Fito Páez Talks Turning New Album ‘Novela’ Into a Film, ‘Horrifying’ Immigration Policies: Watch

At 62, Fito Páez maintains “the curiosity and desire” of the early years and an energy that doesn’t allow him to stop creating. Music above all, but also cinema and literature — passions he has been developing in parallel over the decades. And Novela, his latest album, might finally combine them all.

Created as a rock musical, the 25-song project — which Páez spent nearly 40 years writing and was finally released on March 28 under Sony Music Spain — tells the story of Villa Constitución, a town in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, where a strange circus arrives to revolutionize the lives of its inhabitants. Through songs such as “Universidad Prix,” “Cuando el Circo Llega al Pueblo,” “Superextraño” and “El Triunfo del Amor,” its unique characters are introduced: the school’s dean, Rectitud Martirius; the witches Maldivina and Turbialuz; the young lovers Loka (daughter of the circus owner) and Jimmy (singer of a rock band) and more.

“We’re already speaking with many producers to film the movie once the tour finishes next year,” Páez tells In Conversation with Billboard Español in New York. “And I’m also beginning an adaptation [to] perform Novela live in full, where the audience can go and see a show that isn’t a musical — it’s the band playing the album and everything happening at once.”

The release comes the same year as the 40th anniversary of Giros, the second studio album in his expansive discography and the one that truly launched his career, with classics such as “11 y 6,” “Cable a Tierra” and “Yo Vengo a Ofrecer Mi Corazón.”

“It’s similar to a beach, Giros. It’s like having arrived, after wandering so much in the river or the sea, and saying, ‘Ah, I’ve made it here,’” he reflects on what the 1985 set meant to him. “There are many elements there that define many things about the place where I was raised, where I learned music, where I was loved, and where I was shaped. It’s an album I care for deeply, and I think it was a strong first step in the direction of searching for a more personal voice.”

In this new installment of En Conversación, the singer of hits such as “El Amor Después del Amor,” “Tumbas de la Gloria” and “Mariposa Tecknicolor” also discusses current events such as the immigration policies that have led fans to avoid attending concerts in the U.S. out of fear of deportation (“It’s horrifying,” he says. “It reminds me of when, back in ’78, we were chased out of Serú Girán concerts during the military dictatorship, and they threw us in jail”); and the ban on narcocorridos in some states in Mexico (“It’s a cultural expression born from lived experiences … and now it’s the singers’ fault! No, guys, it doesn’t work that way”).

Watch the full interview in the video above.