We could say that Henry’s He is a kind of folk troubadour who alternates between English and Catalan, but whose life has taken many turns. All these experiences are reflected in “Somewhere, Sometimes” (Vida Records, 23), his first album.
Having to take your belongings and get away from home is never easy, but little is said about how complicated it can also be to return to that place you abandoned. The almost unreal encounter that is forged with the different elements of your past reality that now seem to have changed so much (or maybe the one that has changed is you?). It is at that point between lands, dislocation and melancholy in which the singer-songwriter and artist from Igualada Enric Verdaguer has managed to shape his long-awaited solo debut under the alias of Henry’s. As we said, a kind of folk troubadour who alternates between Catalan and English in order to tell us the heartfelt story of him and whose transformative experience residing in Liverpool for a whopping four years marks the steps of his first album entitled “Somewhere, Sometimes”.
“Thanks to Clara Peya I went back to writing and singing in Catalan without complexes”
Although this album formally marks the birth of Henrio, Enric Verdaguer’s musical life goes further. How did it all start and at what point did you decide to “dress” as Henrio?
That’s right, I have the feeling that everything is born here, but in reality this comes a long way. When I was sixteen years old, I already realized that music freaked me out, and in fact I released an album called “Moonstruck” in 2015 with which I gave several concerts in my area. But inevitably he felt that things were moving too fast. For example, I had never studied music in a conventional way, so in a way I felt a bit like a faker, you know? It was then that I took a little hiatus, the result of this kind of existential crisis, and shortly after I was admitted to the University of Liverpool to train professionally as a musician. Little by little, and with the help of other musicians I met there, this project that now responds to the name of Henrio began to take shape.
There is a lot of talk about what it costs to move, but very little about what it costs to return and I think that is a great song. Would you say that getting down to work with this album has been your particular way of doing therapy?
Yes. In fact, from that return arises the need to write something more compact. He was very clear that he was in a very strange personal moment. When I came back here, I found myself faced with a lot of emotions that I didn’t expect, and making this record is what has allowed me to channel a bit the fact of having spent a year or so feeling so obfuscated and lost.
Do you notice that the composition of the album has helped you, then?
Little by little, but yes. The reading I do now of everything I have lived is much more positive. I have realized that nostalgia does not necessarily have to be a bad thing, it can also be the sign that you have experienced really beautiful things. It was not easy to adapt to that, but my years in Liverpool were the best of my life.
I know that you were studying there at none other than the university founded by Paul McCartney. Do you feel that this experience has meant a before and after in your technique?
I would say yes. As I was saying before, I had never studied music as such, except for some guitar courses and things like that. So going there changed everything. Personally, I would say that the key to everything was the environment, just meeting so many people from so many different places and with such varied backgrounds, you know. All of us giving each other feedback and creating such a rich creative environment. They are contexts that I remember as the greatest source of learning I have ever had and I firmly believe that this album is a faithful reflection of my personal and artistic growth.
“When you sing in your native language there is a very high degree of emotional nakedness, and perhaps singing in English is my way of escaping from it”
The record bears the UK label, no doubt.
Yes, from the mere fact that it’s produced by Finn Howells, a London guy I shared a flat with, to the simple truth that moving to Liverpool changed all my notions of what it was like to be an artist and what making music entails.
Even so, the record also sounds very local.
Yes, that is undeniable, although it was not easy to achieve that sound. Personally, I think that the reason why it was so difficult for me to reconnect with my roots when I returned to Catalonia was that, in order to adapt to my new life in Liverpool, I made a very strong disconnection from all my baggage. Here it is necessary that we talk about Clara Peya, who was an undoubted link with my culture for me and she made it easier for me to return here. She invited me to participate singing on her latest album, which meant that I had a job again in the world of music after my return. She had always connected a lot with her lyrics, so brutal and harsh of hers, but the moment she invited me to become her voice, the story went much deeper. Thanks to her I dared to go back to writing and singing in Catalan without complexes.
We also have another name on the record, that of Eliot Alma.
She is a Croatian artist who I also shared a flat with in Liverpool for a whopping three years and who also went to the same university as me. Eliot is probably the person I’ve made the strongest connection with in years. We wrote this song together while there and it was clear to me that it had to end up on the record. We had talked many times about recording something more solid, like an EP, but for one reason or another we could never find the moment. In exchange, this song remains and also some collaboration that I did for her eponymous debut EP, which she released last November.
Now that we have the album here, how do you see the idea of selling a proposal almost entirely in English in this country?
The million dollar question [risas]. I think it’s easier now, right? At the time, he intended for the record to be fifty percent in English and fifty percent in Catalan, but then things got a little more uneven. Anyway, I wouldn’t say that singing in English is something I do with premeditation either. The project was born there and it made sense that it was done in English, simply. In this aspect, the percentage of personal exposure that you already want to give it is also valued, because you know, when you sing in your native language there is a very high degree of emotional nakedness, and perhaps singing in English is my way of escaping from it. .
As a final reflection on this adventure that has now culminated in a record, what advice would you give to someone who is rethinking the idea of living an experience similar to yours?
I’m pretty bad at giving advice, but I think that something that I would have liked to have clearer in its day is that the final result of things is not as important as the process itself until you achieve it. I explain? I had always been very obsessed with knowing from the beginning what had to be done, what direction to take, where to go… But I think that the key for my projects to get somewhere now is the fact of having been able to overcome the blocks that blinding yourself with a specific destination. What you are never going to get is what you have planned from the beginning, and when you are clear about that, you enjoy any creative process much more.
