Axel: “Hoy es Hoy”

Romina Fasani
Translated by Andrea Zarate

There are hundreds of adjectives that can define Argentine singer and songwriter Axel, who, at the age of 30, has won over the world with his ballads and love stories. He is thankful, charismatic, amiable and sympathetic. And there are many more words that tell you about who he is.

He’s a musician at heart, and an actor by choice. Axel was born in Banfield, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires, where he started working as an actor while studying music at the conservatory. That is how he recorded his first record for Sony Music, La Clave Para Conquistarte, then Mi Forma De Amar, Amo, and his most recent release, Hoy with Universal Music. His songs are also soundtracks for many Latin soap operas and his stories speak the universal language of love wherever he goes. Batanga interviewed Axel before his Latin American tour. Get to know him!

You must feel anxious when you release a record and then wonder how people will react to it. What happens when you go to another country and your experience is a total success?
It’s great! After so many years of pedaling, captivating the public from the beginning one day at a time, and promoting by word of mouth, one hopes for recognition in a bigger country than ours. When you travel abroad it’s incredible! I was able to achieve exciting things with very few visits. In Peru it only took one visit! We went there in February and there were people waiting for me at the hotel. I signed autographs at a popular shopping mall, where I also played a few songs and there were over 3,000 people; the police even had to intervene because it was a mess and people wouldn’t let me out. In Puerto Rico and Ecuador it was the same! In Ecuador I couldn’t walk down the street. The show of support was impressive. It makes me feel more excited about visiting Latin America, which will happen during the second half of 2006.

What about the girls? Are they the ones who won’t let you out?
(He laughs and pauses) Well, it’s usually the audience as a whole that tends to be more euphoric and expressive. It would be a little weird if it were the men who didn’t let me out. Don’t you agree? (Laughs) In other countries, more so than in Argentina, 50% of the public are men because in Latin America men don’t have a problem showing that they are romantic, and they sing along to love songs and they dedicate them. Maybe in Argentina they hide it more because they think it makes you less of a man. I make songs for everyone and the product of making a record like Hoy that speaks of love, heartbreak, and stories about life in general, allows men to come and see us as well, and women too. We like that a lot because it broadens the public that follows us. Although those who won’t let us leave our own concerts are really women! (Laughs)

Have you found there to be brazenly forward women in America?
They have ripped my hair out, and they have ripped my t-shirts off, once I ended up topless because they ripped my sweater and the t-shirt that I was wearing underneath... It all depends on the crowd’s excitement; a woman who is alone won’t do anything unless she has an accomplice next to her who does the same. So, when one of them sees the other doing something, she follows the example and so do two, three and four more… and it all becomes contagious! There are places like Puerto Rico, where the public prefers to sit and listen and they don’t rip your clothes off or block your exit.

You are always jumping from one plane onto another and from one bus to another. Do you have time to do other things aside from being an artist?
I am the same on stage and off. I speak with Batanga just as I would speak to my mother, my father, and my friends. I’m a very natural person and it’s difficult for me to separate my artistic life artist from my personal life.

Of course, but you are on tour, which means you are working although many people think that artists make a living easily…
Today, more than ever I notice that this is a job — and a difficult one, because you are literally jumping on one plane and then on to another, from interview to interview, from one bus to another. There are very few days to be at home with friends and family or to really disconnect from reality, and to be a regular human just like everyone else.

I realized it one day while I was on the 15-day tour in Peru, Ecuador and Puerto Rico. I would wake up at 5 a.m. every day and I wouldn’t go to bed before midnight, from Monday to Monday. During the week, I would get interviewed by the press and on the weekends were the concerts and photo shoots. So always being impeccable tires me a lot, because you always have to look good and you always have to be smiling for pictures. As a human being sometimes you wake up on the wrong side of the bed and you don’t feel like doing anything and you have to keep going anyway.

Do you have time to go to the gym, to have a BBQ with your friends or to visit your brothers?
I still make time for all that, although I don’t really have time, but I make it happen. Yesterday I arrived at 8 p.m. from the tour, I was dead tired from not sleeping much, some friends called and invited me to play paddle. I hadn’t seen them in a long time and I felt up to it so I went. I ended up going to bed at 2 a.m., so I am now paying the price and I have a lot of promoting to get done, but if I didn’t go then, I wouldn’t have been able to do it anytime soon.

But these are the things that keep you grounded, right?
Yes. That is what my parents taught me. I have to say they taught me great principles and their values were imposed in a good way so…

With the first record it was something new, different, I couldn’t understand that people recognized me when I walked down the street, that they asked me for autographs — this had never happened to me before. With the second record, it was a more difficult phase; living in Mexico, coming and going. In the past three years, I have been on a continuous upward stride since my record Amo. Hoy went platinum only two months after being released in stores, but I am conscious that I am a regular human being and that this is the type of career that can end from one day to another. Everything is fine! Today I can sing for 7,000 people and tomorrow I can play for 70 people at a bar, it’s all the same to me.

Would you like to return to TV?
The truth is, if I could find the time I would like to because I had a great time and I learned a lot. I would do it for free because it was so much fun!

To conclude our interview — if you had to choose one of the songs on the record, which one would it be?
Ahhh… that’s difficult! To not choose one that is a ballad, or a fast one… Because “Angel Dorado” was dedicated to my brother who lost two children and this is an important story of my life and everything that the song says is very important.

I also love “Tu Amor Por Siempre,” which is the second single on the album. I think it’s a very beautiful song. But if I didn’t pick a ballad oor a rhythmic rock song, I would pick “Hoy es Hoy,” which reflects some of the spirit of the album. The song kind of starts as a ballad and ends with a country style, really up there, and the lyrics speak of something that I really liked writing about. This is the importance of living in the present, every moment, and taking advantage of each second. It’s important to say “I love you” to the people that you love, because today we are here, but tomorrow we’re not and no one knows how much time we have left on earth. All humans — me included — we have a defect and that is that we value things once we’ve already lost them.

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