Borders are an invention of men: interview with Amaury Muro

Talking with the Cuban singer-songwriter, composer and musician based in Madrid, Amaury Muro was an acquired debt. The album A thousand ways to be was the perfect pretext that we armed ourselves to settle it. Amaury, who has been living in Spain since 2014, was the founder of the Movimiento de Trovadores "Caña Santa" in Cuba and has inserted himself in the European singer-songwriter scene by performing concerts in several Spanish cities and in halls in Berlin and Lyon. His musical career is full of international recognitions: winner in 2018 of the Festimad, event organized by the community of Madrid, jury prize of the Sabina por aquí singer-songwriter contest in 2019; winner of the Ibermúsicas award for the creation of songs in 2020 and semi-finalist of the Min awards of independent music in the category Best Emerging Artist in 2021.

I feel in the disk A thousand ways to be a sense of nostalgia for Cuba and at the same time an optimistic vision of what it means to emigrate. In this sense, how much is intentional in the production?

If this vision is present it is not very intentional, it is rather circumstantial because it was an album where most of the songs were written in the first two, three years of emigration. Therefore, they were the ones I had and this is reflected in the album: it touches on the themes of emigration and nostalgia for that Cuba of the emigrant.

What did it mean to you to be able to materialize the production A thousand ways to be?

It meant growth in all aspects, from a musical to an aesthetic sense. Because I did not study music academically, I am self-taught. I started when I was 16-17 years old, even later than the Cuban musical system dictates. In Cuba you start much earlier. Suddenly I found myself at the age of 26 doing things I never imagined: producing and writing arrangements for musicians.

It was to face a project with the help of a very experienced producer like Julian Olivares. He is a good friend of mine and he produced my first album. It was a slow process of two years where I made the demos at home, put all the instruments digitally, took them to the studio with Julian and there we began to refine, to re-produce things. Then we would go to a slightly bigger studio with the musicians, play the instruments and really record. We lived the experience together. I was learning a lot all the time.

In the album there is a diversity of sonorities, several guests and different musical influences. Was this a strategy you thought of from the beginning to make it more universal and thus facilitate its insertion in the market? 

The songs on that album were born in this stage of exploration, knowledge and exchange with other sounds, I listened to a lot of different music, I went to many concerts, I was able to socialize with the music that was being made here in more eclectic places. That's why each song, in itself, was different from the other. So, it was very easy to put them together so that it would be a varied album that would also represent those thousand ways of being.

Does Amaury Muro feel like a "citizen of the world" or, to put it your way, "a son of the road"? Why?

I believe that we are all citizens of the world. The problems of people who are geographically distant from us also involve and affect us all equally. I know it is trite to talk about borders, but it is good to remember that they are an invention of men and only exist in the imagination of human beings. I like to think of something I once heard at a concert by Liuba María Hevia; she said that human beings in prehistoric times migrated to a place where there were better living conditions, more animals to hunt, more fruits to gather, in a natural way. I believe that migration is a process that should be seen and studied from that naturalness. That is why in the song A thousand ways to be says "going from the bed to the sea, from the sea to jump, returning to escape...".

I feel I am a citizen of the world but, at the same time, I perceive that we Cubans have experienced emigration in a much more dramatic way because we have had to leave our insularity knowing that, deep down, we will probably not return, because it will be very difficult for our island to have animals to hunt, fruits to gather, basic needs covered, personal improvement, freedom of choice and expression. Yes, I feel like a citizen of the world, but a citizen of the world, Cuban, because of those characteristics that are unique to us.

What are the joys and, why not, also the dissatisfactions that the album has brought you? A thousand ways to be?

Many, many, many, many joys. There are important people for me who have liked it and people I have met through the album. Almost all of them, joys, although it is true that when one dedicates so much time to it (two years I was telling you) the expectations are many. Then you realize that you enjoy this process in a different way; you enjoy it more when you keep your expectations to the limit and you are surprised.

At some point I thought A thousand ways to be from a somewhat illusory grandeur. It is really an album produced by a Cuban in a market that is not Cuban. It is a Spanish market with different characteristics and it would be very pretentious of me to believe that a production with so many musical or aesthetic peculiarities would set a precedent or something like that. It had the best repercussion it could get and I am very happy with the result. From time to time I listen to it and I discover new things, things that make me happy, that I didn't remember were there and that sounded very good.

In general, although I am very critical of everything I do and I give two or three thoughts to my work, in general terms when I think about A thousand ways to be I always get a smile on my face. [I'm] happy that it's there, that it reflects a part of my life and that it's a nice record.

According to your perception, how has Mil formas de estar been inserted in the music market in Spain and the world? 

A thousand ways to be is a record of independent music, far from the labels and record companies, and there is an independent market where there is already a lot of this kind of music. More independent music is listened to than that produced by labels, which are taking less and less risks. They simply wait for an independent product to have an impact, and then they sign it. For that reason, the competition is tough among all the independent artists because there is a lot of music and a lot of quality work. Now with this technology, anyone can produce an album at home. That makes that there is much more music. Therefore it is difficult to do something different, something that catches the attention, within all that maelstrom. To stand out from all that crowd you have to be good, not only in the music, but in how to know how to sell it and do a network work very focused on marketing.

Do you feel there is an audience for trova in Spain? How have you fared in that sense?

Trova in Spain is not known by that name, nor do I believe that anything similar exists. There is the music of singer-songwriters, but that concept is also becoming blurred because singer-songwriters now move within broader spectrums, closer to the mainstream. These are frontiers that are becoming more and more blurred every day. So, I think that trova is a Cuban phenomenon, outside Cuba I think that trova does not exist as a concept.

How have I been doing? I think well; I can play, I do concerts, I move around Spain, there are always people who come to see me, new people, some concerts with more people than others, but it makes me happy to know that I am still making music and singing. Those are my projections. And my expectations are standard enough so that everything that comes along surprises me.

Tell me what a normal day in the life of Amaury Muro is like?

In a normal day I do many things because I live for music but I don't live only from it. So, having another job means that I have to plan my time very well so that I don't abandon music. I feel privileged because I have found a source of income that gives me time for music. I'm very grateful for that because in Cuba living from music meant a certain status: if you were a musician, you were a musician and you were a music professional who didn't need to work in anything else. It was like that before I left Cuba 10 years ago, surely the situation has changed and it is more difficult to live only from music. However, outside Cuba that status does not exist and musicians work in other things. At the same time that the musician makes a product to convince and insert himself in the market, he has to continue working in something else. That's why there are musicians who work in the hotel business, others who teach in music schools and I've met others who are computer scientists like me.

How do you manage to combine your profession as a computer scientist with music? How do you manage this double professionalization? 

You live that duality very naturally and without frustration. At the beginning, when I took up computer science again, which was what I studied in Cuba, when I saw that making music was very difficult, I lived that duality with frustration. I thought: I can't make a living from music, too bad! But it was stupid. Now I live it more with pride and gratitude. I can continue to do both things, one part complements the other. The IT job allows me to have stability and make the music I really want, without thinking about the market, about the dictates of the industry, about what they require you to do to be successful.

So, a day of mine starts like that, working as an IT guy, then I spend hours composing, it takes me to plan myself very well. I try to optimize my time as much as possible. I also have to dedicate some time to social networks, to promote myself. When I'm not composing or working, I dedicate myself to scheduling my publications. If I had to optimize something in a better way it would be that time in networks because it really costs a lot to be positioned, the algorithm requires you not only to create content, but to be, interact and respond to messages from people who like your music. These are the tools we have to reach them and make them aware of your work. It's something we have to adapt to: it's not better, not worse, I'm not in a position to say if these times are better or worse than others. We have to do the best we can without taking away space to compose and create. I'm in that mess... trying to make sure that my proposal is present in social networks, but without that consuming my creative time, which is what I'm really interested in.

I know you are working on a new album; tell me more details.

Yes. The next album... I haven't even thought about what it's going to be called yet, I just know that there's a concept I want to tackle: that it should be songs that have rhythm as a common point. That's what I'm doing now; releasing songs every so often (6-7 weeks) where rhythm is present and is the common thread, but I haven't thought about the name of an album as such. I think it will come later when I have some pieces already released.

My way of making music has changed now. The market and how music is made today has made me change my proposal. I don't know if I'll ever think of an album like this again, of releasing twelve songs in one go. At the moment I'm making songs and I'm having fun with what comes out. Then I will make an album with all of them and I know that I will find a common factor among them: rhythm.

Photo courtesy of the interviewee.

Amaury Muro finds the rhythm in another geography, he inserts himself in the new musical scenarios reinventing the ways of producing and promoting his songs. He knows that the language of music is universal and that for creation, the most valuable thing is not to stop. That is why his guitar continues to sound, with the certainty that frontiers are an invention of men.