Virulo: "This album saved my life"

January 6, 2022

Alejandro García, Virulo, confessed it to the press during the presentation of the phonogram "Pandemic Chronicles", produced by the Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales (EGREM) and which, many years from now, will allow us to revisit these times of pandemic from multiple perspectives, critical, hopeful and, of course, very amusing, just as Cubans have always been.

"This album was a gift to me in the middle of these two years of being locked up. First of all, it kept me working, entertained...", commented the outstanding singer-songwriter and humorist, and at the same time thanked Mario Escalona, Mayito, Director of EGREM, and one of the members of the Dúo Buena Fe, Yoel Martínez, for the ideas they constantly gave him to compose, with Yoel Martínez ultimately taking on the musical production of the phonogram.

"The conga song idea came from Yoelito, who called me from Santiago. The one 'Pórtate bien' was an idea from Mayito who told me that when they started opening cultural centers, people wanted to gather carelessly without protecting themselves, and that's how the song came about. 'Dale candela' was the first one, which came at a time when we were all scared, terrified. Donald Trump was there with his aggressive policy against Cuba and so I mixed that in too, because it was also the time when he was saying people should inject bleach, and I thought, inject it yourself!", recalled Virulo.

Manuel Calviño, in his capacity as "quasi-psychologist", granted by Virulo himself, noted that this is a critical-reflective and also educational vision of the epidemiological situation, a thesis that the author confirmed while continuing to tell us about the sources of inspiration for some of the songs:

"The story of the Tarzan of the lines happened at the supermarket that's three blocks from my house. When there was a curfew and nobody could be on the street, from my house to the supermarket I made it in two minutes, but when I arrived, at five and two minutes, there were already 350 people there in line. I said how is that possible, ah, because they were climbing in the bushes, like in Altahabana, which is where I live, there are so many bushes, they all climbed up there, until one day they started sneezing up there and the police noticed and shined their flashlights and it was full, that's how the song was born.

"The contagion was the same, I experienced that in a line to buy coffee, and I said I might not get coffee, but I'll catch coronavirus because everyone was on top of each other there. The entire pandemic went by and I kept following everything that was happening. The truth is, this album saved my life".

Another pandemic gained strength simultaneously over these two years, spread through social networks and mercilessly attacked every "celebrity" who defended Cuba or its Revolution. Faced with this media virus, songs were also born in Virulo:

"Never in my life had I been attacked or criticized as much as during this time... all those lynchings... people bring out the worst in themselves and say horrible things, said moreover with many spelling mistakes, because you immediately notice on Facebook and Twitter the cultural level of the people who post any nonsense. Never have I been attacked as much as in these recent times, sometimes absurdly and sometimes by people close to me. I say I hope we manage to get over all of this and turn this page, because I believe the pandemic has brought out the worst in many people and the best in many others as well".

And those, the ones who have been antidotes to despair and to hatred, also found space in Virulo's chronicles:

"It was fortunate to meet Carlos Lazo. I hope we end this absurd aberration of the blockade of so many years against Cuba", he reflected and told about the song Bridges of Light that emerged when he discovered a story that the Cuban-American activist told on his Facebook account, where he narrates a dialogue with his father in which he calls him to reconciliation and love.

To Yoel Martínez "I have grown fond of him and have tremendous respect for his talent and professionalism", he assessed, referring to the work done in musical production and precisely Bridges of Light was the example he chose to praise him:

"I started writing the song, but I generally dictate my songs into my cell phone, sing them like that, without guitar or anything, and in this case, I woke up in the early morning, started singing it and the next morning I sent it to Yoel. He did the arrangement based on what I sent him, without chords or anything, but the essence of that song was there and I really liked the arrangement he did and all the work Yoel did is incredible.

"Here's the album, I hope they buy it and like it a lot, that they enjoy it, it's a very positive album, the pandemic has been a terrible thing, but sometimes from terrible things you get positive things and that's what I've tried to do with this album", he concluded.