Pablo Alborán presents 'Castillos de arena': I believe that love is the only thing that moves things

The year of the tiger, as recorded in 2022 by the Chinese horoscope, brings us the Spaniard Pablo Alborán roaring loudly, as he jokes at the beginning of the interview with this newspaper. After a day of teleconferences to share details with international media about his recent single Castillos de arena, it is Ecuador's turn to learn about this production that was conceived for the Argentine telenovela La 1-5/18 Somos Uno and that according to us account the interpreter speaks of the emotion of starting over.

An artist with more than 6 million followers on Instagram and who registers 10,342,047 monthly listeners on Spotify shows himself in a video call as simple as a friend who lives in another country would, with whom we connect to find out about his new plans and who is missed. Totally relaxed in an armchair, and with a small collection of guitars behind him, Pablo does not stop smiling, he tells us totally excited about his next tour of theaters planned for this year in Spain and that he achieved, in 24 hours, a total sale of tickets.

This reunion with the public that follows him on different digital platforms and with whom he has remained more connected since the start of the pandemic, is also the incentive to continue creating music, composing and recording in his pajamas from the privacy of his home, when time permits.

Castillos de arena is a song produced for an Argentine telenovela and one of its premieres for this year, how did that proposal come about, was it planned for an album this year?

It was a mixture of everything, they called me for this series where they wanted a song about an impossible love and I had some phrases out there that had to do with that impossible story of love for which one does not stop fighting and I accepted the challenge because I they asked for the song for now, for yesterday, so I recorded it running at home, spent all night writing and trying to find a way to get it right, and they liked it so much that they actually started playing it before I even finished writing the song, or be that very happy because the confidence has been brutal on their part, and on the chain, and then the affection of the people, listening to the song and seeing that it was nowhere, created that expectation in the very beautiful song.

Then when we published the song, I did want the video to have a broader meaning, not just a love story, because the song has messages that can be extrapolated to the moment we are living and has an important message. And well, we made a very futuristic video, where the earth seems to be completely destroyed.

In the video clip we see a child who invites the astronaut to follow him, to trust him. Would this figure or story that is told in the audiovisual be an invitation to believe more, to love more?

Yes, well, in general, in my music I try to convey that message. I think that love is the only thing that moves things in the end and I think that I am a person who takes care of what he has and likes to transmit that message because we live in a time when everything goes very fast, where news loses value, where there is a lot of overexposure in music, in cinema, in movies, everything goes very fast and suddenly it's like we forget a little, including who we are, what we have and the number of things we have to value. If you realize the movies of now are all apocalyptic and it is true that we are all with that thought.

Paraphrasing the title of the song, what have been the sandcastles that have collapsed on Pablo?

Well, some other project in the middle of the pandemic that has been rigged and that they have not been able to see the light or also, let's say that I have not managed to build sand castles because I have seen that waves were coming fast, no. But yes, I have been very lucky in my life and all the castles have tried to be made of something other than sand, something more solid.

How do you prefer to record your albums now, in the studio with all the equipment or in the privacy of your home, in your pajamas?

Let's see, composing I'm composing and I'm studying music again, from home, and the truth is that doing it in your pajamas is a luxury because you're at home writing, you're studying and suddenly you say: hey, and inspiration comes to you and you get down to computer and start producing. And there are times that I don't even eat or I'm eating in front of the computer, not in front of the piano because you don't have to dirty it, but it does happen to me too.

But then it is true that I start producing with musicians, yes it is good to interact with them in a studio, and the screen and also the coldness of making music through a screen, if I can avoid it, I avoid it, I don't know it transmits the same and it doesn't communicate the same to me, through a Zoom, no, making music is complicated.

When you are not working, what is a perfect day or Sunday like with Terral (your Labrador)?

(Laughs) Well, look, I get up early and since the beginning of January I have proposed to lead a life super-focused on the tour, on studying, on getting up early, on doing my vocal exercises again and taking great care of myself for a tour that is going to demand a lot.

So, I get up early, I prepare a big breakfast, very rich in protein, and I go to the country with the dog, I go for a walk, a walk, a run and then I sit at the piano. On Sundays since the beginning of January and December, I have been sitting at the guitar and piano studying like crazy again and enjoying myself very much.

A year ago you presented the album Vertigo, on the heliport of a building, now you resume your shows with a concert tour, how have you experienced these two realities in your career and your life?

I needed this meeting, I needed to do a close tour again, I needed it and I didn't know it. At the beginning when we saw that it was time to do this, I had my doubts, and if I have done it, I had done it when I started 11 or 12 years ago when I started with my guitar, and to face my songs again, to face my music again, alone with a guitar, with a piano, it was a challenge that I didn't know I was capable of doing.

So, it is true that I have sat in front of the piano and the guitar, rediscovering the songs, reharmonizing them again, singing songs that I have never sung, versions of other songs and new songs that I want to present on this tour because I think that it is time to be close to an audience that has never stopped being close to me, in all this time and it is time to do a tour like this and hopefully we can take it to Latin America.

And that closeness that has been achieved with social networks, what were the first artists that you began to follow when you opened your accounts on these platforms? What artists do you listen to on Spotify?

I don't remember at all, on Instagram I will tell you that the first to follow was Laura Pausini or one of the first, then on TikTok, the truth is that I follow a lot of laughing accounts, I laugh a lot on TikTok and the truth is that I follow to people who may not be very well known but who amuse me a lot.

On Spotify, well look, I really like Jacob Collier, a jazz artist who drives me crazy; Maro, who is a Portuguese artist who has released a song called Saudade Saudade , which is brutal. I follow a lot of very different artists, I'm passionate about flamenco, Vicente Amigo, Tomatito, José Mercé has just released a wonderful song produced by Antonio Orozco, I'm a superfan of Coldplay.

Is a new production coming for 2022?

I don't know, if I tell you now we're not going to talk to each other again, we're going to leave it for the next interview. The appetizer is Sand Castles, It Rains on Wet, I Am Capable , these are songs that I don't know if they will be part of the album, but at the moment I can assure you that I am writing a lot. (AND)