Guitarricadelafuente On Spanish Horniness, Pénelope Cruz & Working With Troye Sivan

We didn’t get a song of the summer after all, but we sure did get a mood. It was a horny-girl summer from Los Angeles to Ibiza, and Guitarricadelafuente (born Álvaro Lafuente Calvo) made sure the gays were also in the conversation. His second full-length project, Spanish Leather, was a continuation of his sound while also experimenting with futuristic elements. It was also masterclass in minimalist creative direction — casually featuring photos by Wolfgang Tillmans and expertly shot music videos — that showed off his body, skin, and unflinchingly laid bare his wants and needs. In the album opener “BABIECA!,” he croons: “Me sube la flor de tu perfume / La vida te consume / Bailé y me entretuve / Es mi condena” (“The scent of your perfume hits me / Life is consuming you / I danced and had a blast / It’s my fate”), his desires reaching a life-or-death pitch often found in Spanish folklore and cinema.

This wild, all-consuming feeling is seen throughout, as he flutters in and out of traditional sounds while speaking extemporaneously about the present — the silliness, ennui, and crushing devastation of being in love and experiencing heartbreak. His lyricism and sharp musical ear place him in the firmament of Spanish folklore, but his low-rise Loewe jeans, cast of toned men, and unrelenting queer desire bring him into new territory. His ongoing musical relationship with Troye Sivan, after being the only feature on Sivan’s latest album, also made horny-twunk summer a reality with a rework of “Pipe dream” to “Midsummer pipe dream.” It demonstrates his instinctual side, creating without fear of overthinking, as he tells me over the phone from a hotel room in Marbella: “It was the aim to capture what is going on in the moment without filter, without trying to be romantic about it.”

It’s paid off in spades: After he hit the stage with Sivan at Primavera in 2023, the directing duo Los Javis approached him to play a role in La bola negra, a queer story about three generations of gay men in Spain scheduled for release in 2026. He’ll be starring alongside Penélope Cruz — not bad for a first movie role — and also taking his Spanish Leather tour to the United States next year. In between stops on his Spanish string of shows, he caught up with NYLON to chat about his inspirations, yearning, and the power of Mediterranean winds.

How are the shows going?

The shows are amazing. We started touring the day after the album came out, and it's been crazy, honestly. People bought tickets before listening to the album, so it was super, super exciting. We've seen how people have engaged with the album in the concerts. I see the difference between what happened with this album and the album three years ago.

What's the biggest difference?

The most notable difference is that it's thought-out to be more interactive. It's much more energetic. The songs are made to be sung together.

I saw you and Troye [Sivan] on stage together. You just released a new version of your song “Pipe dream” with him. How has it been to watch your growth alongside his?

Before meeting him, he was a reference for me. When we met, I was finishing the tour of my last album, and I was starting a new project. At the same time, I was discovering a new part of myself, a new journey to follow. For me, joy has always been inspiring, and you can tell in this album that Troye has inspired me in that way. Something new in this new chapter for me has been the way I expose myself — or my body — and the way I feel with my body.

The title of the album is Spanish Leather. There are two interpretations: One of them is the relation to Spanish heritage — Spanish leather as something passed from generation to generation — and it was also cool to relate it to the skin in an erotic way, to expose something unsexy like tradition and make it sexy again.

Listening to the album, I thought about Pedro Almodóvar’s films and the way he portrays yearning, and I saw some of that Spanish horniness in it. Were there specific instances in your life you wanted to capture?

I love that you talk about yearning because it's very related to Spanish culture. There's always this nostalgia for something else, or waiting for something to happen, or this passion you're controlling. Traditional folk songs talk about this. When I released my first album, La Cantera, it was inspired by Spanish folk music: not just flamenco, but all of the regions in Spain and Latin America. That was what I listened to when I was little and how I started in music. In the lyrics, I told stories about everything except my personal experiences.

In this new album, it’s the story of the young guy living in the village, leaving all of that behind — all of that folklore — and wanting to discover a new journey, go to the city, be inspired by what's going on, and leave his youth. I wanted to recreate a journey. I tried to turn it into a sexy, imaginary journey through Spanish fields, putting into words what's going on in 2025 in Spanish society, culture, and youth.

You have a great group of queer creatives around you —Wolfgang Tillmans shot all the visuals. He captured the rawness and sexuality you wanted to get across.

The aim was to delete all of the filters, to expose myself or the songs the way they are, and not try to be pretentious or obnoxious by finding the perfect sound. The songs were born to sound as what they are. In all of the videos and the creative direction, it was the aim to capture what is going on in the moment without filter, without trying to be romantic about it, trying to be realistic and see the poetry in the realness.

I mean the video you did for “Tramuntana” in New York, is just you walking around being a sad boy. What drew you to want to film that in New York?

Yeah, a Spanish crooner in New York. All of the links that have happened during this album have been like the planets aligning. I have this song that talks about Tramuntana, which is a wind that blows in the Mediterranean. It’s famous because the legend says it turns people crazy. For example, in the Balearic Islands, there's mountains called the Tramuntana Mountains. In Mallorca, it's the island where most people commit suicide in Spain because of the wind that turns people crazy. It's a fact.

In the album, in a way, I was talking about how we know the fastness of the times we live in, and how everything runs faster than our capacity of processing. At the same time, instead of being negative about it or having prejudice with changes, there’s nothing you can do. You need to embrace it and flow with this wind that is blowing so strongly. I met Gray [Sorrenti] three years ago when we were shooting a campaign. When it came to the video, I told Gray we need to shoot this video in New York, with the idea that the wind is going to follow you wherever you go, and also New York as this fussy city where everything goes so fast, you're dragged by it.

I know you said Troye was a reference point for you. Are there any other artists you use as inspiration?

I’ve been working with many Italians on this album. Since I was little, there was Italian music at home, and there's many references from Gino Paoli, Mina, and Lucio Battisi, these big figures of Italian music that, for me, represent the Mediterranean side of this album. “Tramuntana” was one of the songs that was very inspired by it. “Full-Time Papi” has references from Mina, and “Se telefonando.” One of the artists I've been listening to the most in the process of making the album is Adrianne Lenker. I admire the way she's attached to the past and tradition, but the only thing that points that out is her voice and the instruments she may use. In the end, what she's talking about is something contemporary.

You talked a lot about Spanish folklore; she's tapped into American folklore, which doesn't usually involve voices like hers. I can see that influence.

For me, she’s one of the best songwriters of this time. In the past, I was using many folkloric instruments. In the aesthetic, videos, or covers, there was this representation of the reinvention of folklore. I was getting fed up with that. I wasn't interested in representing folklore, or the way I felt about folklore. In “Full-Time Papi or in “BABIECA!”, there's folklore in it for me. There's folkloric stories, but without the need of pulling out a bandurria or a Spanish guitar.

You can hear the way that you were raised musically, but you can also tell you're putting it to the side to come up with something new. The playfulness and irreverence is what makes it special.

When we were working on the songs, instead of reflecting on them lyric-wise, when something was funny to say, it was like, “Okay, this has to go in,” instead of, “I don't know if it is going to sound good.” It was following my gut and instinct. We were doing this to have fun and for people to have fun, and we needed to follow that and for that to be the aim of it. You can feel the process has been really fun.

I like that some of the lyrics don't make sense because it's a personal story for you, and people can make it into their own metaphor or myth. You are going to film your first movie, La bola negra. How are you feeling?

It’s funny, because after the Primavera concert you saw is when the relationship with Tillmans started, and it was also the night Los Javis told me they wanted to do this film. When they told me they were starting this project, I thought they were calling me to do the soundtrack. I wasn't expecting to participate as an actor, actually. When they proposed the role, I was like, “Okay, this is related to what Spanish Leather is talking about.” It's the perfect moment to be talking about this character that is linked to what I'm talking about right now.

There's a big part in performing where you're pretending to be someone else, and I feel this role is me acting for myself. There's a lot of similarities between the role and who Álvaro is. It's super exciting, and it's very exhausting because we're in the middle of the tour and trying to schedule rehearsals. It's intense, but it's going to be a beautiful, beautiful film. It's about a non-published piece of Federico García Lorca art, who has been such a queer icon in Spain. When we studied it in school, we didn't know he was queer. Everything was ethereal and poetic, and you couldn't tell if it was for a girl or for a boy. It's a homage to history in Spain that hasn't been told. It’s a perfect time to tell this story.

I'm really excited to see you with Penélope Cruz.

It’s crazy. It’s crazy!

Do you have a favorite Penélope Cruz film?

I would say Volver. When I met her I was like, “Okay, she's the same girl in Volver or Jamón Jamón.”

I was going to say, Jamón Jamón is very Spanish Leather.

Yes! Spanish Leather, one hundred percent.