Thalía launches new album and rock series in Spanish – Entertainment – Culture

Thalía has sold more than 25 million records worldwide and her presence in Latin American pop culture has been constant through radio, MTV and television for three decades of history. Her career continues this time with Thalía’s Mixtape: The Soundtrack of my lifean album accompanied by a three-episode ‘docuseries’ in which the singer explores the history of musical formats and is accompanied by great rock stars in Spanish and emerging talents from new music cultures.

Thalía launches this new production amid the concern of the global artistic community about Artificial Intelligence and thus begins this conversation.

(Also read: Thalia at 51: “I feel like a teenager”)

Do you like what is happening with Artificial Intelligence?
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scares. It’s a little scary, but if you don’t get on that horse, you stay. And the quicksand comes and pulls you. So you have to get in there. Learn and be aware, because it is unstoppable.

But let’s talk about the project. Why then look back?
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Because it is recognizing where we come from. Recognize who put those stones to be able to be here. In Mixtape We talked about that evolution. From the gramophone to Artificial Intelligence, but playing it from an eighties perspective, as a fan looking for my idols from adolescence. And for me those idols were indisputably the rockers.

Did you make many ‘mixtapes’?
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I made many and gave away many others.

But did you make more ‘mixtapes’ than you were given?
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They gave me, they gave me But I liked making them better, copying the two cassettes, I loved it. It was like giving a piece of yourself. Personalize the piece: write the name, put stamps on it… today they are shared playlists. But before they were tangible. It is to bring that memory to memory. And that the new generation understands the aesthetics of that time, the passionate generation that has made the whole movement in music.

Do you feel like we were more passionate about having that tangible opportunity to have had the music in our hands?
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I don’t know, but we do experience many things that this generation does not, because it does not know them. This generation that was born with a tablet in hand and that has everything in one click versus the previous generation that had to have a video camera, a Polaroid camera, a Walkman, a calendar to see who to call, an alarm clock… now everything is in hand. It is interesting to see how society adapts to digital acceleration. That’s why it’s good to step back, pause, and see that evolution. When I had this idea I wanted my son and daughter to be able to learn from it. Through this series, we combine animation with my fanatic eyes to understand the movement that these greats made.

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It’s very interesting to see her approach music with that didactic intention, which is so difficult to do, but feels close and intimate when you tell it.
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All of us who have worked on this production are lovers of this era, they grew up with me. The music producer, Áureo Baqueiro, and I knew each other when we were fifteen years old. When we went on tour, from city to city, we shared headphones to listen to our Walkman with rock cassettes in Spanish. I told him that the only one who could understand that we needed to respect the DNA of each song and pay tribute was him, because he lived it with me. The other great friend who accompanied me on this project was Simon Brand, who is part of that era of iconic videos.

And one of the things that is immediately moving about the series is that it starts with a tribute to Marciano Cantero from Enanitos Verdes and with ‘La Muralla’.
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The wall and the Enanitos Verdes marked a lot of people. This idea began to land in my head in 2019. Around there, production ended last year. We shot early last year. When Marciano’s death happened, I said, “stop everything, we have to edit again because this has to be for Marciano”. We made the changes to pay that homage.

I want to ask you about the choice of young musicians.
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When I started contacting Spanish rock royalty, I began to explain that in this series I wanted to bridge the story I wanted to hear from them, and at the same time invite the pioneers of this YouTube and TikTok era, who they have uncovered a career, that they are nominated for awards, and that they started in this era. Guys who will join to amplify the message. They understood it very well. See Bruses and Ben Carrillo singing The wall it became so clear to me. Hearing them sing that they are “standing on the wall that divides what was from what will be” made a lot of sense: putting this song in the chapter where we talk about the digital age. Or having a Kenya Os mounted on the theme of La Mosca Tse-Tse and make it drama-like, well fictional, also made a lot of sense. I think we’ve accomplished something incredible. Meeting idols who become great friends.

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There is another moment in which he pays tribute to the women of rock. And he chooses Andrea Echeverry. Why did you choose Andrea?
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first by little rock flower. And second, for those ovaries. A woman who planted herself in this world of men, with her looks unique and said, here I came, this is my music. One of the first women entrepreneurs of empowerment. thumbs up. It is the flag of authenticity. It was a very authentic generation.

There is another very special moment in which he meets Charly Alberti and tells a fantastic story about ‘Persiana Americana’. I didn’t know that story.
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It’s just that they were so busy at that time. And suddenly, someone wrote the lyrics and it wasn’t from the group. It was amazing to hear that first hand.

There is also the moment when he sits down to talk to Roco Pachukote from the Maldita Vecindad, telling the story of the Zoot Suits.
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And meet him, sit down again to talk about the movement of Pachuco. Here we also learn it. That he would allow me to make a period video with him, almost as if he were entering that universe, was super incredible. Being able to play with music and nostalgia, and that they were generous enough to share his songs with me, his crown jewels from their hands was incredible.

He mentioned how difficult it was to contact them. How difficult is it to go into the studio with them to rebuild or breathe new life into these great classics?
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Everyone was very open to this project. They liked the arrangements, what we kept. They felt genuine emotion. Being able to tell David Summers, who I was dying to talk to, because he was my first crush: “You left me to have to destroy the white Ford Fiesta of give me back my girlwith the yellow jersey. You never did!” (laughs) Seeing him in the video give the first hammer blow to that car, and break those windows, burn that sweater, was to witness a twinkle in his eyes of “I did it. I always wanted to do it.”

ALEJANDRO MARIN
FOR THE TIME
On Twitter: @themusicpimp

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