Ex RBD member, Christian Chavez, debuts solo album: “Almas Transparentes”
Christian Chavez, of ex pop sensation, RBD, is riding without co-pilots. With his solo debut album, Almas Transparentes, scheduled for release today, Christian follows in the path of former band member, Anahí by signing with international record label, EMI Music Mexico. As the young artist prepares for a lengthy promotion of the album and its first single, “¿En dónde estás?”, Christian talks to us about the concept to Almas Transparentes, as well as working with Samo of pop group Camila, and about how this album in particular can quite possibly serve as soundtrack to the life of many quinceañeras.
The universal and inevitable Love
This has always been a dream for me. As a little kid, I used to dress up and grab a microphone and pretend to perform before a large audience. And with RBD, that dream came true. I had years to prepare for my solo album, which is largely due to my work with the band. But now my debut as a solo artist shows another side of me that perhaps was not shown with RBD.
Through the album’s name, Almas Transparentes, I wanted to convey a message that encouraged people to live their lives as they are and without any masks or costumes. It talks about my life, my experiences with past relationships, and it has the universal topic of love and heartbreak as the overall concept. I often get asked if I plan on singing and writing for the gay community, but that’s not what it’s about. My music is for everybody.
It’s a universal topic and emotion. I have this opportunity to write and sing about something that will be heard by millions of people, so I chose to do something more personal. Almas Transparentes talks about my fears, my ideas, my good and bad experiences. And when I hear people sing my lyrics and put so much emotion into it, it’s simply amazing. One of the songs, for example, “Y si no ves”,
is about when you fall in love with someone and that person doesn’t even know that you’re in love with them. It’s a beautiful song that a lot of teenagers can relate to. They’re going to feel the music, and they’re going to feel the words because it’s something that they’re going to go through or that they may have gone through already. And if they haven’t experienced love or heartbreak yet,
then they will definitely experience it later in the future because love is universal, and so is heartbreak.
Working as a solo artist
Producing an album as a solo artist is completely different from what I was used to with RBD. I found myself having to be solely responsible for the outcome of the album—whether it was good or bad. And I had to spend every minute of the day working on it. When you’re producing an album as a group, sometimes you don’t have to be in the studio because it’s not your turn yet, and sometimes you have time to rest and do other things. But when you’re doing this on your own, you need to be present all the time.
Another huge difference was that I had to do more writing. I was privileged to have Samo, from Mexican pop group Camila, help me with the album. I met him sometime last year and it was instant musical magic. We wrote “Quiero volar” like in ten minutes, that’s how amazing it was! When you start to look for and write songs, it’s very important that there is great chemistry between all the musicians involved. The job can be very stressful when the chemistry isn’t there, but that wasn’t the case with Samo… the energy was totally there.
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Almas Transparentes; EMI Music Mexico, 2010
¿En dónde estás?
¿Por qué?
Aun sin ti
Almas transparentes
Baby
Sexy Boy
Y si no ves
Sígueme y te seguiré
Quiero volar
Nunca entendí
www.christianchavez.com.mx
www.myspace.com/christianchavezoficial
