Aquí Estoy Yo: Interview with Esteman

You made your big splash with your song No Te Metas a mi Facebook, where you talk about following people’s lives through Facebook, where people are like strangers. However, one of the characteristics of Esteman and the Esteband is that you guys use social media really well. Tell me, how much does Esteman share online?

Too much. The thing about Facebook and No Te Metas a mi Facebook is that it’s a parody, and overall, it ends up being a critique of how relationships (of friends and significant others) become impersonal through an application like Facebook. However, it also has its benefits. For example, as an artist, how can you take advantage of this to generate a close relationship with your audience — that’s how Esteman and the Esteband works. Through Facebook or Twitter, looking for ways to start conversations and that link — What can I tell my followers that they won’t get to know in one of my concerts, in a magazine or a television program? What are those things that I can show them that would identify me as a person?

Esteman at a Carnival in Barranquilla.

For us, social media are key in that sense — being able to show what were doing at rehearsal, showing our likes or dislikes, and sometimes go back and forth with people. That’s one of the wonderful things in the present that Web 2.0 allows us to do — that closeness. Before the 90s, an artist was held on a pedestal, untouchable. The fact that you can now start up a conversation through Twitter with me at times, even if it becomes difficult as the audience grows and there are things that get past you. [laughs]

I’m aware of it all, and the type of platforms, it lets people to see that I’m simply a human being that happens to make music. There are more people connecting with what I do, but to never let that personal connection disappear.

When do you reach the moment of “this I’d better not share.”

Yeah, well, there are things that one ends up choosing, because in the end… there is a frontier — that there are things from my private life, or sometimes a political opinion. I’ve always been one of those people that give their opinions, be who I am, and never lie. There are things that one just prefers to be more discreet about, or simply avoid starting an unnecessary discussion. However, I won’t keep quiet or stop being who I am, but that’s another thing. I’m never going to support something that I don’t support just to get more fans. That type of thing I would never do.