Diandra Interviews Circo: Freeing Your Voice After Injustice

It has been 13 years since Circo has released an album, but the craziness of this times inspired music within them. For this Puerto Rican band, the journey of La Isla Del Encanto is reflective of their personal one: finding their voice. If you have been watching the protests or keeping posted on the pandemic then you know there is an overarching feeling of reckoning and a need for revolution. In their new album, Adios Hola, and in our interview, they discuss what it is to find, love, and protect yourself, even if it means taking to the streets. 

Diandra: Describe a moment when you said “adios” to one thing and “hola” to something? 

Jose David (drummer): I think we said goodbye to creative limits and hello to this album. We allowed ourselves to do new things like, produce ourselves. 

Jose Luis (lead singer):  We said goodbye to creative silencing, and hello to a new era of creative expression as a band. 
Circo – Tantos Años (Official Audio)

Diandra: Was there a specific moment that pushed you to release and refresh your band? 

Jose Luis: I think there were several moments that pushed us to renew and break free, especially in terms of all that Puerto Rico has gone through in the last few years. There had been an overarching feeling that a reset is needed, especially after Hurricane Maria in 2017. It had so many implications in our country because it was devastating and forced families to leave. This album was an album of changes and saying goodbye to the old ways, which is something we did when we peacefully pushed out Rossello. For many Puerto Ricans, particularly after Hurricane Maria, we had to say hello to a new way of living, and this album is about embracing change. 

Diandra: Hoe do you feel the protest of Puerto Rico connects with the BLM protests of today? 

Jose Luis: I see them as very similar in terms of so many protests that have come, around the world, where people are speaking up for and elaborating what are their rights. I think, with Obama, there was this feeling of accomplishing something so overdue, which was to see a black man in power. The world was excited, and it launched years of analyzing everything from sexism to racism and classism. People felt encouraged to speak up about how voiceless they had felt and been, but there is always a power struggle and, when you speak up, someone talks back. So you see it all over the world, even in Argentina and Mexico, groups of oppressed people speaking up for themselves and others groups rising to re-silence them. Puerto may be a small island, but it feels like a place that is very predictive of what is coming for the world like, our protests occurred and they spread throughout Latin America. I think our protests reminded people that we have to fight for our rights and woke them up to the fact that they don’t have them. 
Circo – Decir Adios (Official Audio)

Diandra: It is crazy because the protests against Rossello occurred because Hurricane Maria changed people, and then it was released that he was making fun of how many people died and how they died. It feels like the same with George Floyd and the pandemic; so many of us were on lockdown, struggling and losing work, and then we saw this man die so brutally and it felt like “ENOUGH!”  

Jose David: It is one of those moments where the hand, literally, got caught in the cookie jar as it was going for the cookie, and, I feel it relates to what Puerto Rico went through because, at the time of the protests, we had been through so much trauma and there was this feeling of I can’t accept another tragedy or, at least, someone making fun of our pain. It was a realization that the struggle never ends, which is why you have to fight. 

Jose Luis: When you witness a person of power, like our governor or Donald Trump, being so insensitive and so powerful, it is disgusting. Donald Trump is the scum of the earth. He is the most racist man in power. He has no empathy or tenderness or kindness. People see that and they feel so unsafe that they have to defend themselves; they have to protest and speak out. The cop that killed George Floyd did it plain sight: in front of everybody, on social media, and with no shame. It is shocking. Seeing that coldness and cruelty pushed people to say enough because it made people realize how insecure everything is, and Donald Trump supports that insecurity, he lives for it. He embodies that cop and that violent notion of “rule of law.” Right now, people are coming out to critique our system and we need to because we are in 2020 and we need to better our future and society. It strengthens me to see so many people realizing that.

Diandra: Do you think it is in the artist’s nature to speak out against injustice or is it a responsibility? 

Jose David: I think that, for us, it is natural. Not that we come out waving our flags, but we do take pride in our nation and we do, naturally, sing to injustice. I think the duty of the artist is not, necessarily, to reflect upon or speak out against injustice, but always assure that it is not normalized. 

Jose Luis: I think that it is natural because part of being an artist and gaining inspiration is having an awareness of your surroundings and putting it into art. We naturally sing to our lives: what we are experiencing and what motivates us. In our case, the tragedies that happened to Puerto Rico affected the nation, not just individuals, but the masses. We, as artists, reflect what happens to us individually and as an individual, apart of Puerto Rico, everybody’s life was disrupted together. Hence, Adios Hola reflects how all of us had to say hello and goodbye, all at once, to how we lived and how we were going to live post- Hurrican Maria. 
Circo – Si Tu Te Vas (Official Audio)

Diandra: Is that why the album has so many songs about love? 

Jose Luis: I think we sing to love in terms of relationships, but I also think we sing to everything. I think we sing to hope and gaining good luck. We sing to self-love and freedom and how you can gain both by leaving toxic relationships. We sing to connect with the nature and the world and this universal energy that is constantly floating around and can be apart us. We sing to everything that is relative. This record has been a celebration of us as artists, friends, and what we have gone through in life. It was about us uniting and enjoying each other. In our songs, we are the protagonists to these stories, but we sing to themes that everyone can relate to or has experienced. Hence, why it is so important to me, as an artist, to be observant. 

Diandra: Is there a particular film that inspires you musically?

Jose David: Life Is Beautiful. Every time I see that film I cannot describe how much I feel in watching it. It is sentimental, conscious, vulnerable, and overall elevated as a film experience. 

Jose Luis: Perks of Being A Wallflower. It is so beautiful and representative of what is to be an observant person. We never see a film that so focuses on the perspective of the shy person; the one that doesn’t speak or take center stage. 

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