Jorge Ruiz, from Maldita Nerea: I’m not interested in heartbreak songs

Maldita Nerea has been marking people’s lives for decades thanks to her music. Jorge Ruiz, vocalist and soul of this project, grants an interview to AS after the release of his new studio album, Manual for wonderful beings, where he recounts the adventures he experienced during the pandemic that took him to the bottom of the well. Next February 17, the Murcian returns to the stage of the Wizink Center in Madrid to meet his audience again five years after his last concert there.

Speech therapist by profession, Jorge Ruiz has always been very involved with education and childhood, which is why Behind this album, and her single Inevitable where she sings with her daughter Ma, is a very special initiative. A contest aimed at all schools that want to participate. Its mechanics? Very easy. They must send a video singing or dancing to this song to get as a prize, nothing more and nothing less, than a Maldita Nerea concert at her own study center.

The beginning

But how did the name Maldita Nerea come about? Jorge Ruiz tells us the story. Nerea is a name that I really like and I gave it to the music randomly; and damn because you can’t get rid of it. I can not. It is a way to bless her with a very beautiful name and curse her at the same time, explains the artist.

I don’t identify with the singer-songwriter theme. I don’t like to sing with my guitar, although I do it often. It’s not something I like. I always dreamed of making songs for a band, so Maldita Nerea started as a group; In fact, I tried not to sing, but I couldn’t. I ended up singing them, he adds between laughs.

The price of the fame

Although the band has managed to fill countless venues, the truth is that the Murcian maintains its essence and anonymity. Something he is delighted with. I took refuge behind Damned Nerea and the turtle. That has allowed me to be a practically anonymous character, nobody knows me. I wouldn’t trade anonymity for anything in the world, he says.

In his day to day, Jorge Ruiz You drive through the streets of Madrid with total normality. In fact, he confesses that he went by public transportation to one of his last concerts and entered through the door among some of his fans without them noticing anything.

The music industry

The performer has more than two decades of musical career behind him. He assures that, despite the fact that the music industry bears very little resemblance to that of its beginnings, it has managed to be faithful to its essence: There is a part that yes, we forget that this is about songs sung by artists, but in that order. As long as it is an industry dominated by songs, people like me will have a place.

Likewise, it has known how to adapt to the new way of communicating and to social networks: TikTok is something that I have found, it was not there when I started. It’s a new scenario for me. We are like babies ah. At first we were considered a visionary project on social networks, but it was not true. The secret of the turtles went viral thanks to YouTube. The people did it, not mehe states.

I always say that there is a personal evolution, but the things that interest me remain the same. I am interested in people’s talent, expressing emotionality, feelings. I am more interested in plenitude than absence, I have almost no songs about heartbreak because I am not interestedhe continues expressing.

Reject heartbreak songs

I have been in love for twenty years so I cannot write to you about anything else. That’s not very popular. The Secret of the Turtles is a song of philosophy and philosophy is not popular at all. I can’t help but be who I am, she assures us regarding the meaning of the lyrics of her songs. Everything is a bit autobiographical. I’m a very lucky guy, I always say it, I’m surrounded by love. Love has many nuances and I tell them in my songs, and I want to think that that is why they come, he adds.

Jorge Ruiz makes it clear that for him, music is a us. I don’t make many songs because it’s not that simple. There are people who make songs like churros. I want people to sing the songs, not dance to them. Let them give it meaning, let them interpret it like a singer, he says.

Manual for wonderful beings

The one from Murcia defines this album as the album that collects my adventures after the pandemic, a personal crisis of a new Jorge. What we have experienced has been very heavy, and I take that in. There are strange songs like Duele, that is already the bottom of the well, she says very sincerely.

Music is healing. If you listen to my previous repertoire, you don’t find songs like that. There is no light here, it is the bottom of the written well. I’m not used to that. It was tremendously uncomfortable, which is why it cost me so much. “I expressed my vulnerability,” he says regarding the creation process.