Seven years after his last work entirely with his own songs, Iván Ferreiro, surrounded by his inseparable brother Amaro, returns freer than ever with Trinchera Pop, a very personal album with which he continues an artistic career that has already spanned 31 years since its inception. with his previous band, Piratas, and later solo.
Pop trench. For now, it sounds like a battle.
Quite the opposite (laughs). Making the record has been very pleasant and fun, although sometimes life is a battle, a war. With the trench I thought more about the commitment of the work, each creative work is a small trench to which you have to be fully committed. A trench is used to attack, but also to protect oneself, to protect oneself, and to reorganize. Also to think, because there has been a lot of waiting and we have given a lot to the head.
Why so much time silence?
We just went at our own pace, we didn’t even think about the time that was passing, and things got a little longer. I suppose that we are increasingly convinced that we have to do things at our own pace and, really, you don’t make a record like this in a month. We have built the album from the sound to the sound and not from the songs, as we have done on other occasions. This record also contains a slice of life, which are these years.
Do you think that the new generations understand such a long absence of an artist by the immediate way of consuming music today?
I suppose that we no longer have especially young people as an audience. We usually talk about music from before or now. No, music has multiple forms, it goes through periods, and we have two options: one is to try to blend in with the youth and put on more modern clothes and start doing reggaeton to appear young, which is totally impossible, or to continue specializing in music. what we know how to do, which is our thing. You don’t have to dress up to make good music. We no longer compete for number one, we never have. It has been a competition against us, to do it better and in a different way from others. They are challenges that have to do with us, not against, for example, Love os Lesbian or Rayden. What I did need is for it to be seen that there is an effort at work, that we take you seriously as intelligent beings and I don’t take anything. And damn, I hope there is a certain image of renewal, that instead of being stagnant, I’m moving forward. I am 52 years old, but I am still restless musically.
Still?
Let’s see, at this age, I can’t start doing reggaeton, but to improve my music. When I say that I want to make better records, people think that what I want is to be more successful than the previous ones, and it’s not like that. I can’t have the freshness that I had at 25 or 30 years old, but I can have other things and I can get you emotional thanks to the experience. With this album, it has been like opening a door that we don’t know where it will lead us to, but it seems like the beginning of something, more than the end of a road. It has been like starting again from scratch.
“I never have the feeling of defeat, it only happens when you set yourself an absurd goal”
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He was talking before about competition with himself. Has he ever felt defeated?
No, because I see it as a children’s game, you can only lose if you got bored. Winning or losing is a matter of footballers, wanting to beat one another. I never have a feeling of defeat, and I think it only happens when you set yourself an absurd goal. In our case, the victory is making records and that you understanding them. What is incredible is that people want to continue receiving us. That the disc does not enter any list? We don’t expect it either. Nor cover ourselves with him. But we have a trade, a job, and that is milk.
About this album, he has said that he doesn’t know more songs are needed in this world.
It’s just that we really think about it a lot, and we’ve been through that crisis this year. The necessity of what we do! I guess all human beings need to have a purpose in life. I think that the world doesn’t need more songs, just like I do or play them, but they really aren’t necessary. It also has to do with the importance we give ourselves. That is, if I disappear from this world tomorrow, nothing will happen either, no human being is essential.
In one of your songs, you talk about thoughts, emotions, and fiction… Are you more of reality or dreams?
A little everything. We believe that everything is part of the reality of each one and, therefore, that each one takes it as it suits them. What I did want is that the theme of the songs was from another place, looking for emotion in other places. We didn’t feel like resorting to the easy tear or rejoicing in the dodgy, but quite the opposite, celebrating everything that happens to us, because if you fall, you were on top. And that it wasn’t an obvious song, but it did do what all songs have to do: move us.
No more romantic love in their songs, then. Does it have to do with the personal stage you are living?
Because we are really good in our sentimental life. It is the best personal stage of our life. It has taken us a long time to get here, but we feel comfortable and calm, and that allows us to go further. It also has to do with comforts, such as being well off financially. When the heart and belly are full, philosophy arrives, which is basically talking about everything at once all the time.
“We live in a world where being ‘down’ is frowned upon, you have to always be laughing. For there to be happiness, you have to remember when you weren’t”
You run the risk of being accused of being boring or pretentious.
Well, there is a feeling that we are very sad, and I think that, really, we only have one sad album, which was the first. I don’t consider us sad at all, we are people who laugh a lot. What happens is that, for there to be happiness, you have to remember when you weren’t. Without the contrast, we would be in a kind of eternal happiness that would be boring. We live in a world where being down is frowned upon, you have to be laughing, at your best, and in the best place in the world. Life is a mixture of everything: politics, relationships with others, enjoying a plate of food, or shitting yourself because they bring it to you badly… It’s all there, and we wanted that to be on the record, and we hope have achieved it.
Looking back, what remains of that Iván Ferreiro from the beginning?
There is little left (laughs). Well, everything remains because the essence is the same, but I have a much better life. I don’t even miss youth. I am at my best moment and I would not change myself for any previous stage. Pirates was a very colorful time for everyone, but I was not especially happy there. We also weren’t a group that worked very well with each other, nor did we have a cool band dynamic. There was a lot of nonsense. There was a lot to learn and we did it in the worst way. The nineties were a very difficult time and everything was more aggressive. I don’t miss anything about myself much. In fact, I was wrong about many things, like the way I approached some songs. I thought you had to talk about sexual things to provoke something in others, and right now it seems childish, cheap, ugly, and out of the ordinary. I have more things to be ashamed of and bow my head and apologize for than to be proud of. There were also victories, huh? But I think that to create you have to be happy and well, it’s not necessary for everything to be shit to be able to make songs. And in Pirates, there was a lot of that, that tragic point that everything has to be crap to seem more authentic when it comes to making a song.
“I have learned that you have to live in comfort. At 52 years old, why am I going to leave my comfort zone?”
So, we didn’t even talk about a group meeting.
No way! To make a reunion you need two things. One is nostalgia and the desire to meet with your colleagues. And I have no desire to work with them. I’ve been without them for a long time now and I have a band that is my friends and I don’t feel like going to play without them. We have assembled a group based on our affection, our admiration, and our friendship. And, on the other hand, it would take a sum of money, and I don’t think they’re going to pay me what I would ask for having to go through that ordeal. My prices would be so high! I would have to earn enough money to pay for my house, and since that’s not going to happen… People say that if we get together it’s going to be the host, and that’s not true. Piratas never filled stadiums, we made a Riviera, and now we make two.
Well, at least you will have learned a lot.
Yes. That it’s all much easier, and that depending on how I take things, the path will be that way and not another. In Pirates, we made everything very difficult, but I think that, in addition to being who we were, it also had to do with youth. We were very ignorant. I have gained peace of mind, I take care of those who are with me and I let myself take care of them much more. And I have learned that you have to live in comfort. At 52 years old, why am I leaving my comfort zone?