Nicholas Pauls open the meeting door at the exact time. For him, punctuality is a fundamental pillar. He is comfortably seated in an armchair in his studio, where he records his music, writes lyrics, and all his creative et cetera. He is in front of “Ghosts of politics” (Channel a), on May 20 it premieres “Plagiarism” (Regina Theatre); is presenting “Ambassadors”, an ecotourism program (UCL TV); prepare new record; and awaits the release of two films, “Apaixonada” and “Unicorn”; from a documentary, “Sea with wolves” (Star+); and from a series, “Planners” (Star+). In the library, there are notebooks with his writings from when he was 13 years old. They escort him in his doing, with a distance but with kind forcefulness. Sometimes he glances at them and mirrors himself. How far away was that teenager of this type who will turn 50 in December? “I find a line that was drawn there, there is a familiarity in every way; there is something in the essence that is, untouchable, ”he recalls. Some verses published on his Instagram say: “We are going to write what will come. / I think we have to look even further. / We are going to heal what hurt you, / what heals badly.” They could be today’s words addressed to that kid who stretches out on the shelves. Speaking of his Instagram, there is something that stands out: a certain habit that he has of posting extremely close-up photos of his face, cut in half.
News: What do those images of his departures have to do with?
Nicholas Pauls: I also wonder when I do it, because in reality they are complete photos that, at the moment of publishing them, I share them. Maybe, because a lot of what I can upload there has to do with some kind of nudity. I feel that the place where Nicolás is the most is in songwriting. And when I do that with the IG, it is surely accompanied by a text that is absolutely Nicolás, which has to do with nudity. I feel like the extreme close-up there overwhelms me a bit, so I kind of cum (laughs). I also know that what I write is much more relevant if I put a photo of myself than if I put a bird’s.
News: It’s an attention grabber.
Pauls: Absolutely.
News: As is the title of the program he is doing on Canal a, “Ghosts of politics.”
Pauls: Yes, the title leads you to think something that in practice does not end up being seen. He doesn’t talk about politics, he talks about buildings that are related to politics.
News: What interests you about that project?
Pauls: I started the conversation already with the enthusiasm of being part of a channel project that over time has always shown extremely interesting proposals. And when they told me the idea, I immediately accepted. It reminded me of something that, more than twenty years ago, I had started working on but had not completed, a book of photos and texts of Argentine myths and legends; there was a familiarity with it.
News: Was he involved in the production?
Pauls: No, I surrendered to a scheme that Productora 30 put together. But what I asked the channel is that I wanted to be part of the journey and listen to people’s testimony, not be a voice-over. Because for me there is nothing more nourishing than being in conversation with another, to see where that leads you. So I felt that the place I was going to occupy was to listen, to be a recipient of the stories, not to be a court.
News: How disruptive that for these times!
Pauls: For that very reason, the world has become a kind of court, everyone is a judge of what the other does or says. Well, not here, I am not a judge of anyone or anything, or I try to be less and less. So, it is listening to the stories that those who have the experiences that occur in those buildings are telling, but not judging anything.
News: Did you ever feel very judged?
Pauls: Yes, but I’ve been looking my whole life to develop something that has to do with that other thing. I believe that prejudice is basically suffered by the person who exercises it. Because if they talk to me about a record and beforehand I make a judgment and don’t dive in to listen to it, I’m losing it. Throughout time I was always trying to do that, to make it slide, so that it didn’t affect me. It’s a job, right?
News: And is it from the creative action itself? Do you fall into the trap of trying to conform to or avoid prejudice?
Pauls: It helped me a lot to understand that I do things for myself, for the pleasure that doing them gives me, and that this is success for me. Success is doing the things you love, defending them, carrying them forward. For me success is that, defending what one loves. I allow myself to address any space that intrigues me. And, I repeat, I do it for myself, for the satisfaction that doing it gives me. And because I also need to do things because that gives me feedback, the movement generates a movement in other things. When I swim, I would love to be with a notepad next to me, because of the amount of ideas that appear to me.
News: It is like an active meditation.
Pauls: Absolutely, I believe that what one does in solitude and with concentration generates other things. A few years ago I crossed the Andes walking and it was one of the most wonderful experiences I had in my life, not only because of the geographical fact itself and the adventure, but also because of what happened to me, because this walking only has a meditative and concentration that produces a number of things.
News: The creative thing about time alone and making conversation is like a two-way street.
Pauls: Yes, I think a lot about sophocracy, about the government of the wise. I believe that the best thing is to extract the best from each one and I realize that the person with whom I think I have nothing to do, probably have something in common, and that is knowing how to listen and take from there. We are all trying to perfect ourselves, I think, to improve what we do not do well, hopefully we are all on that plan. For me it is important to know how to extract the best of each one at each step and of each person. Staying with the negative of things only leads to stagnation.
News: How do you do it in practice, in a country as challenging as this one?
Pauls: Well, trying to understand that there is a way that has been replicated over time, and I am speaking throughout the history of this civilization, it is the way the system has been working, I mean those who govern this world. Until that is disarmed and something new is built, things are unlikely to change. So, what at some point made me absolutely angry, today is understanding that disarming that is complex from a macro perspective. What must be disarmed is the wrong procedure that each one has and improve that space, first with you and then with your closest ones, so that perhaps that is replicated. At some point I began to think that the macro battle was absolutely lost. So the search for self-knowledge is personal and to generate the best possible for you and for those around you. There is a song that we did with Tito Losavio called Homeostasis that says that the only way to escape is to enter into yourself and for me it is that, the exit is not outwards, it is inwards, solving, modifying and improving individually.
News: But inflation exceeds 100% and the ruling class is not exactly a wise council. Are you upset with that?
Pauls: Not anymore. Because as long as the greed of those who rule this world is ahead of love, there is no possible solution. The ruling class is employed by the people and it seems to be the other way around. As long as this global system is sustained, it is very difficult.
News: He has 3 children; Olivia (17), Leon (13) and Alfonso (3). In relation to them, can you achieve that same calm in the face of these macro issues?
Pauls: I try. But I have asked myself many times: did we bring it to this? I remember that years ago I had a concert tour of Europe ahead of me and it was very difficult for me to leave, to leave them for a month and a half. But days before the trip, I sat them down and told them: “It’s hard for me to leave but what I’m going to do is something I worked hard for, that I wanted to do for a long time and if I don’t do it now, I feel like I’m not going to do it.” to specify. And I want to teach them that you have to defend what you love and I love what I built”. Systematically I want to convey to them that they defend what they love.
News: He comes repeating that phrase, what exactly do you have to defend him from?
Pauls: I mean going through it, investigating. When something you like to do is born, whatever it is, put love and perseverance into it, get into it. It is to defend what comes from the heart, which seems to me to be indisputable. And it is also defending it from the distraction that can lead you to go for what you consider gives you security. There is no security, or yes. That gives me the feeling of standing firmly in what I enjoy doing.
