“If you want to tune into the real sound of New York, turn to Juan Wauters, an artist who captures the authentic mix of immigrants and POCs that breathe life into the city” – KCRW
“Smooth, quirky, full of good feeling, humour and pathos in his epic quest to diarise the world around him.” – NARC
“A festive love letter to New York that will leave you yearning for sunny weather and good company”– Remezcla
“There’s no one out there like Wauters, who for almost a decade has been merging North and South American folk sounds as the backdrop for his sometimes cryptic, sometimes plain, often ironic and playful verses” – RIFF
“A lot of fun” – FADER
“Honest and raw lyricism” – HYPEBEAST
“Uplifting” – The Line of Best Fit
Today,Juan Wauters releases new album Real Life Situations, featuring collaborations with Mac DeMarco, Homeshake, Nick Hakim, Cola Boyy, El David Aguilar, and more, via Captured Tracks / Remote Control Records. His fifth solo album, Real Life Situationsis a delicate interplay between genre-hopping eclecticism and earnest, plain-spoken observation. Mining older songs, phone notes, new material, and snippets from TV and YouTube, he’s crafted an aural document of the year through his eyes. Jubilant choruses and spoken word poetry bleed into city noises and overheard conversations. Real freedom, the album suggests, comes not from gaining control, but from accepting its artifice. Listen to Real Life Situationshere.
Until recently, Wauters had viewed his solo project as just that – a singular expression of his artistic vision. A trip through Latin America while recording his last album, however, laid the groundwork for a different approach. Inviting local musicians to contribute to the songs he was working on produced a collection unlike any of his previous work, infused with the musical traditions of each country he’d visited. As a result, 2018’s ‘La Onda De Juan Pablo’ and its follow-up, ‘Introducing Juan Pablo’, were Wauters’ most expansive and sonically diverse records to date, tracing both his Uruguayan roots and his travellers’ spirit. OnReal Life Situations,he’s channeled this collaborative spirit, lending his chameleonic songwriting to experiments in hip-hop, lo-fi R&B, and deft indie-folk.
Real Life Situationsis released digitally today and physically on May 14.