¿Para qué?

The story behind

What for? sounds like an electric sigh between two chords. It’s not a long song — just two minutes and fifteen seconds — but in that time, all the questions that have no answers fit. The track progresses with a guitar that seems to walk in circles, as if each note were a misstep before landing in the same place. There are no grandiloquent choruses or elaborate bridges; just a melody that repeats, but with a different nuance each time, as if the performer isn’t sure where it’s headed.Calamaro recorded it in Uruguay, where he began moving between rock and blues bands before becoming a key figure. Before he was the Calamaro we know, he played the bandoneon as a child, then the electric guitar, and later the piano with his teacher Osvaldo Calo. In those years, he passed through groups like Raíces, where he debuted as a keyboardist, and later the Chorizo Colorado Blues Band, a fleeting project with his friend Augusto Gringui Herrera. Afterward, he tried his luck with a group that imitated The Platters, but ended up leaning toward rock. It was in this back-and-forth that he met Héctor Zeta Bosio, who invited him to join The Morgan, a local band that included Gustavo Cerati on guitar. Later, when Stress — the group featuring Cerati, Bosio, and others — evolved into Proyecto Erekto, Calamaro was already on his way to defining his own sound.