Early Life and Ekhymosis
Juanes was born in Carolina del Príncipe, Antioquia, Colombia. When he was seven years old, his father and brothers began to teach him how to play guitar. His passion for the instrument led him to discover diverse genres of music such as traditional Latin sounds such as tango and bachata, as well as Colombian folk music.
He grew up in Medellín during the height of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar's reign, when the city had the highest homicide rate in the world. During his childhood, Juanes witnessed a civil war in which thousands were killed. He was greatly affected by the violence; his cousin was executed by kidnappers, and his close friend was murdered by gunmen. This period of time shaped his social consciousness, saying "Colombia has suffered so much that the only way to go forward is to imagine a better country." His father also died of cancer when he was a child, which caused him to further retreat into music.
As a teenager, Juanes was greatly influenced by metal acts such as Metallica. He started the metal band Ekhymosis in 1988, and it released its self-produced debut album, Niño Gigante, the same year. The band released five studio albums during its career and shared the stage with acts including Alejandro Sanz, Aterciopelados, and Ricky Martin; however in Juanes' words, the band "couldn't get out of Colombia" and remained "very local and confined to the Colombian market." Juanes disbanded the group in 1998 so that he could pursue a solo career.
Read more about this topic: Juanes
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“He had long before indulged most unfavourable sentiments of our fellow-subjects in America. For, as early as 1769,... he had said of them, “Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for any thing we allow them short of hanging.””
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Without poets, without artists, men would soon weary of nature’s monotony. The sublime idea men have of the universe would collapse with dizzying speed. The order which we find in nature, and which is only an effect of art, would at once vanish. Everything would break up in chaos. There would be no seasons, no civilization, no thought, no humanity; even life would give way, and the impotent void would reign everywhere.”
—Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918)