December 15, 2021 • 31 mins
Superstar Colombian singer Juanes has collected over 20 Latin Grammy wins and 2 Grammys throughout his career so far. In this episode, Juanes talks to Eric about how he has always been able to get through difficult moments with music. They’ll also chat about how Juanes’ Colombian roots influenced his hits La Camisa Negra and Fijate Bien. You’ll even hear Juanes perform his take on an American classic.
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. I was crazy. When I get to the United States,
I didn't have like anything really, you know, just inside
of me. It was something that was moving my heart,
my soul. Every day. I have to do this. There
is no other way. There's no mistakes here. You have
(00:35):
to do this or you die. That's Colombian singer Juans
and to me, he's one of the best examples of
an artist whose success was hard one. He didn't grow
up with connections in the business. It was his incredible
work ethic that got him where he is now, the
winner of two Grammys and more than twenty Latin Grammys.
You might have heard his most popular song La Camisa
(00:57):
Negra or one of his many hit albums like Undia Normal.
His commitment to music started young. My first community I
have a a small video and I am playing guitar
with my brother is probably I don't know, around seven
years old something like that. Since I was a kid,
I always saw my brothers, all brothers, playing guitar and
(01:20):
singing music from South America. So since I have memory,
I just have my guitar, you know, all the pictures
and videos from my family. Always the guitar bigger than me.
But I was always so inspired by by the sound
of the guitar and the singing and all these music
from all South America. This is Backstage Pass and I'm
(01:44):
Eric Betro. I'm a vocal coach to some pretty successful singers.
On this show, I talked to my students about their lives,
their biggest insecurities, and how they keep building their careers.
People think the great singers only rely on their natural talents,
but finding your voice takes a lot of work. Together,
will explore what it really takes to make it. Dare Now,
(02:07):
did your parents play music too or just your brothers?
Just my brothers. But my father used to sing tango
music when he was at home, and he was not
like a professional singer, but he used to do it
really well. And then my old brother started to sing
also tango music. So I just became a fan of
this kind of music. And then when I became fifteen
(02:31):
years old, I get crazy with rock music, like totally crazy, Eric.
So for me, it was like a game changer because
when I started to listen to rock music, I completely
forgot everything else. I just wanted to listen to Metallic
as Layer, Zeppa led Zeppelin, Black South at you know,
vine Hell and all these bands, and I get so
(02:54):
crazy about that. That was the same time that MTV start,
so I used to watch MTV like crazy, and I remember,
you know, Metallica, of course, when they released the first
video on MTV, O my bread, I would say, Metallica,
(03:22):
it's like my ferry band of all time. And also
a lot of rock music from South America as well.
Right right the middle of the eighties, Spanish rock music
start to become like a very important for us. So
bands like Sola Stadio and Charlie Asia, Fito Pies San,
all of those start to be part of our culture
(03:45):
and I was so inspired by them. I start to
learn how to play the electric guitar, I start to
learn how to play a little bit of drums, and
then I became part of this metal band. It was
very positive for me because at that time, managing was
a very complicated time, you know, for the city. Columbia's
drug bosses struck back today, bombing and burning buildings and
(04:09):
homes and Madigan a stronghold at the drug cartel where
troops this week carried out dozens of rains. We were
living very difficult moments that I found through music, and
especially through rock music, a way to escape and just
to feel saved somehow. Wow. And actually we start to
play a lot in Colombia, like almost every weekend. And
(04:31):
I was finishing my eleventh grade, going to the university,
and I remember that I was working a lot with
this band, and I couldn't believe when they were paying
us to perform. I was amazing, you know, the feeling
like Okay, now I can just live doing this. This
is fantastic. Wow. Yeah, that must have been like that's
(04:54):
about dream right, come true? Do what you love. And
it was crazy, Eric, because we record, we I mean
we know knowing how to do anything. We were just
like little kids, imenergine. We didn't have like a great
gear to play, like a great amplifier, guitar techniques or anything.
We were just dreaming with this idea of being rockstars
(05:18):
and musicians. Now what'd your parents think? Where they like,
wait a minute, No, they were so so worried about me.
Oh they were. They were worried, but because he I mean,
they were listening to this music and they were thought
that there was like you know, satanic music or I
used to I try to have my long hair at
that time. But I was fighting with my parents, fighting
(05:38):
at school. It was so complicated for me to let
them know that I was really really serious about this,
you know that I really wanted to be a musician
and just to leave making music. They understood now later
on they said, okay, this this is I mean, this
guy's taking this serials list, so we have to support him.
And then that was it. I was obsessed, obsessed, eric
(06:01):
so obsessed that I say to my mother and my family, Okay,
I have to go to the United States. I cannot
stay here. I have to go. But what you're gonna
do that you do have no, no, no, I have
to go. I have to go. I have a couple
of friends that can help me, and I'm gonna go.
And I was like a jumping from from the airplane,
you know, in no parachutes. I was crazy. When I
get to United States, I didn't have like anything really
(06:23):
just inside of me. It was something that was moving
my heart, my soul every day. I have to do this.
There's no other way, there's no mistakes here. You have
to do this or you die. Wow, you really took
a leap of faith, Like that's a true leap of faith.
Faith was really important in this process eric Apart from
(06:43):
music and everything else, faith something that my mother teached
me through Christian religion. I don't follow any religion. I
have my own concept of God, but at that moment
when I was in LA, faith became a super weapon
for me to stay alive every day. I moved to
LA in ninety six, and that was probably the worst
(07:06):
time for me, very difficult time because I was by myself,
not too many friends. I had no morning, no label,
no deal, nothing. I was just like trying to survive
and make my dream come true. I was renting some
motels and then finally I get contact with a friend
who invited me to his house for a couple of weeks,
and then I needed to move because the manager done
(07:28):
and allow me to stay there. How old were you
at that time, twenty six maybe twenty seven, and I
was walking on the streets thinking, Wow, okay, I am
one among a million of musicians trying to make it here,
so this is not going to be easy for me,
but I need to try it. I was like, so
(07:49):
decided to take that road. When you were starting out,
was there any major artists that you met who gave
you some great advice. The first time I was in LA,
I met Paul Stanley from Kiss. He didn't know who
I was, but I was in the rehearsal place and
he was there and I said to him, Hey, I
am a musician too. I'm here in LA to make
(08:09):
my dream come true. And he was like, man, you
have to be very discipline and work hard and believing
yourself and all these things. And they, okay, this is
very important. Yeah, that was very important. Yeah, those things
are so important. I always tell the people i'm working with,
you know, if you're talking to someone younger, really encourage
them to work hard, because it's not just luck. It
(08:29):
takes a lot of work. Yeah, and more. In these days,
everything is so fast, you know. So you know, I
have three kids teenagers, so they think everything is right now.
You know, it needs to be now, and everything take time,
and you have to work and get prepared to next level,
you know. But I think it's just part of the
process of growing. The work in preparation really paid off.
(08:52):
For one as and two thousand, one of his dreams
did come true. He made it to the radio as
a solo artist. Was the first single released by me
as a solo artist and Scholfie Hativien, And it was
very particular time because I wrote this song about Colombia.
We're having having a big problem in Colombia with drugs
(09:14):
and narcos and mafia's and guerrillas, and because of all that,
there was there was a landmine situation in Colombia, a
very serious Linelan situation. So I wrote a song about that.
But when I went to the radio with that song,
the lyrics were not too nice, you know, it was
it was not it was like serious stuff. I record
(09:51):
my first solo album in La. Actually, what a beautiful
moment because after all those years that I was having
difficulties in La, finally Universal Music through Circle Music signed
me as an artist. So I was like in a dream,
you know, leaving a dream in La quoting my first album. Man,
I was so incredible moment for me. How long had
(10:14):
you been in La before that happened? Almost three years? Wow.
That's good for people to hear because I think that
quite often people forget, like sometimes it takes a while,
but it's worth while hanging in and working at it
because eventually it can happen. You can't give up too quickly. Yeah, man,
And it's a good thing he didn't, because his first
(10:36):
solo album won the Best Rock category at the Latin Grammys.
Then just a few years later one has released another
huge hit like that song is very inspired by Glasgow music,
(11:00):
which is a kind of music that is very popular
in my area from the countryside. Back in the sixties.
It was like a revolutionary music with bad words and
very funny thing, very smart. I grew up listening to
all this kind of music in my house and it
was inspired in that music, which is like a mix
(11:21):
between reggae and funk. It's a break hard song means
the black shirt, So when somebody passed away, you were
in black right, So I was kind of an association
of that when you are when you feel so very
hard because you'll break up with your capital and then
you feel so sad, So you were a black shirt, right. Oh,
(11:45):
I got it now, totally makes sense, yeah man. You know,
it's very local, like the sound and everything is very
local and became universal because I can go around the
world saying that song and I couldn't believe it when
I was in German, in Japan, everywhere, and what is
happening here. Did you keep visualizing yourself like as successful.
(12:08):
Did you go, all right, I know I can do this.
I never think I am successful. You know, sometimes I think, okay,
I am thankful with life in music because I mean
never in my biggest dream, I never realized that I
was going to be like this. So I feel proud
of that. I remember especially a moment probably wasn't two
(12:28):
thousand and three and four. I was in Madrid doing
promotion and shows and I listened you know, my song
on the radio in Madrid, and then the next day
in Buenos Aires, and then two days later in Colombia,
and then three days later in Mexico, and I said,
I mean, this is happening. Yeah. I've heard people say
that when people sing along know the words to their song,
(12:51):
that's when they feel like, ah, I've really accomplished something exactly.
And the feeling of being on stage, seeing the audience
singing the songs, and when people on the streets go
to you and say, hey, you have no idea how
your song helped me when I was in these difficulties,
and I say, really, well, I get married with your song,
(13:13):
will get married with your stories? Really? Those stories just
fool my soul of happiness, and I feel so you know,
thanksful with the music because of that, don't go anywhere
when backstage passed returns will here Juannas play his own
rendition of an American classic, and we're back with juan As.
(13:43):
Now you might be wondering how he started taking singing
lessons with me. A few years ago, Juana saw one
of my students, at Rosalia, performing at a theater in Madrid.
I remember that day when I was seeing her performing,
I was like almost dying there in my seat. I
was like, I couldn't believe what I was watching, what
I was seeing, what I was hearing. I mean, why
(14:04):
Rosalia need to take singing lessons? You know, she sings,
She sings so perfec it. I never had the opportunity
to really to study music, and Rosalie I was starting
(14:26):
with you, so I said, well, can you please connect
me with Eric. That concept just inspired me so much
and I just wanted to get better and better and better.
And I start to work with you now, like in
these days when I record here in my studio, when
I rehearse with my band, it's like another world. I
feel more secure about my voice and tuning in everything.
(14:49):
You know, I feel like relaxed and just enjoying the
processes of singing, which is what I love since I
was a kid. Oh, I'm so happy to hear that.
Thank you. I want to keep growing as a musician,
so I want to learn to play guitar better. I
want to learn about harmony. I want to learn to
sing better. I want to try to make better songs.
(15:10):
So I keep, you know, my energy and my love
from music alive a lot. Well that's really admirable because
a lot of people who would have had as much
success as you have would probably not continue to try
to work as hard to improve, you know. They feel
good about where they were and go, Okay, I've made it,
you know. So I find that very admirable. Yeah, thank
(15:33):
you so much. I leave music so intense, to be honest,
sometimes I suffer, but most of the time I enjoy it.
What do you mean you suffer? You have to be
ready for the next song, you have to write something
different that you didn't do before. So that's kind of
a pressure, you know, for me, But I really enjoy
(15:54):
it because it's like something that I really want to
make happen. Every day when I come to the studio,
I have probably no ideas, and I come and I
start to improvise, I start to search for something, and
then five hours later I have a song. And I
really love that feeling, you know, it's so cool. And
then when I go to the studio to record a song,
and then when I play with my band, it's like,
(16:16):
I mean, this is crazy. I mean six months ago
it was nothing. Now I have a song and people
are singing that song with me, So that's great. Wow,
that must be an amazing feeling. Yeah. Man, I'm so
glad you said that though about the pressure, because I
think that fans don't realize that there is that pressure.
I think they think, oh, it's easy, he sits down,
(16:36):
he writes a song, he records it, puts it out.
I don't think people realize that most artists do get
a bit anxious or they feel a certain pressure, like
I have to do this again, I have to do
it even better, or I have to keep evolving, And
there is a lot of pressure with that. Yeah, definitely. Eric, Actually,
ten years ago, I never told you this before, but
(16:58):
ten years ago I was in the middle of a
tour and I was so tired, you know, because I
was ten years on the road, like like literally like
ten years on the road. I missed most of my kids,
you know, growing up, and I was always traveling and
working with a lot of success, but inside of me,
(17:21):
I was kind of try. I was so tired, and
it was very hard for me to realize that I
needed to stop for a moment, that I needed to
take a break and just put everything together again because
I was on stage singing and doing shows and I
was not enjoying the process, and so that was kind
(17:41):
of harbor. It wasn't also like a big lesson for me,
just to understand that there is always a balance in life. Right,
so now finding the balance, Like how do you find
the balance? Now? Do you schedule time off so that
you do have some time to just recharge? Yeah? Yes,
because now I have a little bit more of control
of my life and my career. And now yes, I
(18:03):
can say, well, after twenty years and all the success,
thank god, I can have a little big, you know,
kind of approach to my career. And I am not
looking for a number one heat on the radio or
things like that. I'm just trying to keep finding my
own style my own way to create music, and that's
(18:24):
something that I really really love and I feel happy
that now I can do that with no stress from outside.
I don't know. I'm just more relaxed now, and clearly
it's an approach that's working for him. One has just
won his twenty fourth Grammy for his most recent album,
which was named Best Pop Rock Album. I play guitar
(18:45):
like almost all day, Eric, like, I have a guitar here,
I have a guitar in the living room. I have
a guitar close to my bed. So I am all
the time thinking, practicing, watching some lessons on YouTube or
special lessons that I pay for that when I find something,
Oh this is cool, this progression is really nice. I
like the chords combination. So I come to the studio,
(19:09):
record the guitar, and then I start to improvise melodies,
like a lot of ideas, and then I listened to
the whole thing, and then I choose the pieces that
I really like and I make like a main track
of vocals with that, and then from that part I
start to build a song. Oh so you do the
music first and then the lyrics. Yeah, Like the melody
(19:31):
comes first. Yeah, melody most of the times can first,
and I am always writing, so when I'm not in
the studio, I'm probably thinking in ideas to write a song,
a story to tell, or something from the past that
I feel any feeling basically, and then I try to
connect those melodies that I wrote before with the lyrics
(19:54):
I have in the works. For me, most of the
time like that. So let me ask you this, because
you haven't you don't you sing in Spanish. I mean,
you did some English and the covers, but you sing
in Spanish. You haven't done the crossover. Is there a
reason for that? Eric? Yeah, at the beginning, you know,
I wanted to sing in English, but then when I
(20:14):
try a couple of times, I found out so complicated
for me, so hard to do it, and I realized
that I preferred just to sing in Spanish because it's
my language. When I sing in Spanish, I can close
my eyes and feel. When I sing in English, I
really need to think in the pronunciation. When I was
in Colombia, when I was in Managine, I never studied English,
(20:36):
like for real, you know, I never So I came
to the United States and I didn't speak a word.
I was totally lost Wow, when you came here, you
didn't speak any English, no, no, no, nothing nothing. I
was learning with close caption and watching TV, going to
the bookstores to read English Spanish books, listening to the
(20:58):
Beatles and music in general. Reading the lyrics. Well, that
was crazy. At some point, I just needed to learn
just to survive now. But it was a process just
to learn, very difficult process. But I grew up as
a person and as an artist a lot because I
had to go through that difficult moment. So some of
(21:20):
the songs on the last album you did do in
English the original, like Bob Marley's Could You Be Loved,
but you translated Bruce Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark. Was
there a reason you did that? Yeah. The reason why
I did that was because when I was trying to
do the translation for Bob Marley in Spanish, it was
kind of weird just to sing that lady, you know,
(21:42):
I was no, no, this doesn't feel good. I think
it's better. But when I started to do the translation
to Dancing in the Dark, I was like, what is
this because it was so vulnerable and so deep human
like I was feeling that way somehow, and then the
translation just came like beautiful in Spanish. Can you play
(22:05):
and sing just a tiny bit of it in Spanish?
Because it didn't really did come out so beautifully. Yeah, mississitomasity,
no brand, little Figo, no bring the simple, the honey
(22:28):
stadio e vio limbs are killous school. That was so beautiful. God,
I wish I had taken Spanish class more seriously. So.
You know, a lot of people artists I work with,
(22:49):
talk about feeling anxiety, or they'll also talk about having
stage fright. They get nervous before performing. Has that ever
happened to you? Or You've been pretty lucky with no?
No a lot Eric sometimes sometimes now I'm all the
times I would say, all the times before I am
going to perform, I feel insecure and I feel like
(23:11):
why I choose to do this in my life. I
should be at home, relaxed, you know, no pressure at all,
just in the countryside. You know, I don't know. For example,
you're gonna give the four show on the road in
a weekend, you feel so tired, and you go to
the sound check and feel like maybe you can sing
and say, oh, I'm so tired, I feel headache. I
(23:31):
don't know what to say to the audience tonight. But
then I really I really feel so alive when I
go to stage and the first moment until you play
the guitar and everything sounds perfect, and then it's like, wow, okay,
this is it. I'm here, this is who I am.
Everything goes away and you are just like a superstar.
(23:53):
A lot of energy. Man. That's that's something that I
really love and I trust. Like when you say in
the lessons that you have to trust your voice, that's
what I do. Like, Okay, I know I'm very tired,
but tonight I know that I'm gonna make it happen. Anyways,
I'm gonna kick it. Everybody says there, yeah, well it's good.
Once you've done it a few times, then you know, okay,
(24:13):
I can count on that. Yeah exactly. I think my
connection with music since that, you know, early time just
changed my life and save my life. And definitely, you know,
it's very important for me just to have a way
to express feelings. If I have sadness or happiness or whatever,
(24:34):
I can just take all that information and make it
a song. There is something spiritual for me and energetic.
I remember Erica when I was a kid, and I
was in my living room in my house nighttime, and
I was with my guitar singing, and just that was
(24:54):
like the first moment in my life that I've feeled something.
And for me, just to connect myself to the universe
through the singing is also like meditation time. Like every
day when I come here and I close the door
and I do my exercises, I go like an a
(25:15):
trance and I start to go another dimension. I feel
connected with something bigger than me. That's what I feel
when I'm singing. Well, Wannas, thank you so much. I
really appreciate you for doing that. Oh Eric, my pressure man,
thank you so much. I'm sorry about my english and
about my singing. Now, are you kidding? It's all gray,
(25:42):
don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with a new
vocal exercise. I'm not going to give anything away, but
it's right on the tip of my tongue. So here's
something for you to think about. Quite often singers don't
(26:04):
realize that, but when they're singing, their tongue involuntarily pulls
back into the back of their throat, and that constricts
the sound and it makes it way more difficult to sing.
There's quite a few exercises that can help fix this problem.
I'm going to show you an easy one today. I
want you to stick out your tongue as far as
you can and touch your upper lip with your tongue.
(26:25):
Try it saying la la la, and then try it
on other vowels like lay lay lay or low low low.
Go slowly to give yourself time to stick your tongue
out and touch the upper lip. It's going to feel
awkward on your tongue and probably on your mouth as well,
but it should feel very comfortable on your vocal cords.
You can practice sticking your tongue out touching your upper
(26:47):
lip on any musical pattern. Don't overdo it the first
time you try this. Try doing it just for a
few minutes, and then each day you can add a
little more time. For example, try singing la la la
with your tongue touching your upper lip on this patternmaaaaaa.
(27:08):
Bass baritones and tenors start on a C below middle C.
(28:01):
Sopranos and alto's. A good place for you to start
would be around an A below middle C. Eventually, as
(28:57):
you feel like you have built up your stamina, try
going to the lowest note you can sing comfortably, and
then to the highest note you can sing comfortably. To
keep your body loose and relaxed, try some of the
physical mood movement we talked about in the other vocal tips.
If you want to share it, I'd love to see
a video of you doing any of the exercises. This
one might be the most fun one to watch. Use
(29:19):
the hashtag Backstage Pass pod on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or
wherever you like to post. I can't wait to see them,
maybe me. Backstage Pass with Eric Vitro is written and
(29:41):
hosted by me Eric Vitro and produced by Morgan Jaffee.
Katherine Girardou is our showrunner, Emily Rostek as our associate producer,
Kate Parkinson Morgan as our editor. The show is mixed
and mastered by Ben Tolliday. Additional engineering help is from
Jacob Gorski, Martin Gonzalez, and Kay Wayne Mia Lobell as
(30:03):
our executive producer. Our development team Litalmulad and Justine Lange
helped create the show, thanks also to Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fame,
John Schnarz, Carl Migliori, Christina Sullivan, Eric Sandler, Maggie Taylor,
Nicole Morano, Daniella Lakhan and Royston Bazzer. The original theme
music is by Jacob and Sita Steele for Premier Music Group.
(30:25):
We record it Resonate Studios. Fred Talson does our videography
and the photography is by Ken Sawyer. A very special
thanks to Michael Lewis for his inspiration and the best
guidance anyone could ask for. Backstage passed with Eric Vitro
as a production of Pushkin Industries. If you like the show,
please remember to share, rate and review it. I mean
(30:47):
that really share, rate it, review it, and if you
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(31:08):
To find Moreskin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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Pushkin. I was crazy. When I get to the United States,
I didn't have like anything really, you know, just inside
of me. It was something that was moving my heart,
my soul. Every day. I have to do this. There
is no other way. There's no mistakes here. You have
(00:35):
to do this or you die. That's Colombian singer Juans
and to me, he's one of the best examples of
an artist whose success was hard one. He didn't grow
up with connections in the business. It was his incredible
work ethic that got him where he is now, the
winner of two Grammys and more than twenty Latin Grammys.
You might have heard his most popular song La Camisa
(00:57):
Negra or one of his many hit albums like Undia Normal.
His commitment to music started young. My first community I
have a a small video and I am playing guitar
with my brother is probably I don't know, around seven
years old something like that. Since I was a kid,
I always saw my brothers, all brothers, playing guitar and
(01:20):
singing music from South America. So since I have memory,
I just have my guitar, you know, all the pictures
and videos from my family. Always the guitar bigger than me.
But I was always so inspired by by the sound
of the guitar and the singing and all these music
from all South America. This is Backstage Pass and I'm
(01:44):
Eric Betro. I'm a vocal coach to some pretty successful singers.
On this show, I talked to my students about their lives,
their biggest insecurities, and how they keep building their careers.
People think the great singers only rely on their natural talents,
but finding your voice takes a lot of work. Together,
will explore what it really takes to make it. Dare Now,
(02:07):
did your parents play music too or just your brothers?
Just my brothers. But my father used to sing tango
music when he was at home, and he was not
like a professional singer, but he used to do it
really well. And then my old brother started to sing
also tango music. So I just became a fan of
this kind of music. And then when I became fifteen
(02:31):
years old, I get crazy with rock music, like totally crazy, Eric.
So for me, it was like a game changer because
when I started to listen to rock music, I completely
forgot everything else. I just wanted to listen to Metallic
as Layer, Zeppa led Zeppelin, Black South at you know,
vine Hell and all these bands, and I get so
(02:54):
crazy about that. That was the same time that MTV start,
so I used to watch MTV like crazy, and I remember,
you know, Metallica, of course, when they released the first
video on MTV, O my bread, I would say, Metallica,
(03:22):
it's like my ferry band of all time. And also
a lot of rock music from South America as well.
Right right the middle of the eighties, Spanish rock music
start to become like a very important for us. So
bands like Sola Stadio and Charlie Asia, Fito Pies San,
all of those start to be part of our culture
(03:45):
and I was so inspired by them. I start to
learn how to play the electric guitar, I start to
learn how to play a little bit of drums, and
then I became part of this metal band. It was
very positive for me because at that time, managing was
a very complicated time, you know, for the city. Columbia's
drug bosses struck back today, bombing and burning buildings and
(04:09):
homes and Madigan a stronghold at the drug cartel where
troops this week carried out dozens of rains. We were
living very difficult moments that I found through music, and
especially through rock music, a way to escape and just
to feel saved somehow. Wow. And actually we start to
play a lot in Colombia, like almost every weekend. And
(04:31):
I was finishing my eleventh grade, going to the university,
and I remember that I was working a lot with
this band, and I couldn't believe when they were paying
us to perform. I was amazing, you know, the feeling
like Okay, now I can just live doing this. This
is fantastic. Wow. Yeah, that must have been like that's
(04:54):
about dream right, come true? Do what you love. And
it was crazy, Eric, because we record, we I mean
we know knowing how to do anything. We were just
like little kids, imenergine. We didn't have like a great
gear to play, like a great amplifier, guitar techniques or anything.
We were just dreaming with this idea of being rockstars
(05:18):
and musicians. Now what'd your parents think? Where they like,
wait a minute, No, they were so so worried about me.
Oh they were. They were worried, but because he I mean,
they were listening to this music and they were thought
that there was like you know, satanic music or I
used to I try to have my long hair at
that time. But I was fighting with my parents, fighting
(05:38):
at school. It was so complicated for me to let
them know that I was really really serious about this,
you know that I really wanted to be a musician
and just to leave making music. They understood now later
on they said, okay, this this is I mean, this
guy's taking this serials list, so we have to support him.
And then that was it. I was obsessed, obsessed, eric
(06:01):
so obsessed that I say to my mother and my family, Okay,
I have to go to the United States. I cannot
stay here. I have to go. But what you're gonna
do that you do have no, no, no, I have
to go. I have to go. I have a couple
of friends that can help me, and I'm gonna go.
And I was like a jumping from from the airplane,
you know, in no parachutes. I was crazy. When I
get to United States, I didn't have like anything really
(06:23):
just inside of me. It was something that was moving
my heart, my soul every day. I have to do this.
There's no other way, there's no mistakes here. You have
to do this or you die. Wow, you really took
a leap of faith, Like that's a true leap of faith.
Faith was really important in this process eric Apart from
(06:43):
music and everything else, faith something that my mother teached
me through Christian religion. I don't follow any religion. I
have my own concept of God, but at that moment
when I was in LA, faith became a super weapon
for me to stay alive every day. I moved to
LA in ninety six, and that was probably the worst
(07:06):
time for me, very difficult time because I was by myself,
not too many friends. I had no morning, no label,
no deal, nothing. I was just like trying to survive
and make my dream come true. I was renting some
motels and then finally I get contact with a friend
who invited me to his house for a couple of weeks,
and then I needed to move because the manager done
(07:28):
and allow me to stay there. How old were you
at that time, twenty six maybe twenty seven, and I
was walking on the streets thinking, Wow, okay, I am
one among a million of musicians trying to make it here,
so this is not going to be easy for me,
but I need to try it. I was like, so
(07:49):
decided to take that road. When you were starting out,
was there any major artists that you met who gave
you some great advice. The first time I was in LA,
I met Paul Stanley from Kiss. He didn't know who
I was, but I was in the rehearsal place and
he was there and I said to him, Hey, I
am a musician too. I'm here in LA to make
(08:09):
my dream come true. And he was like, man, you
have to be very discipline and work hard and believing
yourself and all these things. And they, okay, this is
very important. Yeah, that was very important. Yeah, those things
are so important. I always tell the people i'm working with,
you know, if you're talking to someone younger, really encourage
them to work hard, because it's not just luck. It
(08:29):
takes a lot of work. Yeah, and more. In these days,
everything is so fast, you know. So you know, I
have three kids teenagers, so they think everything is right now.
You know, it needs to be now, and everything take time,
and you have to work and get prepared to next level,
you know. But I think it's just part of the
process of growing. The work in preparation really paid off.
(08:52):
For one as and two thousand, one of his dreams
did come true. He made it to the radio as
a solo artist. Was the first single released by me
as a solo artist and Scholfie Hativien, And it was
very particular time because I wrote this song about Colombia.
We're having having a big problem in Colombia with drugs
(09:14):
and narcos and mafia's and guerrillas, and because of all that,
there was there was a landmine situation in Colombia, a
very serious Linelan situation. So I wrote a song about that.
But when I went to the radio with that song,
the lyrics were not too nice, you know, it was
it was not it was like serious stuff. I record
(09:51):
my first solo album in La. Actually, what a beautiful
moment because after all those years that I was having
difficulties in La, finally Universal Music through Circle Music signed
me as an artist. So I was like in a dream,
you know, leaving a dream in La quoting my first album. Man,
I was so incredible moment for me. How long had
(10:14):
you been in La before that happened? Almost three years? Wow.
That's good for people to hear because I think that
quite often people forget, like sometimes it takes a while,
but it's worth while hanging in and working at it
because eventually it can happen. You can't give up too quickly. Yeah, man,
And it's a good thing he didn't, because his first
(10:36):
solo album won the Best Rock category at the Latin Grammys.
Then just a few years later one has released another
huge hit like that song is very inspired by Glasgow music,
(11:00):
which is a kind of music that is very popular
in my area from the countryside. Back in the sixties.
It was like a revolutionary music with bad words and
very funny thing, very smart. I grew up listening to
all this kind of music in my house and it
was inspired in that music, which is like a mix
(11:21):
between reggae and funk. It's a break hard song means
the black shirt, So when somebody passed away, you were
in black right, So I was kind of an association
of that when you are when you feel so very
hard because you'll break up with your capital and then
you feel so sad, So you were a black shirt, right. Oh,
(11:45):
I got it now, totally makes sense, yeah man. You know,
it's very local, like the sound and everything is very
local and became universal because I can go around the
world saying that song and I couldn't believe it when
I was in German, in Japan, everywhere, and what is
happening here. Did you keep visualizing yourself like as successful.
(12:08):
Did you go, all right, I know I can do this.
I never think I am successful. You know, sometimes I think, okay,
I am thankful with life in music because I mean
never in my biggest dream, I never realized that I
was going to be like this. So I feel proud
of that. I remember especially a moment probably wasn't two
(12:28):
thousand and three and four. I was in Madrid doing
promotion and shows and I listened you know, my song
on the radio in Madrid, and then the next day
in Buenos Aires, and then two days later in Colombia,
and then three days later in Mexico, and I said,
I mean, this is happening. Yeah. I've heard people say
that when people sing along know the words to their song,
(12:51):
that's when they feel like, ah, I've really accomplished something exactly.
And the feeling of being on stage, seeing the audience
singing the songs, and when people on the streets go
to you and say, hey, you have no idea how
your song helped me when I was in these difficulties,
and I say, really, well, I get married with your song,
(13:13):
will get married with your stories? Really? Those stories just
fool my soul of happiness, and I feel so you know,
thanksful with the music because of that, don't go anywhere
when backstage passed returns will here Juannas play his own
rendition of an American classic, and we're back with juan As.
(13:43):
Now you might be wondering how he started taking singing
lessons with me. A few years ago, Juana saw one
of my students, at Rosalia, performing at a theater in Madrid.
I remember that day when I was seeing her performing,
I was like almost dying there in my seat. I
was like, I couldn't believe what I was watching, what
I was seeing, what I was hearing. I mean, why
(14:04):
Rosalia need to take singing lessons? You know, she sings,
She sings so perfec it. I never had the opportunity
to really to study music, and Rosalie I was starting
(14:26):
with you, so I said, well, can you please connect
me with Eric. That concept just inspired me so much
and I just wanted to get better and better and better.
And I start to work with you now, like in
these days when I record here in my studio, when
I rehearse with my band, it's like another world. I
feel more secure about my voice and tuning in everything.
(14:49):
You know, I feel like relaxed and just enjoying the
processes of singing, which is what I love since I
was a kid. Oh, I'm so happy to hear that.
Thank you. I want to keep growing as a musician,
so I want to learn to play guitar better. I
want to learn about harmony. I want to learn to
sing better. I want to try to make better songs.
(15:10):
So I keep, you know, my energy and my love
from music alive a lot. Well that's really admirable because
a lot of people who would have had as much
success as you have would probably not continue to try
to work as hard to improve, you know. They feel
good about where they were and go, Okay, I've made it,
you know. So I find that very admirable. Yeah, thank
(15:33):
you so much. I leave music so intense, to be honest,
sometimes I suffer, but most of the time I enjoy it.
What do you mean you suffer? You have to be
ready for the next song, you have to write something
different that you didn't do before. So that's kind of
a pressure, you know, for me, But I really enjoy
(15:54):
it because it's like something that I really want to
make happen. Every day when I come to the studio,
I have probably no ideas, and I come and I
start to improvise, I start to search for something, and
then five hours later I have a song. And I
really love that feeling, you know, it's so cool. And
then when I go to the studio to record a song,
and then when I play with my band, it's like,
(16:16):
I mean, this is crazy. I mean six months ago
it was nothing. Now I have a song and people
are singing that song with me, So that's great. Wow,
that must be an amazing feeling. Yeah. Man, I'm so
glad you said that though about the pressure, because I
think that fans don't realize that there is that pressure.
I think they think, oh, it's easy, he sits down,
(16:36):
he writes a song, he records it, puts it out.
I don't think people realize that most artists do get
a bit anxious or they feel a certain pressure, like
I have to do this again, I have to do
it even better, or I have to keep evolving, And
there is a lot of pressure with that. Yeah, definitely. Eric, Actually,
ten years ago, I never told you this before, but
(16:58):
ten years ago I was in the middle of a
tour and I was so tired, you know, because I
was ten years on the road, like like literally like
ten years on the road. I missed most of my kids,
you know, growing up, and I was always traveling and
working with a lot of success, but inside of me,
(17:21):
I was kind of try. I was so tired, and
it was very hard for me to realize that I
needed to stop for a moment, that I needed to
take a break and just put everything together again because
I was on stage singing and doing shows and I
was not enjoying the process, and so that was kind
(17:41):
of harbor. It wasn't also like a big lesson for me,
just to understand that there is always a balance in life. Right,
so now finding the balance, Like how do you find
the balance? Now? Do you schedule time off so that
you do have some time to just recharge? Yeah? Yes,
because now I have a little bit more of control
of my life and my career. And now yes, I
(18:03):
can say, well, after twenty years and all the success,
thank god, I can have a little big, you know,
kind of approach to my career. And I am not
looking for a number one heat on the radio or
things like that. I'm just trying to keep finding my
own style my own way to create music, and that's
(18:24):
something that I really really love and I feel happy
that now I can do that with no stress from outside.
I don't know. I'm just more relaxed now, and clearly
it's an approach that's working for him. One has just
won his twenty fourth Grammy for his most recent album,
which was named Best Pop Rock Album. I play guitar
(18:45):
like almost all day, Eric, like, I have a guitar here,
I have a guitar in the living room. I have
a guitar close to my bed. So I am all
the time thinking, practicing, watching some lessons on YouTube or
special lessons that I pay for that when I find something,
Oh this is cool, this progression is really nice. I
like the chords combination. So I come to the studio,
(19:09):
record the guitar, and then I start to improvise melodies,
like a lot of ideas, and then I listened to
the whole thing, and then I choose the pieces that
I really like and I make like a main track
of vocals with that, and then from that part I
start to build a song. Oh so you do the
music first and then the lyrics. Yeah, Like the melody
(19:31):
comes first. Yeah, melody most of the times can first,
and I am always writing, so when I'm not in
the studio, I'm probably thinking in ideas to write a song,
a story to tell, or something from the past that
I feel any feeling basically, and then I try to
connect those melodies that I wrote before with the lyrics
(19:54):
I have in the works. For me, most of the
time like that. So let me ask you this, because
you haven't you don't you sing in Spanish. I mean,
you did some English and the covers, but you sing
in Spanish. You haven't done the crossover. Is there a
reason for that? Eric? Yeah, at the beginning, you know,
I wanted to sing in English, but then when I
(20:14):
try a couple of times, I found out so complicated
for me, so hard to do it, and I realized
that I preferred just to sing in Spanish because it's
my language. When I sing in Spanish, I can close
my eyes and feel. When I sing in English, I
really need to think in the pronunciation. When I was
in Colombia, when I was in Managine, I never studied English,
(20:36):
like for real, you know, I never So I came
to the United States and I didn't speak a word.
I was totally lost Wow, when you came here, you
didn't speak any English, no, no, no, nothing nothing. I
was learning with close caption and watching TV, going to
the bookstores to read English Spanish books, listening to the
(20:58):
Beatles and music in general. Reading the lyrics. Well, that
was crazy. At some point, I just needed to learn
just to survive now. But it was a process just
to learn, very difficult process. But I grew up as
a person and as an artist a lot because I
had to go through that difficult moment. So some of
(21:20):
the songs on the last album you did do in
English the original, like Bob Marley's Could You Be Loved,
but you translated Bruce Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark. Was
there a reason you did that? Yeah. The reason why
I did that was because when I was trying to
do the translation for Bob Marley in Spanish, it was
kind of weird just to sing that lady, you know,
(21:42):
I was no, no, this doesn't feel good. I think
it's better. But when I started to do the translation
to Dancing in the Dark, I was like, what is
this because it was so vulnerable and so deep human
like I was feeling that way somehow, and then the
translation just came like beautiful in Spanish. Can you play
(22:05):
and sing just a tiny bit of it in Spanish?
Because it didn't really did come out so beautifully. Yeah, mississitomasity,
no brand, little Figo, no bring the simple, the honey
(22:28):
stadio e vio limbs are killous school. That was so beautiful. God,
I wish I had taken Spanish class more seriously. So.
You know, a lot of people artists I work with,
(22:49):
talk about feeling anxiety, or they'll also talk about having
stage fright. They get nervous before performing. Has that ever
happened to you? Or You've been pretty lucky with no?
No a lot Eric sometimes sometimes now I'm all the
times I would say, all the times before I am
going to perform, I feel insecure and I feel like
(23:11):
why I choose to do this in my life. I
should be at home, relaxed, you know, no pressure at all,
just in the countryside. You know, I don't know. For example,
you're gonna give the four show on the road in
a weekend, you feel so tired, and you go to
the sound check and feel like maybe you can sing
and say, oh, I'm so tired, I feel headache. I
(23:31):
don't know what to say to the audience tonight. But
then I really I really feel so alive when I
go to stage and the first moment until you play
the guitar and everything sounds perfect, and then it's like, wow, okay,
this is it. I'm here, this is who I am.
Everything goes away and you are just like a superstar.
(23:53):
A lot of energy. Man. That's that's something that I
really love and I trust. Like when you say in
the lessons that you have to trust your voice, that's
what I do. Like, Okay, I know I'm very tired,
but tonight I know that I'm gonna make it happen. Anyways,
I'm gonna kick it. Everybody says there, yeah, well it's good.
Once you've done it a few times, then you know, okay,
(24:13):
I can count on that. Yeah exactly. I think my
connection with music since that, you know, early time just
changed my life and save my life. And definitely, you know,
it's very important for me just to have a way
to express feelings. If I have sadness or happiness or whatever,
(24:34):
I can just take all that information and make it
a song. There is something spiritual for me and energetic.
I remember Erica when I was a kid, and I
was in my living room in my house nighttime, and
I was with my guitar singing, and just that was
(24:54):
like the first moment in my life that I've feeled something.
And for me, just to connect myself to the universe
through the singing is also like meditation time. Like every
day when I come here and I close the door
and I do my exercises, I go like an a
(25:15):
trance and I start to go another dimension. I feel
connected with something bigger than me. That's what I feel
when I'm singing. Well, Wannas, thank you so much. I
really appreciate you for doing that. Oh Eric, my pressure man,
thank you so much. I'm sorry about my english and
about my singing. Now, are you kidding? It's all gray,
(25:42):
don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with a new
vocal exercise. I'm not going to give anything away, but
it's right on the tip of my tongue. So here's
something for you to think about. Quite often singers don't
(26:04):
realize that, but when they're singing, their tongue involuntarily pulls
back into the back of their throat, and that constricts
the sound and it makes it way more difficult to sing.
There's quite a few exercises that can help fix this problem.
I'm going to show you an easy one today. I
want you to stick out your tongue as far as
you can and touch your upper lip with your tongue.
(26:25):
Try it saying la la la, and then try it
on other vowels like lay lay lay or low low low.
Go slowly to give yourself time to stick your tongue
out and touch the upper lip. It's going to feel
awkward on your tongue and probably on your mouth as well,
but it should feel very comfortable on your vocal cords.
You can practice sticking your tongue out touching your upper
(26:47):
lip on any musical pattern. Don't overdo it the first
time you try this. Try doing it just for a
few minutes, and then each day you can add a
little more time. For example, try singing la la la
with your tongue touching your upper lip on this patternmaaaaaa.
(27:08):
Bass baritones and tenors start on a C below middle C.
(28:01):
Sopranos and alto's. A good place for you to start
would be around an A below middle C. Eventually, as
(28:57):
you feel like you have built up your stamina, try
going to the lowest note you can sing comfortably, and
then to the highest note you can sing comfortably. To
keep your body loose and relaxed, try some of the
physical mood movement we talked about in the other vocal tips.
If you want to share it, I'd love to see
a video of you doing any of the exercises. This
one might be the most fun one to watch. Use
(29:19):
the hashtag Backstage Pass pod on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or
wherever you like to post. I can't wait to see them,
maybe me. Backstage Pass with Eric Vitro is written and
(29:41):
hosted by me Eric Vitro and produced by Morgan Jaffee.
Katherine Girardou is our showrunner, Emily Rostek as our associate producer,
Kate Parkinson Morgan as our editor. The show is mixed
and mastered by Ben Tolliday. Additional engineering help is from
Jacob Gorski, Martin Gonzalez, and Kay Wayne Mia Lobell as
(30:03):
our executive producer. Our development team Litalmulad and Justine Lange
helped create the show, thanks also to Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fame,
John Schnarz, Carl Migliori, Christina Sullivan, Eric Sandler, Maggie Taylor,
Nicole Morano, Daniella Lakhan and Royston Bazzer. The original theme
music is by Jacob and Sita Steele for Premier Music Group.
(30:25):
We record it Resonate Studios. Fred Talson does our videography
and the photography is by Ken Sawyer. A very special
thanks to Michael Lewis for his inspiration and the best
guidance anyone could ask for. Backstage passed with Eric Vitro
as a production of Pushkin Industries. If you like the show,
please remember to share, rate and review it. I mean
(30:47):
that really share, rate it, review it, and if you
love the show and others from Pushkin Industries, consider subscribing
to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that
offers bonus content and uninterrupted listening for four ninety nine
a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions.
(31:08):
To find Moreskin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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