Lasso says making pop songs you can't dance to is 'really stupid' as he releases Objetos Frágiles en Ambientes Hostiles

It's a great name because Latin music is mainly urban music. It's mainly danceable. It's a very danceable era of Latin music. It always has been a dance genre, but lately it's been really, really, really danceable.

So I think pop music is falling into a really niche category in Latin music. I think this album, which is a pretty straightforward pop album, is the odd one out on the musical spectrum. That's why I chose that name, because I think doing a pop album right now, with all pop songs that aren't danceable, is something really stupid.

I think that's like a fragile object in a hostile environment, because nobody wants to listen to pop music in Spanish anymore.

Because I think it's not the moment for pop. We've had a lot of moments throughout history, but now it's dance music's moment, and that happens in music. It's not something that's good or bad. It's just the way it is right now.

Well, I don't think so, because that's what I do. It's more like you have to choose if you're going to try to catch another person's wave and surf that wave. That's a wave I don't know how to handle. I could do that. I've tried to make all kinds of music, or danceable music, and my fans don't like it.

I had to make that choice many years ago: am I going to stay doing pop music, pop-rock music? I think that's the best I can do. It's more of an artistic choice.

Well, it's actually pretty funny because he actually does a lot of dance music, a lot of Latin, and more reggaeton songs. And when I contacted him — he's Venezuelan, as well as me — I actually told him that I want to make a dance record, but not danceable.

I don't know if that makes sense. That's what I did. I wanted to sound fresh. I wanted it to transmit that it's something that's going on right now, but I don't have dance songs. And he understood the assignment completely.

I think that's the catch-22 of the whole thing because you have to be vulnerable for people to connect with whatever you do. And you have to choose whether you let people inside things that you may feel vulnerable about, but that's what people want from you.

Because I think if you go deep inside yourself, I think you also go global. I think the more specific you are with feelings, the more global a song becomes. I don't know why, but if you try to do it generically, people see through that.

They say, "Oh, that's just another song about a breakup." That is not true, and that's not a conscious process. People don't know that they can feel the fakeness out of a song, but they just don't listen to it, and you can see it in the numbers. The song's not working. 

But if you are really honest, you're singing something that means something to you, it means something to people. Actually, many of the songs that have worked for me come from really sad moments, really difficult moments. And I understand that every time I have a moment that I'm not happy, I know a great song is going to come out of that.

I actually believe in writing the best song you can write every time you sit down with the guitar. I have to do that.

Sometimes I feel sad. Sometimes I feel like writing a love song. Sometimes I don't want to write at all. I think you have to be honest with what you do because people can notice that.

Every time I'm writing a sad song, it's because I felt sad in that way. I've written a lot of songs that don't mean anything, and it's really weird because you show them to people and they react like, “Yeah, it's good. It's a good song.” It's a good-enough song. It's a six out of 10, but it doesn't connect. That's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for connection.

In "Preguntas Que Me Hago," I was really sad that day, and not because of a particular thing that happened to me. I just felt sad, and I wrote this song that's one of the best songs I've written. I think it's really personal, and I think it transmits, and I don't know why.

It's just a vibe I got that day, and it means something because it was honest. I felt like that, and you can feel that when I'm singing the song. And that's something that sometimes you cannot achieve in the studio. Sometimes you want to write a great song, but you're just not connected to whatever you have to be connected to.

But when you are, you have to go through with that.

I do, actually, because it was a pretty special moment. I had been watching a whole lot of artists on MTV. MTV was really huge at that time, and I remember watching a Top 10 countdown. I loved it. I loved the videos and the whole pop culture thing with music, but I didn't know what guitars were. 

I didn't know what music was. And my dad used to work at a radio station. He was a radio host, and somebody in his workplace was selling an electric guitar. I'd never seen an electric guitar in my life. One December, when I was 12 years old, he brought this electric guitar home. I just saw it and knew this was what was making all these things that I loved, and now I have this guitar.

It was his guitar, but I just took it away from him, and now I had the opportunity to belong to that world that I was watching through MTV.

Well, actually, many times I forget who I wrote the song for because when I wrote the song, it was like two years ago, and I just forget. Sometimes I do send people songs I've written. The "Super Poder" one is about my girlfriend, and I wrote it with her in front of me. It's the only time in my life that I've written a song with the person I am writing it to in front of me. That's just weird. 

Some people just know, then they write to me like, "Oh, you wrote that song about me," and it's weird. It's always weird because, I don't know, it's really personal. So people saying, like, "Oh, the song's about me," and I always deny everything.

Even if they see through it and they know that it's about them, I just say, "No, no, that's not about you," because I don't want to face that. It's like talking to a psychologist. You don't want people to know what you're talking to your psychologist about.

Heartbreak is all over life. I think heartbreak is great because heartbreak makes you see inside of yourself and makes you change things that are not working for you.And I am in love with change. I think change is one of the best things you can do with your life at any moment. So I am not afraid of heartbreak.

I think every person who makes music is continually heartbroken by the industry, by songs, by... I don't know. And that is a good thing. I think that makes you work harder.

And when they break your heart in love, it makes you work harder on yourself and on finding someone that actually is worth it because you cannot change it. Even if you, I don't know, if you grow old with someone, that person is going to die. So you're going to be heartbroken.

So you have to just find someone that's worth it. And that's like, I've broken up with many people, and it hurt. Some people have hurt me. I've hurt people too, and that is fine. You always find someone who is better for you in the moment.

And that's what happened with my girlfriend. I never thought I would find someone like her, and I'm really, really happy, and she's worth it.

I don't know if she's going to break my heart. I hope not, because I'm really in love. But if she does, it's worth it because she's just a great person, and I love being with her.

And that's what you have to find in life, in your job, in your friends. Just find people who are worth the pain.