Diandra Reviews It All-Interviews Distrito Especial: Earth Is A Privilege

Imagine spending 26 years away from your band, and deciding to reunite, make new music, and then a pandemic hits. For Distrito Especial, this is, exactly, what happened, but it only gave them more purpose. The years have helped and taught them how to convey bigger ideas they always carried like, compassion and equality. In my interview with keyboardist/ vocalist, Carlos Iván Medina, we discuss what the world needs right now and how music provides it.

Diandra: It has been 26 years since your last album, and it feels pertinent. Do you feel like you were destined to return now?

Carlos: Incredible! I mean we, literally, finished the album before the pandemic, and decided we should release it during the pandemic. It just made more sense in terms of its topics. I think that the years have matured us, and given us the words to express what we have felt. Life gives you more experiences to write about and teaches you how to argue for your ideas. It is as if time teaches your how to be your own person.
Distrito Especial – No Tire Tanta Bala (Cover Audio)

Diandra: Is there something you learned in particular or a specific idea born in that time?

Carlos: I think the last 26 years were vast in experiences. I mean it is such a long time; how could we not grow and study life. We have fed our souls by, literally, by becoming more spiritual and being better people. We are way better people now than 26 years earlier.

Diandra: You sing to injustice and loss, what do you feel the world has lost through so much to it?

Carlos: I feel like we are, personally, a little privileged, but the world has been destroying itself, and humanity has failed to see that even having an earth, where we can live upon, is a privilege. We are a plague to this earth, and you can see it with how pollution has gone down and animals are roaming more since the pandemic. It is as if the earth is showing us that she does better without us, but we do nothing without her. I wish more people realized that.
Distrito Especial & Andrea Echeverri – Santa Fe (Bogotá) (Video Oficial)

Diandra: So how do we resolve that inhumanity? Can music?

Carlos: Money is the root of all evil. As long as we remain tethered to its power and the very need of it to live on earth, we won’t be able to see that we are killing ourselves, and things are getting worse. Money corrupts, and it makes us, literally, break the earth just to get it. We will tear through a mountain to get gold; not realizing that mountain is more vital to our continued existence than the gold it carries. We gave given gold its value but that mountain gives us life, and our music hopes to remind people that we need to reanalyze how we have lived and valued life in order to remain alive.

Diandra: Is that what you feel you have done with “No Tire Tanta Bala?”

Carlos: Sometimes, words can hit harder than bullets. That song is about how we are not really kind to each other, and that song is about asking the world for more kindness. We need to be more loving with each other.

A lot of our songs are about the past, and it is so curious how the pandemic made these themes clearer to people. These are all old topics based on old situations. I feel like the pandemic will make people more reflective on the value of their life; trying to see how they have impacted and helped others. It is a very introspective time because we are all realizing how much we need, in terms, of needing to help and a need to be helped.

Diandra: Does music provide that needed help?

Carlos: Definitely! Music is our conscious in away. It is especially the conscious of society, and I think that the pandemic will change music, especially in terms of its obsession with glam and bigness. I think people are going to want more simplicity and music that is more anchored to the earth and how people are living.
Distrito Especial – Eso Es (Video Oficial)

Diandra: How do you feel musicians are apart of that anchoring?

Carlos: I have always thought musicians are very privileged because our work is so spiritual. Music IS a spirit; so it allows us to get more spiritual and be open to the reality that we have to save ourselves. If you are aware of music, especially sounds and pitches, you understand just how music, at its core, can cure people’s hearts. The sounds and lyrics have a way of telling us what we need to hear. They let us accept profundity with more open arms.

Diandra: How do you see your new song “Bogota” like a love letter to the city?

Carlos: Bogota is like my crib. It is where I grew and made me who I am. I was born there, met my wife there, and discovered my talents right there. This song is a declaration of love to the city. It may have a lot of issues, which is why the song is about how we love this city, but will love it more when it loves all its citizens equally.

For More Information On Distrito Especial Click Here.