Juan Wauters has had to change his creative process in recent years.
Juan Francisco Sanchez/MotormouthMedia
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Juan Francisco Sanchez/MotormouthMedia
Juan Wauters has had to change his creative process in recent years.
Juan Francisco Sanchez/MotormouthMedia
When you listen to Juan Wauters’ signature acoustic track, the shrill overtones of his soft vocals, it’s hard not to find it a bit uplifting.
The Uruguayan-American musician from Queens has established himself with that signature bubbly sound and simple storytelling that manifests in his lyrics.
Wauters has a penchant for subtly observing himself and those around him – and his latest album, wandering rebels, bring introspection to a more intimate, uncertain place; was probably a product of the circumstances that led to the project and where he found himself following its release earlier this month.
“I’ve been through some big personal things in 2020,” he told me over a Zoom call in early June.
Yes, of course there is a clear lockdown as COVID covers the world. But for Wauters, new and old relationships are also blossoming.
“I met someone in Uruguay, my hometown, on the phone [via] text messages. And I went to see her. We’re together now,” he said. “But I [also] reconnected with Uruguay during COVID. Meaning, I started spending long periods of time there that I haven’t done since I was a kid.”
A brief part of that reconnection took place in a remote coastal town in Uruguay, where Wauters spent a month after moving back in late 2020. He settled in Montevideo, the city where he had been. part of his childhood before moving to New York as a teenager. his family.
The return leads to an experience that for many immigrants can feel alien and familiar at the same time.
“After a long absence, you come back and are not like the Uruguayans who stayed there,” he said.
“It feels a bit like I’m going to a place I’m from, but I don’t know such people personally, everyone is like them. So I feel like a new guy. in town…but also it’s Mine town.”
“I had to go through that during the making of this album and it definitely affected my psyche.”
In tracks like “Nube Negra” featuring Y La Bamba, Wauters’ struggles and self-doubt are illuminated by lyrics, originally in Spanish,
Tuve el presentimiento que todo sería mejor en otro lado
Pensé en vivir en otro pueblo
Cambiar los amigos y el trabajo
No me daba cuenta tenia que cambiarme a mi
I have a feeling that things would be better somewhere else
I thought about living in another town, changing my friends and my job
I didn’t realize that it was me that had to change.
Those doubts are partly due to Wauters’ creative process having many fluctuations when making this album.
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He explains, “I am perplexed to be able to have such an important piece of work to present to the world without contacting the fan base that I often see at my concerts.
For Wauters, the most ongoing tour his lifestyle includes before 2020 is a tool to measure how connected his songs are to audiences.
“So I was almost blindfolded trying to figure out what kind of music resonated without being exposed to my audience,” he said.
Want to know more about music? Listen Consider this ABOVE Untested effects of a lullaby.
Then there was the disruption caused by the pandemic to his ability to work closely with others.
Collaboration is a big deal for Wauters who have previous albums Real life situations And La Onda de Juan Pablo relied on contemporaries like Nick Hakim, Mac DeMarco and many he met in his travels to give his music a full story and texture.
It was during that forced pause that he was able to find a new creative space for himself — in self – less ruined by the expectations of others. He tells you so in “Let Loose.”
Standing at the edge of some world
It feels good to let go and get away from the pressure of the world
To think about what to sing freely
And now I have the opportunity to sing for you in person
I want to say
It took a long, long, long, long time
Let me sing this to you freely
Wauters was able to go further down that road, admitting to himself that after years of living a nomadic lifestyle, suddenly settling down didn’t seem so bad. On the title track of his new album, “Wandering Rebel,” Along with John Carroll Kirby’s amazing piano style, Juan is going through some changes and he wanted to keep you updated with many of them.
In COVID I found out
That I like stability
But the world still sees me
As a wandering rebel
Yes, it affects my day to day
What they have to say
But not too much
Then he tells you that,
I want a family
So if this musical thing doesn’t pick up
We’ll have to make some changes here
In fact, Wauters shared that he and his partner Lucia welcomed a baby girl earlier this year. His doubts with music and touring are no longer the subject of his contemplative songs, but the choices he faces in the new reality: living in Uruguay and becoming as a life partner and as a father.
As the Wauters face these major life changes, the album, which can feel fragmented by theme, begins to make perfect sense: What part of life is just a feeling and an emotion?
In one of the standout singles, “Milanesa al Pan,” the opening of his own love story is shared — accompanied by a fearless guitar sound — and he tells of simple joys. is to take the time and eat a big, delicious sandwich with your sweetheart afterwards. a day walking on the beach.
As he toured for the album in North America this summer, which he wasn’t sure he would do again, Wauters found himself with mixed emotions.
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“Right now I’m trying not to draw conclusions. I’m just on autopilot, I’m just flying, trying to live in the moment,” he said. “Of course I remember [my family] but this is also what i like. I’ll see in time if I can keep it, if I choose.”
And with so many new facets to his reality, Wauters is content to take it day by day.
“The future is so open and uncertain. I don’t know how [my music] will grow in the US while in Uruguay and I don’t know how it will grow in Latin America. Maybe I became a musician more there, and not so much in America anymore,” he said.
“I don’t know. It was a big turn. And some people who’ve listened to this album told me it’s on the album and it’s like an inflection point in my playlist.”
I asked him if he saw it as creating new possibilities for him. He smiled and nodded, “Yeah. More doors ahead are open.”
