Recently moved to Madrid and with the suitcase half unpacked, Vic Mirallas spoke to us by phone on February 23 to talk to us about the launch of his latest album, doubtswhich saw the light that same morning.
A total of 10 songs and a little less than half an hour compress the work of many months for the Barcelonan, who has lived through the last few frenetic weeks between preparing the album, the finale of Operación Triunfo (composition and production of the hymn of the included edition) and the rehearsals for the two presentation concerts which, for the moment, he has announced on his social networks.
In the capital we will be able to see him very soon: specifically on February 29 in the Sala Villanos. Likewise, the city of Barcelona will also witness its particular gig with guests a few weeks later, on March 21 at the Sala Apolo.
About the creation of his album, his aesthetics, Justin Bieber, his time in Operación Triunfo and his management of social networks and their projects for the rest of 2024, the composer and producer most loved by Generation Z in Spain wanted to talk to us (we are sure that, if there is an option in the OT application to vote for your favorite teacher, Abril Zamora and Vic Mirallas They would be disputing the 3000 euros in the account (it doesn’t count). And we understand why: his closeness when speaking and his unconditional support for the contestants has crossed the computer screens. Now, he presents at WECB a very eclectic project full of influences where it shows us its most vulnerable side.
First of all: how are you? You have just released an album and finished a stint as a teacher at Operación Triunfo, I imagine there are many emotions together…
Good super good. That is, a full day. Also, I just moved to Madrid and I’m here in the room making some arrangements to be comfortable. And very good, very happy at the moment with the short time we have had to receive the album, but the comments have been very cool and I am happy. And also what’s coming up on the 29th (February)… really looking forward to seeing how everything is turning out and really looking forward to doing the gig with the collaborations.
Let’s go, if you want, to the beginning. In the month of October, along with the dates of your concerts in Madrid and Barcelona, you announced that you were preparing an album, but you still didn’t know the name or exactly what it was going to be about. What has this album creation process been like?
I’ve really done it quite a bit song by song and I think that also shows on the album. I mean, sound-wise it’s not a very uniform album but I quite liked the fact that it had a lot of songs and had to make a filter. heavy. And this is where the doubts come in. You have songs that are very good, some tell you that they are very cool… The indecision that leads you to choose songs for an album is very strong and I have always been quite bad at giving names to things. So, since I had so many doubts about what the cover was going to be like, who was going to make it, who was going to master it… all this more logistical part, in the end I decided on a name that phonetically sounded very good to me and that exemplified very well everything I felt when making the album.
You started using lowercase letters on your last EP, FDAand you have continued with them in doubts. Is it an aesthetic decision?
It’s aesthetic, yes. I’m discovering that when I see a word that starts with a capital letter it gives me OCD, I don’t know why. And in the end I decided to do it all like this.
And is there any link between this album and the EP you released last summer?
No, they are really two totally separate stories. The EP that I released in the summer was basically the three lyrics of a friend, Juan Mari Montes, who gave them to me and they were already part of a trilogy and I looked for a little history in the three songs. Here it was quite conceptual, I already knew what idea I wanted to convey. In this other one, which perhaps musically better reflects my influences, at a conceptual level I didn’t have anything very clear.
You’ve already mentioned it, but on this album you play many styles and there are many influences from different types of music. How have you been fitting the pieces and the different styles together until you come up with this result?
It has been taking advantage of the fact of constantly traveling. Going to Madrid a lot, then going to Mexico, Argentina. It’s like every song has a country… Well, lie (laughs) I’m freaking out. But there are two songs that I made in Mexico, there are three that I made in Madrid with fellow musicians there, there are others from Barcelona… I have taken advantage of every input I had from being away from home to make this album and I think it has been very eclectic but at the same time very rich, and every memory of each song takes me to the moment when we did it in the country where we did it.
And do you remember which is the first song you wrote and which was the last to enter?
Wow, yes. The first song I wrote was a long time ago, with the foots, which we did with Lluís Borrell, with the bassist who is in my band, but it was totally different. And looking for ideas there, when I was looking for the songs for the album, we saw this idea and we liked it a lot, it seemed very fresh to us and we thought about it more until what was left remained.
In the case of the last topic it was doubtsPrecisely, and it was in Mexico because they gave us about four or five days of recording in a super nice studio and I was recording, completing the album in these studios. And we had two days off and we listened to a song by Justin Bieber that we really liked, which was very band-like and had quite a drum sound… with the over heads being very loud: the drums don’t sound concentrated and good as we are used to. use it. I really liked looking for this rather spacious, not very concrete sound… Furthermore, the lyrics talk about the different moments in which you doubt your life, love, such… and this type of sound seemed very suitable to me. And this is Mexico.
I don’t know if you remember that Justin Bieber song that you mentioned inspired you.
Yes (laughs), but I prefer not to say it because if people start looking there might be too many…
Don’t worry, don’t worry…
Wow, really yes. Let them look for it, let them look for it. It’s a collaboration and it’s not yours. Is called momentsby Diddy and Justin Bieber.
Perfect. On the album there are two songs that you sing in Catalan, vampires and petons, which are just two of the most romantic songs on the entire album. I don’t know if it was a bit of a coincidence or if it’s just that it’s easier for you to talk about feelings when you write in Catalan and not in Spanish.
Damn, now that you say this, maybe there’s something I didn’t think about. But it is true that I believe that Catalan has a romantic form that gives me a less cloying sound than Spanish, which has a sound that can sound very “Spanish pop” to me and gives me the feeling that with Catalan I feel a little more speaking as I think. I think in Catalan so it’s a bit… Yes, that might happen.
How are you preparing for these presentation concerts? What can you tell us?
Yes. Basically these last days of OT have been quite stressful because I was between the anthem, finishing scores for the galas and rehearsing for the gig – because today I came to Madrid but my band is in Barcelona – so, we have rehearsed everything we We had to rehearse for next week’s gig.
But yes, it is going to be a gig that we had already announced was going to be with guests. And guests are going to come with whom we have had a relationship for a long time and we have had the songs out for a long time. For example, Escandaloso Xpósito is coming to do Super VacuumCarlos Sares is going to come and do It’s good that I saw you.
And then, well, for example the song that I have in collaboration with Rita (still alive), since Rita is pregnant and lives in Barcelona, I have told Salma from OT to come and collaborate. Because also when she was recording it with Rita she was just working on a song with Salma and thinking “damn, this song would be incredible on her.” And I told him in a class: “if you want to come sing it in Madrid, it would be incredible.”
Another thing that has not yet been announced is that Violeta will also come to sing the song I have with MARO (My Condemnation). The fact of having so many collaborations in general means that if I go to some cities and meet singers, I really want to be able to share the songs even if they were not initially recorded by them.
You have been a great support for the contestants within the Academy and one of the teachers they trusted the most when composing. How have you lived the OT experience?
I value it very positively because it has also given me a routine, which I did not know this word until now. And the fact of being a teacher, who had not been before either… I mean, it has been very refreshing to feel useful helping the contestants, to also feel valued for the ideas of melodies that we made, variations that we made, they listened to me a lot and at the same time In the end they always ended up leaving and I felt very supported and very close to them, in some way. Sometimes I thought “damn, I’m the teacher”, but I have had a very close feeling despite the cameras, which is another move. But yes, I have the feeling that with some I want to work on their projects, helping them with production, composition, whatever it takes. We have already talked about how to do it.
There is also an important part of the Operación Triunfo audience who did not know you and who have been able to find out about you and your artistic project. I don’t know if you have ever searched for yourself on Twitter, if you have investigated feedback with your name as a result of the contest…
Well, I knew it could be done mid-contest and I was amazed. I mean, it really became a half-toxic-half-beautiful thing, because sometimes you receive nice messages but sometimes for something you said in class they blame you, or because I put a like, it becomes a very heavy mountain… and I have seen one toxic part of what networks are, especially in Operación Triunfo, but I suppose everywhere. But at the same time, that is also a dissemination channel and now to publish the album they are helping me a lot… it is a double-edged sword that you have to know how to use so that it does not affect your mental health. But hey, we’re on it.
How does the rest of 2024 look for you? What projects do you have ahead?
Well, on top of that I haven’t announced any concerts yet. I have about six in total from my project. In addition, I will be the musical director of a band, I will also be the musical director of the Operación Triunfo tour sharing with Manu, so I have a very busy year ahead of concerts for three different projects… But in the end it is work and there are years of work little and we have to take advantage of the opportunity to work and whatever comes.
Lastly, is there anything you would like to say that I haven’t asked you about?
Yes: I’ve said it on Twitter too, but on this album what we’ve done is put a lot of work into the mix, a lot of work into the planes of the sounds: sometimes a sound appears and leaves just when another comes in. I mean, there is a very well thought out sound aesthetic, above all. We have dedicated a lot of time to it and this is something that is appreciated when people listen to it with headphones, with speakers… a little to have active listening and that it is not background music, it is something that I could recommend.
AND that they buy tickets for the concert and that they come with friends. That you have to invest in culture.
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