pan lands back on the scene with his second album, “Sepia” (Ventilador Music, 23), a cocktail that combines elements of pop, salsa, electronic music and urban music to create a particular and captivating sound universe. This Wednesday May 17 will be presenting it in Barcelona (La Nau)
After their debut album “Motion” (21) and his latest singles in collaboration with Rita Paid y Vic Mirallas, the singer debuts a more defined and provocative side while inviting the listener to explore their fears and turn them into fun and sensuality. A surreal journey from ego to animal, leading us towards the liberation of his own artistic self.
Although daring and cheeky, “Sepia” It is a record that has been cooked over a slow fire, paying special attention to the details that, in tune with the sound, make this second album a more delicate and mature project. Tacho is restless, curious and demanding. For this reason, his album is the result of a process of selection and careful elaboration of a wide repertoire of songs. Despite the fact that both are produced hand in hand together with Andrew Marquès, “Sepia” It differs from “Motion” in absolutely everything. In this sense, Tacho highlights the elements that make his latest album a riskier bet, from the quality of the production to the selection of songs and musical experimentation. “How do I communicate? Well, with all the tools they give me. The mixture of Oriol Padrós is one of them. If I sing loud or super soft, it gives you information. In ‘Sepia’ We have looked for a natural evolution, especially in the voice».
We find a new register, a vocal treatment full of dynamics and nuances in which the artist’s ego speaks to us, whispers to us, spits at us and, of course, also sings to us. “I have realized that there were songs with which I was not comfortable in terms of tonality or register. On this LP I’ve been more aware of what I sing and how I do it”. “Sepia” contains verses with accent and weight, as well as words that name different realities with which the interpreter wants us to feel identified: “There are words that I like because of the vowels they have. I wonder how they sound. There are also special expressions that help to build that of the record. For example, the ‘chalet’ or the ‘buffet’. I want them to pay attention to what is repeated and how it is said”. Antonyms with which Tacho introduces each of the characters, such as the cuttlefish and the dolphin (which eats the cuttlefish.) All of them, under the semantic field of water, participate in the creation of an unstable maritime space, like the coming and going of the waves.
We accompany the protagonist through a transformation process that undergoes different narrative phases. After a welcome of “Uncertainty”, we find the analysis of the ego (“Look in the mirror”) and the “Pride (along with Las Migas)” that usually accompanies it. Next, we fall into “Board” and arrive at the surreal mutation (“Convertirme en sepia”) that gives the album its title. In the next stage instinct and corporeality reign; a walk through seduction, sensuality, pleasure, euphoria and desire. These emotions are reflected in songs such as “I want to seduce you” (with Rita Payés), “Suave”, “Let me enter”, “Light the chalet” and “Repeat” (with Juan Pablo Vega), until reaching “Sosiego”.
Finally, we reach the reflective phase with “Salirme del lugar” to end with an optimistic and satirical “Happy”, which defines the state of mind reached after completing the change process. “’Salirme del lugar’ and ‘Happy’ are a reflection. The essence of the album is to be calm. It seems to me that society, networks and the system force you to think about producing all the time. I have to do this, I have to work, I have to post a story… We are super overwhelmed”. However, in this story, serenity wins the battle and manages to silence the ego. “The album is full of parallels of this duality of ‘ego and sepia’. The beasts are calm, they do not have prejudices, they ‘listen’, they do not have complexes or fears. Humans tend to humanize things. I have tried with this record to animalize humans. We have to learn to receive criticism and be open to everything. There is nothing that determines what we have to do and I wanted this to be captured on the record through sound and aesthetics”.
“There is nothing that determines what we have to do and I wanted this to be captured on the record through sound and aesthetics”
The viewer is always present, actively, in the landscapes that Tacho reveals to us with each track on the album. In fact, we can listen to audios in which the singer addresses the audience directly: “Welcome my cuttlefish”, “I’m tired, I can’t take it anymore, give me something, I need to become something”, “Yesterday I went to his chalet, he opened the door and I was wearing a dressing gown” or “I put on the dolphin costume”. There is an intention to break the barrier that separates us from the artist. “Sometimes I appear as an omnipresent narrator and I speak to you in voice notes. It’s a way of introducing humor into the record”. Nevertheless, “Sepia” includes universal themes that directly appeal to us: success, uncertainty, sex, heartbreak, complexes, arrogance, contempt…
“I recorded my voice at Andreu’s house, who has a good team. The harmonies are Clara Gorrigas. Everyone I’ve recorded with is a rocky crowd with personality. I’m crazy about going to the studio and composing with musicians who contribute their point of view to what I’m creating. That is why I try to select people with their own criteria, because they suggest things that you do not see or that you do not hear ». According to Taco, “Sepia” It is “a many-pointed star.” The various genres present on the album make sense thanks to the colors of singers like Rita Paid, the crumbs y Juan Pablo Vega, which provide a different point of view and establish a dialogue with the protagonist. «They are different musicians from each other, although they have coherence within the album. I could have put in a rapper and it wouldn’t have been out of place. The tips are all from a star that sounds like me, it doesn’t matter if it’s reggaeton or a bolero.”
It coincides with Las Migas through its battery Guillemao. The quartet works on “Soberbia” as a choir and helps to integrate the flamenco style in the production of the album. “I have worked very comfortably with them because they know how to listen and I trust their judgment”. Another of the invited voices is that of the Colombian singer-songwriter Juan Pablo Vega. “I met him in September of last year, I played with him live with the Horny Section, I showed him two songs and he told me that he loved ‘Repeat’”. Between Barcelona and Madrid, Colombia and Mexico, the theme offers new flavors thanks to the Latin airs that appear as “late motiv” throughout the album. “I studied with Rita and we met on the tour of C. Tangana. I made ‘I want to seduce you’ in her confinement thinking of her and when I had the opportunity I proposed to record it ”.
The album contains everything that the artist has absorbed in his career as a singer, trombonist and jazz student in recent years. Cuban music has a great presence in “Sepia”although it is complemented by the pop, hip hop and r&b influence that Tacho has sought to introduce into the sound and groove of “Sepia”. “On this record I have musicians like Go bam bam o Juan Luis Guerra”.
“On this record I have musicians like Los Bam Bam or Juan Luís Guerra present”
“Sepia” he keeps an eye on the past, but does not shy away from the context that surrounds him and seeks to provide a new and own look. “It has to sound organic, but modern. Many people make urban music, which is called. It is not what I listen to the most, but they are present as an influence. I look at what they do, how it sounds and how they do it. I also pay attention to Jorge Drexler. Even though she’s more poppy, she has that Latino vibe all the time.”
The songs have been produced by Andreu Marquès and Tacho himself. The mix and master has been in charge of Andreu Marquès and Oriol Padrós respectively. “Andreu learns very quickly, he is very restless. He is a fundamental piece on the record and on the project. I had twenty-two songs, Andreu has collaborated in the development, a bit in the composition, the structure, the form and the sound of those that we have chosen to include in this project”.
The focus of the album has also focused on aesthetic and visual aspects, such as the selection of looks and the participation of external collaborators, who have brought new ideas and perspectives to the project. “Playing with the materials on the record has been easy. The hardest part for me was laying the foundation and knowing what I wanted. For this reason, the video clips have been adapted to the personality of each collaborator. For example, in ‘I want to seduce you’ we were looking for something more classic and elegant. A closer Tacho unlike the eclectic lyric video of ‘Soberbia’”. Tacho has worked with Luto Creative on the visual part and with Isaac Fluxà and Paula Farran on the video clips.
The shape plays a fundamental role in the construction of the imaginary of the record. The images start from the lyrics, but are transferred to the image, the staging and the design of the length. “I have fully immersed myself in aesthetics. First is what you say: I will tell you screaming, whispering or singing, how you say it is also important. The “sepia experience” forces the public to stain themselves with ink, to dodge the superficial layers to access a project that Tacho describes as surreal. This album appears with the idea of reaching a whole and being present in each of the parts that surround the creative space of the project. “This album shows in a very authentic way what I am, because I am behind every detail. Even if there is something that apparently doesn’t hit much, it will always have my essence. The Tacho character is me, I don’t have an alter ego. What I show on the album is my experience, but what counts is only a part. Some things I stretch out and others I keep to myself”.
