Raul Midon: The Reason I Stand

Raul Midon , USA

Date Posted: 10/29/07

Reader Rating:

Raul Midon is a New Mexico-born, New York-based writer/vocalist/guitarist who - after paying his dues as a professional musician, opening for the likes of Shakira and Julio Iglesias - decided to give being an artist a try. The evolution was accompanied by a shocking change in landscape, but it's a trade off Midón was willing to make, since it meant living out his "raison d'être." It also gave him a chance to channel the alternate universe of his childhood into his most recent album A World Within A World, which he has been promoting on his current world tour. Orato.com caught up to Midón on the night of his last show in North America, and this is what he said about his music and the human condition. Video courtesy of CBS.

My latest album is entitled A World Within A World. My world right now is New York City. I live in midtown Manhattan, and I’m very lucky to have an apartment with a south-facing terrace. I actually get sun in the middle of New York. (laughs) When I first got to New York and got the apartment, I hated it because it was small, but then I visited other people and saw how they were living. I came to appreciate my little one-bedroom apartment…not a studio; an actual apartment. Of course, in this business, you travel a lot, so I’m not there that much.

I was born in New Mexico and went from there to Miami, and then to New York. The shift in landscape was intense. I didn’t really have an urban background at all, and so the transition to New York was really quite a big shock. There’s no comparison.

I moved to New York for the music scene. It was very simply to further my career as an artist; there was no other reason. I just realized that I had done everything I was going to do in Miami; I had done background work for all kinds of big artists – I had toured with Shakira, Julio Iglesias et cetera - and I knew that was the top of the ladder there. I didn’t want to be a background singer anymore. I wanted to at least give being an artist a try.

The difference when you’re an artist is that you’re always, in some way, expressing your beliefs and values about the world. An artist has to connect with his or her own identity and then transmit that identity to the audience, whereas when you’re a professional musician, it’s about being competent.