With 40 years of life, 30 scenarios and thousands of concerts, Abel Pintos He finds a reason to be surprised every time. It can range from performing songs, even though I have lost count of how many times I have done it, to the daily discovery of family life and the adrenaline of life at home. The hard core that he formed with his wife Calabrese Mora and his sons Guillermina and Agustin It challenges him in different ways, but with the same intensity with which thousands of people sing “Motivos”, “The Key”, “Once Thousand” or so many pieces that the Argentine popular songbook adopted as its own. Abel escapes routine, even though he has been doing the same thing for three decades. And perhaps that is where the feeling of fullness and serenity that he transmits in each of his cases lies.
Perhaps that is why he chose an unusual idea for the launch of his new project. The appointment is in BeBop Cluban emblematic jazz space Buenos Airesin the heart of Palermo, on a peacefully sunny winter noon. Outside, the city beats its usual pulse, but inside the magic happens. A Abel Relaxed, but with his usual elegance, he greets the press and a hundred privileged fans who see their favourite artist from metres away in an unprecedented way.
“It’s like those days when we would get together at someone’s house to listen to a record that had just come out.”says Abelwith a hint of nostalgia and as a knowing wink to the public that packed the place to see several abels in one. To the entertainer, with the spark intact. From interpreter and versioner of their own and other people’s repertoires. And as moderator of his own report.
In this scenario, the musician gave an acoustic and stripped-down version, on piano and two guitars, of “Suddenly,” the song by Soraya which he used as the spearhead of his new album, which he defines as “conceptual.” After singing about two ideas as strong as love (The love in my life2021) and the Argentina (High in the sky, 2023) the new album will revolve around his role as a performer. A way to connect with her beginnings, when she still did not dare to use pencil and paper, and a show of gratitude to the profession that she embraced forever.
After singing, Abel He invited Teleshow to go on stage. That space that generates more “anxiety” than “nerves”, almost from the moment he got on one. That familiarity with the tables – be they the initiation sessions at his school, the explosive ones at the Próspero Molina in Cosquín, those of crowds like Vélez or River – shows him confident, joking, improvising and understanding with the journalist, not so used to these arenas. And he prepares to talk about his life and his projection to the future of an artist that he finds in his family, and in the peace of his Endurance adoptive, the yin for that yang that moves, passionate and with which it aims to break down borders.
—How and when does this new concept appear? It can’t be easy to find inspiration after singing about the birth of a child and the country.
—Last year I thought that, although I am very close to turning 30 with music, I still feel that I have a lot to learn and discover. I didn’t want to go into an autopilot process, and I started thinking about the dreams and hopes that I still had unfulfilled or unexplored. And one of them is to seriously develop my music in other countries. Years ago I had the experience of traveling and doing promos, especially for albums. Abel (2014) and eleven (2017). But the truth is that I never did it seriously, I never spent the time that I like to spend with music. In Argentina everything happened very gradually, because we share many things with the public that accompanies us today.
—They saw you grow and they grew with you…
—Of course, and I would like that to happen with audiences in other countries as well. To start a new path, I thought it was good to go back to the roots in some way. And my roots are as an interpreter of other authors, so I thought I could afford to do it. to face a rather old dreamwhich is the power sing songs that I really like and that I feel are my own.
—“Suddenly” talks about preserving amazement until the end. Are you still amazed by what happens with your career?
—I would say that everything I have experienced and everything I experience every day amazes me. Thank God, that capacity for wonder has not faded with the passage of time, nor has it become some kind of habit. For example, last night my eldest daughter and I went to see a play and suddenly I entered the room and people applauded me. And I started to turn around to say who came (laughs). These things still surprise me, because the plan there was to go with my daughter to the theater.. Any detail, no matter how small, continues to amaze me.
—How will this material from the new album be made known? Can you tell us what other songs you will be covering?
—Concept albums have the characteristic that they are open until the last minute, until you make the decision to edit it. There is always the possibility of a new branch of that concept emerging. On the other hand, when you plan an album of new songs, you write 16, choose 12 and edit the album. In that sense we still have to resolve several things, and I think that next year the complete album will be available. But first we are going to do a series of single releases and, from now until May, we are going to be traveling, especially to Mexico.
–Simultaneous to the new album are the concerts with Luciano Pereyra, a meeting that seems inevitable, but which took a long time to come to fruition. Why now and not at this time when they traveled parallel paths?
—We are discovering it as we walk along it. With Luciano we started practically together. In these twenty-odd years we have felt a lot of admiration and respect for each other, even affection, but we do not share many things either on stage or off stage for reasons that have nothing to do with us.
-What was happening?
—I was recently telling you Luciano that we did spectacular marketing but unintentionally. Since we didn’t meet, because he was on his path and I was on mine, it was said that we were fighting, that we were competition for each other, that we were in different record companies, that he did this style and I did that. So it was like a competition, and we, true to our style of being rather low-profile people, never entered into that. Now a wonderful meeting is coming and we are realizing that it was highly anticipated by others, but that we also needed it. And it happens at the right time, two big, mature guys, with a lot to still discover, to learn and to walk. And also with a different poise that we clearly did not have at 15 years old.
—I also add La Sole to that group of teenagers who burst onto the scene in the mid-90s, in those appearances that could have been a fad or a phenomenon and today have the careers they have. Does that surprise you?
—No, I’m very clear about it because the three of us achieved it through hard work and dedication. We maintained a consistency and coherence in our feelings towards the music we wanted to make, beyond the criticism, the difficult moments, the ups and downs, our own doubts. Because in the end one is always one’s own greatest enemy and the three of us kept going with our boots on. Solewhich was the flag of all of us who came back, was so great at the time that she, and we who were children, We had to endure being told that we were a fad and that in 15 minutes we were going to be talking about something else. Then Today, 30 years later, one feels a great privilege to continue doing this.but at the same time also knowing why.
–What is life like in Resistencia (Chaco)? I ask, compared to this life of a crowd-oriented artist. Where do these worlds meet?
—Being at home and being on stage are the two most paradisiacal situations for me, so the process of having to go from one place to the other is not traumatic. My house is just as pleasant and just as exciting as the stage. And when I finish the tour, with all that that means, and return home, that adrenaline doesn’t end, but rather it transforms into what I experience with our children, with the family dynamic. Resistencia is a very calm place, we spend a lot of time there, we come and go and the common thread of this is the support of my family. That is the bridge through which I can go from one place to the other. They understand very well, not only that this is my job, but they also understand very well that this is my way of life and that stopping doing this would somehow mean stopping living.
—And apparently you don’t feel like trying for now, honoring that teenager who claimed to have been born to sing.
—Not really, because I need it like breathing. My language is music, and even the way I speak to my children is musical and I can’t imagine doing it any other way.
—Speaking of family, does Agustín already know that he has a famous father? That people love him so much, that he provokes such strong emotions.
—You ask me if he told me: “You are Ricky Martin!” (Laughs). No, nothing like that. You might be disappointed when you realize I’m not Ricky Martin.
—Well, I don’t know if as much as Ricky, but people love you a lot…
—Yes, it is clear. We walk the streets a lot and the affection of people is constant, of all ages, in all contexts. Agustin He comes to sound checks with me a lot, to concerts not so much because he still wants to play with my dad. So he can’t believe not being able to play with me.
Photos: Gustavo Gavotti.
