It’s been three years since the wild child of music has recorded a hit. After seemingly disappearing from the spotlight, he’s back and ready for a party. Famed producer and artist A.B. Quintanilla was secretly recording his highly anticipated album, La Vida de un Genio, which takes a hint at Carlos Santana’s Supernatural. It’s a musical feast for the ears, featuring some of the top artists in Latin music today, such as Luis Enrique, Gilberto Santa Rosa, and Jon Secada, just to name a few. However, La Vida de un Genio is more than a reunion with some of Quintanilla’s favorite musicians. It’s also a tribute to his father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr., the man he wholeheartedly describes as “the main reason behind my decision to become a musician.” The album wasn’t meant to be a “comeback” as some in the media have implied, but more of a tool for Quintanilla to reconnect with his fans and family. The result is one of his most passionate collections of songs to date, which also features his handiwork at Latin electronica, a genre being popularized in nightclubs today. Make no mistake, Quintanilla is ready to take over airwaves once more. While in New York City, he chatted with nocheLatina about his hiatus, Los Dinos reuniting, and the geniuses he’s encountered.
nocheLatina: How are things going for you lately?
A.B. Quintanilla: I’m doing fantastic. I’m here in New York City and just had a great breakfast. Things are good, life is great.
nocheLatina: It must be pretty exciting with the People en Espanol party happening.
A.B. Quintanilla: You don’t even know! When they just said party, my light just goes on. It could be anything and if there’s a party involved, I’m good to go.
nocheLatina: Why has it taken three years for you to finally release your new album?
A.B. Quintanilla: I was on my last album with EMI and they wanted me to resign. They had a different president at the time and I didn’t want to resign. It was almost like going through a divorce so it went back and forth for a little bit…three years passed and we resolved things. It was good for me to still stay in the same company, but with a different president. I’m now super excited about the new record.
nocheLatina: What were you up to during the hiatus?
A.B. Quintanilla: I was producing albums for Veronica and Cristian Castro. I was also touring occasionally.
nocheLatina: How is your new album different from anything that you’ve done before?
A.B. Quintanilla: It’s different because I have 10 cuts and there’s 17 different artists participating on the album. About 90% of them have sold over a million albums and won several Grammys. They’re all very well known.
nocheLatina: You must have been very selective on which artists you wanted to work with. How did these artists help shape your new sound?
A.B. Quintanilla: I selected the sound of the album first and then decided on what the basic rhythm was going to sound like. After that, I wrote songs according to the style of each person that came on the album.
nocheLatina: I read in a past article, and you can correct me if I’m wrong-
A.B. Quintanilla: If it’s about Monica Lewinsky, I had nothing to do with that!
nocheLatina: No, she wasn’t involved this time.
A.B. Quintanilla: OK, good.
nocheLatina: I read that your new music incorporates a lot of electronica. Is that correct?
A.B. Quintanilla: That’s very correct. I’ve taken cumbia, mixed it with a little Lady Gaga electronica, and fused it with some Euro pop and a powerful brass.
nocheLatina: Electronica right now is huge, especially with artists like Lady Gaga. What are your thoughts on Latin artists exploring electronica?
A.B. Quintanilla: I think it’s wonderful when Latinos follow the way. It’s very important. Music changes every three months and you have to meet the demands. You can’t keep serving the same hamburger. You have to put in a different spice on it every time.
nocheLatina: It was also mentioned that the title of your album pays tribute to both your father Abraham and your sister Selena. Why was it important for you to pay tribute to them now?
A.B. Quintanilla: Well, it was a tribute to my dad. It was just very important for me to say what I needed to say in the album. I wanted to say it through the way he taught us to express ourselves, which was music. I wanted to give him a beautiful gift. I wrote the songs and they speak of him. It was done in an enigmatic way. I’ve never written a song like that and it feels like its part of a movie’s soundtrack. It’s very epic. It was something personal that I had to do for myself and I think the fans will really enjoy it.
nocheLatina: Has your father gotten a chance to hear the album?
A.B. Quintanilla: Oh yeah!
nocheLatina: What was his response?
A.B. Quintanilla: Oh, he loved it. 'La Vida de un Genio,' which is sung by Jon Secada, is a beautiful, melancholy single. It’s not a happy song. It tells the story of how sometimes geniuses are misunderstood. Our relatives couldn’t understand my dad. They thought he was crazy when he was trying to get his kids to be professionals at a young age. They would say, ‘You guys are crazy. You’re broke, you don’t have anything, you’ll never amount to anything.’ Those same relatives had to eat it when we were breaking records and performing at sold-out shows.
nocheLatina: You guys had the last laugh.
A.B. Quintanilla: Yes. You can call the guy that invented toilet paper a genius. Genius comes in different shapes and sizes. The guy that invented the barf bag for airplanes is a genius. I actually met that guy. Sometimes being a genius is as easy as 1-2-3. It’s not as complicated as one would think.
nocheLatina: I’ll make sure to remember that the next time I get on a plane.
A.B. Quintanilla: Next time you get on a plane and you see a barf bag, think of me and how I met the guy who invented it. It’s amazing. He has a $10 million home and he made it by making barf bags. I wish I thought of that. Sometimes songs are the same way. I wish I had written ‘La Macarena,’ but I didn’t. Genius doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be like Einstein. If you think about a lot of the geniuses throughout history they’re very misunderstood because they’re sometimes ahead of their time.
nocheLatina: Talk about Los Dinos reuniting again.
A.B. Quintanilla: I met up with my sister Suzette one night. She was talking about how sad she was that she wasn’t performing anymore. I was like, ‘You know what sis, I’m gonna get you to perform again.’ I invited her on the album and we got all the Dinos together. After that, we needed someone to sing the song and that person was Jose Feliciano. He did an amazing job. Suzette played the drums. I’m really grateful that Los Dinos helped me out with this project. It puts a special touch to the album and gives fans a little extra something.
nocheLatina: During the three years that you’ve been making this album, what were some of the surprising things that you discovered about yourself?
A.B. Quintanilla: It’s been a hard three years. Music is my life and when I wasn’t able to make music I was really sad about it. I’m really happy that I was given the opportunity. Hopefully we’re going to have a great summer.
nocheLatina: It’s no surprise that the music industry has changed during those three years. Are you worried about how listeners will respond to your new album?
A.B. Quintanilla: No, I’m not too worry about it because I do extensive studying before I go in. I did about four months worth of studying and it’s just trial and error. It was all about coming up with a sound that I believe in and would be good for this year and the next. For example, when you listen to a Selena song these days, like ‘Amor Prohibido,’ it still sounds like it was recorded yesterday. I like to do my music like that where it doesn’t really sound dated. I’m not gonna lie, some of my albums do sound that way, but I’m hoping that this one sounds nice and fresh and stays that way for the next three-four years.
nocheLatina: What are your plans for the summer?
A.B. Quintanilla: Just to tour. This is the first time where I’ve ever focused on the U.S. I’ve had favoritism to a president in Mexico and the minute that I would finish an album I would head straight to Mexico. This is the first time that I’m putting 1,000% percent on the U.S. before heading to foreign territory.
nocheLatina: I read that you were having difficulty in finding new inspiration at the studio for this album. Describe some of those challenges that you faced and how you overcame them.
A.B. Quintanilla: I lost total faith in myself. Sometimes we lose ourselves as writers or producers because we’re our worst critics. I would push myself in and went in four months, 12 hours a day at the studio and didn’t come up with anything. It’s about finding that sound. Once I found it, it was sitting right in front of my nose. Everything then clicked into place. Within 52 days, we wrote 10 tracks with 17 different artists. You could imagine how much work we were doing within those 52 days.
nocheLatina: What do you hope fans will get out of this new album?
A.B. Quintanilla: I hope they dance to it, enjoy it, and love it. If you go to iTunes and read the comments fans are leaving, they’re all beautiful. Some will say things like ‘Man, I’m really not a big fan of A.B., but I love this song.’ I just want people to love the music. I want to thank the fans for waiting these three years, which have been the longest of my life. I want them to now sit back and watch the show.
La Vida de un Genio debuts on Tuesday, July 27th.
