Jorge Drexler Won't Release a Sequel to His Grammy-Nominated 'Tinta y Tiempo' Anytime Soon - Here's Why

The best things in life are worth waiting for. That seems to be the sentiment surrounding Jorge Drexler and 'Tinta y Tiempo' ('Ink and Time'), the doctor-turned-musician's 14th studio album that 'almost didn't happen', he tells Variety .

The album won the Latin Grammys this year, with the Uruguayan singer-songwriter winning six trophies, in very competitive categories with heavyweights like Bad Bunny and Shakira. At the 2023 Grammy Awards, he will also face champions such as Rosalía, Mon Laferte and Fito Páez for a Latin or alternative rock album (he was previously nominated in the category, in 2015 and 2018).

Drexler spoke to Variety about his award-winning record, which took two years and two weeks to complete.

In your three decades in music, you have described this album as the most empowering. What does it mean to see him recognized with so many accolades?

This is a wonderful overstatement to me, something completely unexpected just because of the [artists] talents who are nominated in these categories. These are artists from all over the world, it's an international race. And I'm so proud that this record... has this recognition. The isolation in the pandemic affected my songwriting process in a way that I wrote a lot, but couldn't finish the songs. I felt like having no one to play them to made the songs feel useless. I write to communicate and honestly, I don't write alone.

The collaborations are numerous on this album. Do you think there should be a deep connection with those you write with?

Yes, songwriting is very intimate. I consider [Ruben] Blades a friend, but he is [also] one of my main references. He is the most complete Spanish language songwriter I have ever met. C. Tangana is incredible too — he's the most interesting composer of his generation along with Rosalía and Bad Bunny, whom I admire a lot. But “Tocarte” [C. Tangana] and I wrote this song in six hours in an afternoon and it was finished, as you hear it today. We may have only added a piece of her vocals later, but the song was actually composed on day one.

Is there a song on the album that started it all for you?

The disc's opening track, "El Plan Maestro" [featuring Blades], was the first song I wrote for the album. It was co-written with my cousin, who is an astrophysicist from Venezuela. We grew up together and I asked her for inspiration — and she had this incredible view of the universe but from a scientific perspective. She said to me, “Did you know that love wasn't always there? and then explained that we, as biological entities, invented love a few million years ago when, for the first time, two cells decided to merge to form a new being created by the combination of two other beings - so technically that's where the concept of love originated.

Do you often bring your medical training to your musical creation?

For a long time I thought I wasted 10 years of my life in medical school, but I've been making music since I was 5 years old. So at one point I thought I shouldn't have gone to school, but from my seventh album I started introducing scientific views of love and the universe in my songwriting and it became a staple for me. I found a language of my own, and I think that's the most important thing for an artist. I see it more as a craft than an art sometimes.

Are you able to write on tour?

When I'm on tour, I enjoy the tour. I go out and see shows. Like in Puerto Rico, we saw Bomba Estereo and went out and danced to reggaeton; we went ...