22 September 2021
Newsdesk
In his latest 'At Home With’ conversation on Apple Music 1, Zane Lowe is joined by Enrique Iglesias who discusses his new album ‘FINAL (Vol. 1)’.
He tells Zane about willingly approaching the end of his recording career, and being inspired to perform early on by Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, and George Michael. He explains how he detached his musical ambitions from his father’s success in the early days of his career, why he’s turned down multiple Las Vegas residency offers, trusting his instincts, how he defines success, gratitude, and much more.
Enrique Iglesias Tells Apple Music About Releasing His New Album 'FINAL (Vol.1)’ After Initially Wanting To Put It Out in 2017...
My first album was in 1995. I was a kid. And yes, I did want to put out this album back in 2017, then it became '18, then '19, then 2020. And now here we are, 2021. But yes, definitely music moves faster nowadays, and the process of making music, which can be a little bit stressful. But it's also a good test for the song. If you sit on it and you wait and you can listen to it a year later and it still sounds good, that's a good sign. I've always been about the music, about the song, the songwriting process. So that's ultimately what matters the most
Enrique Iglesias Tells Apple Music About His New Album and Nearing The End of His Recording Career...
Back in 2015-16, I was shooting a video and it just crossed my mind, my next album should be my final album. Granted, there's volume one and volume two, because I have a record contract to be honest. And the label said, "You can put out this album, but you always want more albums.” So I said, "Okay, let's do volume one and volume two." But I feel I'm in this chapter of my life and making an album, it's a gruelling process for me. And I'm still going to write songs, like I said, and I might put out music in the future. It just won't be in the format of an album if I do. And that doesn't mean I'm not going to write songs because it could take me five years to write a song, but it could also take me five minutes. And I write most of my stuff in my house. So it's doable, but this is for now, my final album and it is what it is. I made that decision in 2016- 17, and I'm sticking to it and it is what it is..
Enrique Iglesias Tells Apple Music Why He’s Turned Down Multiple Las Vegas Residency Offers…
Because I don't like performing in the same city every single night, at least right now. And I've been asked to do Vegas for the past 5, 6, 7, 8 years, and I've always said no. And I can tell you three years from now, four years from now, I'm pretty much going to say no. I like to travel. I like to go to different cities. Every city I learn. No matter how many times I've been to that same city, there's always something different. I love that. There's always something different with the fans, and I like meeting different fans.
Enrique Iglesias Tells Apple Music About Trusting His Instincts…
Not to sound in any way cocky, but I usually don't ask for anybody's opinion because I go with my gut and I try to make sure that, if I do, it doesn't really alter how I feel about the song. I mean, I'm always open to hearing people's opinion, but I try to block it off and just focus on the song. How did the song make me feel when I first wrote it? And always focus on that first instinct and how it made you feel.
Enrique Iglesias Tells Apple Music How He Defines Success…
To me, success is defined by how you feel and making sure that there's positive people around you. Especially when you have a family, especially when you want to wake up every day and you want to make sure you're smiling. If you're down and you're putting yourself down and your confidence is down, it's going to affect you and it's going to affect everybody around you. I believe that it's important who you're surrounded by. And to me, success comes down to the people that are around you, how happy they make you feel and how positive their energy is. I will say music is still the thing that, when you write that song or there's that piece of music that connects with your fans, it's difficult to describe. But I think I once heard Bono from U2 say, "When you have a song that connects or a hit song, people smile at you a little more. You get more calls." And it's totally right. It just makes you feel better. That's really what I'm looking for with my music. I want it to connect and I want that acceptance, and that's why I work so hard at it. And then I play it for my kids. I have twins that are three years old and a one-and-a-half-year-old, and I do play them some of the songs and I see their reaction and how they vibe to it, and it's pretty cool. Especially the three-year-olds.
Enrique Iglesias Tells Apple Music About Being Inspired To Perform By Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, and George Michael…
I started being pulled into performance when I was about 13, 14. And I remember two artists, specifically, going to their shows. Actually of three artists. One of them was Michael Jackson. The other one was Bruce Springsteen, and the other one was George Michael here in Miami in the stadium. And I remember watching them and thinking, "Man, I want to know. I want to be them. I want to know what it feels like to be on that stage surrounded by 60,000 people singing your songs, songs that mean so much to you." And they were so good, man. They were incredible performers. Bruce is still an incredible performer, probably my all-time favourite, and was truly inspiring. And that's when I started, because I started more from a songwriting perspective. It was more like therapy to me. But as I got older, and older, and older, I'm like, "Man, I want to be able to go on stage and perform these songs.” And also, another thing that I would do is, I would literally take their music and just write my own lyrics and my own melody over the songs. And that's how my song writing process started, really.
Enrique Iglesias Tells Apple Music About Wanting To Detach His Musical Ambitions From His Father’s Success...
I was a very rebellious kid. I wasn't good in school, and I wanted to detach my music so much from who my family, my father in this case, I wanted to detach it so much, because for some reason I felt deep within me that if I shared what I really wanted to do, I'm always been a little bit superstitious, it would not happen. And I truly believe, till today, that if I would have told my family, "Hey, I want to get into music. I want to sign a record deal. I want to go and tour and accomplish all these things with my music," for some reason, I think if it would've not happened. And it created a lot of stress, personally, but that was definitely the fear that kept me going when it came down to my career and my music. And it also kept me independent. Thankfully, I never had to look back. Things just kept on going and going and going. Now, if you would've asked me back in 1995, when I was a 17 year old kid signing my first deal, "Do you see yourself 20 years from now doing this, and with a certain degree of success?" I would have said, "I have no fucking idea." But I loved it so much and I still love it. So that's what keeps me going.
Enrique Iglesias Tells Apple Music About Living In The U.S. As a Child Without His Mum…
When I moved here to the US, it was a radical change. And my first three years without my mum being there, it was so difficult. But at the same time, I look back at it now from a music perspective, and the way that it's also affected my life, and I'm like, "There's always something positive when something negative happens.”
Enrique Iglesias Tells Apple Music About His Song “ALL ABOUT YOU”…
That song is pretty much as honest as it gets. Being in the house for a year and a half and not going anywhere, and being with my significant other, the love of my life. One thing is when you travel and you go to the office or you don't see each other constantly, but when you're together all the time, 24/7, for a year and a half, man, either you make it or it breaks. And there's been moments that we've said to each other, but thankfully it's become strength.
Enrique Iglesias Tells Apple Music About Gratitude For His Family…
I've always been anxious, but I do try to stop and smell the roses. You know, as they say here in the U.S. And I do feel blessed and I feel fortunate that I've been able to do what I love and what truly inspires me and make a living out of it, which is insane. And I feel so blessed that I have an incredible family, and I'm surrounded by the people that work with me. They're my family. They've been with me for 20 years, 25 years. Still the same people.
