In a particularly prolific period (he calls it his “Woody Allen era”, when the film director released an annual film), the Spanish singer Bunbury releases a new album, ‘De un siglo anterior’, in which he continues his exploration of the Latin American tradition and takes stock of what has been done and what remains to be done.
“I’m aware that I’ve already trodden a lot of ground, but at the same time I have a lot of interests left to explore. I don’t feel that what lies ahead could be a disappointment, but rather that there are good songs and records to be recorded,” he says in a chat with EFE ahead of the release this Friday of his fourteenth studio album.
Bunbury (1967), who launches here ‘A toast to the sun’ and sings that he sees “the glass half full”, reaffirms that he keeps “the enthusiasm intact” and even reveals a little adventure that he would love to make reality: “I want to start in Japan and Russia. If they propose me tomorrow to go on tour in Japan, I’ll jump in immediately and put money out of my pocket”.
Enthusiasm was also what led him to ‘De un siglo anterior’ (Warner), in particular, how much he enjoyed the equipment he had assembled to record the previous ‘Cuentas pendientes’ (2025), released a year ago and in which he already delved into the Spanish-American song.
“They were musicians who belonged to a wide range of music, each from one side, and, against all odds, a team was created that humanly and musically we connected a lot and I wanted to repeat the experience,” he justifies.
As in that one, he has been involved in the production together with his drummer, Ramón Gacías, and as in that one, he reflects on the road he has traveled, as can be perceived in ‘Creer para poder creer’.
“It is necessary to have faith in yourself to get on stage and sing in front of a thousand or 50,000 people. That faith is also essential to create your own path (…), and I think I have my own personality and my own little style”, he ends without being able to avoid a mischievous smile.
He affirms that he never lost that faith nor felt rejection for his profession. “At some point I have felt frustration towards it, but then I have known how to direct it towards what concretely caused me that anger, which is usually not in the seed, which is to pick up a guitar and compose,” he adds.
In a predominantly warm album, the moments of “gloom” are reflected in cuts like ‘La voz’, which talks about the throat problems that prevented him from singing a few years ago and that led to think that he would not go on stage anymore, until it was discovered that the cause was the smoke used in concerts.
All in all, he considers that it was not the “lowest” episode of his career thanks to what he learned during the pandemic. “That feeling gave me great creativity, so I thought that if for whatever reason I couldn’t do concerts, I had a lot of other things that I really enjoyed (…). It’s like what they call in the U.S. the second chapter and I found it super-inspiring as well,” he alleges.
In fact, he reconfigured many aspects of his life and career, such as much shorter tours, going for example from doing up to 110 concerts to the 20 he will give this year, three of them in Spain.
“With ‘Expectativas’, which was the last long tour I did, we spent two and a half years. Everything was perfectly scheduled, but there were times when it seemed like groundhog day,” he justifies, before stressing that now he enjoys the live shows more.
On the other hand, that more relaxed pace of ‘shows’ left him more time to record albums. “I’ve always been excited about going into a recording studio. It’s my natural place, I’m happy there,” says Bunbury, who already has his head in new songs.
In his new tour, called ‘Nuevas Mutaciones’ (New Mutations), he will bring a good part of his repertoire, including songs he has never played before “and interesting rescues,” reported Agencia EFE.
Find out more at ‘QueOnnda.com’.