For the last couple of years, the name pablopablo has been jumping out of song credits and straight into the spotlight. The Spanish singer, songwriter, and producer has crafted Latin Grammy-winning hits for Nathy Peluso, C. Tangana, and Jorge Drexler and now, he’s reshaping global pop with a futuristic folk edge — and releasing his debut album Canciones En Mi.
“It feels really nice to be exploring my identity as a frontman,” he tells Rolling Stone on a recent Zoom call. “I feel like I know a lot about love and the end of love and the feelings that come with people coming together and people drifting apart. I just suddenly thought that this is something I knew about and I wanted to write about it.”
Pablopablos’s real name is Pablo Drexler — and yes, as his government name suggests, he is the son of Uruguayan star Jorge Drexler. Under the pablopablo moniker, he’s tried to stake out a path on his own terms. “I’ve consciously said no to any opportunity that has come from having my surname,” he says. “I’m not really interested because I know further down the line, it doesn’t really have any value.” Despite the famous connection, pablopablo has cut his teeth in the industry while on the road with Spanish maverick C. Tangana and closely collaborating with fellow genre-defying act Ralphie Choo.
“I want to be the Spanish Beck,” he says. “It’s like I’m too pop for the weird heads and too weird for the pop heads. I want to be able to be free musically and to be able to write whatever I want at all times.”
While studying in London, pablopablo first made an impact with his 2022 self-titled mixtape, which embraced elements of EDM. No, he is tapping into his maximalist instinct to turn up the emotion in the guitar-driven Canciones En Mi. Hr seamlessly blends dream-pop with música mexicana in “Eso Que Tú Llamas Amor” with Choo and Carin León. Rising star Amaia brings R&B soul to the slinky “Sultry De Ti.” He also collaborates with breakout Mexican singer Macario Martínez, who he will tour the US with this fall. “Playing with Macario is going to be wonderful,” pablopablo says. “I’m super hyped.” While speaking to Rolling Stone, he broke down six songs from his ambitious album, including the one about being his father’s son.
“Las Tuyas”
Writing this song really came out of nowhere. It’s all things that have happened to me. Everyone’s a little bit crazy in the industry. When I first put music out, someone said to me, “You know, with how handsome you are and you being your dad’s son, you’re going to be really successful.” [Laughs.] I immediately was like, “That’s a song!” That’s crazy and really interesting at the same time. I wanted to start a song with: “If you like my face, you’re going to love my surname.” I really wanted a song where if anybody was going to say anything about me being a nepo baby, I was going to say it first and much worse than anyone else. I’m going to say my songs are bad and that my dad’s songs are better and that I got everything that I got because my surname is Drexler.
It’s all a lie, but I wanted to say something so extreme that saying my songs are bad makes a good song in a way. [Laughs.] [My dad] loved it. As much as it’s a self-deprecating song, it’s also a love letter to my dad’s music and that’s very true to me. I grew up listening to my dad’s music and going to shows with him. I have a really wonderful relationship with his music. I want to honor that. I’m really happy with that song because I managed to do both: I managed to laugh at myself and at the same time say, “Thanks, dad! Your music is awesome.” That was the goal of the song.
“Ojos De Ajonjolí”
I was in Mexico City on tour and doing festivals and stuff. I just loved Macario’s music and I heard his stuff this February when he exploded onto the scene. I was like, “This is my guy. We do similar music. This guy is amazing.” I really wanted to do something with him. I just DM’ed him on Instagram and we met up in Mexico City in the studio. We just chatted for a while. We jammed. We went for lunch and then after lunch, we wrote this song really quickly. Everything you hear in the song was just recorded there. The funny thing is, I tried adding more stuff. I tried adding wind arrangements and re-recording the bass and vocals. I tried to really do more stuff to it. I was like, “None of this is necessary.” It’s literally just the song as it is. It was really cool. I loved writing that song. It was really special.
“Eso Que Tú Llamas Amor”
Me and Ralphie came up with that idea a really long time ago and we put the song away. I picked it up and did the chorus and did my verse and suddenly, Raphie wrote his verse and we had the skeleton of a song. Then I met Carin. I was in the studio writing for him and Pucho [C. Tangana] for this project they did. After Carin had left for Mexico, I was with Pucho and I showed him this song. I was like, “By the way, I wrote this song with Raphie and I think it’s really cool.” He was like, “Why didn’t you show this Carin? He would’ve loved this song.” He said, “Why don’t you play it on the guitar right now? I’ll record you and we’ll send it to him.” It was a crazy move. He sent him a voice note with the song. Carin replied 10 minutes later with another voice note and he’s singing his verse. He just wrote his verse. It was incredible. The speed in which Carin writes good, catchy lyrics is unbelievable. He sent that back and we were like, “Damn, this is amazing.” After that, Carin properly recorded his verse and sent it over.
“De Ti”
It was pretty much like a finished song. I just sent it to [Amaia] out of the blue. I was shooting my shot. I was like, “I love your music. Do you want to sing on this song?” It was a pretty ambitious shot for me because she’s huge in Spain. Her music is so good. I really wanted her to sing on this song and it felt like a long shot. But then suddenly, she really liked it and she was like, “Yeah! No problem.” We just met up in Barcelona where she lives and it was just after the tour where I did the song with Macario. The three weeks before the album came out was the most intense time of my life. I just added new songs to the album suddenly. Pretty crazy. She came to the studio and she pretty much wrote her verse. She just got there and had this idea for the verse that was incredible. It’s so good. It just elevated the song so well. We recorded it in like 20 minutes and we went for lunch. I spent this huge studio budget for nothing. It’s because she’s such an amazing singer. She can sing perfectly on the spot.
“Siempre Te Quiero A Veces”
It’s very much a story that’s told in the first person. Each song has a message that I wanted to get across. It’s a song about modern love and how people are in this weird limbo between really wanting to marry someone, but also thinking this person is not this one. It’s going to be the next one. It’s like, “I’m seeing this person and I’m seeing this other person too. We’re in situationships. We’re figuring shit out and one day I’m going to find my soul mate.” That feeling terrifies me a little bit. I really wanted to submerge myself in that and really explore how I felt in that world of no strings attached. The song is about intimacy without attachment. It’s about the feeling of being someone and knowing that it’s not really going to go anywhere. The final message of the whole thing is: “I always love you sometimes.” That sentence obviously doesn’t make sense. It was kind of like, “I always want to be with you for a little while and that’s it.” That’s what I was trying to say with that song.
“Vida Nueva”
That was such a fun song to make. I started it with this amazing producer, a friend of mine named apob. Funnily enough, it’s the only song that’s like, “I’m feeling like shit. I’m in this weird and complex space, but I want to get out. I want to go into the light and give into where life is taking me.” The whole album is about me growing up. It’s a coming of age album in a way where I’m letting go of the phase of life that I was in. I’m saying goodbye to this and I’m moving onto the next thing. I think the music that I write now will have a lot of that “Vida Nueva” energy where it’s looking at the brighter side of things and just wanting to give in. I think there’s a very strong Guitarricadelafuente influence on it as well. I did almost his whole album [Spanish Leather] with him and produced it. He had this energy that was like, “I just want to give into the sensuality of life and let myself enjoy life the most I can while I’m here.” I was like, “Damn, this guy is really pushing for this feeling and that’s incredible. I really want that too.” I discovered that in me a little bit as well.
pablopablo and Macario Martinez “Ojos De Ajonjoli” Tour
Oct. 1 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
Oct. 2 – Washington, D.C. @ Pearl Street Warehouse
Oct. 4 – Atlanta, GA @ Oye Fest
Oct. 8 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
