interviews
Juanes
Some twenty five years ago he learned to play guitar. His father and his brothers taught him to play Colombian folk music. As a teenager Juan Esteban (Juanes) preferred, like most of his schoolmates, to play heavy metal though. For more than eleven years he was the singer of the heavy metal band Ehkymosis
After eleven years of 'head banging' you were bored?
'Yeh, musically speaking it was too narrow minded for me at a certain point. I wanted to mix elements of the Colombian folk music that I learned as a child with rock music. After I stopped with Ekhymosis, I went to Los Angeles for a while. I lived there alone in a very small apartment. And started to write all kind of songs. At that moment I could not imagine that it was the beginning of my international career and that I would win so many Grammys.
I don't think so. Lyrics are important for me and I can express myself much better in Spanish. I also never have started to make music to become famous. If I compare myself to Shakira?? No, you can't compare us. I have a different philosophy. I respect her, and I think it's okay she has chosen also to sing in English.'
Talking about Colombia, as far as it reaches the international news, it is nearly always about something negative.
'Yes, I know, they only know one side of my country. But don't think it's only misery out there. On the contrary, we are a people that love to party. You should come and go out for a weekend in Bogota or Medellin. You will meet the warmest people, beautiful women and the best parties! Well, when you wake up on a Monday and you hear on the news somebody have been killed again, you know it's also part of reality. We have a dualistic existence.
You lost a good friend and a cousin, never thought of leaving Colombia?
No, absolutely not! I love my country a lot. And I miss it when I'm far away from home.
In your song Es Por Ti, (on the album Un Dia Normal) you sing 'me siento un vagabundo perdido por el mundo' (a vagabond lost in the world)
Ha-ha yes sometimes it feels like that when you are on tour. But you will not hear me complain. It is so nice to make music, I love it. And it's a thrill to give concerts. I always want to give everything to my audience