Aquí Estoy Yo: Interview with Esteman

esteman-andrea-echeverri-bogota-campaign

Esteman and Andrea Echeverri recording for a tourism campaign for Bogota.

Some of the latest photos you’ve been sharing have featured the lovely Andrea Echeverri. Aquí Estoy Yo [MV] was one of my favorite songs last year [1]. Many in our generation have grown up listening to Aterciopelados and with Andrea’s voice. How did this collaboration happen?

It happened in a very natural and spontaneous way — that was the greatest thing. We were featured in an Aterciopelados tribute two years ago here in Colombia, that’s where Andrea met us. She came up to us and said, “I like what you do a lot,” and since then we’ve been linked.

Six months into it, we were working on the final version of Aqui Estoy Yo for the album — which, by the way, is one of the oldest songs on the album, since it had three versions. It’s got a really long story, and was produced, like, three times because we just couldn’t find the way to do it, until we found the inspiration with a more Latin American feel, with a bit of Mexico and its rancheras with that heart-wrenching element, and from the other side we had the Far West.

And, well, the times we did the song in duet with the girls of the Esteband or other female singers, we never reached that low range. Then, the moment we said “this voice is for Andrea,” it was all good, because we sent it to her without much hope to get an answer, but it came immediately. What Andrea heard was a very rough demo, but she loved it. Even though the first approach was done through our managers, from then on, the project was a matter of growth — a process between her and us, of getting to know each other as people and sharing our creative voices.

At that moment, the development of a relationship that, for me, was basic for the collaborations I’ve had through my career happened. The music video happened, the recording of the voices — we’ve developed a friendship that happened through music.

There also seems to be a wonderful friendship between you and Monsieur Periné, tell me what’s their relation to the Esteband?

That relationship happened because my brother (who is my right-hand man) went to university with Santiago Prieto, the guitarist of Monsieur Periné. At that time, they were starting up while we were a bit more ahead — we had the first songs done despite not releasing the CD yet. So Santiago and Catalina wanted to meet us, and Catalina insisted on working on something. My brother suggested we should meet up, so we went to one of their concerts. They were a band that was playing music for events, and they were already there with a name and a band. And well… we got together one night, we got on really well. One thing led to another, and we became friends and began making music together.

At the time I was producing True Love, that was one of the songs that people got to know us for. But True Love is one of my songs, so I told Catalina and Santiago to be part of it. While working on that, we were working on Oh Là Là! [1], that’s the song we composed and wrote together.

And that love for singing in French?

Well, Catalina studied at the French school here in Cali (Liceo Francés Paul Valéry), and I studied at Helvetia, the Swiss school from Bogota, so each one of us has a close relationship with the culture. I also lived in France, and she’s also very close to it, that’s why it naturally flows for both bands.

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

2 Responses

  1. April 10, 2014

    […] Amy, who is the editor of the magazine, and she also interviewed one of your friends, Esteman. [1] I know you get along well with him and you have in common the same style of music and the love for […]

  2. June 9, 2014

    […] check out our interview with Esteman, who talks a little bit about his friendship with the guys of Monsieur […]

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