2019 King Midas of music in Spain
Alizzz
, producer of
C. Tangana
and architect to a large extent of the Madrid's success, is reeling off what should be his first album.
Now it's the turn of 'I don't feel anything anymore', a song for dancing but in an existentialist plan, a bit like these times.
How is Alizzz when she makes music for others?
I tend to be a bit pejiguero and 'squeeze' the artists, because one thing is what they think they want and another thing is what they really want. I try to get there, to the bottom. For this reason, sometimes, you have to go against them a bit, even if it costs me some discussion, because I have a strong opinion about creativity.
And when does he do it for himself?
With an artist you have to go through the process of getting a bit under the skin of the other. With me, I have it a little less clear because I do not have those discussions. I think maybe I'm a little more spontaneous and I think a little less, I do it a little more from the guts. Not the first thing I catch, but much more open to the first chords that hook me.
How did 'I no longer feel anything' come about?
I really wanted to go out and destroy my head a little.
Put the maximum distortion and the maximum viscerality.
What I wanted to dance at that time.
That sounds a lot like 20 years ago, doesn't it?
Yes. I am trying to return to have feelings that have already passed and that I will never have again.
But I insist on them, I am obsessed with reliving it again and I keep inventing things, in the form of songs.
His first song from this project was 'Todo me saber a poco'.
Now this.
Existentialist?
It is something that is within my obsessions, that always haunts me, like a feeling of never being completely happy or that it is difficult for me to reach fullness.
I don't like to get to the places, to get things, but the process to get there.
When I arrive, I'm still just as jaded or anxious or sad.
That seems a bit more inspiring to me.
I don't feel like an 'outsider'.
Maybe now it's not in fashion, but what I'm talking about is like a typical artist's fetish.
It's not that I want to fall into romanticization, I suppose it comes out unintentionally, because of the music I have listened to or because of the culture in which I have lived and because of my profound way of being.
Does this have to do with the fact that your songs today are more guitar-laden and less fit to the 'canon' of 'urban'?
I get tired of everything very quickly.
I need to be constantly changing, listening to new things and doing what I am not used to doing.
It's what gives me my serotonin 'spike'.
But, despite the fact that I am the first to catch trends, because they are fresh to me, I am also one of the first to get tired.
For a long time I have seen the 'urban' genre very lazy, well-off, that lives very well.
And I need to do different things, even without getting out of it.
Drugs are present in the chorus.
What interests you about them?
Drugs and the culture associated with them are, in a way, a part of me, as they have been there.
And I think that, having dedicated myself to music and having spent my whole life working practically at night, I have still had them closer.
I am interested in the situation of vulnerability, of fragility in which they can leave you.
And I don't treat these issues as apology, but because I like to talk about exciting things and drugs are one of them.
His first album should have come out already.
What happened?
Before the pandemic I had a solid set of songs, which you can call it, more or less, disco.
It was before I started releasing the singles.
And I considered delaying the departure of the first and all the others for this matter.
But you have to take into account the historical and cultural moment that you are living.
And I think it was important that it came out now and not lose that 'momentum', in which the songs were fresh.
And now I'm not making decisions taking into account the situation, the situation, come on.
I'm pulling forward, at the rate I had planned.
Yes, I have considered releasing an album, but now I feel less rushed.
What I want is to keep releasing music, which I think is going to be understood that way.
The album was to give it a more conceptual level, but I can do it with singles.
And I'll get the other thing out, but without setting a date that will be something that weighs on me.
As a creator, artist ... is it possible to get something out of this?
This situation is not inspiring at all.
It was inspiring for me, and I think for a lot of people, to stop.
It was cool, because it was: since everyone is stopped, the only thing I can do is sit here on a computer and compose.
And I did a lot of songs in a very short time.
But then the flat encephalogram we live in does not help imagination or creativity.
To write, you must first live.
And we lack that: to live a little.
I hope that, by the time we can have a little more 'normal' life, in quotes, it will flourish for creativity.
When I interviewed him the previous time, a year and a half ago, he told me that it is not so much that you have entered the mass music game, but the other way around.
How do you see that statement now?
On a global level, pop was like the genre where you could experience the most at that time.
Because I've been through many moments of music, because I've been doing it for a long time, and it seemed to me that it was super interesting even on a more experimental level.
And it also gave me the feeling that Spain was very blocked and that at some point that unblocking had to come.
We were doing that: loosening the pop a little bit and giving it something more fresh and fun.
So they were right, you and C. Tangana ...
In the end, we were right about what we are doing, but there was also a moment of blockage where I thought I was already there, as the approach and the attempt to enter the 'mainstream' had already ended and we had arrived where we had arrived, with 'Before I died', 'Bad woman' ... Because there was a small valley on a creative level.
Not just ours, but in general.
And many people have remained in that blockade and I don't know if they will get out.
Many of the most important artists of the last four years are there.
So those who get away from that a bit, as for example Morad is doing here in Spain, are the future of pop.
There are those who already think of throwing in the towel in this business with 22 or 23 years.
Everyone who is dedicated to this can lose what is the moment.
You see it in other artists who have happened to them, who have had a slump and who have no longer recovered.
But it is important not to fall into that anxiety, to spend time wandering, to daydream a little and to try to find your way in the future, without being so aware of now, now and now.
What strikes you the most about the success of your work?
As a producer, I have never had references in the Spanish 'mainstream'.
And I like that now, as a producer or Pucho [C.
Tangana] as an artist, we can be a reference for people who are in the avant-garde or in the 'underground'.
It's pretty weird.
Soon the new album by C. Tangana is published.
How would you define your relationship with him?
We are friends, we talk almost every day and almost always about work.
Because it is a friendship that has been forged there, and we connect a lot in the studio.
For example: we had not seen each other for four weeks, he went to the studio where he was, and as soon as he entered it, his face changed, because he had a crazy desire to make music.
What do you think about the imprisonment of Pablo Hasél?
The subject of Pablo Hasél is quite screwed.
It is not because he said what he said, that I am not really clear or what were the verses or tweets for which they put him in the trullo, but it is something that the State uses as a weapon to scare those who come after.
It's his turn and it's a bitch and it shouldn't be there.
It is important that political, cultural or taboo ideas do not disappear from the music.
Simply because it will be worse.
It's a shame.
It would be cool if it didn't happen, but unfortunately it is going to happen and many are going to think what they say seeing things like this.
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