Me

record an album in English, which would be the first to be released since Sound Loaded . But it took forever to make. So when I was about halfway through, I stopped recording in English and went back to recording in Spanish. From that, Almas de Silencio (Souls of Silence) was born, with the song “Asignatura Pendiente” that I quoted earlier. I believe that album, and more specifically that song, are dedicated to the little boy inside me. The experience of making that record without any pressure, to make the album I wanted to make, that was a gift for Kiki. Actually, Arjona’s song “Asignatura Pendiente” pays tribute to that little boy, and the song comes from everything I lived through during those months.
    For Almas de Silencio we didn’t go on tour, which was something totally new for me. Instead, I went to Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America, only promoting here or there—all of it on my terms, without any pressure. I also did some promotion, and somehow or other the album ended up selling close to 1.7 million copies in the United States alone and received platinum records in Spain, Argentina, and the United States. Of course, this does not compare to the success of Vuelve or A medio vivir , but I felt satisfied because it was a record I made with time and on my own terms, and for a Spanish-language album, the numbers were actually quite good. Afterward I came back to the studio to continue recording the album in English, which I had stopped working on halfway through. I had learned my lesson: I would never again go on tour while recording an album at the same time. It is unnecessary madness, and I’ll never do it again.
    The name of the album in English was eventually Life , and the album was released in 2005. Even though it is without a doubt an interesting record that has a lot of influences and sounds, I have to admit that it isn’t my favorite album of all the ones I’ve made. I wanted to make an introspective, contemplative, and multifaceted record, just like life. I wanted to connect with my emotions. I think I did accomplish this, at least to a certain extent. But that album ended up being influenced by many different cultures, and some of the criticism was that although each song was good on its own, the album as a whole was lacking in coherence.
    My answer was always, “That’s just how life is,” since every phase or period of one’s life is different. In that sense, I am not the same person I was one hour ago, or the same person I was yesterday or this morning. And that is exactly what makes life so interesting. But with all that said, I know the critics were right; the production was scattered, and in large part I attribute that to the fact that we released the album a full five years after we began recording it. If you start to work on something now, in five years you’ll probably realize that many things have happened to you. You have new emotions, new life experiences—and then there’s the new technology! It can be a computer or a change in the manufacture of an instrument, but technology creates a whole new series of sounds and influences. And all that affects the final product.
    Regardless, the album we released was of impeccable quality. When I stop and think about why it took me so long to record it, I believe it was because I was hiding. To a certain degree, I think I was still hurt by everything that happened with “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” the sheer exhaustion that I reached and the intensity of the whole experience. It was almost like having a broken heart after being madly in love. I still loved the stage and the way I felt when I stood in front of an audience, but deep down I feared that what happened before might happen again. In a way I wanted to be there, but then again, I didn’t. Not at all.
    It took me some time before I was ready to face the world again. But the time I spent out of the public eye was one of the most important periods of my life. I learned a lesson in humility: For a long time I saw myself as some kind of superman who was held back by nothing. I learned what my limits were, and even more important, I learned how to tell others what my limits are. I would no longer do everything that was asked of me; I could no longer be everywhere at once. I didn’t even want to. I learned to love my life again, and most of all I reconnected with the person I used to be. I realized that everything I had lived through those last few years had been