Before he became Juanes, Juan Esteban Aristizábal was a student of industrial design. “When I was going to do a project, always, just to start, I would have to investigate and research all the elements,” he tells Apple Music. “In this case, I look back to my roots, to my essence. It’s important to have a beginning. For, me it’s Colombia.” His eighth full-length, Más Futuro Que Pasado, finds the multiple-Latin Grammy-winning legend reinterpreting the diverse rhythms and traditional folk music that shaped him, by intertwining those sounds with that of Latin America in 2019. It’s an effort that’s meant to be hopeful. “I come from rock,” he says, “but I listen to all kinds of music. I’m interested in finding a way to reinvent, to do something different. I’m always finding inspiration in the past, but also in the future and the present.” Here he takes us through the album’s many elements, track by track. Aurora “The whole inspiration comes from the cumbia rhythm, which is one of the most important rhythms from our region. It goes from Mexico to Central America and Argentina, all these countries around the Americas—the rhythm that unites everything. Back in the ’80s when I was 14 or 15, there was a lot of punk and metal music and then techno. But now it's popping, the hip-hop audience in Medellín, and I just want to be close to what is happening in my city. I made this with Crudo, who's a rapper from Medellín. For me, he's very original—the flow he has and the words he uses.” Tequila “The origins of this song are in cumbia rebajada—a type of cumbia playing in Monterrey, Mexico, back in the ’70s. All the cumbia music that came from Colombia, the vinyl records came to Monterrey, and they used to play them at all the parties. But after many hours of playing, the turntable overheated, and it started to sound slow. It was by accident, but that’s how they started to listen to the cumbia more slow. I discovered this and I just loved it. The song is about a broken heart, like everybody in this life sometimes experiences, but the chord progression in the middle is inspired by music that my parents used to listen to when I was a kid in Colombia—countryside music.” Ninguna “I really like what is happening now in music, because I have three kids—16, 15, 10—and they listen to reggaetón and hip-hop all day long. Five years ago, when I did Mis Planes Son Amarte, I worked with mostly Sky and Bull Nene, and I really liked their approach. This is very inspired by the cumbia from Argentina, which is different from the cumbia in Colombia or Mexico. It’s a little bit laidback because it's behind the beat. It seems like it’s bad playing, but it’s not. It’s right: the same rhythm, just a different interpretation. In the last few years it’s becoming very popular among young people.” Mala Manera “This has a pattern on the guitar that I learned, like a rhythm from the Caribbean. When you write with this pattern, the way you are seeing the melodies and the accents is just totally different. It’s one of the earliest songs we did for this album, and the lyrics are very deep, probably the one of the deepest because it's more painful. I talk about a relationship that cannot be possible. You love that person, but it's impossible to be there. You can not be there to suffer. So it's better just to leave that person and you sleep by yourself. You have that pain all the time.” Bonita “A very, very happy, very light song because it's vallenato music—probably the most important rhythm in my country. I feel very inspired by Diomedes Diaz and Carlos Vives and many vallenato artists that I’ve listened to since I was a kid. It’s very special, and even if I'm not from the part of Colombia where vallenato comes from, I love it. This is a lighter side of myself. I met Sebastián Yatra in Spain, at a party. I said, ‘Hey, listen to this song. I’d love for you to join me.’ He listened to it, loved it, and two months later, he added his part. He brought a lot of energy to it.” El Pueblo “I talk about my wife here. My wife's from Cartagena, I am from Medellín, and we are just talking about our relationship and the way it’s staying strong during all these years. When I grew up I was listening to different types of music like bambucos and boleros, more serious stuff. And my wife is totally different because she’s from la costa, you know, where they like salsa music, merengue, bachata. Totally different cultures, but that's what Colombia is. The weather changes so much between cities, so it's like a different world in every city. The element of the electric guitar—very important for me. These days it's not very common to listen to electric guitar—it's more about samples and stuff. So I wanted to bring the guitar for all my songs, but initially, especially in 'El Pueblo,' it has like a different approach to what it is used to doing this kind of music.” Más Futuro Que Pasado “It’s very special for me because I also talk about my relationship with my wife and how we want to stay together, how we have more future than past. Sometimes in life we leave a lot in the past and we feel depressed. Sometimes we look to the future and we feel anxious about it. But in this case, I am talking about being with the person I love for the rest of my life. The cumbia in this song is special because the progression in the melodies is not like a cumbia progression, it's totally different. It’s like if it was a pop song and we changed the rhythm and just put cumbia there instead. We’re experimenting with these kinds of things, and that was like the plan from the beginning.” Loco “An experiment that I did with a very talented writer from Cuba who lives in Miami, Luis Alfredo Salazar. We were trying to do something more fresh and different in terms of the way I was playing the guitar. For me, I used to work with precision—drums, bass, and just all play together. But in this case I was just trying to experiment with the beats and in this kind of vibe. I really love the 808 for example, the bass. I really love that from hip-hop music—since ’96, when I was in LA. You start to listen to hip-hop and find it so interesting to combine that with the guitar, with organic instruments.” Mía Mía “A song that I did with Fuego, a very talented rapper from the Dominican Republic. We used to get together in his studio and we started to work on the idea and we left it there for months. A month later, I listened to the song and said, ‘No, no, this is so cool. I want to record my vocal again and just to go into the vibe, make it happen.’ It’s more an adult kind of thing. It’s not aggressive, but it's more sexual. But it's also a song that I can even dedicate to my wife, you know, so that's fine.” La Plata “I used to sing vallenato in all the parties with my friends, all the time, all my life. ‘La Plata’ is another vallenato, a happy vallenato song. But it’s more dark, more alternative, experimenting with the basslines and with the accordion. I invited Lalo Ebratt, who is from Santa Marta, Colombia. He's a very young, talented rapper—a trapper. The way he flows, the things he writes are so different. It called my attention.” Pa Dentro “‘Pa Dentro’ was probably the first song of the album that we did. I worked with Sky and DVLP and then Camilo Echeverry, who is a very talented guy from Colombia, and Mau y Ricky. We got together in my studio and we started to work around the idea. I was doing something that has origins on the Pacific coast of Colombia, so we started there. We wanted to create something more, kind of an African, indigena vibe. That’s the way I concept music.” Querer Mejor “A song that’s very important for me because it’s very soulful and deep. I worked with Rafa Arcaute, who is a producer that I really respect a lot. And also with Mau y Ricky and Camilo—they came to my house, we started from a demo I had. Later, Alessia Cara added to the song, which I appreciate a lot because she's one of those voices that you listen to and say, ‘Wow, I'm so inspired.’ I had met her two years ago at the Latin Grammys when we were doing the song with Logic, and, I don't know, it was just some connection with her. Alessia came because she wanted to sing in Spanish. She has an Italian background, so for her to sing in Spanish, it’s totally fine. She did it perfectly. It was beautiful to have her there.”