Dani Martín wanted to have a band and seeing the title of one of the songs on Radio Futura, ‘El Canto del Gallo’, he decided: “It’s going to be called El Canto del Loco“. Back in 1996 what he did not know, after distributing demos by record companies, is that his band was going to resonate in the heads of all young people and adolescents for decades. David Otero, Chema Ruiz, Jandro Velázquez and Iván Ganchegui completed the puzzle, the first two being the only ones who remained, along with Dani Martín, in the group in recent years.
The queues for their concerts circled the pavilions. El Canto del Loco, the band that began releasing emotions in a garage, left faces painted with the names of each of the members, screams that sneaked between the diamonds of the wire fences, millions of missed calls dedicating lyrics of songs that still do not stop playing.
It was in 2010 when the group announced their separation. Each one wanted to continue their solo career and since then the same question has resounded over and over again in Dani Martín’s ears: “Is El Canto del Loco back?” The singer set social networks on fire just over a month ago with a video in which you could see how a taxi driver asked him this question, they focused on Dani Martín’s face and seconds later the screen went black without any answer. We all stayed in suspense for a few days until Manolo and Carmen’s son, as he defines himself, decided to respond in the form of a new album: ‘No it won’t come back‘. This is also the name of the only unreleased song on Dani Martín’s new album where he has collected ten re-recorded songs from El Canto del Loco that are already part of the history of Spanish pop.
Question. – How many times did your phone ring the day you announced ‘No, it’s not coming back’?
Answer. – Almost no one has mine, it was more Maria’s phone (her manager). It was an idea that occurred to me because it is a real situation that has been happening to me for 12 years. A recurring question. In the confinement I approached the songs of ‘El Canto’ a lot doing Instagram Lives and, when we freed ourselves a bit, I gathered my musicians in a studio that I have at home and told them: “I want to record an album of ‘El Canto ‘and I want it to be called’ No, he’s not coming back. ‘ But it is made from love, at no time from cockiness or anger. I think I have treated the songs with incredible love and we have given it a super rocker spin. I wanted there to be no duet and it was the legacy that I think those songs that have been part of the lives of a lot of people deserve.
El Canto del Loco does not come back, like the loves we had when we were 20 years old “
Q. – And why don’t you come back?
R. – Well … how the loves we had when we were 20 years old do not come back. ‘El Canto’ separated in a super honest way, being at the top, having an incredible economic moment, and we decided to give free rein to our concern, which was to make one album each, without knowing if that time we were going to Taking was going to become eternal or we were going to return. The truth is that we have never called any of the three to say: “Hey, are we coming back?” Never. It has never arisen. I have a lot of relationship with Chema (the bass player) on the phone and we talk to each other. He’s making his move and I love how he’s doing it, he’s incredibly talented. My cousin (David Otero) strikes me as a talented guy too, with a tremendous musical thing. He also paid his tribute to the songs on ‘El Canto’ last year. And this is mine. I have dedicated it to them inside. It is a tribute album to all the people who in some way have been part of something that one day occurred to me in my parents’ living room. Ariel Rot said to me: “Why didn’t El Canto del Loco come back?” And I said: “Because I suppose each of us has done well alone and because we are happy doing what we are doing.” Touring for money would be difficult for me, I would not feel honest. Maybe five years from now you will see us doing a tour called ‘Yes, yes he comes back’ and I will have to swallow my words (laughs). It’s like kissing someone, you know? I couldn’t kiss someone today for whom I don’t feel something super special. Getting on stage and defending something with some teammates by your side has to be because you really feel it.
Q. – Among all the songs on ‘El Canto’, why did you choose these ten?
R. – If you open the closet of your life and see the clothes that you put on when you were 20 years old, surely there would be some clothes that would generate tenderness, laughter … and you would put them aside, even give them away. But there are others that you would continue to wear and that are still in fashion. Well, the same thing happened to me with the songs, with the texts that I wrote, with the melodies that we made … I still feel identified with ‘Peter Pan’, with ‘The luck of my life’, with ‘It may be’ … But I don’t see myself singing ‘José’s mother’. There are those that had to be there and those that when I was in front of the bus came out of my heart.
P. – It is a disk to sit and see photos of beautiful memories
R. – I think that at the time that we have lived with the pandemic, the confinement, what you just said is what has happened. These songs move you and are the soundtrack of a lot of moments in your life and I think that right now we want to relive all those moments in which we were happy, in which we had a first love, or you felt something for someone, that concert the one you went to… For me this album means a bit what I think we deserve, the gift of singing them all again and getting together live. The other day in Valencia it was magical to see people standing up again singing everything and enjoying themselves.
Q. – Have you ever said to someone: “I have written this song thinking of you”?
R. – Yeah right. For me, the women in my creative life have been super important: my sister, my mother … The other day I told a television program that ‘Peter Pan’ talked about the moment when I shared my life with Patricia Conde and where I believed that I had reached maturity. He told Carlos del Amor: “She can confirm that it is absolutely false” (he smiles). Writing songs to the people you have shared your life with is the most beautiful thing because it is for real.
Writing ‘A black and white photo’ I was thinking of a person who would come and ‘blow’ my head off “
Q. – And who were you thinking of when you wrote ‘A black and white photo’?
R. – In the idealization of love. In a couple shaking hands walking through New York or Paris… In what I have always wanted: to get to live that love where time goes by and that photo is always alive. That’s ‘A black and white photo’. I was thinking of a person who would come and ‘blow’ my head off. I think it’s a super up-to-date song because I’d love for that to happen to me.
Q. – In the re-recorded song of ‘How expensive is time’ you say now “That girl that I still love” …
R. – There was a girl from adolescence who was that platonic love with whom you never get to be because you are the same age and she looks at older boys … I liked her for a long time and I was never with her. Everything is real in my songs, except in ‘La madre de José’. All my songs are real.
Q. – And does she know this?
R. – No, she doesn’t know. He has children and the host (he says between laughs). She didn’t notice me.
P. – You are a romantic …
R. – You are right. I am a romantic and I have been a ‘shit’ to cross the barrier to the reality of love. I have always stayed there in the preambles of the butterflies, afraid of commitment … I have been working on it for a year and a half and I think I am at a good time to take some steps in my life. There is less and less time remaining. I’m 44 years old already, huh? Nothing ago I was 24 …
“Our mothers came to the queue to bring us sandwiches and to take the guitar”, tells laSexta.com a conditional on El Canto del Loco. The followers of Dani Martín’s band used to wear their voices singing the refrains that would sound live hours later. In their belts, they had ordered the tacks with the acronym ECDL. They would fill cardboard with the phrases that the same generation repeated in the Messenger nicknames and their sneakers would step on the ripped hems of their pants over and over again. They gave pause on the discman, took off a helmet and when they had already placed it on the ear of the next person they pressed play again: “El Canto del Loco has what you didn’t have“…
Q. – What was that that only El Canto del Loco had?
R. – For me he had what Los Ronaldos had, a cheek, something on stage… We weren’t the best musicians playing, but we did sound like us. If the drummer had played better we would not have sounded like El Canto del Loco, if the bassist had played better, the same … If my cousin had been the best guitarist in the world from the beginning, or I had sung well from the beginning, we would not have sounded either to what we were. We had what no one else had. I don’t want to say that we were the best, but it was us and that is very difficult.
Q. – And did ECDL take something away from you?
R. – No, he gave me everything. It has made me learn what I did not want in my life, it has taught me what I like and what not about this industry, that music is my life… It has given me everything. It has taken me away from going on vacation with my colleagues for many years because we played a lot and I never had vacations, but I am here today thanks to El Canto del Loco and thanks to everything that happened to me.
The most loyal fans, the fan club of ‘El Canto’
El Canto del Loco created a community with its fan club. At a time when social networks did not exist, their fans shared impressions of the songs, they knew each other, and they met in the next concerts through a forum that changed color as they released new albums. A very healthy environment that had the support, and even friendship, of all the members of the group.
Q. – Did you know about this forum?
R. – It was what would now be Twitter or Instagram. It was a forum on our website that changed color depending on the disc. It started as the blue forum, then the pink forum, the green forum, and then social networks came. I still have friends with people from Malaga, Madrid … They keep coming to concerts, now many do it with their children … There are people who have met at our concerts and now they are a couple … It is super nice and yes, it is true that there was an atmosphere very healthy. Suddenly we learned that there were 200 people at the Palau Sant Jordi spending the night and we would appear with 200 sandwiches. When we finished we stayed to sign the people who were waiting. I think all of that also created that bond between the fans and us. The important thing is that we did it because it came out and we felt like it.
Q. – One of your followers started working with you, right?
R. – Work work! Javi leads the entire Administration department and is the Road Manager of the musicians. Also, feel the project in a super personal way.
Q. – They told me that they gave you a star
R. – Yes, many years ago. I don’t remember all the names, but I know Angy (one of his fans) was on the hook. They gave us a star in the sky called El Canto del Loco. I have framed the certificate of authenticity.
Q. – What would you say to the singer of El Canto Del Loco now?
Let him do everything as he did. And congratulations, because it has brought me here and has taught me many things.
The ‘sold out’ poster has been posted five times at the Wizink Center in Madrid with the current tour ‘How expensive is time’. Dani Martín is grateful and does not understand why this continues to happen “22 years later”. And it is that, although his band does not return, El Canto del Loco continues to shine in the sky. What visionaries those who baptized that star …
Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
