In spring 2023, Enrique Bunbury announced a direct communication service with its followers called ‘The letter‘that emulating that The Red Hand Files of Nick Cave (question and answer page that helps the Australian to have continuous contact with his fans) brought the skilled musician closer to his audience, addressing all kinds of topics and concerns. The epistolary service between artists and their fandom goes back a long way, but in this specific case we must be grateful that such a distinguished musician dedicates the time and patience to answer the thousands of emails received during the time in which said service was active. . Now that letter becomes a book at the hands of the publisher. Liburuak, More than 350 pages that bring together the entire experience.
We do not know if this idea was already born as a book or if, given the direction that it developed, it ended up taking shape this way. The fact is that this volume is a very interesting approach to a musician capable of showing his creative work, but also the most fragile. To delve into topics that have been speculated about on countless occasions, such as the end of Heroes of Silence or to detail the difficult ordeal that a couple of years ago forced him to cancel his tour and leave the stage indefinitely, -something fortunately interrupted a few months ago-. The letter It opens just like this, explaining this problem and chronologically, from February 26, 2023, when it starts, until December 3, 2023, when it ends, reviewing weekly, all the doubts that were arriving at the email enabled for such an end.
BunburyEdit He is close and generous, grateful for the affection received and very talkative. We will not reveal very specific details so as not to spoil the experience of discovering and being surprised by its many answers. We will say that in them he talks about practically everything; of many colleagues who have accompanied him (or with whom he has collaborated) in nearly four decades of career, of the motivations, influences and processes for recording most of his albums. He is not evasive to criticism or certain questions that many would have omitted; He talks a lot about music and openly addresses topics such as fame, but also privacy. Past and present appear, although it refuses to project itself into the future. Some issues, logically, are based on certain truisms, but there are quite a few with enough substance to benefit the singer. There is even a moment, halfway through the experience, in which he questions the meaning of this correspondence, ending up concluding that he was worried about the distancing from his followers once he had had to abandon the tours. A way to keep in touch the old-fashioned way, escaping the noise caused by social networks.
In the end The letter It works like a strange book of interviews that, far from the purely journalistic structure, is reminiscent of the offices of certain publications of the past, which gives it a certain charm. An entertaining experiment.
You can buy the book: The Letter – Enrique Bunbury on your publisher’s website.
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