Zahara: "Our nostalgia wears tactel tracksuit and listens to cassette tapes" | Culture
Zahara admits that, during the first months caring for her son, she felt like a cosmonaut isolated in the universe. "That image comes from the nocturnal loneliness of the postpartum period," he explains during the disc promotion interview. "But imagining myself as an astronaut supposes something bigger, it's an idea that comes from the quest to want to be something else, to not be afraid to discover what will be next," he adds. This theme, which he dedicates to the "bichín", as he calls his offspring in social networks, is entitled The astronaut. "He was the one who originated the whole idea of the trip through the cosmos that permeates the album," he says. It is not a lullaby or an ode to motherhood, but a reflection on the future of your child. "He talks about him but through the fears that a mother and father face and how in the end they just want him to be a good man or a good woman," she adds.
At just 35 years old, and after more than a decade of career, the indefatigable exploration of which Zahara speaks has transported him to his most popular moment. A situation favored by his recent appearances on television. In the last two years she has been a regular contributor to Likes! a magazine of Movistar. In addition, one of the songs from his first album, With the desire, was interpreted in the last edition of Triumph operation by Amaia and Aitana, the two favorites that were crowned as winner and finalist. This media explosion caused the single, published in 2010, accumulate visualizations on YouTube up to 50 million, but also that the video of Today the beast dines at home, the first single from Astronaut, approach the million. Quite an achievement if you take into account that Cold, the last clip from his previous album, Santa, it only has 800,000 views in three years.
The other part of the merit is, of course, his: his charisma, his sense of humor and his compositions, which maintain an elegant balance between pop and indie. In that combo moves Austronaut, that has entered the fifth position of the list of sales, only behind Vanesa Martín, Rosalia, Operación Triunfo and Bunbury and above great international stars such as Mark Knopfler or Michael Bublé, one of the artists who sells the most during the holidays Christmas It also ranks 14th on the list of streaming, a heroicity for an artist apart from the big labels. She rubs shoulders in the charts with rockers of all the life, an Andalusian singer with much pull and the musical phenomenon of the moment. Your combination of melodies pop luminous and atmospheric ballads, full of small details, convinces.
From santa to explorer
enlarge photoAstronaut it's a different collection of Santa, among other things, because it has changed from producer. "With Sergio [Sastre] It was great, but repeating what works is not something I'm good at. "To find a new one that would help him define the sound of the models he had recorded for more than two years, he reflected on which disc was most had heard recently, it turned out to be Curve of the Earth of the British Mystery Jets. Its producer was Matt Twaites, of The Electric Soft Parade, a band adhered to the new wave of psychedelic pop. "We called him expecting a no for an answer, but he liked the demos and accepted the budget," he recalls.
In summer, Zahara left alone to Wales, where Twaites has her studio. He spent 15 days shaping the ten themes that make up the collection. A process that he enjoyed like never before. "Everything was too easy, the first song I recorded, Multiverse, we made it only in three shots. When I left the booth all the musicians cheered me excitedly. I felt super powerful. Afterwards, we listened to the recording and the tears wept over how simple it was being, "he recalls.
The sessions gave rise to sounds among which, in addition to his fondness for science fiction noventera, nostalgia filters through the eighties. White flag, the fifth cut of the album, is a rock ballad with Bon Jovi's own guitar riffs and touches of technopop. The reverb, another essential element of the music of that time, also accompanies the voice of Zahara in several recordings. She promises that it has not been meditated on. "Surely having been born in the eighties has a lot to do, my imaginary was created there, the nostalgia that our generation nurtures, wears those tactel tracksuits and listens to cassette tapes". .
That eighties aesthetic was already present in the videoclip of Lumberjack and the woman America, first single from The toxic couple (2012), the album with which he broke with sound and image, naive and syrupy, with which his previous company, Universal, wanted to show it to the world. Since then, Zahara is immersed in a long distance race to continue making the music that she likes to do for an audience that is still faithful and growing little by little. Zahara sees the future with optimism. According to account, OT has something to do with it, precisely this year Zahara will be part of the jury that will choose which song and which finalists of the contest will go to Eurovision: "I observe the world in which we live and, sometimes, disenchantment. What is the point of educating my son in values if society later will lead him to others? But then I see the new generations as in OT They talk about feminism naturally and their desire to do things and that gives me peace of mind, "she explains.
