Interview with David Castro

When word of an intriguing video spread like wildfire among Thermomix users on FaceBook, my knee-jerk reaction on Twitter was “Who is this David Castro guy? Suddenly I’m a fan!”.

So I looked him up. And I was pleasantly surprised to find out that his talent goes beyond simply transforming what’s usually considered an annoying chime into something actually catchy. It turns out David Castro is a singer/composer based in Madrid. He had concerts lined up in Madrid but then COVID-19 happened and they had to be cancelled. He also has concerts in Mexico scheduled for July this year but, with the current worldwide situation still very uncertain as of this writing, it remains to be seen whether they can push through or not.

I found his videos on YouTube. I found his playlist on Spotify. And guess what? I fell in love with his music, especially this very poignant duet version of a song that he wrote and composed called ‘Todavía Puede’. (Cue to self: Put Google Translate to good use. Dig out rarely-used Spanish language skills out of dusty cupboard.) I sent him a friend request on FaceBook and he accepted. I sent him a short list of interview questions for my blog and, soon after, he emailed me his reply.

Bueno, ¡conozcamos a David Castro!

1. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m a musician and Primary School teacher from Madrid (Spain). Music is my passion and I love to include it in my daily teaching sessions with my 10 years old students.

Ten years go I founded a band called Street Wings. We have recorded three studio albums ‘Call It Home’, ‘Up To Heaven’ and ‘Synchronized’ and played our music in many countries. You can find them all in Spotify, Itunes, YouTube… 

Two years ago I started my own project as David Castro composing songs in Spanish. I recorded an album called ‘El Idioma De Los Relojes’ which is bringing me a lot of light to my life. (NB: ‘El Idioma De Los Relojes’ means ‘The Language of the Clocks’)

2. How and when did you start composing songs?

My parents and my sister are all musicians. My father Félix Castro played for the National Orchestra of Spain and had the chance to travel all around the world playing with the best musicians in the best theatres and venues. I’ve always admire him a lot. My mother is a very talented pianist and my sister is a violinist.

Sooner or later it had to happen that I fell in love with any instrument. It was at the age of 17 when I discovered the electric guitar thanks to Mark Knopfler’s music with Dire Straits. 

Three years later I was writing my own songs hoping one day I could play them at any stage beyond my bedroom. I could not imagine how fortunate in life I was going to be.

Now that I’m 32 I look back and it seems to be a dream to have played my music all over Europe in countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy or Spain. Last summer I had the chance to go on tour to Mexico for my first time and if everything goes well next July I will come back again. 

3. That video you made with the Thermomix chime has gone viral, racking up more than 100,000 views in two days on Facebook alone. Can you share with us how you came up with the inspiration for that?

I always try to share my positive attitude at life through my music and sense of humour. Specially in a moment like this one we are living. People really need it. 

Some time ago I thought it would be fun to compose a song from that sound the Thermomix does that can be annoying if you are not able to stop it for a while. But I never tried it until a few days ago. 

I had a lot of fun composing the song and filming that video. I didn’t expect it would go viral and reach so many countries. The best thing about all this is to see how a simple video or song is connecting so many people around the world.

4. Please tell us about the video project with Flowithme.

One of the people I met from all this was Sara, a Spanish girl who is working in Cork and is running a project called ‘Flowithme’. She contacted me through FaceBook and talking about the impact the video had we though of going farther and involve more people that are willing to participate in this kind of initiatives. So we started asking for videos of people all around the world singing to their Thermomix to be part of a new video.

The aim is to send a message to the world: Stay positive. Separated we remain together. [Update: You can view the new video here.]

5. May I know how long you’ve had your Thermomix and the dish that you make with it often?

I started living on my own four years ago. I knew it would be a great investment to get a Thermomix as I know they are so useful and last so many years. My mother always had one and I remember how delicious were the recipes she made thanks to the Thermomix.

This time I was cooking ‘Salmorejo’ which is kind of a cold tomato soup, very similar to gazpacho. It’s typical from the South of Spain. If you haven’t tried it now it’s the time. You’ll love it

6. Just one final question. Some ladies were wondering if you’re still single.

I am single 🙂