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How language influences Alex Cuba’s music

We have a very special guest. This is Cuban artist Alex Cuba whose real name is Alexis Puentes and is based in Canada. How are you feeling?  

I am very well. I would like to make a small correction before starting the conversation. I am Cuban-Canadian because I have been 23 years in this country. I am as Cuban as Canadian. It is very important for me to mention that I am Cuban-Canadian.  

Perfect, thank you very much for the clarification. You sing in both English and Spanish. How much has this bilingual approach of languages helped your career?  

Most of my work is in Spanish. There is very little that I have done in English. I think what has most helped my career has been my diversity and my ability to enter any musical genre. 

I have noticed that when you sing in English, you usually focus more on pop or genres that are more popular in the Anglo-Saxon language.   

Not necessarily. I also make pop in Spanish. Language does not define pop music because you can find pop in any language in the world. I do things depending on how I feel them, how they come to me at that moment and how it makes sense to do them.  

Do you achieve more receptivity on the part of Spanish-speaking or English-speaking audiences?  

As you know, my native language is Spanish, so it makes total sense that I reach out more to the Spanish-speaking world than the English-speaking world. 

You are the son of a guitarist and music teacher. How do you think this influenced the path you would later take?  

Definitely, had I not been the son of a guitarist, I do not think I would be a musician now. I would probably be a doctor or a sportsman. I was lucky that he taught me to play guitar and my father definitely had a major influence on my path.   

Besides being an artist, was there another profession you entered or became interested in?  

When I was a teenager, I was interested in science and medicine. At some point, I wanted to be a surgeon, but my love for music came back permanently when I was about 14 years old. That’s the only thing I’ve done since then.

Has Cuban culture influenced his music?

What led you to enter Cuban jazz and folk?

I had the opportunity to have a very wide musical training that goes from jazz to rock, blues, folk, nueva trova, guaguancó, salsa, timba and many more genres. Music is all the same for me, I only divide it into good and bad music. Life led me to become a jazzman first because I was attracted to jazz and I think that has no explanation. It’s like love. You see something or someone and you like it. You see a person and you do not know why, which happened to me with jazz. So, jazz was a great start for me. When you begin a career in music like I did, I think you see music from the inside. Besides all the study and dedication needed to play jazz, you have to know an instrument pretty well and know in depth music. 

I never sang in Cuba because I left when I was only 21 years old. It was when I arrived in Canada that I started singing, people liked my voice and that gave me the push I needed to be who I am. We are talking about a career in life. 

Do you think those 21 years in Cuba influenced the music you play today?  

I wouldn’t say that those 21 years influenced the music I play, but further trained me for the future. Cuba trained me and Canada fulfilled me. If I Could not make music without targeting a specific audience as we do in Cuba or Miami, I would not be who I am now. If I had not come to Canada, I would not be the person I am now.  

After being away from your native country so much, what things do you retain from Cuba?  

I still like Cuban cigars. I really like Cohiba cigars. I’m a big fan of Cohibas and I love to smoke them while drinking whiskey. 

Do you think your music and way of life are a mix of both nations to a certain extent?  

Yes, definitely. It is a seed that grows between mango and apple. A tree that is born and grown between two places.  

How has the course of your work and artistic activity during the pandemic?  

Everything has gone successfully. I have dedicated myself to creating, recording, composing, releasing singles and many other things. 

So things didn’t stop for you  

Not at all and I don’t think it happened that way for many content creators. Creativity is in need of nothing because it simply happens. That has been my case and that of many creators with whom I have been in touch in the past year because I have several guests on my album “Mendó”, of which we have just released a single and a new video for the song “Amor A La Distancia”. That album was created during the pandemic and all the collaborators with whom I had contact were at the same rate as me. We were all trying to do something and not hold us up because of the situation. It was nice to get that vibe.  

What projects do you have pending for 2022? 

I have pending tours that have been delayed since 2020. I’m going to tour and keep releasing music. That’s the point. I still don’t want to go to the moon in a rocket (laugh).  

So, you haven’t resumed your activities on the stage to date. 

I haven’t wanted to yet. I’m having trouble returning to the stage because it feels weird. I don’t think I’m psychologically prepared for that, but there will be.  

Would you have a message for those future artists who come to read this interview?  

They must ensure that the desire to be an artist or express art comes from the heart and the soul. That’s very important. If that’s how you start in the art world, it will be like this forever. If you start on social media, you will get to the point where you will not like it anymore. 

Your social networks and website for people to follow you

My website is alexcuba.com and you can find me on Instagram as @Iamalexcuba. On Twitter, you can find me as @alexcuba and on Facebook as Alex Cuba.

His beginnings

Today we have famous Puerto Rican Kharim Santos. Mr. Santos, how have you been feeling? We learned that you were in poor health due to Covid-19.  

First of all, I want to thank you and all your audience for the opportunity to take a few minutes to share with you and be able to talk. In regards of my health, I have always said that the Lord’s way is mysterious and I contracted Covid-19 despite being vaccinated three times, but I am out of that now and in the process of recovering fully. I am forever grateful to the Lord who gives us new opportunities to live.

During my convalescence from Covid-19, we released a new song entitled Lo Van a Entender and it received wide acceptance, so the Lord always blesses in mysterious ways.

You were interested in music from an early age. Could you tell us about the first memory of music?  

I was born in a neighborhood in Puerto Rico called Puerta de Tierra where many important people like Isidro Infante, Joe Quijano, Raphy Leavitt and many other artists have come from. I was born and raised in that neighborhood and my mother, due to his relationship to Daniel Santos “El Anacobero”, received many artists of all musical genres at home like Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez or Ismael Rivera.   

Being such a musical family, music was always very important to me because “Bohemian Nights” were held at my place. A group of friends came to my house and sing “Bohemia”. I was very young when I became really interested in music. I remember Daniel telling my mother that I had a lot of chances in that world.   

The first time I took singing lessons, my teacher was Juan Luis Barry, may he rest in peace. He was the pianist for Silvia Rexach, one of the greatest poets of our country. I also started taking dance lessons with Leonor Contanzo, who is a very professional dancer in Puerto Rico and it was from there that I started to follow the path of music. This has been a complete blessing because this profession has helped me to go to many places both professionally and personally.   

Do you consider that Daniel Santos was some kind of inspiration for starting down this road?  

Oh, yes! What I have always said about Daniel Santos is that the new youth does not know a part of his story, but he was like the “Ricky Martin” or the “Bad Bunny” of the time. He was quite unique because he sang any kind of music and felt very comfortable in any genre. No genre was a problem for him because he sang it very well. He was an icon. I will never be able to be like Daniel Santos and have always wanted to shine with a light of my own taking into account the vision he had of music without disrespecting his career. I made a song called Linda in his honor. I believe that Daniel has been a fundamental part of my career and that of many artists. 

Besides Daniel Santos, what other artists influenced your style and music?  

I will take your question as an opportunity to extend a very special greeting to my friend Cita Rodriguez, daughter of Pete El Conde Rodriguez. Pete was one of those artists who was often on my way home and my mom had a warm friendship with him. I remember his singing, his way of playing “guapacha” (a mix of chachachá and merengue) and that sort of thing. Other artists from the old guard who inspired me were Tito Rodríguez, Rolando Laserie, Santos Colón, Vicentico Valdés and Raphy Leavitt and La Selecta. I bring Raphy Leavitt Y La Selecta up because they used to rehearse a block away from my place.   

When Raphy was alive, he told me that Daniel came close to singing with La Selecta and I did not know a thing about it. These were artists who have marked my life. I believe that the artists of the past have marked my life the most, although there are some modern ones I faithfully follow such as Gilberto Santa Rosa and Tony Vega.   

However, the best artists for me are Cano Estremera and Tito Rojas because they were both great friends I personally met and their singings were very parochial. They were stars, but their fame has never gone to their heads. They always had their feet planted firmly on the ground. 

Is Salsa a thing of the past?

Do you think that these artists and musical genres have gone out of fashion and been replaced by other references?  

I think salsa is a genre that has been perpetuated. I do not think it is going to die or disappear. I hear many colleagues who are always saying that salsa is dead, but I think they are wrong. The concept of salsa is a generational thing, but we forget to connect young people with it. We do not teach them the culture of our music and I give the example of Colombia, which is a country I visited on several occasions with Orquesta La Solución and as a soloist. There salsa is widely heard and people think that urban music is heard more than salsa, but it is not.   

What happens is that Colombians had made sure that new generations keep listening and watching these bastions of music. Many guys who sing urban music have called me to collaborate with me. Farruko uses a clip of Ismael Rivera for his song “El Incomprendido”. Many of these new artists are looking to salsa because they have realized that it is a very enriching genre and it helps them in their work. 

That’s why we have to move on and say thanks to people like you who give us the opportunity to stay relevant and let more people know about us. I also think that we have to be vary careful about our lyrics and what we express. Salsa always distinguished itself for singing about small town stuff happening in our communities and when romantic salsa came, we sang to women with much respect. I think we should be maintained in that area. 

If you listen to the music of the new generations, artists go off on such tangents and disrespect women. I think that women should not be devalued, marked out or treated as sexual objects. We have to teach our young people that we can hear good lyrics and enjoy music at the same time. 

Anything that has always characterized salsa is to touch on social, political, and cultural issues. They also addressed the topic of romance with much respect, but that has recently changed. Do you consider that the quality of the lyrics is not an important matter in the industry?  

I think we have devalued the concept of the genre. I have always said that the artist is like a teacher. If you think of it that way, the artist or singer should be like a teacher who brings the teachings of peace, love, hope and a number of things that you concentrate in your lyrics and music. When you sing positive things, you also generate positive things in people.   

I’m going to be straight with you. I have listened to urban music made by friends of mine and wonder how girls can sing that, knowing that they are being denigrated. It’s as if they cover their ears and listen to that music, but are not interested in what artists are saying. Unfortunately, there are many salsa singers who believe that they should do the same as artists of urban music to get the same results. We have lost values and feelings and I do not understand why we have to sing humiliating things to women.   

We could not only talk about disrespect for women, but also about promoting crime and drugs.  

Yes, it’s like a position of power. It’s about seeing how much power I can express in my songs or videos. In my case, I have focused on stopping my music videos from having anything sexual. A friend of mine who directs videos gave me the idea to make one with a model in a hotel room and I answered that it didn’t work for me. To this day, I am not sure that selling sexuality or violence produces something important in anyone’s life. 

What do you and the artists that are of your opinion think you can do to promote positive things?  

I think we also have to refrain a little bit and leave our biases behind us and our ‘I’ness. That is part of the problem we have. There are many artists who only look after themselves and think they are the best artists of the world, but I think we have to get out of it and I have been doing this. Many of these artists of urban music have called me to make songs and I have said yes, but I have given them my ideas.   

Right now, I am recording the song “La Radio” with Crespo, who sings urban music. We made some modifications to the sing, which talks about this separated couple, but they remember their love when they listen to this song on the radio. That’s a nice thing. We have to educate young people and in so doing, I think that joining them to make collaborations can reform music. We have to help each other. 

Do you believe that you can make culture and shape the society we want through music?  

Of course I do. Music is culture. I have always said that. Music is the basis of how culture and people move. I believe music has been made to express ourselves, but we have to do it properly. In my personal opinion, we cannot use it in an inadequate manner. I have told many colleagues that the fact that a guy who sings urban music makes a denigrating song does not mean that they are going to have the same success. That’s not how things work.   

I believe so much in talent. If you are a talented person, people will listen to you. I had that conversation with Gerardo Rivas, who is extremely talented, but his lyrics are positive because he knows not to denigrate anyone. That is our north. Salsa is culture. I have always said that salsa is not just a genre, but a way of life. 

Something that caught my attention in your biography is that you served in the army and participated in certain renowned armed conflicts. How did you combine your military activities with music?  

I was in the army and served 23 years. I retired in 2011 after serving 23 years. I was in Iran and Afghanistan twice. I was a combat infantryman and I was able to mix the two things because music help me to progress. There are things missing in the biography because it focuses more on my military life, but I am also a university professor.   

There are a lot of things about me that people do not know, but I was able to combine the two things because music helped me overcome adversity when I was in those sites of fighting. I was a nighttime patrol and being in a place where you know you could be killed at any moment for 12 hours is not easy, but music comforted me. During my time in the army, I could also sing with various orchestras and do other activities. It was a great blessing for me.