“Being a Texan and being able to succeed internationally is very difficult.”, confesses Bobby Pulidowho after taking 9 years to release an EP, did it and ‘Para Que Baile Mi Pueblo’ received a nomination for ‘Best Tejano Music Album’ at the 2022 Latin Grammys.
We speak exclusively with the singer-songwriter who in these 27 years of career maintains the same love for his music as for his audience. Defending craft music, but taking the best of the new era, like owning his own career and destiny.
And he confesses that, although the digital age brings him closer to the public, nothing beats a hug, a chat and a photo with his fans.
-It’s been 9 years until you decided to release an album again, and you’ve already won a Latin Grammy nomination.
Bobby Pulido: Suddenly I did release a song here or there, but I already said: “I’m going to release 5 songs on an EP”, and we did have the joy of being nominated for the Latin Grammy, this song ‘Para Que Baile Mi Pueblo’by an Argentine named Aníbal Pastor, excellent composer, producer. That song had been recorded by Guardians of Love 22 years agobut in a style that was very Colombian, very vallenato. The message of the lyrics is basically that music unites usno matter if you are rich or poor, music moves everyone.
–You always sought to unite those from here and those from there, how important was it to you?
Bobby Pulido: Well, it’s important because at the beginning of my career, I am from here, from Endimburg, a town in Texas, here we are close to the border with Reynosa… In Selena’s movie, when the big James Edward Olmos was saying there in the movie, it is more difficult for the Texan because you are neither from here nor from there… You are not Mexican and you are also not gringobecause Anglo Americans here in Texas see me as Hispanic. Being a Texan and being able to succeed in this like music, already at an international level, is very difficult I even dare to say more difficult than any other genre.
It took me a lot of work, especially because we Texans speak mainly in English and because we go to school, in schools it’s all English, Even in elementary school, at that time, they slapped you if you spoke Spanish because the teachers didn’t want to hear Spanish.… It has limited us a lot in the way of promoting our music, of making it and it does cost us double work but it’s fine.
–What about your children? How do you defend both languages with them?
Bobby Pulido: Well, it’s kind of complicated. I was married for 17 years to my first wife, she is Texan and mainly also speaks English, so my children with her are not very fluent in Spanish… The smallest is Rodrigo, my current wife is from Mexico City, she is Mexican and she speaks to him 100% in Spanish, so obviously he is going to be much more bilingual. than my other children, than their brothers, I speak to them in 2 languages.
-How do you see the acceptance of Latinos within the United States, considering that you were part of that process?
Bobby Pulido: I have seen it evolve. When I started, I went to promote in California, there has always been a non-Mexican market, ‘Mexican plus’I believe that they are even more proud of their Mexican roots than of the Mexicans themselves living in Mexico, they are nationalists to die for. Being Pocho, they didn’t peel me very welland I remember an interview, with a radio announcer, who told me: “You don’t speak Spanish well, do you? You mainly speak English”…
The truth is that I did not speak Spanish very well at that time.… As he said in a derogatory way, and I told him: “Do you have children? Your children are going to be the same as me”… Later you heard a Jenni Rivera speaking in English, Lupillo Rivera, the kids from Montes de Durango.
-You just released an EP, do you like this vibe of releasing songs and trying them out, or do you miss the preparation and release of the album with all the songs?
Bobby Pulido: I like certain old things, and I also like certain new things. I think it is a two-edged sword. Previously you recorded an album, and you didn’t know which song you were going to likeyou had no idea the record companies got involved a lot in what they said is going to promote this and you had no voice, no votebecause ‘the experts’ were them… What I did like a lot back then was how music was recorded, there was no digital music. Nowadays gigital is recorded and they can edit you and make you listen to the most beautiful thing you can imagine. Today there are many who do not sing, and it is a studio trick. Back then, when you recorded, you recorded everything with the group, and you had to be all on the same page for it to sound good. Nowadays no, no one has to be there, no more you and you record with a track and the others come later, and I don’t like that.
But what I like about today is how we can promote our music, because you already take away the power, they are no longer the masters of your destiny.Just like radio and record companies used to be, today people can select what they want to listen to with digital platforms, and they don’t have to listen to what the program says they do have to listen to.
-What did you discover in this new era of immediacy and closeness to the public?
Bobby Pulido: You can have virtual communication, but the truth It doesn’t compare to that contact of seeing them face to face, taking a picture of you is something very different… It was the most difficult being in COVID where you couldn’t get close to anyone… It even became an online concert, which the truth is, you didn’t feel anything because it was what you had… It doesn’t compare at all and it’s not a good substitute for what it is in a live show, hearing people chant, hearing the screams or seeing them, that’s something else.
-How do you prepare for a concert?
Bobby Pulido: On the day of the event I don’t like to talk to anyone, I don’t like to have contact with anyone, I become very antisocial, I think that in some way I am visualizing what I want to do that night, conserving energy. A very large audience sucks your energy, so that’s why sometimes after the show it’s sold out, I’m dead but I left everything there, then.
-What do you say to the public that during these 27 years has been with you? those who are added along the way, and those who never abandon you.
Bobby Pulido: Thank you, I know that and more today, there are many options, everything is already diluted, there are no longer I don’t know 10 television stations, there are 300, there are no longer radio stations, there are digital platformsthere are much more artists than there were before, so being able to be here, continue doing this, and really for the pleasure of the people, who allow me to continue doing this, thank you very much.
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