“Pilgrim” (BMG, 24) is a debut album that has emerged from an intense therapy process in which the Galician musician and producer Carlos Ares, has released all his demons to start a new era. And, in the process, it has generated great expectations that now can only be confirmed.
The truth is that I don’t remember the last time Mondo Sonoro dedicated a cover to an artist for their debut album. It is not a very common occurrence and it is obvious that a series of conditions must be met for the entire magazine’s editorial staff to see such a move very clearly. On the one hand it is obvious that the album must deserve it, but then it is very important to note that the artist is going all out and that the breeding ground has been created around him so that, let’s say beautiful things happen in the coming months. And it is that affirming that 2024 is the year of “Pilgrim”, when we have not yet torn the March page off the calendar, it is risky. But it is not so much to say that the album compiles ten splendorous songs that will delight both the most mature listener, who enjoys groups like The Decemberists, Bon Iver or REM, and the youngest listeners who were captivated a couple of seasons ago. by Guitarricadelafuente and even those who enjoy another Galician musician like Sen Senra. A duality that combines the most indie-folk tradition with that of the most contemporary auteur pop. That could be the essence that transmits and differentiates “Pilgrim” of other releases that flood the “sonosphere”.
Carlos Ares He enters the Mondo Sonoro Madrid editorial office with a somewhat contrite air. He has just received the first vinyl copies of his debut album and, right off the bat, he tells us that a printing error has increased the red tone of the cover excessively. Later I will be able to verify, in the long conversation that we will have, that the Galician musician and producer, who has lived in Madrid for eleven years, is a very demanding and perfectionist person. Qualities that have not always played in favor of the emotional health that he has had to deal with for years. However, it seems that this time, this personal tendency to overthink things has not been the main cause of the delay to which he has been subjected. “Pilgrim”. Album that should have seen the light of day in November of last year, but it was not until this month of February that it became the resounding reality that it is now. (Carlos Ares) “The problem is that I am always part-time between composing and producing other artists’ albums, and it is thanks to that that I can later finance my album. That’s why there are times when I don’t have money or when I have the commitment to finish a certain album, and in the end I have to do it almost even with a higher priority than my own work. Because at the end of the day, that job is what allows me to later pay my musicians or pay for video clips, and that’s why everything has been a bit unpredictable. “We always try to set a delivery date for the album, but everything was a bit at the mercy of the other work I do”. And Carlos Ares is not a newcomer to the music industry. Before launching “Pilgrim” He had released a couple of his own EPs, although his name may be more familiar to some readers, due to his work in the recording studio with artists such as: Paula Cendejas, Maximiliano Calvo, Vic Mirallas or Marc Seguí. Artists with whom he is fully involved, composing and creating side by side the songs he produces. (Carlos Ares) “My relationship with other musicians always starts by talking a lot and getting to know each other before writing. And when I feel that there is a seed or a starting point, then we venture to write a song.” Joint work that has as its signature its subtle electronic dressing, the rhythm of the percussions and a special care in the treatment of the voice. (Carlos Ares) “Since I started producing I realized that the voice was probably my favorite instrument. A unique instrument for any artist. Because each artist has a different voice and, depending on how you use it, it will not look like another. That’s why I have always been very ambitious when it comes to exploring all the possibilities that the voice gives you, both in choirs and in vocal treatment, in harmonies or in using the voice as an instrument or as part of the beat or instrumental. And I think that working with the voices has been able to identify me as a producer.”
Carlos Ares He seems more relaxed now. We have been sitting comfortably chatting for a while, and we have both forgotten the presence of the recorder in the way. Only in this way can topics as personal as the two years that she has been enjoying an open relationship of which she affirms: “I have never had such a healthy relationship in my life.” or the serious problems that dealing with anxiety has caused. Themes that have been collected without ambiguity in an album as personal and ultimately egocentric as “Pilgrim”. (Carlos Ares) “I had a very introspective stage of my life, with a lot of psychoanalysis and a lot of reflection, and I realized that I had to try to find a place that had an identity, but that perhaps that identity already existed. Because whether with my partners, with my friends or when I was best with my family, it was when I was in my state of maximum relaxation and naturalness. So I thought that could also be a reflection of what people wanted from me in music. I thought maybe all I had to do was base my songs on my life. I started to relate everything to myself. And, at the end of the day, I am a Galician who lives here in Madrid and that was exactly what I tried to exaggerate. That part of my personality, the fact of being Galician and being from the mountains. So I started to enhance it in some way. I began to create this character who later stars on the “Peregrino” album. And in the end everything ends up being a bit exaggerated because, for example, I have never lived alone in the mountains, right? But I have enjoyed solitude in the mountains as a hobby. And yes, metaphorically it also had a lot to do with that refuge that I have when I go through stages of anxiety and stress here in Madrid. In the end I always take refuge in the same thing, which is getting out of the bubble. For me, Madrid, and the fact of dedicating myself to music, is like a kind of dream, and when I need to put my feet back on the ground, I return to my city with my family, my house and my routines there. And, well, everything was like saying… Damn! How can I make my work allow me to be natural? Not having to pretend at all… How do I try to make myself as comfortable as possible to make this album? Know? “That I just have to make an effort to make beautiful songs, but in a natural way.”. And precisely that is the key that makes “Pilgrim” such a special album. That combination of beautiful tunes with lyrics that show a vulnerability that we can all identify with. A path, the one traced by the protagonist of the album, that travels through internal paths, but that also marks the path of Carlos himself throughout these last years, in which he has been recruiting a magnificent band to give the album the live performance that it requires. deserves. But that is a point that deserves a new chapter.
Live, cotton does not deceive
It’s Thursday, November 30, and my colleagues at Mondo Madrid have repeatedly insisted that I can’t miss the opportunity to see Carlos Ares live. It is cold – which is rare – and La Nau de Barcelona does not present the best of aspects. There will be only a little more than a hundred of us who have come to enjoy a concert that will be impossible to forget in the coming months. The first thing that surprises is the number of musicians that take the stage. Seven people, five men and two women – violin included – who will take the songs of ‘Peregrino’ to a new dimension. A sensory journey in which the Lego pieces will fit perfectly when it comes to executing harmonies and solos with a vitality and enthusiasm, capable of erasing any sadness. I have suffered a revelation like few others and they have already trapped me. I am another acolyte of the liturgy to which he subjects us Carlos Ares and his troupe. But in this new era in which the musician is the protagonist, live performance plays a fundamental asset. Basic. (Carlos Ares) “When I first got the band together, I realized how important they were going to be in understanding the project and for me knowing where I wanted it to go. That’s why I think it’s great to have counted on them… I met Bea (Beatriz Gutiérrez – aka Begut) at a songwriting camp where some friends took me as a teacher. She also came as a teacher and I fell in love with her music. Then I met Marcos Cao (La Sonrisa de Julia) at another songwriting camp and he asked me to produce his album “Mañana Mejor”. Sergito (Sergio Delgado – keyboard) is the father of Christian Delgado, the drummer, and I have known him since I was fifteen years old and he was a professor at a music school and he was in charge of finding me a series of musicians, among which was his son, to be able to record for the first time in a studio. Since then, the three of us have been on stage together for eleven years. Tony Finu, the bassist, I also met him producing, as did Mikaela (Vázquez – violin) by Vic Mirallas and by musicians. They all have to do a little bit with different stages of my life…” With all of them Carlos Ares puts together a live show that you will have the opportunity to enjoy at the next Mondo Sonoro Demoscopic Festivals. It will be next March 20 at the Barceló Theater in Madrid. I’m certainly not going to miss it.
“Peregrino” Track By Track by Carlos Ares
“Pilgrim”
“It is the most important song of my career because of what it took to get to it. It was a reunion with a primitive version of myself, which I had needed for a long time, without realizing that I had been quite confused, lost and frustrated for a few years.”
“Speed”
“It was one of the first songs that came up and I was clear that I wanted it to be a fusion between something very organic, but with a modern treatment… And I wanted to generate something that would give a feeling of tension and expectation in the gig.”
“Rocios”
“Here I needed to express that I have the feeling that I have been living for a few years on the edge of an almost literal heart attack, because I have had an anxiety disorder for a long time.”
“Cicada”
On this topic I wanted to get a little bitchy, because it is something that I always envied about the artists who seemed to me to have more character… And I also always envied the people who come from rap, because I felt that they had a much more powerful dictionary. broader than any pop music composer.”
“Borrowed Matter”
“Originally this song was an adaptation of “Pájaros de clay” (Manolo García) and until very recently it kept the chorus of the original, but in the end I did not obtain permission to use it, and I had to invent a new one that would do it justice” .
“I won’t think more of you than necessary”
I wanted it to be a song that didn’t have a conventional structure and I wanted to be very experimental. And he talks about that grief he was going through.”
“Still here”
“It is just the other side, the positive side and being grateful for what you have and trying to see the beauty in any slightly complicated situation you are going through.”
“Terricola”
“For me it was a necessary ballad in my life, and I composed it with the idea of lowering my heart rate in those stages of anxiety or maximum stress. It is a song that had to be therapeutic.”
“Amigo”
“I wanted this song to reflect all the rage he had inside and the guitar sounds like he was actually complaining or crying in some way. And again I put myself back into some bpm’s in which I can speak more in the verses and get into rap a little more.”
“New era”
It is surely one of my favorite songs… And it was a song that was good for me to understand what types of topics I wanted to deal with on the album and how far I could go when it came to dealing with certain parts of my personality.”