Today, on Estudio Billboard, Residente and Visitante from Calle 13 talk about their writing process… when they are on an airplane... their unique rituals before going on stage and their new documentary, Sin Mapa… Here… on Estudio Billboard.
Welcome to Estudio Billboard. Today, we are with Calle 13 from Puerto Rico. Rene… Eduardo… Welcome. I know you’re tired. You’re touring like crazy! You have to go to Spain right after this.
Yes. But… I got lots of sleep last night, so I’m happy.
Yes. I feel better now.
And you? Did you sleep at all?
I always sleep a lot. I’m a big fan of sleeping.
You have had quite a hectic year since the album came out, but you also had a break…Well… Not exactly a break… You made a duet with Mercedes Sosa that hasn’t come out everywhere yet. Everybody may not know about it. Can you tell us a bit about that?
Well… It came out with Mercedes Sosa… for an album. It’s the second album in a set of a few albums that she’s recording with several artists… singing songs that she has recorded before. The one we played was Niño de la Calle. I can’t even remember the name…It was about a homeless kid. It was written by a writer from Mendoza…I can’t remember his name, either. I asked if I could add something to it… to write. All of the other artists on her album were able to sing whatever she was singing, but I wasn’t about to rap what that writer from Mendoza had done. It didn’t fit.
It wouldn’t work.
It didn’t fit. I was able to write some verses, and it came out pretty nice. It’s out in Argentina. I don’t know if it’s out anywhere else yet.
I think it will be, eventually. How did you end up making a duet with her? Did she ask you?... or you just like Mercedes Sosa?
I knew about her. My brother wasn’t part of this collaboration because it was only about the singing part. It was her producer… People call him Puppy. I know him. I had wanted to make a duet with her for a while now, and they called me. I know about her because of my parents. They used to listen to all kinds of Nueva Trova and folklore songs… Pablo Milanes, Mercedes Sosa. They called me, and I said, “Yes,” right away…
And, it was set up… It’s the last one of many duets. When we return, we’ll talk more about Calle 13… their duets with artists like Ruben Blades and more recently with Mercedes Sosa. Here… on Estudio Billboard.
We’re back with Calle 13. Now… It’s Residente and Visitante… Isn’t it?
Yes. Rene and Eduardo…
Really? Why is that? I know the story, but many people don’t. Why are you Residente and Visitante?
Everything started out as a joke… the nicknames…Rappers tend to get nicknames… like, the Father of Rhythm or whatever. So… If I was going to be given a nickname, it had to be Residente Calle 13. I lived there, and that was the name I had. It was like my second name. Whenever I went home, I always said… like, “Residente Calle 13… Come on in.” My brother was Visitante because he would come to visit us all the time. That’s how it started. It was a joke, but it became stronger with the second album… with all of the immigrant issues, and the talk about whether you’re welcome or not… resident or visitor. That was like a prophecy that came true.
As some people say, a self fulfilling prophecy…
Yes. It was something we used to our benefit. We didn’t think about it like that, but we took advantage of it, and…
No. You and Eduardo are brothers by marriage? I mean…Do you have the same parents or not? …Biologically, I mean.
By marriage… But, we feel like blood brothers. We’ve known each other since we were 2 or 3.
Do you fight a lot?
No.
Never? How did you start playing music together? Or was it more like…
It was…It began…
I was always into music. My father was a musician, and my mother signed me up for piano lessons ever since I was little. I was always with my band. Ever since I was 16, I was playing around with them.
What did you play? Pop… Rock… What?
I started with a Ska band… with several rhythms. Then, I was in another Ska band… but with more African and Caribbean influences…We were into drums. That’s why we have two percussionists in Calle 13. We became Calle 13. I have always been into mixing everything… taking in many rhythms.
You used to write as well.
No, I never did the lyrics…
But, you did the music.
Yes.
Rene never sang in that band. Well… You don’t sing anyway. You did at some point.
No. I’m a rapper, but I don’t sing. I don’t like singing anyway. I like writing. I studied the arts while he was with the band.
In The United States, right?
I studied in Puerto Rico for the first five years. Then. I went to Georgia… Savannah… A state that I will never go back to in my life.
Why?
There’s this song that says, “I’ll never go back to Georgia.” I guess that’s why. It’s cool, but…What did you see? Georgia is big. Savannah is pretty, but there’s some stuff there…It was nice. I had a good time. I was there for three years, and I wrote stuff as well. I was always writing rap. When I went to Barcelona…
To keep studying art…
Yes. I had a girlfriend there. I went back to Puerto Rico, and I told my brother, “Check this out... I have this rhyme… Add some music.” It was a quick recording. It started as a hobby. Our families were our first critics. We did another song, and then another one… until we had five.
What were those songs? Some of those made it on to the album, right?
Yes. The first one was La Aguacatona. That’s from the first album. Then it was…
El Mega Magnifico… That never came out.
That song never came out.
It was a bit weird… that song.
Could it come out one day?
I don’t think so. Some ideas came out of it… rhymes for other songs. La Tribu was La Tripleta, and La Madre de los Enanos... That’s Tu Mai es La Gorda. That one is cool because it has a political message. It’s hidden though.
What about…Isn’t Sin Coro the one about…
Ah, Sin Coro... More like Tu Mai es La Gorda was Sin Coro.
How do you manage to work together? I’m trying to picture the process… Do you go to see Eduardo and say, “Here… I have the rhymes,” or does Eduardo come to you and say, “Here… I have some beats.”?
It was like that at the beginning. It was more around the lyrics. For the second album, it was the music first… then the lyrics. For the third one…
It was both ways.
Exactly… Sometimes, it was the lyrics first…
Let’s go back to the first one. You go and tell Eduardo that you have the lyrics. Did you know his writing style already, or were you surprised by what you read?
I wasn’t surprised. That was stuff that we lived together. For instance, with Sandwich de Salchicha, itwas obvious! We used to have a sausage sandwich for breakfast every weekend. That breakfast was a classic.
Also, those were songs…The first album… We were thinking about how to reach Puerto Rican people. They were only listening to reaggeton at the time. It was like… If I had used what we had for the third album, we wouldn’t have made it. We had to do something similar to what they liked… with Sandwich de Salchicha and Atrévete. At the same time, we were doing Querido FBI and a lot of other songs…That was the process for the first album. I was doing the lyrics. Four songs came out, and I took them to an independent record label.
To Elias de Leon… Right?
To Elias de Leon with White Lion… It was by sheer chance because I was living in San Juan… broke at the time. I only had ice in the freezer. I talked about it in one of the songs… I always went to the record label and was sure that the material I had was good. I was thinking that they were going to like it. That’s how it happened. They called me that same night, and everything started from there.
That’s the kind of story you never hear about… the least common. Understand? It even sounds like a lie. You sent the cassette…I remember that when I talked to Elias… He said to me, “I was told these two guys with little hats came by and left this cassette.”… Which was totally weird for him…
Yes. It was. In Puerto Rico, there was nothing special going on. It was like…Or… Maybe something was happening, but it would never get to the commercial stage or reach the masses.
Why was it so important to you that it wasn’t reaggeton? From the start, you said that there was a little bit of reaggeton on the first album. However, you also made it clear that you don’t do reaggeton.
I didn’t mean to reject the genre. It was more to clearly explain what we were about. The thing is… It’s true that the first album can be deceiving. There was some reaggeton…like, 3 or 4 songs out of 14. We did our homework. You can tell because there are other songs that had nothing to do with it… like La Jirafa… which is a batucada.
Your proposal had nothing to do with reaggeton.
Not really… no.
On a conceptual and visual level… Ever since the first album, we had to reach the people listening to reaggeton… at least in Puerto Rico. It was almost everywhere back then. When we recorded the first album. Everything worked out with Atrevéte, you know… a double-edged sword.
Atrévete had a dancing beat. Was it important that people could dance to it? Did you do that on purpose?
No. We didn’t think about it. It was my brother…
We always think about that when recording. With the last album, we thought we had to do something like…
For partying…
For partying… But, we had a wide variety on there, as usual. That’s something we have made clear, and we have done it since the beginning.
I must say that one of the things I find interesting from the first album are the videos. I heard that you did them yourselves. What did you want? They are like…very basic. The colors… Everything is so bright. How did you make those videos?
That was…Well… Some of our friends that are directors worked with us… Israel Lugo and Gabriel Coso. I’ve known them for a while now, so it was okay. The first video I did myself with my cousin, Alejandro.
That was Se Vale de Todo.
Yes… That one. The budget was so small, and we used all of our friends…The second one was better.
What about Atrévete?
That was the second one. Before that, a fan made a video for Querido FBI, and that one came out. That was nice because after Sandwich de Salchicha came out… which is a funny song, it doesn’t say much but it’s funny… Querido FBI came out, all of a sudden. People thought,“Wait… These guys have a lot more to say.” That’s when people in Puerto Rico started to understand. Many people were against us because releasing that song in Puerto Rico is…
Sorry to interrupt, Rene… But, Querido FBI wasn’t included on the album. It was an underground song. Please explain to everybody what Querido FBI is about so that they will know what we’re talking about.
Querido FBI is a song that I wrote before Atrévete. I was upset because a nationalist leader who wanted Puerto Rico to be independent had been killed. He was shot by federal agents because he was allegedly armed. They left him to bleed to death and didn’t allow doctors to come and help him. I mean… This guy bled to death. He was killed on the day that Puerto Rico celebrates their independence. It lasted like 8 hours…That was the day that he was killed. It was like a message from the government of The United States. By doing that song, I had half of Puerto Rico on my side and half against me. In Puerto Rico, half of the population wants to be a state… 7%... like me… wants to be independent. The remaining people want to stay the way they are. They want to keep the flag. They are proud. They don’t want to be a state, but they want the passport. They want to have it all. At least they are proud… That’s important. That was a crucial song for our career… and for the record label, as well. They said, “Wait a minute…” They called me on the same day they heard the song… “Are you insane?” I was like, “You better get used to it because this is going to continue. If you’re going to sign me…” I hadn’t signed with Sony, yet… “If you’re going to sign me, you’re going to do it with this song… and the ones to come.” That helped them better understand Calle 13. They have let us do whatever we wanted from then on.
We’ll continue talking about what came later... when we return to Estudio Billboard.
We’re back on Estudio Billboard with Calle 13. So, Rene… Eduardo… We were talking about the messages in your songs. Do all songs have to have a message, or not? Do you see yourselves as people that have a message and a proposal that goes beyond the musical arena?
I think you need to take advantage of your position as an artist. Once, I heard someone say in an interview…I’m not mentioning any names…This person was standing up for the pop genre… saying it was important…I mean… There were so many problems in the world that when listening to their music you wanted to forget about those problems and listen to the music instead… And I… If you want to forget about your problems… go listen to Mozart. But, if you have the chance to carry a message… A chance that many people would like to have… to say many things… And you use that chance to say, “Baby, I love you. I want you,” instead of saying all of the things that can be said… There’s just so many things that you can say… I know that sometimes less is more. However, the excuse of not daring to assume a position or to say some stuff because… “with music you want to forget all about your problems in the world”… seemed kind of stupid to me. Everybody’s got an opinion, and I think it’s important to say those things and to connect with people. I use several tools. Atrévete was a nice one.
Why?
We reached an audience that was probably used to listening to other kinds of songs… and it was worth it.
Eduardo… Before Calle 13… when you had that Ska band… What was the kind of music that…I don’t mean anti-establishment… but the kind that everybody should hear? Or did you listen to everything?
The lyrics were… I don’t know how to explain it… Talking about the lyrics… They were abstract, and they didn’t say much sometimes. We wanted to play folk music…There were lyrics related to the music itself… Others were made for dancing…We were always involved in activities that…Before all of that Vieques stuff happened… Someone important was killed. I don’t know if…
Someone important was killed, and that brought Puerto Rico together. We were involved in a few activities before that happened. We always wanted to send a message… even if we weren’t so sure about how to do it. I think I have it clear now… on how to carry a message… if I ever get involved in something like that again. I’m not considering it, but…
What kind of music did you listen to when you were little?
Salsa, Ruben Blades, rock, as well… I used to listen to some sassy rock…
Such as?
Stripper…
Yes… like Stripper and Bon Jovi and all that crap.
Whitesnake.
I was young. My stepfather had albums by Led Zeppelin and Janis Joplin and all that stuff. It was nice when mixed with salsa.
Which salsa? …like Hector Lavoe?
Yes… classics. Ismael Rivera… We used to listen to Ruben Blades a lot. He has great lyrics. That’s what my brothers listened to the most. I mean… When we had to clean the house, we used to put on a record…
Clean the house…Clean? Pick up?
Yes.
Cleaning...
I used to clean the bathroom with Ruben Blades. So, yeah… What I wanted to say is that Calle 13 isn’t just about anti-establishment songs. We talk about everything. It’s a mixture… sex as well. We make fun of what is around us… talk about everything. And since politics is part of it, we tell it like it is.
Going back to Ruben Blades… He had these salsa lyrics, so that you thought you wanted to be like him? …for your music to be popular… but saying something as well?
I don’t think we ever planned it. It just came out that way. To me, it was helpful to study art. I studied for 8 years, and that made me more sensitive about things that may go unnoticed by some people. I was more sensitive, and I was able to identify some things. I used the language of the street because all of my friends… many of them were homeless… I was aware of all that. Understand? That was a great mix with my sensitivity. It was never planned, though. Maybe my brother did it unconsciously…after all of the music he has heard.
Yes. That was a conscious decision. We wanted to do it.
But, it just came out as well. We worked with people that we used to listen to and admire. Working with Ruben… with Café Tacuba and Bajo Fondo has been a blessing… people we used to listen to even before we started recording with Calle 13.
La Perla… which is the song you made with Ruben… I love it. I think it’s pretty good…How did that happen? How was it working together?
That happened because of the Grammys… We began playing Pa’l Norte at the 2007 Grammys… Wasn’t that it?
Yes.
He was there, and we talked to him. Back then, no one talked about working together or anything. I think that he sort of understood our proposal and what we were trying to do. We contacted him later and asked him to do the song… and we went on his show.
On the internet…
That’s where we agreed to do it… on the internet show. Three months later, we started working on it. My brother showed him some lyrics, and I was like, “I have some bad music arrangements…”
I know we don’t have drums or a console in here, but could you try to explain how it works? How a song by Calle 13 is made? Choose any song.
Okay… La Perla...
That’s the song you made with Ruben Blades. Rene comes in, and says that he has the lyrics for a song.
For that song…
Which way was it?
It was like that… with that song. I started writing La Perla with…Sometimes, I make sounds with my mouth. I…I record those sounds… what I would like musically. On top of that…
For example?
I don’t know. I just record it.
§ Tun, tun, tun, tun. §
§ Tun, tun, tun, tun. §
Then, I record something else.
Cro, cro, cro, cro, cro, cro.
La Perla... I don’t know if it was like that. I don’t know.
No. I started writing it with…
I think you were the one who started and then said that you wanted to make a song out of what you had.
Yes, but I started writing from some sounds that I had already created. The thing is… Sometimes, he doesn’t even know how everything started. He knows when I start with like… for instance No Hay Nadie Como Tú... I started with something that he already had. He had like… an arsenal. Understand?
Yes, but it was quite simple.
It was simple… like a model…
I understand.
Little pieces… From there… I got… Those lyrics have been the fastest I’ve written… the funniest… the best.
No Hay Nadie Como Tú, you mean…
It has been the easiest. It was fun doing it… like a game of opposites... like a collage. Playing like that was fun. It was fast, and the chorus was, too. I wrote it… maybe in a day.
Let’s talk about La Perla again. You start…
With the music… For that song, I began to write the music. It took me longer.
What do you mean by “longer”? Three days? A week? A month?
I started in January. I left the song alone for a while. I went back to it in February… wrote some more because I had begun… Social awareness songs are difficult to write because I don’t want them to be an advertisement for a trade union. It’s hard to write something social without making it a cliché.
…so that it doesn’t sound like a speech. Otherwise, people say…
It’s like propaganda.
It’s good to leave the songs in “stand by”… let them rest and then go back to them again.
That’s how I started. I remember that I had the chorus with the tune…
Allá abajo en el hueco en el Boquete nacen flores por ramillete.
When singing, I would say, “A master has to sing this. I’m not going to do it.” I thought about my sister, but she wasn’t the best one for it either. Then, the master… Ruben Blades…We called him, and I showed him what I had. Then, the music came. My brother was inspired…
So… You gave that part to Eduardo… Then, what did you do?
We worked on a loop first… It’s the same thing as playing for 10 minutes… adding some stuff, but not meaning to make the final version. I remember that I used a loop of…I have a percussion program with loops for reference. I had the idea of a rat-tat-tat. But, that had nothing to do with it. It was like… being played by a gringo… so it was thrown out. I added a clef. It was like a jam block but with rhythm… all programmed. It’s a reference for you to know where you should go. It lasted like 10 minutes, and that was what we showed Ruben Blades. He wrote his part using that bad loop.
He wrote his own verses. He wanted to rap. That was his idea.
In fact, we recorded his part using the bad percussion. When we started working on the song… to record it… the brass and the voices were recorded using the bad loop. My sister did the chorus…Then, we went to Panama and recorded Ruben’s voice. I followed him to Argentina to record the drums…And, the crap that I made was removed. We used a real clef, and it changed everything. Finally, I put in the pianos and the vibes-
The vibes as well...
And, that was it…
You’ll play the piano for us later… when we return, with more Calle 13.
We’re back on Estudio Billboard. Residente… Visitante… Rene… Eduardo… Before we go on, I want to talk about Sin Mapa, the documentary that you made… fantastic. I want you to show me your tattoos and explain what they are about. The ones we can see. I assume there are some we can’t.
Yes. There are some here… and there’s another one here. They are like my family… my siblings… Eduardo is here… Milena, Margarita, Gabriel, Iliana, Tamara and Adrian…
Milena is the singer, right?
No. That’s Iliana. They go from oldest to youngest. There’s some confusion, but my dad is to blame.
You can blame the amount of space, as well.
True.
The wrist gets thinner.
Okay.
I got confused because of my father. This one…This is the more familiar side. This is the side by Matiz… a painter from Puerto Rico. He was my roommate.
Really?
Yes. There he is…Here, it says Acuarela… the name of a daughter that I haven’t had yet… But, when she’s born…
For real?
Yes.
Okay.
Well, no… Yes.
And… if it’s a boy?
I have to find the mother first… see what name she wants… and then, mix them.
… to name the kid without asking the mom…
No. So… If the mom says she wants to name her Maria, you name her Maria Acuarela or Acuarela Maria.
Maria Acuarela?
I’m never ever naming her Maria. I don’t have anything against Marias, but I like Acuarela.
I think it’s nice, too.
Yes. It begins and ends with an A.
How’s the search for the mother going?
It’s going fine. I’m really doing it. We’re travelling a lot.
We’ll see what happens.
And your tattoos?
There’s just one…Pretty floral.
Lots of flowers….
It doesn’t have any…Why? …Because it’s cute?
Yes. I have one, but it’s hidden.
A hidden meaning?
Yes.
Why?... if you have it exposed?
Well… It’s not that it means…
Does it have a name?
There are several things written, but you won’t see any of them because they are hidden. You can’t see them right now. I’m the only one who can read them.
Okay, then… Let’s talk about Sin Mapa. It was a documentary that you made when you started traveling with someone who was always beside you… shooting everything.
Yes.
What did you think was going to happen with that material back then?
When we started, we had no idea that was going to turn into footage worth something. It was more for ourselves. That’s how everything started, and it just became something bigger. The shows were bigger because the footage for the documentary are from the very beginning… even before winning our first Grammys… when Calle 13 started with Atrévete and all that stuff. It’s about our interest in getting to know Latin America… since Puerto Rico is quite disconnected from what happens there.
It’s an island. It’s really an island…
Yes. They teach you the history of The United States and Puerto Rico in school… but not Latin American history. I decided to take a trip. Two of my friends wanted to join me because they know a lot about the region. I went with them, and they had no idea how to use the camera. They just kept it on all of the time. We didn’t have a plan to make a documentary. It just happened. We recorded a lot… from Peru… Venezuela… completely by car… and Colombia.
It’s much more than just recording you guys on stage. You were with everybody… everywhere.
There’s nothing from Calle 13. It talks about it because it’s like the avenue for getting the boys to learn about the Arhuacos and the Kogui… about the Yekuana… They are the indigenous people… About the Yanomami…Maybe they became interested because of me… That was the idea. It talks about Latin America… about things that we were going through at the time… stuff happening with the band… how it was becoming bigger by the day and all of the places we were going to.
It would be nice if we could do more. This is about that certain time. I missed the first promotional tour. After that, we went to the Billboard Awards to play Tango del Pecado.
Yes, I remember.
When we got there, I got lost. Everyone was calling me from the record label… “Where the hell are you?” I might have been at the Caura river… I want to do more… Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay… all of the countries… Ecuador, Bolivia, the Caribbean… all of Central America… and one just for Mexico. It’s just so big.
Do you think it’s your responsibility… because you are famous… to give back… not only with the lyrics but through concrete actions?
It’s a responsibility. We like it. We have fun with it. I see it as something we have to do, and that we enjoy.
Like you…Let’s talk about the lyrics one more time. I asked you on the break… I sit down… because sometimes I hear the lyrics, and I go, “Wow! Where did that come from?” Sometimes, I wonder if you use a dictionary… a book…Do you use anything?
It depends. Like… I was writing something yesterday. I wrote it on the plane. I’m limited on the plane. I can have wine. I asked for a drink… wine or beer. Then, I started writing. I didn’t have anything else… no internet. It was the same thing with the song for Mercedes Sosa. I started the lyrics when I was in El Salvador, and I finished them on the plane. Sometimes, I need to get out. I can’t write everything in a studio because I get sick of it. I can write three songs there, but not an entire album.
Do you have to go jogging?
No… just to look around. To me, it’s so important to have gone to the Sierra Nevada and to have met the Arhuacos…It’s like going to a club in Miami and watching this girl shaking her ass… and understanding everything… and watching it…The observation and the writing is easy after you have seen it. It’s like…
Write it down…
Yes.
How about you, Eduardo?
Regarding music… It’s more valuable to go to a country and learn about their folklore… to take the music and the instruments with you. That happened a few times. With Llégale a Mi Guardia, I went to Peru, and I took the instruments. Those were the ones that I used for that song. Traveling gives you a lot of ideas… a lot. I think the tour we’re going to take around Spain is going to be really important because we’re going to be able to absorb a lot of things. We’re going to be there for around a month. We’re going to be traveling around Spain. We’re going to London… Italy. I think we’ll get some stuff from there to work with…
For the next album… We’ll be back with Billboard’s 20 questions with Calle 13.
We’re back on Estudio Billboard with Calle 13. I wanted to ask you something before we start with our 20 questions. You refer to some reaggeton artists on some of your albums. You don’t do reaggeton, but you are urban. What do you consider people who make urban music? Is urban a genre?
Urban… Well… I don’t have the authority to define anything. But to me, urban is an artist talking about what’s surrounding them… using their lyrics. I think it has to do with the concept of the band. I consider reaggeton a simple rhythm. It became a concept that refers to the same topics and the same interests… Dancing, women, the pool…I’m from the street, but a street from the barrio…Being from the street isn’t the same thing as being from the barrio to me. Reaggeton turned into a concept. I mean… You play Café Tacuba with a reaggeton rhythm and that’s not going to be reaggeton to me. That’s more of an alternative style. That’s going to be something different. It depends a lot on the artist that uses the rhythm. To me, urban is having an interest… Ruben Blades can be urban, but there’s the rap in there… He doesn’t rap… The concept is urban to me because it talks about what’s really out there and what happens in our society. That’s an urban artist to me. People get confused, though, and think that urban is dressing like a rapper, singing a bachata, or dressing like a rapper and saying…
Mi amor yo te quiero, mi amor yo te…
Using this dance tune and the name is urban… but that’s not urban.
Yes. Music goes beyond genres. I think that we talked about that with Ruben once. That music should…If you want Ruben Blades, search by B. If you want Calle 13, search by C. Sometimes people classify Calle 13 as reaggeton.
Sure.
Placing Calle 13 anywhere is difficult.
It’s urban… like rap. I’m rapping and the topic is human.
Okay… Ready to answer?
Yes… Come on.
Be quick.
Go ahead.
You can both reply to the same question.
Okay.
Then, we will alternate.
Go ahead.
The perfect night?
The perfect night…
You can’t think.
Raining… I don’t know. I’ll say it. The perfect night… The perfect night…
You said rain already.
Erm..I have no idea. I mean…
These two guys don’t have a perfect night? Movies… wine… sleeping 12 hours?
Sleeping 12 hours is the perfect night?
Not for me… But, what about for you?
No. To me, the perfect night…
You said rain already.
The perfect night is made of several elements, not just one. But… Go on...
Rain for one… and for you?
I don’t know…
Light rain, no thunder or anything…Just light rain.
Thunder is nice, though.
A little rain can do you good…
An easy one… Do you sleep with or without pajamas?
I sleep exactly like I’m dressed right now. Sometimes, I fall asleep wherever I am… in the clothes that I’m wearing… no matter where I am.
How about you, Rene?
I sleep with short pants.
Angelina Jolie or Penelope Cruz?
Penelope Cruz.
Penelope.
Both of you? Okay. Eduardo… What makes you cry?
What makes me cry?
Onions.
Yes.
Erm…
He’s taking too much time.
There are some instrumental songs that have made me cry.
Yes… like what?
I don’t know… instrumental music.
What do you spend too much money on?
Equipment… like a keyboard…
You?
Food?
What would you change about yourself, if you could?
About me? I don’t know if it’s worse not to say anything. Then you come across as an arrogant…
We heard some“nothing”’s in here.
Really?
Yes.
Nothing. I’m so perfect. I wouldn’t change anything. I don’t know…Maybe I’d change some negative attitudes. The thing is that those help me sometimes. I might be quite anxious… When I want something, I want it bad. Oh, you know what? Something that doesn’t help me at all… that’s creating a lot of hassle… I shake. Look at my hand.
Oh, okay.
Don’t be scared. It’s normal. I did drugs for 10 years, so…I’m kidding.
I thought you would blame coffee.
I shake. My grandma shakes, and my cousins shake as well. Once, when I was on a date…“Oh… Are you nervous?” I was like, “No. I’m not nervo…” I would end up being rude because it was upsetting. I shake. It causes me trouble sometimes when I want to grab a… You call it totopo…some chips with sauces… around a table full of people. It’s like… I shake the sauce away. That happened to me once at a meeting with the president of…on a glass… I was there like…When it’s right in front of me, it gives me some trouble. If people are watching, it’s even worse.
How about you?
I don’t know. I’m stubborn sometimes.
Okay. Your worst concert?
The first one we gave.
Yes. I as…
The first gig Calle 13 gave was awful.
In Mayagüez…
There were some gaps. We finished playing, and we didn’t know what to do…
Yes… “Hi.”
The music hadn’t started yet.
Everything went wrong.
It was a weird environment because it was raining…It was supposed to be like college-style… but it was full of rappers. Everyone wanted us to play Se Vale Tod. That was the big hit at the time, but we had more stuff.
The funny thing is that we played the next day and everything went perfectly.
We improved.
The first day…
You learned in 24 hours.
We were like,“This is not okay. This is wrong, wrong, wrong… all wrong.” I was even insulting people in the audience. I was mad. I didn’t understand. You know? …Look at this guy giving me dirty looks…You would say to the audience.
The people were like… It was weird because they would clap, but they were upset. It was nice. It was the first one.
Your best virtue?
I don’t know, man.
Honesty? You can’t think…It has to be the first thing that you think of.
If I don’t think, I’ll say something stupid.
That’s what we want.
Thinking things through... No. That’s not my best virtue. I don’t know, man.
I don’t like talking about my virtues. I pass.
An object you always carry with you?
That’s easy. I’ll take it out now. This was something that the Arhuacos gave me two years ago or so… in Sierra Nevada. This… a little Martian.
Is it your lucky charm? The Martian?
It’s like Michael Jackson… It’s changing color. Rest in peace… The daughter of Roco from La Maldita Vecindad gave it to me a while back. I always have it with me.
Your turn, Eduardo… A ritual before going on stage?
My ritual? I don’t have one, but I like to be relaxed…I don’t like people bothering me or anything.
Breathe.
Well… It’s not like I go like this…
I always pee, and I always drink something. When they tell me it’s time to go on stage, I pee. I don’t do it in advance. I always wait for them to call me onto the stage. I do it in a water bottle.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
And… I leave them there.
Why?
Well… Sometimes the bathroom is too far away. Eventually, we got a bathroom of our own, but it was still fun. Even if I had the bathroom, the best part was peeing in a water bottle.
And then, someone drinks it…
No. They throw it away when they see it looks like apple juice.
Okay. What can’t you stand in a person?
I don’t know, man. Many things…
One.
One. Damn.
Eduardo… one.
People who speak too loudly.
Okay.
Like, “Yes!” They start talking really loudly, and everyone hears them.
I don’t like it when someone is talking to you… and comes closer and closer.
They spit on you. You try to move back, but they keep coming closer to you, like…
It ‘s usually the same person that spits on you… who talks loudly. The one who likes getting close. They just aren’t paying attention. They are over the top.
The silliest thing you have done to win someone’s heart?
I don’t do anything, dude.
Anything?
If I tell you the silliest thing, I’ll run out of girls. I won’t be able to do it anymore, so…But, I do lots of silly things.
You’re not even going to tell me one?
I won’t because there too many. I do a lot of things. It’s a combination of things.
Okay. This one is for Eduardo. If you could pick another talent besides music, what would it be?
Another talent.
A different one… He can paint. That’s why I’m asking him.
Oh, look… What a talented guy.
What’s up with you? Another talent.
You need to be quick, dude.
You should be quick, dude… or I’ll go on to the next one.
To be a boxer… A pitcher, maybe.
Pitcher? Okay. The word you use the most.
Bastard. That’s quite normal.
What are you afraid of?
Airplanes.
Really? And you?
Erm…What am I afraid of?
Does Eduardo always think this much or is it only when he’s here?
It’s just…They’re…What am I afraid of, brother?
No. You can’t ask him.
Heights… You don’t like heights.
Oh, heights… I’m afraid of falling.
Okay. The most important quality in a woman?
In a woman? I don’t know. There are many, but…
Hardworking… talkative…
She has to be smart and have an open mind. Her vision of the world… how she sees things…
Do you have a lucky charm?
I don’t know. I really like this hat. I never leave without it. That might be it.
Your worst fault?
We said it already.
No.
No?
Did we say it?
Yes… Being anxious.
No. That’s what you wanted to change about yourself.
Oh. It’s the same thing, then.
The same thing?
My worst fault is the thing that I want to change.
Two albums you would take to a deserted island
Two albums?
Fabulosos Calavera by Los Cadillacs… and Chador de Piazzola.
How about you?
I would take two like Sigur Rós… which are calm… And Kusturica to cheer me up… Like going to sleep and then waking up to take a walk…
And the grand finale... Be quick, you guys. Don’t think. Your favorite vice?
I’m going to confess it here, brother…
I know what it is.
The X-Box…
Okay, great. Well… Thank you so much, Calle 13, for being here with us. Good luck in Spain. We’ll be looking forward to the next album… to see what you mixed from there.
Okay… Thank you.
And thank you… for watching Estudio Billboard.
