The nostalgia It is a feeling that is abuses in popular music. Although every person has every right to indulge in longing for times past, it is also a fact that must be understood and valued when Artists have the need to escape from their old glories in search of new horizons. This is how I begin my memory of Gustavo Cerati.
My only ones experiences near Gustavo Cerati are related with that quarrel between the past and the future; between the old and the new; between the comfort of the known and the resistance to change.
I met to Gustavo Cerati to early 2006when his record company in Mexico invited the media to a listening session of the album that at that time was about to launch his fourth solo production entitled Here we go.
The record company took us to a recording studio in the State of Mexicowhere the Argentine He sat down with us for hear I complete the albumwhich then gave way to an informal session of questions and comments. It was not a formal press conference, but something more intimate and therefore more enjoyable.
During that listening session, I was especially struck by songswhich were new to us at the time, as Crime, Bye and Lake in the Skywhich would later become promotional singles for the album. I also remember thinking that the album closed with a flourish by leaving another little gem for the end entitled Moon Juice.
Cerati lived under the comparisons with Soda Stereo
Gustavo Cerati It was seen enthusiastic with the idea of presenting this scoop, happy to share for the first time the material that until then almost no one had heard.
Everything was going very well, until Some colleagues began to make comments on the new songs already compare them with the sound of Soda Stereo.
– “This song reminds me of such song by Soda“one muttered.
– “That song is not as rock as Soda,” said another.
And so, several of the doubts or sentences from reporters were spinning in lathe in memory of Soda Stereohow far or close Cerati continued to be to that band.
The musician, who was always an intelligent and elegant guy, not only didn’t get hooked, but continued smiling, telling what a certain song was about or how another one had come about.
Soda Stereothe band that brought him fame and fortune, had been dissolved in 1997and although the clamor for a reunion was growing ever louder, Cerati tried to concentrate on his career alone.
With Here we goCerati toured Latin America, Spain and the United States to promote that album, and also played for the first time in London on October 12, 2006.
Soda Stereo sold nostalgia very well
The furor over the past continued to do its thing. Fans, businessmen and, of course, dozens of media outlets, continued to insist on the subject of a Possible reunion of Soda Stereountil it was finalized the following year. In 2007the trio decided to get together for a tour of Latin Americaexactly ten years after their separation.
I wasn’t planning to attend the concert. meetingbecause it seemed to me something that I only paid attention to that damn nostalgia which I am so disavowing here, besides of course, to economic interests of all parties involved.
However, and perhaps as a kind of slap of fate, a few hours before from one of the concerts that the band offered at the then called Foro Sol in Mexico City, I received a call from Juan Puig, editor from the diary Reformwho He asked me to go to the concert not so much to make an informative note, but as a critic.
So I changed my plans for that night, which were probably something like lying on the couch to watch Everybody Loves Raymondto move to the east of the city and fulfill the mission that had been entrusted to me.
The concert went off without a hitch. The band played everything they had to play and the The attendees were euphoric, satisfied to see their long-awaited dream come true. to see their idols live once again.
Gustavo Cerati did not share the excitement of his colleagues after the reunion
There was one detail that caught my attention: as far as the band was concerned, Charly Alberti and Zeta Bosio looked radiantsmiling. They could not hide their happy faces because surely, like the fans, they also saw that dream come true. be back on stagewith all the shelter that should be given to touch with the name of Soda Stereo.
But Gustavo Cerati No. He looked a different kind of guy. attitudeI don’t know whether to say arrogant or simply more even-tempered, like fulfilling his task. Working, then. And nothing more. At least that is how I perceived it, and that is how I recorded it in my text, which I titled In the City of UsuryI have no doubt that more than one reader has hated me for it, and I would completely understand it.
A little later, the band finished the reunion tour and everyone would go back to their own thing. Well, actually Charly Alberti and Zeta Bosioas well as fans and media, They would never let Soda Stereo restas we have seen in all these years.
But Cerati Yes. Fortunately, the musician closed that chapter and returned to which requires more risk: start something new from scratch, once again.
Two years later, Cerati reappeared with a new album under the arm, titled Natural Force.
When the album was about to be released, I attended a press conference where, you guessed it: The media kept asking him questions about Soda Stereowhile he continued trying to share his new music.
After the conference, I had the opportunity to interview him about this album for the magazine Circle Mixup.
We talked about how refreshing it was to our ears that in addition to the distinctive sound of Ceratiin this new job there was flirting with folk rock and Latin American folklore.
He admitted that he was a disk that transmitted a lot of peace and that it was a very cohesive work, conceived as a complete work.
He defended the fact that, back in 2009, the album was released on vinyl and said that, for him, the digital format was a kind of regression. This is important because, I repeat, he said this 15 years ago.
He reflected on the crisis in Argentinato which he said he was more than accustomed as any person in that country, and justified the fact that that recently I would have worked with Shakirasomething that not all of his followers viewed favorably.
At the end of the talk We stood up and as we said goodbye -sorry, but I have to say it- He thanked me for not mentioning Soda Stereowhile we both burst out laughing.
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These are my memories about the twice I was close to Gustavo Ceratitwo moments that for me are closely linked to that eternal tug-of-war between the past and the future, between the old and the new… Between the avant-garde and the rearguard.
@djconchaytoro