Colombian singer Juanes released this Friday his twelfth studio album, ‘JuanesTeban’, a production with which he seeks to “reaffirm” his roots and his “essence in music”, as he revealed to EFE in Bogota.
“What led me to seek the diversity of sound and lyrics of this album is basically to find myself with who I am, to reaffirm my roots and my essence in music. That is why I go to cumbia, bambuco, chacarera, to those Andean rhythms that I have always liked, to the Caribbean, but also to rock, because it is something I really enjoy”, says the Colombian artist.
Juanes’ new album is made up of 16 songs, including ‘Muérdeme’, with the Colombian band Bomba Estéreo; ‘Vuelve’, a new collaboration with Chile’s Mon Laferte; ‘Humano’, in which he teamed up with Mexico’s Vivir Quintana; ‘Timelapse de sol’, with the Venezuelan group Rawayana, and ‘Cómo pudiste’, with Argentina’s Conociendo Rusia.
“At the level of lyrics and themes, I feel that this album is that kaleidoscope of different emotions. I go to the spiritual and also to the most sentimental part, of the couple, of loss, of dreams, of illusion, of everything that affects me day by day”, adds the author of ‘La camisa negra’.
He also claims that it is important for him to “connect to the roots” and to what it means to be Latin American.
“I really like to understand the great dimension of the Latin culture and the Americas, because it is a beautiful thing culturally and with a lot of richness and history,” he says.
Juanes and his new album: The collaborations that he has
In the album, the artist explains, there are two personalities that complement each other: Juanes’, who is the global star, and Teban’s, a more intimate vision of himself.
In recent months, the artist created an alternate TikTok account featuring Teban, which has gone viral for making people believe that it has nothing to do with Juanes.
“That part has been fun because I like, among other things (…) stand-up comedy. I really like humor, it’s something I’ve always been very attracted to, so I’ve really enjoyed being able to make these videos for TikTok and for social networks talking about Juanes and Teban as two people who know each other and are the same, but you don’t know that they have different personalities,” he explains.
In that sense, the 53-year-old artist sought to reflect that in his new album: “I feel that life is about living different moments and having the ability to balance them a little. That’s why I go from the party and the more, let’s say, superficial, to much deeper songs”.
“That’s why I want to dance, but I also want to think and I want to pick up the guitar and do a very intimate song for my mother and I want to feel the energy of rock because it also generates that feeling of adrenaline and strength for me,” he adds.
Another facet
The cover of ‘JuanesTeban’ was drawn by the singer and each song on the album features visuals illustrated by Juanes himself, marking the first time his original artwork visually accompanies an album.
“I feel happy because (this facet) also continues to reaffirm this ‘JuanesTeban’ and that other part that has to do with who I am. I studied industrial design at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (in Medellin) and I have always been very familiar with art in general. I’ve been painting faces like a madman for years,” he says.
This part of the process, Juanes explained, he worked with his team and that is how they determined that “each song has its own drawing, some are reinterpreted according to the music and others were already done in some way” to complement the music of his twelfth studio album, reported Agencia EFE.
Find out more at‘QueOnnda.com’.
