In the opening of the music video of his song «Full Time Papi», the Spanish artist Álvaro de la Fuente exercises a leather whip to the camera. The shots continue: through homoerotic clay fights and spectacular muscle exhibitions, all of which explode in a choir of other without shirt, hanging from a rope and singing: «I will be your full -time daddy, full -time daddy, full -time daddy.»
«Full Time Papi» is the first single from the next album of De la Fuente, Spanish leatherand mark a star game for the artist. A few years ago, when he just started, he was still a child, using his playstation as an impromptu recording device and singing Jotas and cracks On the other side of the small bucolic cities in Spain. Now, it has become full -time dad mode, undertaking a quixotic trip to the club in the big city.
From the launch of your first LP, 2022’s The quarryDe la Fuente has traveled the world under its artistic name, guitarricadelafuente, collaborated with high profile pop stars like Troye Sivan, and spent a lot of time thinking about the finals: from death itself to the conclusion of frantic but magical nights. The quarry Marked the rupture of the source beyond Spain, winning places in the best lists. With your second LP, Spanish leatherIts objective is to reach a broader global audience. Working with producer Carter Lang de Sza and the fame of Doja Cat, of the source he is no longer trying to capture the golden vignettes of the home, but relax in the joy of the fleeting moments, creating universal representations of lust and longing to sing in breath records. The result is less buttoned Sketches of Spain And more free wheel mechanized, updated to present beats inspired by Akon and David Gueta-Gueta.
Before the launch of the album, De la Fuente was updated with Rolling stone To discuss Spanish leatherThe amazing popular origins and their complicated relationship with the past. The next conversation has been translated from Spanish and edited for clarity.
Its sound has been transformed from intimate acoustic recordings for more elaborate dance agreements. How would you describe the evolution of your music between your first releases and this new album?
The quarry I think it was a record very inspired by the past: by the weight of heritage, tradition and folklore. In the last 10 or five years, there has been this change in Spain, at least in music, a return to the roots, to the origins. And not only musically, but also in other areas: food, the search for authenticity. At some point, this became so popular that now everything is wrapped in aesthetics that it somehow becomes cheesy, as the image of the old playing cards in the streets. But in the end, those who represent it often are not the ones who really live it.
When I was finishing The quarryI loved the idea that I was writing songs that felt as part of the current popular canon. I had fallen in love with a woody Guthrie song «Jarama Valley» about the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, and with other songs written by Americans who came during the Spanish Civil War to support Republicans. It was a time when the civil war was being deeply romantized. Many artists arrived in Spain in solidarity and wrote songs. These were American popular songs, but with Spain as their theme, such as «Boots of Spanish Leather» by Bob Dylan. I was fascinated how that phrase, «Spanish leather,» still appeared in different places. It is curious how, for them, «Spanish leather» carries this exotic quality, when we only say here leather. What interests me is the idea that we can express folklore as something innate: we have already discovered our roots. Our way of speaking, our humor, our manierism, all are the result of that past.
With Spanish leatherI wanted the songs to be more contemporary, more based on what I witness in the day to day and capture a generational moment through these stories. I spent a few weeks in New York and Los Angeles, mainly in Los Angeles, working with Carter Lang in his studio, at home. I had the idea that what I was doing was very Spanish. And suddenly, people from other countries, even without understanding the language, connected to music, with their energy and that has been really interesting.
Has your composition process changed since your first recordings?
I think the greatest change has been to learn to let go. Not too thinking. When I write, I start with melodies and meaningless words. For example, Future lovers It started with «coffee shops, coffee shops, coffee shops in Madrid.» It made no sense, but I loved it. I was like, «What the hell am I talking about? What am I saying?»
What has kept me awake at night and what has really moved me is this fear of death, a fear of age. They really overwhelm me for the feeling that everything ends. Not only youth, but like … tonight. Or a relationship. The other day in the essay, I thought: «We are working on our rear», and suddenly I became very sad thinking that the program was over. I think it is a symptom of the immediacy that surrounds us, and trying to introduce this hyper-present life, not think too much ahead or behind. Before, I used to write songs that endured, which were timeless. But now, I am more interested in finding fun in the ephemeral, letting nothing be sacred.
Unlike The quarrythat I felt lived within a family tradition with experimental turns and took place in a pastoral imagination, Spanish leather It exists in a more urban backdrop. Can you describe the physical and emotional panorama of this album?
Narratively, I imagined Spanish leather Like a literal landscape. It’s about leaving the town behind, abandoning and going to the city to discover new things, to discover it. On the way, you travel through these Spanish landscapes, as a kind of Don QuixoteWindmill hallucinants. I conceived it as a form of liberation, not a detachment of the past, but saying: «It’s fine, this is a part of me now. I am no longer a child and I want to go to the city and have fun.»
You previously asked me how my song composition has changed and I think it has to do with enjoyment. This time I have not waited things. The lyrics are not always linear, and the songs do not necessarily have the same clear beginning, the medium and the end they did in The quarry. At that time, I felt that I had to be able to defend a song with just a guitar, without ornaments, without artifice. This time, I just want to enjoy these songs, play them for friends on the guitar and dance with them. I love that they feel immediate. It is a collection of songs that enjoy me and I hope they do the same for others.
In the past, I have associated your music with a playful eroticism, full of almost children’s curiosity. This time, I felt that desire acquires a more adult carnal dimension that introduces a new gender and yearning dynamics.
The quarry He lived in a more innocent space. Believe Spanish leather It is part of growing, understanding eroticism, seduction and how you feel about your own body, your own image.
Four years ago, I felt much more pressure. I wanted to go out with a perfect production, layers and layers and experimentation, but did not necessarily express what was in me. Choosing «full -time dad» as the first single was about breaking that. As I am no longer a child. The flirtatious and children’s eroticism with which we used to play, bare bodies as a metaphor, has changed. Now the bodies are just bodies. There is a spill of shame.
There is still a lot of joy. Especially in the language, there is a lot of seduction in the letter. You can see that in the images, which are inspired by what is in the songs.
There are several moments in Spanish leather That reminded me of the moments of sexual liberation in the history of Spanish pop, namely Mecano. How do you balance nostalgia and innovation in your music?
It is funny that you mention Mecano. They were singing about super liberating things: very open and bold stories for their time. I have always found them inspiring. This album actually has some hidden mechanical references, especially in «Puerta del Sol». There was something in Mecano’s language: there was spoken, colloquial, very eighty and is not afraid to say things. That lack of self -awareness really had.
Returning to nostalgia and innovation, I think the two go hand in hand. It is like an umbilical cord: you are constantly fed by nostalgia to create something new. In the end, everything comes from digging through lived experiences.
This fear we have to finish, that is also nostalgia. Nostalgia for what about Finally. I tried to make these songs more interactive in some way, so that the listener feels that they are part of them. It’s not like seeing something beautiful behind a glass box, untouchable. I wanted the songs to be beautiful, yes, but also fun, nostalgic and full of feelings. I want them to trigger joy. To make you love feel things.
(Tagstotranslate) Guitarricadelafuente
