2023-07-14 00:17:50
we interviewed Javier Calequi in a bar in hot Madrid, with high ceiling fans like Santiago de Cuba or Cartagena de Indias. The heat is the order of the day, and “Watermelon” his last single (first under the label Altafonte Records) comes fresh, with all the ballots to be a summer hit.
Evening, night and day I want my watermelon.
Javier Calequia Spanish-Argentine multi-instrumentalist with a high pedigree and intravenous funk, is preparing a tribute concert / party in honor of a great musician who left us seven years ago: Prince Rogers Nelson. next to the showgirls Louisa Corral y Laura Revolt -alias The Panthers– and a good handful of invited artists will be next July 18 at the The Sun Room of Madrid setting the Madrid night on fire with purple fire. As an appetizing advance, the single “Watermelon” (Altafonte Records) very Calequi, although with refreshing nods to his idol, the genius from Minneapolis. Namely: mischief, synthesizers, endorphins, drum machine, a dash of “Space”, another of “Head”, altered voices in the Doublespeed Playhouse style (remember the intro of “1999”?) and the Camille project (“U Got the Look”, “If I Was Your Girlfriend”). As if this were not enough, the arrangements of the brasses are carried out by Phillip Lassiter, the legendary arranger for Prince’s NPG Hornz. The elegant double meaning is there, where Prince saw peaches (“Peach”), Calequi sees watermelons. Genius stuff.
Marcelo:
Tell us everything, but everything-everything, about this great song that will be released next Friday on all the platforms of streaming.
Calequi:
“Watermelon” is a hat tip (a wave, a wink) to Prince, did you see? as the English say. I wanted to write a song to get closer to that child inside me, the Prince fan child that I was. That’s where the composition started and then… well… the Latin impulses that I carry deep inside arrived. The truth is that this song was finished with an approach that you made me, the connection with Phillip Lassiter who arranged the brasses. It gave me the greatest illusion of my life because it was like listening to the same Prince-style brasses as always, but in a song of mine! I was very happy, that guy is a crack, his work is crazy. When it comes out I’ll send it to you.
Marcelo:
You are two great ones united by the love of a colossus that has influenced you so much. How cool, it’s true!
Calequi:
I haven’t touched one comma of what Lassiter arranged, but not one! When I heard the song, I saw how it worked perfectly; in the studio we were all stunned because it was perfect and exciting. “Sandía” opens next Friday and, although it will not be part of my next LP, it is a song that I wanted to launch as the final point of this stage that we have called “5 Tuesdays to love you” (a residency of five concerts at the room El Sol, Madrid). I thought it was okay to release it on the 14th because it’s a hat tip to this great artist; And since we are going to honor it on the 18th, I wanted to take it out now. Although it was part of the recording sessions for my next album, it has nothing to do with his narrative concept, which is to sing to the cities I’ve visited on tour. Even so, it seemed very important to me to launch my watermelon as a prelude to this purple party. And besides… it is that the watermelon with this hot summer that we are already living – and we will overcome very soon – is something refreshing, did you see? This theme is like a “goodbye, see you later”, the conclusion of a stage. A “see you in September with another profile”.
Five Mars to Amarte. enjoy party
Marcelo:
It’s a super single, that’s undeniable. “Sandia” has things very much yours, that flow is 100% Calequi, but you wink at Prince one or the other. Two seconds after the start it already engages. There is a hint of The Time in the brasses (although in them – as a characteristic element of the Minneapolis Sound – the brasses are synths). Let’s remember The Time as that “funky little buddy band” that Prince formed in 1981 with Morris Day, Jesse Johnson, Jerome Benton, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, among others. The image of the watermelon is very… sexy hahahaha.
Calequi:
Irony and mischief in my music are commonplace hahaha. You don’t know if in the end it’s a children’s song or if it’s sexual. I like to play with that duality too; at the same time it can be the funniest song in the world or the most serious. And there is a reference to Mozart; I like to play with all those elements. I wanted to show that even if you only drink a drop of the wisdom of a great musician, that drop will most likely quench all your thirst. It is something that you will take a long time to study and understand, and it will give you a lot of information to continue a path; It will open a path for you.
Mozart, chop algo!
(Read with an Argentine accent)
Marcelo
But does Mozart play a few notes or does he play himself? Here, friends, is the dilemma. The Mozart thing is a hoot, and let’s remember that during his lifetime Prince was called the Mozart of funk (some music critics equate him more with Beethoven for being both clear examples of total artists).
Calequi:
Well that, what I wanted is to show that with his music I learned everything I know today, this is who I am, in part. This music that is me too, even if it is someone else. On the next album you will see that I propose another universe, but this single is important to me, because I come from here, listening to Prince for hours and hours. This is the place that is close to me, the one where I continue to study, the one that continues to give me a lot to drink.
Five Mars to Amarte. enjoy party
Marcelo:
An analogy of heavenly manna. What a beautiful tribute!
Calequi:
Later, what comes out as a result is something else, but I come from here.
Marcelo:
Say Mozart, Prince, Charlie Garcia. A full blown demonstration. Prince was known to be a very good comedian, imitating voices and making up characters in the studio. How did you manipulate the voices in “Sandía”? Because here we hear them as Prince handled them: a very high “Camille” type pitch and another one… computerized baritone/Darth Vader that blew him away. How did you do it, with what tools? Our readers wanna know, ha ha ha.
Calequi:
Hahaha. Well, first, let me tell you that when I listen to Prince’s balance of degrees to achieve harmony, I can almost see it perfectly in my head just as he had it. I understand which is the voice that has to predominate beyond that the chord predominates a voice. Having listened to Prince so much, so much… it’s very familiar to me when I do voices like this, chords for five voices; It’s easy for me to go where he went (obviously with all due respect I say this). It’s a familiar build, especially voice plane for me. On the subject of effects, I know technical tricks after reading books by technicians who worked with it, but I confess that it doesn’t have much more to do with what I’m telling you: beyond the order, the chord of the voices, the trick it is in the preponderance of some voices of the chord. I think that every time I put together a chord -in this song or another- I always treat it as he did. He doesn’t have so much to do with voice effects, but I already put it together like that, you know?
Five Mars to Amarte. enjoy party
Marcelo:
It would be something like painting a picture, not adding tones.
Calequi:
Total. While I’m composing it, I immediately do it. Later, in the studio I give the plans, even though the technician is there. Camille’s voice (pitch manipulated thanks to the technique varispeed) for example, it seems very preponderant to me, it’s what gives it that tension, a kind of cold runs through your body, it’s like a sting.
Marcelo:
And the rhythm of the song is devilish, it is impossible not to dance to the tune, or not to smile when listening to such deliciously rogue lyrics. Well, very interesting, congratulations on “Sandía”, the truth is that it is a hit; to the hungry They will love it, I’m sure. Thanks for that gift. AND shit, shit, shit next Tuesday at the “Purple Party: Calequi and The Panthers Caressing Prince.”
calequi
To you, for always being there. See you in the sun.
“Sandía” written, arranged and produced by Javier Calequi. (Altafonte Records, 2023). Artwork, colorful and summery, by Ema de la Fuente.
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