The new life of singer Álvaro de Luna: “I took refuge in a brat and scoundrel character that even I can’t stand”

“Either I left or my head would explode.” Today, Álvaro de Luna (Seville, 31 years old) should be on tour, but he decided to take a break and flee to Indonesia for a month. The reason? Stress that made him lose his voice twice in a short time. “It was as if I had forgotten how to sing. I had bald spots in my beard, I wasn’t excited about doing the Wizink [now, Movistar Arena] anymore, and that’s been my dream since I came to Madrid… I thought I was going to get disgusted and scared of music,” he explains in front of his studio table in the first interview he has given in this new stage. He has exchanged emails and meetings for life in flip-flops and a swimsuit. He has stopped smoking and biting his nails. Now he just wants to calm down, kill the character and vindicate the kid who started writing songs because it was hard for him to open up to others.

Q. Do you have a work addiction?

A. Yes, I have an addiction, but I like it a lot, you know? I haven't been very careful over the years and it's been a big mistake. I've learned that when I have a lot of work to do, I'm going to take a break, turn off my phone and try not to think. In Indonesia, it took me 10 days to start disconnecting, but I've been able to be myself without having to fake anything.

Q. What was he imposing?

A. I had to take refuge in a character to protect myself from criticism and false expectations that were generated about me. Now I have reached a point where it no longer comes naturally to me because I have created a character that I cannot even stand...

Q. What was that character like?

A. Exactly the opposite of who I am today. A brat, a hooligan, a scoundrel. Something that is not really part of my personality or my daily life. There are people in this world who do that, but I couldn't stand it any longer. I am who I am and whoever accepts that, great, and whoever doesn't, too. The truth is that I have always felt very judged.

Q. What were they judging him on?

A. In everything... It doesn't matter what I did or said. For example, for not wanting to be a gossip columnist. They called me a jerk and rude for not answering them and when I started to answer them in good faith they continued to criticize me.

I have never told this, but I did not compose Todo contigo after starting with anyone”

Q. You got into that media whirlwind because of your relationship with an influencer [Laura Escanes]. Would you have handled it differently?

A. That depends on the two people... I didn't want to enter that world and maybe I would have liked to have received understanding and to have been kept out of it, but, well, I don't criticize it either. For me, it wasn't pleasant. All this time of silence has been wonderful.

Q. What bothered you the most?

A. Imagine... spending ten years fighting like a son of a bitch in music for them to say that you owe everything to a one-time relationship. Holy shit, don't fuck with me. What are you telling me, dude? Nobody writes the songs for me, I write them, I even produce them a lot. I'm aware that I've become more well-known, but I haven't seen it reflected in the numbers of my music or in the tickets for my concerts. When after so much time there's some shit on Twitter in which I appear again, I think: "Don't stretch it out any further because it won't work any further." I've never told this, but I didn't compose Todo contigo after I started dating someone. The melody, the concept, the idea, began to be written long before.

I don't want to be a ketchup bottle that has to be squeezed out and then replaced with another bottle."

Q. Were you really hyperactive as a child?

A. I still am, but I don't take medication. I've now started taking nootropics made from mushrooms and I feel better, but if you notice, I don't stop...

Q. Is that why you started going to therapy as a teenager?

A. Yes, also because I was very rebellious. I didn't fit in well at school. My brother had an accident and I felt guilty because everything happened right in front of me. It was pouring rain, he went out the car door and another car ran him over. I blamed myself because I went out partying and he couldn't because he was in a wheelchair. He was bullied and I was bullied for defending him too. Until I lost weight and got into martial arts. I was never a bully, but I wouldn't let a fly get in my way.

Q. And at 30, you have to crawl into a shell... Didn't that make you angry?

A. I felt I had to protect myself because my mother has suffered a lot with the tabloids. And I have always been obsessed with not disappointing her. If I were the piece of shit they have been writing about for a long time, no one would look at me in the face or have people of any kind close to me.

P. When she participated in The Voice , she said through tears: “It’s been a long time coming to get here.”

A. It's true. I came to Madrid with nothing in my pocket and it cost me a lot, a lot, a lot of effort. At first, with the Sinsinati [the band he started with] gigs, we earned four shitty pennies. I lived in a 30-meter hole in Alvarado that cost me 495 euros. I came back from Seville with a suitcase full of tuppers . The pandemic came, I stopped smoking joints, something that gave me a lot of clarity, and I decided to end the band's time.

We can't be composing in the studio thinking about the 15 fucking seconds of TikTok”

Q. People told you that you were crazy for leaving Sinsinati, but your first song, Juramento eterna de sal , was a hit. Did it shut anyone up?

R. I kept quiet about many things, the first one being the company, because I didn't see that song as a single . They wanted it to be Levantaremos al sol And I became very stubborn. I prefer to die with my ideas than to die with other people's ideas. I don't want to be a bottle of ketchup that has to be squeezed out and then replaced with another bottle, but rather a slow-cooked stew.

Q. Squeeze?

A. Of course... This industry is constantly burning people out. That's why there are so many artists of my generation who are completely crazy. And they are with psychologists and psychiatrists. They quit, they retire for a year... That didn't happen before. We're all screwed. Comparisons generate anxiety and insecurity.

“There are many artists of my generation who are crazy. We are all screwed”

Q. More pressure from Spotify's numbers.

R. A lot of people are afraid to make different songs and they repeat the same formula that has worked before. And there comes a point where you don't know if you're making music because you like it or to keep up with the charts. We can't be writing in the studio thinking about the 15 fucking seconds of TikTok. For example, Our song was tailor-made to work, without any real backstory. Did it work? Not at the same pace as the others. For me, it didn't add anything. I looked at my team and said, "What? Did I warn you or didn't I warn you?"

P. That must be a pleasure...

R. That fills me. Because music is not a jack of all trades. We are getting society used to consuming songs weekly because the industry doesn't make the money it used to make with records, but I don't want to make it big now and make a huge amount of money. Because, what do I do next? I just published En tu lado and I have a lot of faith in it. It's the demo version of the song. At the beginning you can hear the clapperboard because I started recording the guitar and I left one of my headphones open.

They say I'm a mainstream artist, but I see myself as a singer-songwriter”

Q. Will it be playing on the radio on your side ?

R. Ugh... you're going to really pull my leg. It's not going to sound good because it's a ballad. With Todo contigo they put obstacles in my way because there was a lot of electric guitar and I said: "This is what there is." In the end, if you want to evolve as an artist, you're screwed, because the radio only wants one type of song from you. And if you don't give it to them, you don't sound good. I'm clear that I'm not going to make a song for the radio or for social media. This has cost me discussions with my team because obviously it's a company, but I'm going to be glad that time has proven me right. I don't want to sell out, even if I'm a mainstream artist.

Q. Yes? Is he a mainstream artist?

R. That's what the labels say... I still see myself as a singer-songwriter who composes his songs, a craftsman. That's what I've been doing all my life. I think I have enough criteria, but in this world if you pay too much attention to what others say, you start to doubt yourself.

Q. I am so surprised by your insecurities...

R. Wow, I have a lot. I've been very self-destructive. I'm not usually happy with things, but now I see everything with different eyes... I want to take it easy, focus on making good songs and amazing concerts. And when they delve into my life, it's not to speculate or generate shit. I just want to tell intimate things in an interview that I feel comfortable with.