Maluma joined Zane Lowe on Apple Music and chats about feeling creative, his new song “ADMV“, going to Jamaica for inspiration, his dream collaborations, the experimental nature of his forthcoming album, and what he’s learned about slowing down.
Maluma Tells Apple Music About Feeling Creative, Making Music, and Learning How To Record Himself At His Home Studio…
Like crazy. Like I forgot how to record myself, right? And then I call one of my friends, one of the engineers, and I was like, “Man, I have this studio in my house, but I can’t use it because I don’t remember how to record myself.” And then he was like, “Bro, remember that I taught you like five years ago?” And then I started again going back to the basics, man. You know – I’ve been making music like crazy, bro … almost every day. Yeah, I’ve been very, very creative, bro. Thank God.
Maluma Tells Apple Music What He’s Learned About Slowing Down…
Wow, man, it’s crazy. I know that I needed this moment in my life. I really needed it. I was going too fast … too fast, man. I was losing so many beautiful details in life. My life was waking up, going to the airport, going to the city, perform, going to the hotel, come back, doing media interviews, campaigns, all over again. That was my day-to-day. You cannot live like that, bro. I was feeling I was getting sick. So much work, why? Why so much work? I was getting this stress from the things that I was inventing myself. I was like, “Oh, what do you guys have for today? I want to do interviews.” “Pero Juan Luis, ”We don’t even have a song to do the promotion.” Yeah, I was like, “I don’t care. F**k it. Let’s go.” I was moving too fast. Now this talk made me realize about beautiful things in life, that they’re not about work. Sharing time with my family, sharing time with my dogs, man … I have these beautiful huskies that I never see, and they’re so attached to me right now. They’re always looking for that love that I never gave them because I was touring, man. Also, just waking up and cooking my own meals … It tastes good. It tastes amazing. Making your own meals, man? That’s great. Making your bed, washing your dishes, these little details in life that I’m talking about, they’re the details that make you a human being. You cannot lose all that. And I was losing it. So for me, I’ve been learning and I’ve been going back to the basics in a way that I really needed it.
Maluma Tells Apple Music About His Love of Bob Marley and Going To Jamaica To Feel Inspired…
Absolutely, man, like it’s crazy that that’s why I wanted to go to Jamaica actually. I need to feel that spirit. That’s how the project that I’m having right now, that I’m working on my next album, that’s going to be out I don’t know when, with all these crazy things that are happening, but I’m working on it. That’s why I went to Jamaica. I needed to feel the Bob Marley spirit. I need to feel the culture. I needed to feel the roots of my music because actually I’m putting some food in my mom’s or my family’s table because of all the things that he made and I needed to know the genre. I needed to know what was going on over there in Jamaica. And I got so inspired. I’ve been a huge fan of Bob Marley my whole life. You know?
Maluma Tells Apple Music About Loving R&B…
Yeah. I love R&B. I love R&B, but it’s crazy that I have this song with Chichí Peralta because my mom, she’s a huge fan of him, you know? Also, my dad’s. That’s the music that I was raised with and this song was an anthem, like a big, big song here in Colombia. So that’s why every parent, they know this song and I was raised with the song and I still love it. I still listening when I’m working out. It’s crazy. Like music never dies, you know?
Maluma Tells Apple Music About Love of Rihanna and Dream Collabs…
Maluma: I want to work with her so bad, bro. She’s in my bucket list. If someone told me who’s the artist that I would want to collaborate with, I would say right away, Rihanna.
Zane Lowe: Who else is on that list?
Maluma: Bruno Mars.
Zane Lowe: That would be crazy.
Maluma: Bruno Mars, also The Weeknd. Mixing the cultures, I will think that will be big.
Maluma Tells Apple Music About The Experimental Concept of His New Album…
Bro, I did already like seven songs. I don’t want put too many, because the whole concept of the album is going to be kind of a mix tape. I don’t want to put a lot of music over there, even though I have like 40 or 50 songs that I already recorded and I already have here in my computer. But I think it’s already done. I have to work some things in about production and some things about collaborations, because I really want to put this kind of artist, like Koffee, like Bruno. I want to take the album to another level. It’s still sounding like me, but it’s a very experimental album, bro. I’m not following trends about nothing. If you listen from the first song to the end of the album, it’s different. It’s like what the hell, this guy. He’s smoking a lot of weed over there in Jamaica. The whole concept of the album is crazy. As I told you, one of my priorities was enjoying all the music that I do, and that’s the music that I want to do. If you tell me what kind of music you want to listen to, or what kind of music you want to have on your playlist, it’s the songs that I was doing there in Jamaica.
Maluma Tells Apple Music About Being a Fan of Miguel…
I mean, he’s great. I’m his friend. I met him in Paris. In Paris Fashion Week, I went two years ago, and I’ve been his fan for a while already. I mean, when I listened to his music, I was very, very young. I mean I was a kid. I was 13-14 years old and then all the things that he did with his career, he’s a genius. I’m totally his fan and I hope he can come back and make more music. I mean, he’s a great artist.
Maluma Tells Apple Music About Being a Part of Global Citizen’s One World: Together At Home and Representing His Culture…
That was amazing. Being part of the Global Citizen thing. I always dream about it because I knew that was like a huge event they do it every year and then when they call me and they told me that they wanted me to be part of it, that was great because I felt when I was performing over there I felt like I was representing my whole culture. Being the only Latin artist singing Spanish, that was big, that was huge. So for me it was such an honor to be part of it and helping with my art. I always say that art heals, with all this situation that we’re living right now. And I just send some love, bro, some music. That’s best we can do in this moment.
Maluma Tells Apple Music About New Song “ADMV”
Well, bro, this song is for sure the best song or the most beautiful song I ever wrote in my life. It’s called The Love of My Life, Amor de mi Vida, ADMV. It’s a song that I wrote in a musical camp that I had in Jamaica in January without knowing all the things that are happening right now, the coronavirus. And this is a special, special story because I was in Jamaica and that day I had to fly to Las Vegas for the American Grammy’s, because I was nominated to the Grammy’s as Best Latin Artist. And I couldn’t fly. I was so, so sad and so mad because I knew that I had this big chance to get the Grammy to my house and I couldn’t go, man. And I had all these feelings inside myself and it was like, “What should I do with this?
So I have to stay one more day in Jamaica. I couldn’t fly that day to Colombia. So I had to pay for the house another day, pay for the food. All the composers, all the producers that were there over there with me, I had to pay everything one more night. And it was like, “You know what? This has to be a productive day. I’ll have to work. I’ll have to take the positive things about all the s**t that is…
So I took the kayak and I took the guitar and it went to the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the ocean. I took some beers with me. I told to one of my friends. He’s a producer. I told him to come with me and we started writing this song that is called ADMV.
In the middle of nowhere, man. In the middle of nowhere. I felt so frustrated. And I felt like I needed to go to that place to keep feeling inspired, to don’t lose the vibe that I got there in Jamaica. So I started feeling that I was getting too worry about the stupid things, like going to Vegas, going to Grammy’s. I mean, it’s a big event, but it’s not what matters in life.
Maluma Tells Apple Music About His First Show and Providing For His Mom…
Well, bro, I remember one time, this is crazy, the first time someone bought a show, I was like 17 years old, right? Because I started when I was 16 and then I released a song here in Colombia and it became an anthem here in the clubs, right? So we started receiving phone calls from people that they would really wanted to have a Maluma show, right? And I was so confused … I was 17 years old, bro. I was such a little kid. I had to fly to a city that is called Neiva, but we lost the flight. We lost the flight. So the money that they gave me, right, I spent it all on the tickets and then I had to rent a car when I got there because it was a quinceanera show, so I had to pay for the car, and then when I got there I realized that I had to come back. So at the end of the day – I had to spend like two grand. I had to spend like $2,000 more, you know? So that was crazy. That was crazy. Then that’s how I realized like, “oh s**t, this is a business, man. It’s not only just going to student, releasing music. Like I’m going to have the income, you know?” I’m going to have money to give to my mom and then they kept calling, they kept buying my shows, and that’s how for the first time I gave money to my mom to go to the grocery store and get some food for us.