Cuba libre

Latin music’s fastest-rising star, Alex Cuba, is confident and ambitious, but can his Spanish-language love songs crack the English-speaking market?

"I'm gonna receive angry phone calls from some government officials,” laughs Alexis Puentes. “They’ll accuse me of increasing the populations of some countries! I know there are a lot of people making babies to my music.”

Puentes may have some cause for concern. The Cuban-born singer-songwriter and guitarist best known by his stage name, Alex Cuba, has been honing the craft of integrating Latin sounds into smooth, soulful slow jams since he released his first solo album, Humo de Tobaco, back in 2004. Last year, a Boston Globe reviewer, caught up in the steamy romance of an Alex Cuba performance during South by Southwest, compared the Canadian entertainer to two of the all-time kings of pillow-talk soul: Al Green and Marvin Gaye.

Puentes accepts those comparisons with cool confidence. Hitting the right tone with get-you-in-the-mood music is “hard to do,” he insists during a recent stop in Toronto. “It has to be warm, and it can’t be cheesy. So much Latin music is full of cheesy keyboards, man.”

The scion of a highly musical family — his father, Valentin Puentes, is a guitarist and music teacher, and Alex used to play with brother Adonis as the Puentes Brothers — Alex Cuba is determined to set himself apart from people’s preconceived notions around Latin music. He shrugs off the surge of interest around pre-revolutionary Cuban sounds that began with the mainstream rise of the Buena Vista Social Club artists.

“Most people come see a Cuban artist because Latin music makes them think about the trip they went on to Latin America, and they want to relive feelings from that trip. I noticed right away that Latin music in Canada was playing right into that,” he sighs, citing artists who play residencies at tiny restaurants and clubs as an example.

“Lady, let me tell you that I have fans who’d never heard Latin music before. How [do you as a musician] respect yourself when you play to the same audience every night, in a place where there’s no cover? Your songs don’t say anything about you. It says more that you want to show people a non-serious side of yourself, and that leads to you making no living off music.”

Though he sings primarily in Spanish, Puentes is invested in pop music’s universal storytelling. He’s said his third and latest solo album is self-titled because he’s speaking straight from the heart. It’s a collection of upbeat, engaging tunes that combine smart Latin accents — funky horns, reggaeton rhythms, clever Cuban guitar riffs — with a prevailing pop sensibility. And in the spirit of Marvin Gaye, most of his tunes are swooning tributes to the power of love.


Puentes tried to “break the ice,” as he puts it, with mainstream audiences by including “If You Give Me Love,” his first English-language track. “As an artist, you’ve gotta embrace development and take the risks that will put you in front of more people. If you’re just gonna stay in your comfort zone, then drop it now.” But even if many listeners don’t quite grasp the specifics of what he’s talking about most of the time, Puentes is confident that they’ll understand precisely what he’s trying to say.

“The way I choose to talk about love is different. I find that the way I’m writing, people are enjoying my words, because the way I write the words is very tight to the melody. They have to fit like a glove. I think that provokes joy in the listener. And a lot of music is all about, ‘She left me and I don’t know what to do.’ My music is the other way around — I don’t talk about pain. At first, I was thinking there must be something wrong with me. Why am I so happy? I [worried that] people would only want to hear music about pain.

“I saw Manu Chao in an interview some time ago,” he continues. “I was so happy, because he was validating everything I’ve done. He said that he writes music most of the time when he’s mad or frustrated about something. Music is therapy to him. But he admits that it’s harder to write a song when you’re happy. He said that when he himself is happy, the last thing he wants to do is grab a guitar — he wants to go get a beer. But he also said that what the world needs is positive messages. And I feel so good about the fact that people say to me, ‘Whenever I put in one of your albums and press play on my stereo, I feel good.’ ”

The two-time Juno winner wants to prove he can make Spanish-language pop music that connects with fans who span a broad (read: non-Spanish-speaking) demographic. It’s a daunting goal for a guy based in the decidedly non-Latino, non-funky enclave of Smithers, BC, but if recent evidence is to be trusted, Puentes seems to be defying all expectations.

Though he’s busy promoting Alex Cuba in Canada, Puentes has also been plugging his second album, Agua del Pozo, which recently received a proper release in the US after having come out in Canada in 2008. There’s been a lot of interest in Alex Cuba Stateside, which may have had something to do with his high-profile collaboration with Nelly Furtado — he co-wrote and performed on a number of tracks from Furtado’s recent Spanish-language album, Mi Plan, including the title track. After an NPR interview a few weeks back, Agua del Pozo shot to No. 2 on the iTunes US Latin charts. Puentes is thrilled about the attention he’s receiving, but he’s still angling for massive mainstream success.

“You’re talking to a one-of-a-kind representative of the Cuban wave of musicians that has come to Canada,” he offers. “For some reason [that] I don’t understand myself, I’ve always had a very capitalistic view of music. If you write music, you have something to sell. In Cuba, they don’t look at it that way. I say this because most Latin musicians, Cuban musicians, we have very little marketing skills, and we come here with the idea that someone is going to come to us and see that we’re good musicians, and save us. I’ve always been very ambitious, and my dream is to get somewhere. It’s what drives me.”