Juanes is set to release his sixth studio album, Loco De Amor (Crazy with Love) on March 11, and he is calling it the best record of his career. The Colombian star teamed up with Steve Lillywhite — producer for U2, The Killers, The Rolling Stones, Morrissey, Dave Matthews Band and many others — and credits the English producer for pushing him to the limit.
After a falling out with his former manager, Juanes wanted to take his sound back to basics. His new manager suggested he try to get Lillywhite for the record. This would be Lillywhite's first time producing a foreign language album. He had previously entered the world of Latin music back in 1989, when he produced David Byrne's first-ever solo album, Rei Momo, which incorporated Latin music styles but was sung in English.
At the time, Lillywhite had heard of Juanes but wasn't that familiar with his music. He told the singer if they wanted him to produce the album, that he'd need to hear Juanes play live.
"For me, that is where I can see an artist without them thinking," Lillywhite explains. "That's how I can see the raw, honest thing. Because when artists are performing live, if they're good, they almost go into this shamanic state. They get into this very special place, and I wanted to see what I could get from that. And [Juanes] was amazed by that. Straight away, the fact that I wanted to see him live was something that he felt was really special because no one had ever said that to him before."
Lillywhite flew to Medellin, Colombia, to see Juanes perform on MTV Unplugged.
"I thought 'unplugged' was going to be just sitting around a campfire, you know, singing Pete Seeger songs, that sort of thing," Lillywhite says. "And I got there, and the gig was amazing. It had so much energy that it didn't feel like an acoustic set. So I said, 'I'd love to do your album.'"
After nailing down which songs they wanted, they headed into a studio in Hollywood. Lillywhite was given free reign to choose the band, so he brought drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr. and bassist Brian Ray from Paul McCartney's band as well as Emmanuel "Meme" del Real from the Mexican group Café Tacvba.
"Before we went in, I knew we had some great songs," he says. "And his songwriting is just that little bit different. The difference between good and great, we're talking very small percentages, but those are the percentages that make the difference between a big hit and not a hit."
Other than his acoustic tour for Unplugged, Juanes typically plays electric guitar. After seeing his Medellin performance, however, Lillywhite thought back to his work with Dave Matthews Band and insisted Juanes play acoustic guitar on the record. Initially, Juanes was shocked because all of the demos for the album were recorded with an electric guitar.
"I said 'Wow, man, are you serious?' and he said 'Yeah, trust me,' and that's what I did," Juanes explains. "From the very first day, the first take we did with all the musicians in the studio, I was so excited because I could just feel it, you know, that sound. It sounds really rock-oriented and really almost like an electric guitar. So in the end I just fell in love with the sound, and that's the way we finished the whole record."
The result, Loco De Amor, is very percussive and rhythmic, taking traditional Latin sounds and marrying them with contemporary elements. Listeners will hear the traditional Colombian tiple but will also notice modern synthesizers.
"When you listen to the album, listen to it in order and just run through," Lillywhite says. "It's wonderful. His voice is superb. It's so sexy and masculine. But not masculine in a Mötley Crüe way. It's masculine in a way that's confident. The sort of man that every woman wants type of masculine."
However, it takes more than Latin charm and a good studio to create a memorable record.
"Now a days, every sound in the world is available to you," Lillywhite says. "But what you really want to get in a record, I find, is joy. I feel like if I can put joy into a record then I've done a good job. It's just something you can't manufacture. It's that thing that moves you, and you don't know why it moves you. I think we captured that."
Part of what brings out that "joy" is the personal element of Juanes' songwriting. His concept for Loco De Amor was to view love through a prism.
"[You] see love and all the different approaches that love and relationships have," Juanes says. "When love is possible, when love is like a nightmare, when love is like a dream, when people suffer trying to be loved, or trying to love somebody else. All these kinds of situations we have in normal life."
The theme of this record is universal. It's an idea that lives in the music so people regardless of their understanding of Spanish can appreciate it. Although many Latin artists, such as Enrique Iglesias, have found success in the United States after crossing over into English, that is not a priority for Juanes. He says he would consider doing an English album but it would have to be rewritten by someone else because Spanish is the language in which he thinks and feels.
"I am always dreaming of the opportunity to open new doors, so if this album is the key to doing that, I mean, I would be happy," Juanes says. "But if not I will keep doing what I love to do, which is music. I've been performing in front of audiences that don't speak Spanish [since about 2005], and it's been an incredible journey. So I don't see why it can't happen in the United States. Maybe this is the right moment to do it, I hope so, but if not, that's fine."
Lillywhite agrees with Juanes' approach. "[Juanes] is doing it more in the way that Bruce Springsteen would do it, I think," he says. "The trouble with the Latin market historically has been that they build someone up, make them a star, and then discarded them. It happens in the Asian markets even worse. But the great thing about the American market is you have these bands and they take their audiences with them. I really feel that this new album is a different sound for Juanes, but it's still him. In my history with U2, we would always try to make sure each record sounded different than the one before. So I was very conscious of trying to put his voice against a different musical sound."
The American mainstream will get a taste of Loco de Amor this Tuesday when Juanes makes an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. He will be the first Latin artist to perform on the latest incarnation of the show, though it will be his fifth overall appearance.
His first and only single from the album, "La Luz," debuted back in December and has seen success in his native Colombia as well as Mexico, Spain, Venezuela and the U.S.
Juanes plans to showcase the full album in New York, Los Angeles and Miami before embarking on a U.S. tour next year.
Ultimately, Lillywhite believes that Juanes' authenticity will make the difference and set him apart. "If you have love around you, it spreads," he explains. "Juanes is such a good person, and that spreads to everyone he touches and makes them want to be a good person. Good people spread good things. And that comes through in his work."
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