He claims to be able to comment with the weather at an even emotional level. “In this rainfall streak that we carry in Madrid I have left a slightly sad song and yesterday, as I was cloudy, I wanted to cry all the time.” Luckily, today the sun has come out and (La Palma, 25 years) displays that contagious smile that the singer -songwriter deserved the halago of the singer -songwriter, who in the last couple of years saw how he went from being an “secret secret” to one of the most relevant artists of the new generation, with two nominations for the Goya and the Latin Grammy, seeks to endorse his position with. A more introspective and mature album, but in which it maintains the sensitivity that made it a phenomenon and its desire to make each song “a weapon to tell the things that matter.”
Many artists have talked about the pressure of the launch of the second album, where expectations are mixed, the dilemma between continuity and evolution …
Yes, I noticed it. Above all, with this rare thing of the nominations and awards, I felt that I was not going to be able to write, that they were going to realize that it was a fake. I remember that one day I said: “Valeria, nothing happens if you do a mediocre album.” I needed that the priority would be honesty, which could work with my vulnerability, to compose remained my therapy … and marketing would come later. I am very proud of the result.
In this new work, The body after allbet on looking in.
It is a more intimate and more dark album. It was important to address the demons that happen to us, present them in the songs, because doing as they do not exist will not erase them from the map. If we assume that reality is full of gray, that not everything is black and white, we can move forward personally and emotionally.
The female loneliness, the concept of the woman who is alone, has always been taboo and you approach it in the first single of the album.
And I think talking about it helps to stop being. One of the images that I like most about the video clip of The loneliness It is that of Macarena García and eating alone. I always thought of that taboo and how we should turn around that social pressure, to that foreign eye that looks at us and judges. This single embraces the idea that loneliness sometimes hurts, sometimes it is uncomfortable, sometimes it is enjoyable and sometimes we are going to laugh at it. But also from loneliness is when we stop to think about us and our body. In that maelstrom we live we do not stop to look how our body somatizes the vital circumstances that are happening to it.
In addition to those mentioned, other faces known as Barbara Lennie also appear in the video, or Sara Carbonero. How do you get such a cast?
I still don’t know. We called women who admired and were very generous. I thought they were going to say no, but they accepted and it was beautiful to see how they channeled the vision of loneliness from their image. It is nice to humanize even the most public lives so that the public can feel identified. No one has a perfect life.
The comment with more likes From the video clip is that of a woman, Juliana, who asks someone to tell her that her music “is being a curite for her soul.”
I am very grateful. I always try to put voice, face and soul to the people who tell me because I am also a listener. To me the music of, Silvana Estrada or Jorge Drexler has also cured my soul, I know how impressive that is. My mother is a doctor and sometimes we speak it. “Valeria, I cure people, but you have a psychological capital that also helps many,” he tells me. We both try to make a friendlier world.
In the album he sings “it has to be easier to love him, it cannot be the cruel body when he looks.” Have you been to yours?
Lot. In this album I confess to the people my own fears, it is like raising their hand and saying: “I am Valeria Castro, I sell advice that I do not have for me.” Like many women, I have lived an aesthetic pressure and social constructs that have bombarded me since childhood and have made many times not a good partner for myself when I looked in the mirror. Now we are in the process of erasing what has been learned and avoiding the algorithm, those images of networks that make us compare ourselves. Accepting that there will be moments in which the same behaves in an atrocious way, that it is his own enemy, is the first step to heal and understand that what is happening through our head is not true. That we do not cloud that internal cold war and we continue with the principles we want to fight for and the things we want to talk about. It is unfair that I cannot use my head for the things that matter to me and have to be suffering from my image.
Do you feel responsibility when your media exposure is as real as possible?
Yes, and I’m very afraid, really. Even if she is a reference for a single girl, I want to do something good for her. When I compose my songs I am selfish, I think of myself and that is then universal, but I have a lot of respect because I am also a consumer have already affected me things that I have seen. I live on that tightrope … I know that I cannot load with the weight of the world, but I do try to do your best to humanize what people see from me.
He has been accompanying In different awards galas with the song The edge of the world, also nominated for the Goya. How does the hangover carry?
It is amazing that they have let me be a participant of such a big project, I have cried with each message in which someone told me about their story with the song and the movie. The world of cinema is surrounded by galas and red carpets and, now that we talk about aesthetic pressure and cruelty to the body, I have to say that I am not very friendly with all that. In the photocalls I feel that there are 50 snipers with camera taking pictures. I suffer a little. I am learning to manage it and, as my psychologist says, namely that “I am not a body, but everything that makes me who I am.” I am the principles that taught me at home, everything I have learned and the maturity that I have acquired. What has to define a person is his brain.
He compared the story of the neighborhood movement of the film with what happened in his land after the volcano. Have we forgotten the palm very soon?
We have forgotten even Valencia after the Dana. I can understand it, everyone lives their reality and the news cannot be repeated, but if you care about a cause you have to take advantage of the speakers. It touches me very closely, it is the island that I come from and that has made me who I am. The palm is still in reconstruction, but it was already forgotten before the volcano. The problems are not only in cities and large cities, but also in peripheries.
Has the island’s soundtrack changed since the tragedy?
It is very nice to feel that I am already part of the island’s soundtrack. When I go home to many people and tell me that my songs have helped them heal a little. It is evident that the mood was affected, it is not easy to assume that your house suddenly disappears, but the Palmera idiosyncrasy was to throw forward with what there is. I always saw her in my grandmother and in my neighbors. Now young people have to boast those older people, the family that has made us who we are, and take the rudder of the ship so that no one sinks.
He recently confessed that his grandmother Micaela was proud to see her on the cover of a magazine.
She makes her illusion to see her happy granddaughter. When I was appointed to the Latin Grammy, it was the first one I called and, in addition to not knowing very well and thought that the prize was safe for me, at the minute of conversation I stopped to ask how many candles I put me for the concert I had that Saturday. He always does it to do well.
How many usually put?
One, two, three … depends on the force you need. Sometimes, when in a song I look a little suffering, I have to explain that I sing to heal. It is beautiful that this is the priority of your family, that they always see your human side pass whatever happens.
Rodrigo Cuevas, Queralt Lahoz, … Do young people embrace more folklore than their elders?
I am proud that young people embrace our cultural heritage. It is evidence of a collective thanks to each of the territories and a sample of curiosity: if we explore the pop sounds, why not explore the Sound Bank that the history of your land has?
After living with the entire team of 47Do you feel attracted to interpretation?
Never say, but I am connected with the emotion of my songs. Music is what I am passionate about and just. Before delving into the world of acting, to which I have a lot of respect, I would like to try in the composition of soundtracks.
Alejandro Sanz once told her that “I wish life smile as you smile at her.”
At home I have always been very smiling and I still be. I marked that phrase from Alejandro because I saw her very personal and I thank her for the generosity she had when she took the stage to sing PARTY HEART With him in the palm. I smile unintentionally, almost by inertia. Even the days that does not come out. We have to know that we are not superheroines and seek a support network that can support you when the same cannot. We are not alone.
Is it true that his first microphone was the SingStar of the PlayStation? It should be a nightmare to play against someone with that voice …
Yes, the red microphone. It was quite competitive and wanted to have the maximum score, but the game did not value the melisms and turns, but you kept the exact note so I almost lost my essence for the Singstar (laughs). My twin sister also sang very well, I think the game made me improve as a singer. Rosas from Van Gogh’s ear or Two men and a destination David Bustamante and Alex stuck them.
