Colombian star Juanes captures personal "Moment"

By Leila Cobo

MIAMI (Billboard) - The rain beats down incessantly on a typical Miami summer afternoon when Juanes runs into the Hit Factory studios, late from battling rush hour traffic in the middle of a storm.

He is traveling solo, devoid of entourage, as he likes to be when he isn't in touring or promotion mode. Juanes is here to begin mixing his fourth solo studio album, "La Vida Es un Ratico" (Life Is a Brief Moment), due October 23 on Universal Music Latino. With only a first single mixed at this point, Juanes carries the rough cuts on his iPod and cues them up for Billboard. The tracks are full of rock edges and aggressive bursts of down-and-dirty Colombian folk beats.

When it is all over, he asks, expectantly, "Did you like it?"

With more than 8 million albums sold worldwide, Juanes -- real name Juan Esteban Aristizabal -- still has the air of an accidental star.

But a superstar he is: "La Vida ... Es un Ratico" will be released simultaneously in all Universal territories, an unprecedented move for an artist who records only in Spanish.

Indeed, Universal Music Latino president John Echevarria says, "It is quite possibly the first all-Spanish album to be released simultaneously in Europe, Asia, Australia and North and South America."

While it is tempting to compare this scope of marketing with the strategies designed for such crossover stars as Ricky Martin, Shakira and Enrique Iglesias, Juanes is an anomaly because he doesn't record in English.

Nevertheless, his song "La Camisa Negra," from his 2004 album "Mi Sangre," managed to go to No. 1 on radio and sales charts in more than 30 countries, including Germany, France, Japan and Holland, which will release special editions of "La Vida."

"Singing in English doesn't really interest me," Juanes says. "I have to worry about pronunciation, so I don't sing from my soul."

"Mi Sangre" has sold more than 650,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and more than 4 million worldwide, according to Universal. Its predecessor, 2002's "Un Dia Normal," has sold 700,000 copies in the States.

Q: This album has songs of love and breakup. Should listeners interpret them as personal experiences?

A: "These are things I've written mostly while on tour and they reflect different emotional states, but they're not only based on my reality, but also in the creativity and stories of people around me. But definitely, it's a very personal album."

Q: But all your albums are very personal.

A: "Yes. Most of the songs I write are a reflection of my feelings, and I couldn't do it any other way. For this album, I did the exercise I always do, of writing many songs, and in the end, those songs that aren't very honest get dropped along the way. The songs that stay talk about what I really feel and think at that moment. Right now, it's a bit of a transition. For example, 'Tu y Yo' (You and Me) speaks about the years I spent with my partner and how we stuck together in good times and bad, and that our love was made carefully, like a carpenter, and that the house only looks beautiful when she's there. But there's also the transition. I have a ballad titled 'Dificil' (Difficult) that talks about the breakup, and it's a harsh song lyrically and melodically."

Q: What is your writing process like?