MEXICO CITY (AP) — Coming into his 17th album, Peruvian singer-songwriter Gian Marco didn’t want just another Friday release, but rather a chance to truly connect with his audience. He had already completed his album with producer Julio Reyes Copello when they realized they could take the songs to another level by bringing in star guests.
Silvio Rodríguez was one of the last to join the band for “Los sueños de tu vida”; the first was Rubén Blades for “Aún me sigo encuentro”, the song that gives the album its title.
“Having Rubén and Silvio on an album is something that not even I had imagined,” said Gian Marco in a recent interview from Miami. “I once heard that the songs looked for their voices and found them, so I will have to assume that that is in some way true… We are a door for the songs that already exist.”
To convince Rodríguez, who does not usually do many collaborations, Gian Marco was recommended to write to him.
“I sat down to write him an email and I was like in a very strange place because I didn’t know whether to be such a fan, to be formal, to be cool, to be how,” he said. “I am a writer because of him, I became a writer by listening to Silvio’s songs.”
The point in common were the lyrics of Gian Marco, who dedicates “The Dreams of Your Life” to his daughter. “(Rodríguez) told me that he is also a father, that he had daughters, that he had granddaughters,” he said.
Other guests include Leonel García for “Ojos que no ven”, Andrés Cepeda for “Solitos”, Catalina García de Monsieur Periné for “Tú”, Daniela Darcourt for the tropical version of “No es amor” and Luis Enrique and Gusi for “They say in my neighborhood.” The arrangements were made by Reyes Copello.
In the case of “No es amor,” Gian Marco said the song came about after watching the episode “Beyond the Sea” from the series “Black Mirror,” in which two astronauts can transfer their consciousness and feelings to artificial replicas of their bodies on Earth. The day they recorded it, Darcourt was nominated for a Latin Grammy for best salsa album at the end of last year.
Gian Marco has posted a series of videos on his YouTube channel entitled “Encontrándonos” in which he chats with the collaborators on his album.
After performing at the Pepsi Center in Mexico City earlier this year, he said he would like to go back on tour throughout the rest of the country. He will also perform in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela and the United States.
Occasionally, he also enjoys being an audience member at his daughter Nicole Zignago’s concerts.
“I don’t get involved, I don’t get involved at all. I let her approach me; if she has any questions, any queries, great,” he said. “I feel very grateful, because not only her, but the other two (children) too. Fabian will probably release his album next year and Abril will start making music right now in September.”
At his family gatherings, Gian Marco said that he lets his children control the music they listen to “and I let them love me” and that way he listens to new music.
His advice to his children has more to do with endurance and originality in a long musical career like his.
“I have realized how difficult it is to not repeat yourself, to reinvent yourself from that place of non-repetition, that is the hardest thing… This is something I tell my children, if they are going to enter this world of music, music is a search, it is not a single stage where you are famous and you are going to stay with that for your whole life,” he said. “And then comes more of a question of ‘what do I offer myself or what do I have to give myself?’, and at the same time being able to explore it musically.”
