Everything about Alejandro Sanz’s latest EP ¿Y Ahora Que? was a deviation from the way he usually does things. For starters, the process was much more collaborative, with more producers and musicians than usual. “What I liked to do was to lock myself in the studio, work for hours, and lose sunlight, practically living in there,” the Spanish artist says with a laugh. But in a lot of ways, this project marked brand new beginnings and new ways of doing things for Sanz: It’s his first EP with his new label Sony Latin, his first songs since a major breakup, and his first music with new management.
“If you stop learning and trying different things in this profession, that’s truly a kind of death, isn’t it?” he says on a recent call with Rolling Stone. “If you don’t want to approach things in a new way, this becomes pretty tedious. So in actuality, this has been a process I’ve enjoyed a lot, and I’m happy with how it all turned out.”
Beyond the countless lessons buried in ¿Y Ahora Que?, the EP includes six songs, all which find Sanz exploring different sounds. The opening track, “Palmeras en el Jardin,” takes Sanz back to his roots with a more acoustic sound. He pictured it as a first introduction to the listener where he outlines all the heartbreak and turmoil he’s experiencing. “I think fits well in the chronology and into a rhythm on the album that sets up how things are presented,” he explains. “It’s this process of healing in three phases: The first, on ‘Palmeras en el Jardin,’ you’re listing out everything that’s happening. On the second, ‘Hoy No Me Siento Bien,’ you recognize what you’re feeling and you start to see the light. And on ‘Besame,’ you finally reach the other side to heal.”
The songs that follow “Palmeras en el Jardin” — “Hoy No Me Siento Bien” with Grupo Frontera and “Besame” with Shakira — include some of the biggest collaborations on the project. (Manuel Turizo also appears on “Cómo Sería.”) The Shakira feature marks a long-awaited reunion after the two artists worked on “La Tortura” and “Te Lo Agradezco, Pero No” in 2005 and 2006. They recently celebrated the anniversary of “La Tortura,” which turned 20 this year; Shakira even brought him out during her concert in Charlotte, where she kicked off the U.S. leg of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran tour. “It was incredible to get back on stage with her, to share, to have a laugh. She seemed really great — she looked happy,” he says. “She was completely dedicated to her show, working hard as always.” He notes that the day they rehearsed in Charlotte, Shakira was up until 5 a.m. doing soundcheck. “There’s a reason she’s number one — she works that hard,” he adds. “We took advantage of that time to record some content for the new song and to hang out the way we’ve always done.”
The idea for “Besame” had been a long time coming. “We’d spent a long time trying to find a song so we could work together again. We’d been wanting to do something, and this is the third collaboration we’ve made together. I was always joking with her, saying, ‘Stop singing with the young handsome guys. Let’s make a song.’” Eventually, they landed on the romance and down-tempo rhythm of “Besame.” “She’s really into Afrobeats, and I wanted to add a bit of this flamenco sound. We found this style and I think it really captured what we both wanted to do. Finding a good compromise between two artists over a song isn’t always easy, but we did it and w’re both happy with it. It’s a beautiful one to me.”
Other moments on the EP shine just as bright. The Grupo Frontera collaboration makes use of Sanz’s signature rasp and also carries the project’s message: On the song, Sanz sings about how he’s feeling low but knows everything will get better. “I had spent a lot of time without putting myself first, paying attention to other priorities,” he says. “Eventually, you have let that go.”
The project title comes from something Sanz used to say to himself throughout his career: “Y ahora que?” which means “now what?” Now that the EP is done, he has a long list of what to do next: Eventually, he wants to tour and perform these songs for his fans. But his attitude has changed: “I don’t want to think ahead too much. If you focus too much on the long-term, you don’t look at what’s in front of you. It’s important to work trough each stage and never skip steps.”