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CABAS
Before he started recording, he already knew how he wanted his album to sound. Composers hear their creations and then mix it in with their feelings, a special and important process. Before anyone else has the chance to hear the music, more internal changes are made to bring the sounds and emotions together. The creation begins to materialise and the work starts to take shape: orchestral arrangements are made and musicians record their parts until it all arrives to the studio console and the producer and engineer take the reins of the project. With the voice of the performer, the songs vivify.
Cabas is meticulous with his work and labours over every step in the process. He is not easily satisfied and the perfectionist that is Cabas ensures that his album is carefully and painstakingly done and redone before it reaches the public. "I hear the mixes over and over again," he explains. "A process that I greatly enjoy," he adds.
Puro Cabas is now a reality. It is the result of many hours of work and the effort of a creator that persists in translating his surroundings into music: his experiences and his passions, especially his love for his roots.
Cabas is a perceptive and sensatory being, which he transmits in his clear conversations. The depth of his concepts, like the Caribbean waters that border his birthplace of Barranquilla, make this young singer songwriter a coherent orator who narrates his experiences - musical and tumultuous romantic- with the ease of a child.
The platform of this album is made up of the deep life experiences of this bohemian composer who thinks that in order to make songs, you have to have lived them. Excursions to different cities of the world have made part of what he used to enrich his music. He went to Paris and he soaked up the sounds of the streets, the cold early mornings and watching the first hints of sunlight reflected in the blue tiles.
When he arrived to New York, he visited various night clubs where he found incredible talent and passed many hours tête a tête with these people, "I heard the most incredible musicians in the world with the most admirable humility," he remembers. “I also listened to Salsa and Dominican music," he adds.
However, all was not sunshine as there is always a dark side to things. "I lived the loneliness and lack of soul of New York, I realised the sadness of the people" he tells, "I expected more heart in such a tough city. I understand that people are like characters of themselves and realised that people with money do not know how to have fun."
In this way, between sounds and ideas, sensations and willingness to create, Cabas's third creation was borne. "Music should serve people," he insists vehemently, "We are like waiters of feelings."
Cabas has reached his goals as a result of his passion and enthusiasm. It is in loving that you learn to love and thus parented his newest meisterstuck, according to him, his favourite, cI wanted a popular album, simple and happy and I achieved this, but I never thought I would achieve such a universal, contemporary and hot sound."
For this album, there was no shortage of collaborations. Two songs were co-produced by Colombian composer Kike Santander, one of them, La Cadena de Oro was selected as the first single for the album debut. Also, the talent of the musicians and composers of Black Eyed Peas were present and co-produced the songs Vamonos de Aqui y Llega la Noche as well as an interesting and organic collaboration from Sargento Garcia with the song Likua .
The overall responsibility of the general production of all 12 tracks rested on the shoulders of Toy Hernandez and Sacha Triujeque who were the main architects of this endeavour. "I hit the jackpot" Cabas admits, "I received lots of help from them and they worked hard to make this album what it is today."
Cabas feels completely satisfied in the full sense of the word. The teamwork that had previously been created in the studio helped him face his new project with a more mature approach and sage-like reflections. “I would like to have the voice of Ruben Blades, but I don't have it because of plain genetics." He affirms, “thanks to Toy and Sacha, I realised that my voice has personality and is part of my essence, something that's made me really happy. Besides, I put a lot of feeling into this album and I feel that this is present."
In fact, this 28 year old singer songwriter follows his own rules when going into a recording studio. He refuses to record songs in parts and he does things the traditional way: he sings over and over again and then selects the best parts. "I cant do it in little pieces and I don't like it" he explains, "I feel you loose the spirit of the songs and the interpretation is damaged."
Puro Cabas has an excellent scenario for its creation. It was recorded in El Cielo Recording Studios in Monterrey, Mexico where stars of the music Industry such as Gustavo Cerati, Kinky, Julieta Vinegas, Ely Guerra, Control Machete and Pepe Aguilar have left their mark.
Andres Cabas, his full name, did not venture into music serendipitously. Since he was 6 years old, he studied piano academically and achieved a coherent musical education. Later on, guided by his father, a renowned folklore composer, he discovered jazz. "I really got into it" he remembers, "It's a complex language, however it taught me how to improvise."
All this contributed to creating a musician with the traits that Cabas has. A creator of great artistic contrasts, the type that usually comes out of Latin America. Since essence comes from foundation, this intense Barranquillero has been rewarded by life. He went from Chopin studies to La Caderona - one of his biggest hits- and from Beethoven to the smash hit of Mi Bombon .
Thus was created Puro Cabas, paying homage to the elegance of folklore with melodies influenced by Bullerengue and Cumbia, Porro and Champeta, the African music that is most recurrent in the album.
And so Cabas has emerged, one of the most representative Colombian storytellers and minstrel that has so much to offer. He has been enriched by the roots of his homeland, he has talent that pours out uncontrollably from within him and the wisdom to know that he can always improve.