Feid
Alejandro "Bleezy" Villa
Feid began working on his new album FERXXO (VOL 1: M.O.R) back in November, five months before its planned release date today (April 24).
The reggaetón-laden set featuring collaborations with fellow hitmakers Maluma, Manuel Turizo, Justin Quiles, among others, follows the Colombian singer-songwriter’s Latin Grammy-nominated album 19.
“My production team and I wanted to be more organized with this one,” Feid tells Billboard. “Our last album, 19, we did in two or three weeks. That album was cool and all but I needed to mature as an artist and as a songwriter. I still needed to find myself and this one showcases my growth. When you hear 19 you’re like ‘oh, that’s cool,’ but this one will get a ‘wow.'”
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FERXXO (VOL 1: M.O.R) is word play on his nickname Fercho and the acronym M.O.R. stands for two things: “messages on repeat” and the slang word Mor, used in his native Medellín, Colombia.
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“Mor is word that is said on the streets. You call a friend you’re close to Mor but it’s not necessarily a nice word,” explains Feid. “I say that word a lot and people sort of identify me with that word so we wanted to find a way to include it in there.”
Aware that the album is being released during a pandemic, Feid, who started his career as a songwriter, says that people on his team advised him to push back release date — but “I”m pretty stubborn and when I have something in mind, I have to do it. And, my album includes music that can be heard while chilling at home, too.”
Below, Feid talks inspiration behind FERXXO, growing as a songwriter and what collaborating means to him at this point of his career.
What’s up with all the X’s replacing other letters in the album?
It was my way of making it more authentic. Even my other album too had weird names and it would make people curious. I wanted to add the x’s intentionally to make the titles stick and for people to be intrigued.
What’s the inspiration behind this new album?
Well it’s definitely romantic but it’s my style of being romantic. I was inspired by the time when we were younger and we’d send those cheesy text messages to our crush thinking they were super romantic. My music is also inspired by stories that I hear about friends or personal stories always about a girl. The song is either about missing a girl or falling in love. I’m very romantic but in my own way.
You started your career writing hit songs for other artists, what’s the biggest difference between writing songs for them and writing songs for yourself?
It’s actually really different. I haven’t written a song for anyone else in like over a year. When I would write for other artists I almost felt limited because at the end of the day, I’m not singing the songs and it’s not vision, not my audience. Now, I value so much more being a songwriter for myself because it’s more authentic. It’s cool to write for others but you lose yourself in that process. I decided to stop writing songs for others because I needed to find myself as an artist and figure out what I like to sing. I’m really enjoying this phase of only writing for Feid.
In the album, you include collaborations with Maluma, Manuel Turizo and up-and-comer Alvaro Diaz. How did those come about?
When I decide to collaborate with someone at this point of my career, it has to do a lot with the song. I think of the best person who can help my song grow. For example “FRESH KERIAS” was a really cool song and it was more of a perreo when it was only me on the song. But when Maluma jumped on the track, he made it more commercial and mainstream which is what we wanted at the end of the day. It was a similar case with Manuel Turizo only this time “BORRAXXA” was too commercial for me and I knew that I couldn’t release a song like that because it wasn’t my style. Manuel is one of the most commercial artists Colombia has and so it made sense for him to join me.
With Alvaro, it was super funny because I uploaded a preview of “CU U U U UX,” a trap song, to my Instagram and a lot of people wrote to me saying that liked it and Alvaro messaged me directly saying, ‘I hope you give me a break and let me jump on this song.’ I called him and told him ‘I got you.’ We didn’t know what would happen with the song and when I told Alvaro that it was going in the album, he got really excited.
Releasing an album during the pandemic, does that change anything for you?
Well it just makes me really sad that people won’t have the opportunity to listen to my new music at a club. A lot of these songs are the type you want to be dancing to on the dancefloor but my album includes music that can be heard while chilling at home.
Also, I really miss being onstage. I was just starting to really enjoy being onstage and singing my songs. I miss hearing people singing along and I’d love to hear them sing my new songs with me and well, this happened.