already in his thirties, turned his career around in the middle of the pandemic. She stopped traveling, returned to his city, and began releasing his own songs as a soloist. “I started to be in my studio a lot, I could see my friends more and I even had less stress. I started to feel good,” he remembers of that time.
In 2021 he published his first album, There has to be something more, which was very well received by critics and the public. Especially they are The meetingon topic with the ex triumphant Amaia Romero. Now, Alizz seeks to give something to talk to again reckless driving, an album with “somewhat darker lyrics,” he says, which will be published at the beginning of next May. “I’m always making songs, although I never know why. I’m seeing how things are woven along the way. But I realized that I had a record in front of me when I started playing with the musicians in my band. Especially with my guitarist. , Ferran Gisbert, who in the end ends up producing almost the entire album with me. Suddenly something opened up in me: I stopped being alone in front of a computer with samples y you feel to destroy guitars,” he explains.
In his latest work, composed of ten songs, he addresses new composition structures, but especially he squeezes this string instrument, experimenting with its sounds to the maximum. “To me I really like pop. But above all I like artistic projects that propose something, that are not simply good songs. I found that I had never squeezed guitars like I had done with rhythms or sound libraries. Besides, it’s my thing. “I am a guitarist,” he points out about the identity and objective of a project that is also nourished by the cinematographic universe of David Lynch.
Despite this desire to carry out new proposals in the artistic field, the musician affirms that “radical innovations have to be made by kids.” “I think that is no longer my role”explains the author of hits like Bad woman, Booty o Hong Kong. “You have to be very attached to things that right now I don’t even know exist. Be crazy about searching and investigating the deep web“, aade.
It might be surprising that someone who knows the formula for success so well would try to distance himself from commercialism. However, Alizz He sees it as something completely natural. “I have always felt comfortable on that border between the avant-garde and popular music. Even at some point I have been very involved in it mainstream and in that slightly crazy wheel of searching for the hit. But I’m tired. I have separated myself quite a bit from what radio music and playlists are. tops. Especially with my project,” she explains slowly.
On the one hand, he believes that it makes sense for his music to be framed more “in the alternative” due to his tastes and influences in addition to the identity he has created. On the other hand, he is quite critical of current popular music. “I’ve tuned out because I don’t find it interesting. I think it’s all too established. It’s not that exciting. I’ve enjoyed it a lot for years, but now I feel that what was a change, a creative explosion, has become business as usual. I don’t know if we’re at the point where everything is fucking boring or we’re just in a valley.but pop music is more of the same,” he says.
In any case, it shows that he has not completely separated himself from commercial matters when he reveals that he is behind the production of Madrethe collaboration between Puerto Ricans Antillean Villain y Young Miko included on the latter’s new album. “But I’m not doing that kind of stuff all the time anymore,” he said. “It’s true that the important things you have achieved are there. They are like milestones, No? Your great achievements. AND It is dangerous because sometimes there is a fight with yourself for wanting to emulate everything you have done before. “That leads to a bit of frustration,” she acknowledges.
“Now everything in pop is more of the same”
“I consider that I am a person who does not like to arrive at a place, metaphorically speaking, and stay there. I enjoy the path traveled. When I achieve something for myself, I lose interest. But it is true that sometimes there is a little inner voice that tells you: ‘You have to get here’, ‘they must have called you from such and such a place’, or ‘you have to be earning I don’t know how much’ I have my nerves between that part of the ego that can be the search for success and. find what really makes me feel fulfilled,” he confesses.
Returning to his new work, the album has three collaborations. Although, he reveals, “there are others recorded that have not ended up being released and perhaps will appear in an extended version.” In the ones we found there is an international musician as well as two Catalan artists. One of them is No Arnalwhose single has already been published as a preview.
“I wanted to give value to Catalonia because I think we need to believe in it a little more from there”, clarifies his decision when choosing who has accompanied him. “I think we had a very big boom with him Soonhe Primavera Sound and the entire independent music scene but it has been diluted a bit. We have to be reborn from those ashes. “Go back to doing important things from my land,” she points out.
Even Alizzz dares to use Catalan in one of the songs. And it’s not the first time. He already did it in Qu pasa nenand single published a year ago now with which it aroused a great stir. In the song, she claims recognition as a successful local artist.
“I wanted to express that I am part of Catalan culture and I knew that there were people who were going to say no to me, as happened with Llus Llach.. I didn’t want people to think that I was a Spanish artist. I am a Catalan artist. “I know Catalan culture perfectly and, furthermore, I am part of those elites that are proposing things,” he explains. He confesses that “there was a lot of criticism, some very interesting” and recognizes that it helped him to get the public to take him “more seriously at a level.” artistic and discourse.” “The only thing that scared me was that it wouldn’t generate conversation. That would have been a hell of a fiasco. But I ended up very satisfied. Not everyone makes a political issue. “Pop music doesn’t dabble in that stuff,” she says.
Where self-censorship is admitted is outside of the songs. “I have sometimes written a tweet and deleted it. Although many times you think something that is true, then you wonder if the world really needs to know that you think that. So yes, I have sometimes censored myself because I know that everything I say passes scrutiny. In some interviews I also think: ‘I’m not going to say this because I’m going to get into an absolutely gratuitous mess,'” he responds.
“I am a Catalan artist and I am part of Catalan culture even though people like Llus Llach say no”
One of the most controversial and vertigo-generating topics in the artistic world is how artificial intelligence can change art. “If an AI can make a song better than me, I’ll step aside. I think you can’t fight with that.”says Alizzz. He points out that he has not yet “internalized much” how it may affect his work in the future; However, he acknowledges that he has already played with the AI on some occasions “to do nonsense.” “In 30 seconds he makes you a song latin pop “that talks about a girl whose name is someone else and whose birthday is that day,” he says with amusement.
“I don’t know if AIs are really going to do anything of value. I imagine so. I think we are going to experience historic moments on a cultural level with this. It doesn’t scare me, but rather it seems exciting to me. It’s something that we are going to do.” see it firsthand. It’s not going to happen when we’re 80 years old,” he adds.
Beyond his next steps in the music industry, he does not close the doors to moving into acting in the future. “I have some concerns about acting”he confesses, “I feel that it is what is most similar to being on stage, plus I think it is something very interesting on a personal level. I can be good at it. I am a very shy person, but the camera or a stage generates moments of euphoria and they make me grow,” he declares.
In any case, he maintains that he has no regrets about having chosen himself as a soloist. “It has compensated me both creatively and personally.. Starting to write makes you learn a lot about yourself. It seems to me that I have grown a lot. So far, everything has been a gift,” she concludes.
When we left the production company offices, we left Alizz chatting with old friends. The topic of conversation revolves, of course, around deciding where to watch the Champions League match that Barça, his team, is playing in just half an hour. Perhaps it is part of his cultural claim to Catalonia.