As the years go by, the musician opens the diving suit in which he hid after his abrupt irruption into the world of music
For days, many fans have been listening to the songs of Pablo Alborán singing around the Valencia bullring. Thus, in the open, they await the moment of the concert. They seek, if that is possible, to see his idol up close. There have been no tickets left for months. This success, the musician relativizes it.
People sleeping soundly and tickets sold out almost from the day the concert was announced. Does it give you extra responsibility?
I think we live in a moment in which it is very difficult for that to happen. I am super grateful for the fact that people pay a ticket and want to bet on my music live. My intention is to offer you a good time. I feel a lot of gratitude and responsibility. That’s why I take great care of myself to be at the concerts at 200% and that people try to freak out with what we do.
Do concerts give you a high?
The rush gives me, above all, in the preparation of the tour. For me these are moments of uncertainty, nerves, emotion and, above all, a great desire to see the public’s response. I am very nervous for not wanting to disappoint and for trying to improve at each concert. When I start I like to have everything under control, although the public is always the one that gives you that point of uncertainty and emotion.
Is the fourth sheet, your last album, synonymous with happiness?
It is a very vital and positive album. A record that has arrived almost accidentally because I was on a theater tour, I was traveling through Latin America, my entire professional life was reactivating a bit after the pandemic, and it was like a very positive moment. The theater tour sold out in a matter of hours around the world and I thought that was happiness. That is what motivated me to continue writing; being happy and realizing how important it is to never give up and keep working. And that’s how this record came to me, made on half planes, half interviews and half countries. Maybe that’s why it’s a very positive album.
Do you consider yourself a counter of things?
I tell what I feel and what I feel is felt by many people. I’m a normal 34 year old guy. I tell stories and some have happened to me, and others have happened to others.
What does your body ask you to tell now?
I am absorbing a bit of what happens to me, assimilating it, enjoying it and living it. I write about what I live and that’s why I need to live. If I don’t leave my comfort zone, if I don’t leave the house, if things don’t happen to me, I have nothing to tell. Now I am in a moment of picking up the crops a little and fallowing to feed my experiences a little.
Does sharing your concerns make you more vulnerable or help you vent?
Both. It is true that in my songs I am an open book, and that is a way of undressing myself, of showing who I am. I tell what hurts me, what I like, what hurts me, what makes me fall in love or what I would like to happen in my life or I don’t want it to happen again. Everything, absolutely everything, is in the songs. But that is also an outlet and a way to celebrate. I put the cards on the table. It is my way of communicating.
Perhaps that truth is what unites you so much with your fans.
That is the goal.
When, as he has told Alejandro Sanzyour problem is shared as a vital need, does it overwhelm you when they ask you about it later?
I am in favor of separating the personal from the professional, but you would have to ask him that. Regarding telling what happens to me, I have not been at that point yet. I count through my songs or by saying specific things but not sad, not bad things. I separate but I understand that one wants to shout from the four winds what hurts or how it is. Or simply show the normality that we are flesh and blood. In the case of Alejandro, if he has felt that way, go ahead. He has been around for many years and knows the consequences of opening up in that way.
On a bad day, do you go on stage and forget about everything?
It is my therapy and my work. I respect this profession a lot and I respect a lot those who have paid a ticket. Also, sometimes, it is a scoundrel because one is not always well, but the one who pays does not have to know that you are bad because, for example, your canary has died. I explain? I am lucky that I love my profession and when I sing, I disconnect and create a bubble where the rest of the world doesn’t care and my problems disappear. On stage, through my songs, I tell my problems or what hurts me and what I like or what makes me happy.
What song do people who go to your concerts expect to hear from you?
Oysters, I guess ‘Only you’.
Have you been tempted not to sing it?
Many people have asked me if I was fed up with singing it but I try to feel that every time I sing it, it’s the first time I’ve done it so as not to fall into monotony and pain in the ass. I am not the same person as 13 years ago. I try to contribute my present to songs from a lot of time ago. But I love that people still want to hear old songs. However, I am refreshing them a bit. It’s nice to get on stage and see how people sing everything. It’s amazing.
Of all the liturgy of a concert, what do you like the most?
I like the empathy that is created with people. There is something that cannot be touched or defined. We try to make the show, the music or the chords sublime and I try to do my best, but there is something that surpasses all that and only the public creates it. You can have five people singing and out of tune a lot, but if people join, the set of voices sounds in tune. That’s magical.
And, in front of thousands of people, do you feel like the king of the world?
Wow! I don’t want to seem heavy, but what I feel is a lot of gratitude. Now I feel more human than ever.
Does that ‘human’ Pablo Alborán take down the garbage or go to the supermarket to buy?
My life is very normal. I have spent many times locked up or, rather, without doing so much daily life, but now I need normality. I need to go out, go to the movies, go out in Madrid with my friends, go out for drinks, go shopping, walk with my dog or play sports.
“I challenge myself a lot, a lot, a lot”
He said raphael a few days ago: ‘I still have time to become a great artist, that is my goal’. What do you think?
I also classify artists
“I challenge myself a lot, a lot, a lot”
In a world where we label everything, lately, you’re collaborating with artists with whom you have little in common.
People pigeonhole and it’s normal because I also accidentally pigeonhole artists, because we are human. But one has the opportunity to disengage. I try for the songs to have their identity and their work behind them. When I was talking about speed, I was referring to being able to try different things and having access to artists who may not be super mega tops or belong to the wild mainstream, but you receive a lot of input and, if you take the time to analyze them and motivate yourself, that allows you to do different things. Rather than trial and error, I try to come up with things that I trust. In a week I have been able to meet with six composers, six musicians and lock myself in a studio and do things that don’t have to go out, but are interesting. The important thing is to take the healthy side of the moment.
Are you in one of your best moments?
In fact this morning I was thinking about it. It is one of the moments in which I am happiest. The pandemic was very hard. I am living a moment of great creative freedom, of fun, and of feeling that anything can be possible.