With the precision and meticulousness that characterize nearly each singer-songwriter, Ismael Serrano (Madrid, 1974) dedicates a part of the day earlier than his live performance within the capital this Saturday, January 17, to deciding the chatter with which he’ll delight the viewers earlier than every tune, though, amongst his form, it will possibly last more than the tune itself. “We have a certain obsession with the word,” he admits. “We are storytellers, we like the oral tradition, which has to do with the minstrelsy. We do not get rid of the idea of a concert as a kind of dialogue. There are artists like Iván Ferreiro who hate talking at performances, but it has always been fun for me,” he says.
If you possibly can afford to dedicate time to such a pleasing activity earlier than the appointment, shut your tour Symphonicit’s as a result of he has already had every thing nicely rehearsed with the orchestra of forty musicians that may accompany him. Yes: trumpets and violins now encompass essentially the most consultant songs of his profession. “It’s very exciting,” he says, “because they bring a different epic to the songs. It’s like paragliding: you let yourself be carried away by the air currents.” On this event it is going to have Víctor Manuel and Pablo Alborán as visitors.
The tour has served as a presentation of his album of the identical title, which updates with orchestral preparations songs from nearly thirty years in the past with which the Madrid musician continues to determine. “My songs don’t lose their validity,” he maintains. “Dad, tell me again. I sang it like a son who reproaches a father, and now I sing it like a father who wonders what he will answer to his son when he reproaches him accordingly.”
It was in 1997 when Serrano printed his first album, trapped in blue. In all these years, he considers that, as a musician, he has gained “in permeability.” He explains: “As a young person you are arrogant. You feel that in the industry there is permanent interference and you armor yourself, you load yourself with prejudices. Musically it is good, because you become guardian of your own essences, but you also reject things that would have been good to incorporate.”
“At 20 years old,” he provides, “everything seems urgent and definitive to you: you want to be in the center of the story and you are dying of love. As time goes by you realize that you are not dying of love and that there is no need to be in the center of the story. I also thought that there is no greater happiness than being on stage, and then you understand that you must know how to get off of it. For me, music is very important, but not the most important thing. The most important thing is life: living, falling in love, being with your loved ones. affections, learning… I have known artists whom I admire who when they left the stage were deeply unhappy.”
His children, Lila, 11, and Martín, three, occupy a central place in his life. “She actually likes musicals, and he or she took me to a live performance by Lawrence, a bunch of brothers from New York. She sings very nicely. Maybe for my subsequent album we’ll collaborate,” he says.
For the average listener, Ismael Serrano is an exponent of author songs with political overtones. Perhaps because of those in his class, he was the most activist of all. Do you feel comfortable with that label, even though there are other themes in your repertoire? “I discover it a delight to assert it,” he answers, “in a context wherein persons are very cautious about taking a political place, as a result of they know that God’s place goes to fall on them. There is concern, as a result of they know {that a} poisonous atmosphere goes to be generated on the networks. But, then again, that, maybe, has overshadowed different sensibilities which are current in my music, and that I want to declare. I’m what I’m, there are accusations which are nearly a medal, however that label has been in a position to generate a sure prejudice and maybe there’s individuals who have not approached my music due to that.”
Openly leftist, he desires to suppose that amongst his followers there are right-wing folks. “I’m sure that when Feijóo attributed a quote of mine to Machado, it was because it was proposed to him by someone on his team who likes my songs,” he says. He believes that social networks promote polarization. “Their algorithms only offer what we like, which is why they have distanced us from people who think differently. Before, all types of audiences enjoyed Serrat or Sabina, who were known for being left-wing. Now habits are reinforced. It also happens with musical styles: if you listen to Ismael Serrano, the algorithm is hardly going to recommend Taburete.”
After the sluggishness of singer-songwriters within the sixties and seventies, and the pop paroxysm of the eighties, on the finish of the nineties a younger era of singers and composers emerged reminiscent of Pedro Guerra, Javier Álvarez, Rosana, Inma Serrano and Tontxu, amongst whom Ismael Serrano stood out as essentially the most combative. “I chose to go out with Dad, tell me again as the first single,” he reveals. “It was a declaration of principles, in a context in which that tradition was being lost. I wanted to distinguish myself from singer-songwriters with love themes. “I reclaim the term ‘singer-songwriter’ now that it is stigmatized and many people avoid it, because they know that they ignore it at festivals.”
The arrival of indie rock sent most of them to the storage room, although while some of his comrades have been forced to return to play at Libertad 8 (the signature song bar par excellence in Madrid), where they started, Serrano acts as the last of the Mohicans. “I have worked a lot. I have put my guitar on my shoulder, I have toured Spain, Latin America… I have been constant and very much in control of my career.” He maintains an excellent relationship with Pedro Guerra (“he is the one I have the most contact with”) and Javier Álvarez (“I love him a lot, but I don’t see him as much”).
Despite every thing, political lyrics are a minority in his repertoire, the place songs in regards to the passage of time do abound. “The problem of every person who writes songs is loss and renunciation. You don’t want to lose what you have experienced and you write songs to retain it, whether it is a love or your childhood. But I have learned that if time has taken things from me, it has given me others. When you are 20 years old you want to have certainties, that is why you are dogmatic; with age, you realize that the beautiful thing is to ask yourself questions. You have to adapt to uncertainty.”
In any case, evidently the ups and downs of the world are conducive to a brand new batch of combative singer-songwriters. “The outlook is bleak. The United States seems mired in a dystopia, I am concerned about cruelty as a trend, the fact that good people are ridiculed on social networks and there are characters like Milei who refer to good people in pejorative terms. It is true that political reality is very volatile, which is why the kids want to kick the board: they are tired of not being taken into account and that, sometimes, leads them to simplify and say that pensions must be removed and taxes. Pessimism demotivates us.” She praises the role of women in current author’s music: “They even reformulate the subjects of romantic love. That can be a means of creating dedicated songs,” she says.
He does not hesitate to assure that he could compose a song about Ábalos, Koldo and corruption on the left. “Yes, why not? It needs to be completed. We should settle for the frustration that energy corrupts and level out that this additionally impacts left-wing events.”
He has an EP of covers prepared titled Unsuspected recordingswith subjects like I’m a clownfrom Extremoduro; Inevitableby Shakira; I hope it rains espressoby Juan Luis Guerra; The cat within the rainby Rocío Dúrcal; and phrases of affectionby Joan Manuel Serrat. And after a tour with solely his guitar, he’ll begin recording new songs that he hopes shall be accessible to the general public in November.
https://elpais.com/cultura/2026-01-17/ismael-serrano-habria-que-hacer-una-cancion-sobre-la-corrupcion-en-la-izquierda-por-que-no.html