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J Balvin will be releasing new music soon, as will The Pokémon Company.
Following the Pokémon Day 25th anniversary virtual concert on Saturday February 27, titled by Post Malone, a somewhat ambiguous ending card appeared on screen with the names of Balvin and Katy Perry. Rolling stone has learned that Balvin and Perry – who was billed as the face of Pokémon’s P25 celebration campaign in January – are creating original songs as part of a 14-track album titled Pokémon 25: The Album. It will feature music from 11 different Universal Music Group (UMG) artists and will be released by Capitol Records in the fall.
On the phone with Rolling stone from Miami, Balvin said his song was not over yet, but was close. The reggaeton superstar added that he just couldn’t stop sifting through the sounds of Pokémon games and TV episodes, trying to create a single that will appeal to fans in his world and that of Pikachu. “We will find a crazy song. This will catch everyone’s ear, ”says Balvin Rolling stone. “It’s easy to make a Pokémon song if you just want that fan base, but we’re not narrow-minded. We want everyone to vibrate with Pokémon. “
Fans have previously speculated that Perry had a song up his sleeve when a promo clip included his voice singing the word “electric,” but that wasn’t official until now.
News on the album comes two days after Post Malone released a cover of Hootie and the Blowfish “Only Wanna Be With You”, one of the compilation’s 14 songs. “I’ve always been a fan of the band and of Darius, [this song is] one of my favorites, and it was super fun to cover, ”said Post Malone Rolling stone in a report. “The song came out 25 years ago, which is also around the time Pokémon debuted.”
Rolling stone wasn’t able to reach Katy Perry in time for this story, but Anton Monsted – executive vice president of soundtracks and A&R at Capitol Music Group, who is running the project – says he heard a first demo of the song while it was still in development, and points out that he immediately wanted to play it on a loop: “It’s a sign that you’re sitting on something awesome. And it’s a very ‘Katy Perry’ song. He says fans don’t need to understand the Pokémon connection to enjoy it. “Katy Perry exudes the joy and playfulness that are synonymous with the Pokémon brand,” said JC Smith, senior director of consumer marketing at The Pokémon Company.
Perry, Balvin, and another superstar, whose identities remain a secret, have P25 music videos on the way, as well as one or more “exclusive merchandise collections celebrating every artist and Pokémon on their 25th anniversary.” There isn’t a lot of additional information on the other songs, but UMG reps have confirmed that Post Malone did the only cover. The rest of the album will be filled with originals by “some of the hottest new artists from around the world”.
When asked specifically if artists from Asian territories were involved, especially since The Pokémon Company is a Japanese company, representatives were not available for comment.
Balvin describes Pokémon as a religion for many. “In a beautiful way… They love it, they know what they want and they know every detail of the game,” he says.
“It’s easy to make a Pokémon song if you just want that fan base, but we’re not narrow-minded. We want everyone to vibrate with Pokémon. “- J. Balvin
He hopes his song, which is produced by close collaborators Tainy and Sky, will be finalized in the coming weeks. Balvin explains that he is very careful with the process. He wants to honor the grassroots fan base, while also making the song accessible to the masses – and, of course, cool. He wants people to hear the song out of context and be blown away when they find the connection.
Balvin says his involvement is not “just business.” Born in 1985, he was 10 or 11 when the franchise launched. He fondly remembers playing Pokémon games on his gray Gameboy and learning more about the character’s personalities from the TV show. “I would never do something that doesn’t reflect my identity,” he says.
Balvin was initially approached to create the song last year, but he says “the mood was so bad” during the intense Covid-19 lockdowns and the social and political protests that rocked the world in 2020. (He even contracted the virus himself, and it took him about three months to feel normal again.) “We were like, ‘Let’s start from zero in 2021 and do it right,’” he recalls.
The song’s lyrics are entirely in Spanish, and Balvin is delighted: “The globalization of our music in Spanish is increasing.” He says he hopes the Spanish song ends up being the biggest on the record, and the thought of what that would mean for the Latin community motivates him.
With this music and other projects he’s currently working on, Balvin says he’s “looking for different ways to uplift not only me, but our culture and lifestyle,” adding that he loves to stretch different creative muscles. . (Another Nike Jordan is not out of the question, for example.) “I try to find ways to connect with the world, knowing the situation the whole world is going through. We have to connect with people, ”he says.
“Exploring, meeting a diverse group of people and Pokémon, overcoming obstacles and working together to achieve something big, are fundamental parts of Pokémon,” says Smith of The Pokémon Company. “From the start, our creative discussions focused on finding artists who were fun and who exuded the feeling you get when you escape into the Pokémon world.”
Capitol’s Monsted points out that the project is only both a soundtrack and not a soundtrack. “What we’re doing is a bit unusual… it doesn’t refer to a unique cinematic experience. We reflect the values, ethics and feel of the Pokémon world through these songs. And I think each will lean on the other to tell a story.
He says Capitol worked with The Pokémon Company on developing a “creative brief” for artists for several months. “We wanted to give them maximum creative freedom to create something that is uniquely their interpretation… And at the same time, you have to put some kind of parameters in place. I know this as a creative person. If someone says, “Come on, write me a story. Here is an endless amount of time and blank pages. Go ahead and do something right, I never will. With the thesis, he used a similar approach to ordering songs for films. Ultimately, the album will reflect “different genres and different points of view”, while also focusing on universal concepts such as “the positive embodiment of competition, growth and training that gives results”.
Monsted adds that having a history with Pokémon was a big factor. He says Capitol was fortunate enough to have enough time, which is hard to find in his business, allowing his team to research and vet artists in consideration for this project. “If we don’t find the organic and real relationship between artists and Pokémon, I’m afraid we’ll end up with a compilation record that doesn’t refer to the world,” he says, noting that audiences are fond of sniffing out the world. ‘inauthenticity. “We have to show that respect to the public, otherwise they won’t believe in us next time.”
At the time of the creation process, the final artists were geographically dispersed and united by technology. “We have a lot of digital recording on our side,” says Monsted, who confirms that the artists had to rely on Zoom and FaceTime to bring this project to the finish line.
Submitting music and posting is just one of the many finish lines. P25 is a “permanent and permanent activation,” according to Monsted, with different types of experiences and surprises in store.
When asked if The Pokémon Company plans to use the music from the album in future Pokémon projects such as TV shows, movies, commercials, events, or games, Smith explained that the songs were meant to be a ‘capsule celebration’ on the 25th anniversary: ”While other uses aren’t planned at this time, Pokémon is full of surprises, so I can’t say we won’t be thinking of something. “
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