Over the last few years, Colombia has become a global music powerhouse. Unexpected to some, the South American country has managed to produce some of the most exiting global artists of the last 20 years, from Shakira and Carlos Vives to J Balvin and Maluma. Now a new wave of acts are invading the airwaves, led by a couple of brothers from the Caribbean coast who bring a fresh brand of urban music, where, according to this reggaeton crooner “women are respected and love is first.” Welcome to the world of Manuel Turizo and Julian Turizo.
Latino Life: We have been curious about you for a while now, as you sound a bit different to other urban artists…more like a troubadour than a rapper. Manuel Turizo: Well we really look after our lyrics. I’m not really interested in singing about sex; I’m into the poetry of courtship, the intrigue and excitement involved in seducing a girl. We try to express ourselves in a different way. I might be 19 but I feel beyond my age, or maybe old-fashioned, in that way of being romantic. Also my tone, my husky voice makes me sound older. LL: Yeah, like old-skool beyond even Reggaeton (actually old skool reggaeton was never romantic) like a soul approach or romantic salsa, which makes us wonder who were your first musical influences?
MT: Being a good costeño (guy from the coast) I have to say it was Vallenato, …Vallenato is full go beautiful poetry! LL: The success of your music is interesting because its appeal goes beyond the regular Reggaeton fan…like Luis Miguel, the girls like you but the mums and dads seem to like you as well.
MT: Ha ha, as I say the lyrics are a very important factor, we don’t put just anything out there. We are keeping that line, but again I know my voice gives our songs that edge that might help older people get into it.
LL: You are a very young man who has already had a lot of success, How do you keep it all from getting to your head?
MT: My family keeps me grounded. We are a team; my mum and dad are there to keep me focused and having my brother, who is the other part of this music act, helps. The creative process is done by both of us; he does the second voice and produces the songs. We went from singing for fun, then we started to write and things kept growing...nobody would believe that two little brothers in a room passing by the time singing in the afternoons would become a working team. We write everything together. I don't know much about production but he does. My focus is on the voice, polishing the lyrics, but we pretty much do everything to do with our music together. But family is first to me! LL: You seem to have a different approach to most Urban artists...you write music that my mum would like to hear! You are very family orientated and you also come from a Vallenato tradition, which in itself has tremendous poetry value...but the bigger picture here is how Colombia has become a player in the world of global music. How do you see yourself as part of this? MT: Indeed, in last last few years Colombia has had something like a musical renaissance. We have been exporting music to Latin America for many years but this new generation is showing even more global appeal and I feel very proud to be the youngest representative of this movement. I always tell the younger guys that they have to dare to get out and show their thing, because I believe the more music we make the more contagious our music will become. There is so much talent in Colombia. I use myself as an example, this dreamer dared to dream and he is reaching this dreams. If you go to Colombia, you will find loads of places to record, loads of talent to work with; producers, writers….it’s something beautiful and really motivating, especially because we are changing the perception of Colombia, becoming famous for something positive rather than negative things.
LL: I totally agree...recently I was talking to a Colombian mate about how much the perception of Colombia has changed in the UK, when I first came it was all about Escobar, the cartels, drugs...and now the work you are doing, the sports people, it is a truly beautiful thing to see how Colombians are changing how other people see their country. It must have been a shock for you to see your first song get to a billion views, how did you handle that?
MT: We say that "Una Lady como Tu" was the our guiding star. We created this song and asked our cousin to lend us his credit card to pay for a webpage and have it on Spotify and the other music platforms. We just wanted the song to be visible, so people could find it. Julian just googled "how to upload a song in Youtube", "how to upload a song in Spotify" (laughs) and about six weeks later the song was the number one tune in all the digital platforms in Colombia, it became a national hit.
LL: So tell us how that happened?
MT: To be honest, the timing was fortuitous; it was summer holiday and young people from the coast who are studying to other areas of the country, come back for holiday. The song was getting played in our coastal region and once the summer was over they went back to their universities, they played the song to their mates and the song went viral and became number one everywhere and nobody had any idea of who we were!
LL: That sounds like a route to success so simple that nobody would believe!
MT: For real…people didn’t even know our faces, we had about 1.5k followers in Instagram. Julian put his number as our contact number and suddenly was overwhelmed with phone calls. We started to get calls from managers, one of those was La Industria Inc. and after some conversations we decided to work with them and they helped us to take the song to an international level. They pushed the song everywhere, from Ecuador, to the USA and Europe. It was a real blessing this song, we did not expect the song to be what it became! LL: And how you follow up on a success like that? MT: You need a load of discipline and loyal fans that inspire you to create more music…and to keep creating great music. We created ‘Una Lady Como Tu’ in an afternoon. We wanted to write a love letter and people liked our message and after that have been really supportive. We want to transmit good vibes and happiness in our music, so people can enjoy a good moment when they listen to our songs, that they don't forget the lyrics and the stories we tell and somehow see a bit of themselves reflected in what we create. LL: So what’s next for the Turizo Brothers? MT: We are constantly in the studio creating. Our album ADN has been out for a few weeks. Very happy with Te Quemaste which has over 95 million views already, and Bailemos. We are already working on our second album, even though we just release our first one. That one took three years, so we hope to finish this one a bit quicker (laughs). Also we will be hitting Europe with the ADN tour next year.
LL: You have already collaborated with some of the biggest urban artists so far such as Ozuna and Anuel AA. Who would you like to collaborate that have not done it already?
MT: I would really like to collaborate with Colombians, there have not been many collaborations between us. Obviously Maluma and Balvin who are super hot…but I would like to do something with Sebastian Yatra, I also like a lot what Lalo Ebratt, Mike Bahia are doing too..I want to collaborate with Colombians! LL: So when is the Vallenato Album coming out!
MT: (laughs..) well, I don't think we would go that far but we do have a tune with a lot of elements of Vallenato Caso Perdido, the instrumentation is Vallenato - accordion, guacharaca, caja – but with an urban production. We will see, we have not done a proper Vallenato song yet, but you never know, we have to take our time and become experts before taking that genre on properly, because there are so many masters of it still around! LL: You are a product of your talent but you’re success is thanks to social networks, which is the new tool for self-promotion, so what would you say to new artists who want to follow your example? MT: Right now all artist that want to have their art distributed, have a very important tool, that people did not have in the past. In the past when someone who wanted to become a singer needed a whole team behind pushing and organising so things would work. If you have something quality it can become viral in a matter of seconds. You have to work and keep the discipline..they have to polish their art. You cannot guess what people are going to like, but there is an audience for everything, but you need to show, get out and make sure it is visible because now information travel so fast and we have to take advantage of it.
Manuel Turizo is winner of the LUKAS Breakthrough Artist of the Year Award 2019. More info: www.thelukas.co.uk
