Drexler, with Warner Music Group and Wake App, Re-envisions Song as Software, Listener as Collaborator
Each Track Gives Users a New Way to Participate in the Creation of Lyrics and Music
The Oscar-winning recording artist Jorge Drexler is beloved for the beauty and intricate construction of his music and for the deft poetry of his lyrics. Critics have also hailed him as a keen observer of complex, timely themes such as technology and global interconnectedness, in addition to romance, religion and more.
All of these qualities make the innovative app n, which Drexler calls an aplicanción—a combination of aplicación (application) and canción (song)—a fitting next step in his career. Rather than release an album to be passively heard by listeners, Drexler has written and produced a series of new songs in which users of smartphones and tablets control the order of the lyrics (which he has written to make sense in any configuration); the instrumentation (from a full orchestra, singers and other musicians he recorded); and whether, and at what point in a song, other artists of Drexler’s stature sing the vocals. Created with Warner Music Group and Wake App, “n” represents a revolutionary approach to songwriting, in which, for the first time, songs are editable, and listeners become users. Users may export and share audio files with their edits.
n contains three original songs: “n1,” “n2” and “n3”; each is a unique interactive musical experience. “n1,” called “Habitación 316” (also playable in English as “Room 316”), explores what Drexler calls “combinatory poetry.” Each time the song starts, there is a new combination spontaneous text. As the song unfolds, users can play with the lyrics, freely arranging the verses and choruses Drexler sings. One can also choose, with touch of a button at any point in the song, to hear the song acoustic or with a full band. Touching the pause button, the user can see written the lyrics of the song as she or he has ordered it: what has already played as well as what remains to be combined. An almost infinite number of versions are possible and, with an in-app purchase, replayable and shareable via email and social networks. (Imagine the unprecedented issues of intellectual property, royalties, etc. that Drexler, Wake App and Warner Music Group have had to sort out.) To view a demonstration, visit YouTube.
“n2,” entitled “Driftwood” (“Madera de Deriva”) is a song about drifting through life, and in the app, listeners must drift to experience the song. Drexler recorded the tracks with some 80 musicians from la Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi (the Basque Country Symphonic Orchestra) and the KUP Taldea choir, conducted by the celebrated film composer Fernando Velázquez. Once users activate location services within the app, they can move throughout a place, unlocking, adding and subtracting sections of the orchestra. The experience is something like music-arrangement-by-scavenger hunt: At any given moment, the app tells the user the location of the next instrument of section of the orchestra that can be added. As with n1, versions of the song can be replayed and shared. To view a demonstration, visit YouTube.
To create “n3,” “Décima a la Décima” (“Décima to the Power of Ten”), Drexler invited an international and stylistically diverse group of distinguished singers—including René Pérez from Calle 13 (Puerto Rico), Kiko Veneno (Spain), Xoel López (Spain), Vitor Ramil (Brazil), Fernando Cabrera (Argentina), Martín Buscaglia (Uruguay), Kevin Johansen (Argentina / U.S.), Daniel Drexler (Uruguay) and Alex Ferreira (Dominican Republic)—to contribute vocals. Users can choose which of the ten singers sings each verse. To view a demonstration, visit YouTube.
n just surpassed 100,000 downloads and is the #1 best-selling music app in Spain, where Drexler lives and where the app was developed. It is now available and garnering critical praise in more than 40 countries worldwide.
About Jorge Drexler
Since 1992, the year in which he released his first album and graduated with a degree in medicine in his native Uruguay, the Madrid-based Jorge Drexler has been exceptionally and increasingly successful. In the last few years alone, he has received nominations in three consecutive Grammy Awards and four consecutive Latin Grammy Awards, and has won two Spanish Music Awards, in addition to the Oscar® he received for the song “Al otro lado del río,” from The Motorcycle Diaries. His was the first song in Spanish to win the award.
Drexler’s songs have been featured in numerous other films, including James Ivory’s The City of Your Final Destination, which he scored, and which stars Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney and Charlotte Gainsbourg. His original song for the Spanish/Brazilian co-production Lope, directed by Andrucha Waddington, earned him the GOYA Award (Spanish Arts & Cinematographic Academy award) for Best Original Song in 2011.
While he was making the n app, Drexler undertook another first recently: He starred in Argentine writer-director Daniel Burman’s film All In, which premiered in the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, winning the award for Best Screenplay for a Narrative Feature Film in the World Narrative Competition.