Note #7

TRIGGER WARNING
THE FOLLOWING INTERVIEW IS ENTIRELY FICTIONAL AND IS NOT MEANT TO BE OFFENSIVE TO THE ARTIST OR ANY COMMUNITY

Billboard finds out the origins of multiple award winner Juanes’ music inspiration and his love for his native Colombia

“Hello”, he greets with a broad smile that propagates warmth to every person in the studio. He places

his Hendrix besides the wall and seats himself. “Los Angeles is always such a welcoming place, I love coming here”, he exclaims. Then why don’t you move here permanently, I ask. “Oh no, LA is great, but home is where the heart is and my home is Colombia. I can never think of moving from there.” The response highlights his strong attachment to his country and his people. No wonder he is so widely loved there. “So how did it all begin?” “Well during my childhood, my father and brothers were the ones who got me into music. I looked up to them for musical inspiration. They taught me how to play the guitar and it has been by my side ever since. I played and played and eventually got a little better at it.” “A little better and you won 22 Grammys and Latin Grammys. Not bad at all!”, I proclaim. He puts his head down and laughs a little, letting his humility shine through.

“The guitar was my utopia – an escape from all the chaos around me. I immersed myself in music to forget all the troubles.” And we’ve touched a sensitive, but immensely important aspect of Juanes’ life – the Colombian civil war. Growing up in Medellin, Juanes has seen the horrors of war first hand. A terrible war that claimed hundred thousands of life – a catastrophe in which Juanes himself lost his cousin and a close friend. Music was his recuperation, his only friend in times of distress. “The struggles that you faced have obviously left a very big mark in your life – both on you as a person and your work. Tell us more about how it affected you growing up and how it shaped your music.” He adjusts his long mane and proceeds to respond saying, “Medellin was a tough city, highest homicide rates in the world, violence at every corner – it was extremely hard to make a survival knowing death could strike you at any time. The people of this city, the people of Colombia had suffered a lot. This country was reeling from scathing attacks and I could only hope the situation would get better. I wanted to help heal the people, and I chose music as my medium. Actually my solo debut, Fíjate Bien, which means to focus or pay attention is centred around the atrocities of war.” Fíjate Bien, a deeply moving and emotional song was released in 2000 and was very well received both critically and commercially.

He hesitates for a moment as he digs into painful memories from the past. “I just wanted to project my hope to a larger scale and share it with more people so I formed Ekhymosis in 1988. Since I mostly listened to rock and metal acts, Ekhymosis was primarily a thrash metal band.  We gained some popularity and there’s that.” “Ekhymosis, despite being quite popular outside Colombia, never really ventured outside the Colombian market. You could’ve tapped into foreign markets, but you didn’t. Why is that?”, I inquired. “Our music was tailor made for Colombia and we made it primarily for the Colombian people. That didn’t mean we didn’t want others to listen to it, but we wanted to preserve the authenticity of it.” Dedication and loyalty to Colombia was crystal clear in his words, demeanour and actions. His song A Dios Le Pido (I ask from God) gained a cult following and attained anthem status not just in Colombia, but in other parts of Latin America as well. It was revered for its uniting spirit and its success in strengthening the community, something Juanes has become synonymous with. It is what he stands for and he has used multiples symbolisms throughout his career to signify that. When asked if he would sing in English, he refused saying that Spanish was what he best expressed himself in and it brought out his true personality, while allowing him to solidify his relationship with his community. “Your attachment with Colombia is very commendable. It is easy to see why people across the nation love you. In a way, you have brought their sentiments to the big stage and embodied them in your music as a timeless existence. You are truly a representation of who they are and the lives they live. Thank you for sparing time with us. It was a pleasure to have you here.” “Thank you”, he grins and we have to end the interview here. This experience had a valuable takeaway for me. A mega successful star so firmly rooted in his origins and very conscious of the social responsibility he held was truly a sight to behold.