Interview – Paz Aguado: “I am very inspired by silence”
- “I feel like I would like to reach more people”
- “Sometimes it happens to me that people cry”
- “There are people you meet that you have known for more than one life”
Many singers have begun composing in the privacy of their rooms as if their talent were something shameful that no one should discover. What happens is that music is an art that comes from within and expressing it is like laying bare our intimacy.
The same thing happened to Paz Aguado. “I sang in my room, so deep inside that my family didn’t even know about it,” she told Jungle Indie Rock. One day, she convinced herself that her passion and songs had to come out. “And I liked to share, to bring out all this that I have carried for years very guarded.”
This Valencian singer-songwriter, painter, and illustrator based in Formentera (Spain) “alternates brushes and colors with the guitar.” She says that her music “comes out to her like something involuntary” when listening to a kind of internal murmur. “When I am silent, melodies and images come to me to sing and paint. “I am very inspired by silence.”
Thus she has composed and self-produced the album Materia Sutil (2022), the EP Nexos (2020), and four singles including her latest single Milenios (2024), and his great success Hombre Agua (2020).
How did you get started in music?
Since I was a child, I have always liked to write. I have always been very self-taught. I loved music class. But, on my own, I studied flute, guitar, and wrote songs. I only sang them in my room. So so deep inside that my family didn’t even know.
And in the end, I got into a band, as a flute player. We started having musical gatherings, jams … And then I started singing my songs to my friends. In 2009 I sang in public for the first time. There was a show with several short clown performances, and they invited me to sing a song in the middle. And I liked it. I liked to share, to bring out all this that I have carried for years very guarded.
Paz Aguado is a composer, singer, painter, and illustrator. How do you combine your two artistic facets?
Drawing and painting are other activities that I always liked and at home, I was encouraged to develop them. I studied Fine Arts and, very soon, I began to make a living selling my paintings. Before, I did many exhibitions and commissions. I have also illustrated some children’s stories.
Now I exhibit and sell my works at art and craft fairs in Formentera. The contact with the audience and with my colleagues nourishes me. It complements the hours of solitude in the study. When I work at home, I mix brushes and colors with the guitar, verses, and singing. At fairs also, in addition to painting and exhibiting, I can perform and enjoy the music of other artists.
What are your influences in music and what inspires you to compose?
I have listened to and greatly admired singer-songwriters like Fabrizio de André or Jorge Drexler. Lately, I’ve been really inspired by Aurora, the Norwegian singer. During my childhood, I listened to everything, classical music, for example. Everything influences one way or another but these singer-songwriters above all. And then I listened to rock, Ramones, through my older brother, who played them at home every day and I liked them too.
But I’m not a big music consumer (I like watching live music, yes), because when I’m not making music, I’m listening to the birds. I am very inspired by nature, especially a beautiful landscape. It lifts me up. And the silence too. When I am silent, melodies come to me, images come to me to paint. I am very inspired by silence. And in experiences too, in my relationship with the people I know.
In your songs, do you compose the lyrics first and then the melody, or the other way around?
Indistinctly, as it comes. Sometimes when I have the guitar in my hands, some chords come to me without lyrics. Othertimes when I’m thinking about a lyric, the music comes to me later. Many times it comes out as something involuntary. It’s something that comes naturally, a lyric, a chord, and it comes together.
Before your first album, Materia Sutil, you released an EP in 2020 called Nexos. Can you tell us about these works?
Nexos is something that I was very excited to record because I have almost 200 songs and I am already forgetting them. So, I said to myself: “I’m going to start recording.” And I started recording without having any idea about recording. And I published it to share it with my friends. But now I’m a little embarrassed because the quality of the sound is terrible. It’s a demo.
The album came out in 2022 and I started recording it a year before. I had been wanting to record myself for many years. But, since I like to discover things and understand them, it took me a long time to record something minimally understandable. And it was this album. It has some old songs and others that I composed while recording.
I did it all here in the post-pandemic. And with the introspection at that time, I realized that I had something worthwhile. I had always considered that I was not a musician, that I only liked to sing. And I took it seriously. I told myself: “This is worth it. “It’s what I want.” And I accepted it. I gave myself all the time to record the album. They were months of work, of experimentation. And it was very nice. The process was beautiful. I accepted myself there. I accepted that I was a singer-songwriter. And Materia Sutil came out.
While you were recording, songs emerged. Accepting yourself inspired you to compose while you were working on the album?
Some songs were from years ago. But Años luz, Te veo, and O2 were very recent, composing them as I recorded. Maybe I had the lyrics and the chords, but it had no arrangements, no structure. then as I started recording… Yes, it is also very creative to record and produce a song. I think that’s when the song just settles.
In March 2024, you released Milenios, your first single after the album. What does this song mean to you?
This song was inspired by a relationship with a person and the feeling that there are people you meet that you have known for more than one life. It is a familiarity and an affinity that cannot be caused by the time you have shared with this person, but surely comes from something very deep. I believe in reincarnation. The song talks about other lives and that affinity.
Have you played your songs live?
Yes. After that initiation that I mentioned in 2009, I had several formations. In live performances, I have two musicians who have accompanied me for a couple of years and they are a support. I have played mostly on the island. There are not many places because it is a small island. But I have practically played in all possible places, in squares, in the craft markets, in the Culture Hall. Last year I played at the Barnasants festival in Valencia, Barcelona, Mallorca, and Menorca. I have also played four or five times in a cafe in Valencia, my hometown.
Are you seduced by the fact of playing not only in Formentera?
I feel like I would like to reach more people. I don’t mean being hyper-famous, but I want to travel, to share my music. Because when people get emotional, it’s very nice. It fills me. And yes, I would like to reach more people and leave the island for a little. To leave Formentera you have to take a boat or plane. And sometimes it’s a little hard for us to go out.
The people I meet here in Formentera in summer, above all, are people of all ages, children, young people, and older people. In Valencia when I played, my family, my friends, and young people came. They are sensitive people for sure, because sometimes it happens to me that people cry.
What do you think of the music industry and what do you think is your place in it?
I don’t know it much. I have many musician friends who are artists, but they are not involved in the music industry. I only have one friend who is quite into it, but I almost don’t see him. What I know is from the social media. On the one hand, I see that it is more accessible to everyone. Before you had to go to a studio to record. Now we know that music creation has been democratized. But at the same time, there is a lot of chaos. Sometimes there is so much information, so much offer that you can see in your hand, on your mobile, that it is a bit confusing.
“And my place? I’m still looking for it,” Paz Aguado said with a smile.
