There’s a tiny space under the staircase of Camilo’s Taller Creativo – his creative workshop — that Camilo calls Refugio de Indigo y Amaranto (Indigo and Amaranto’s Refuge), a kind of makeshift hiding place for his daughter Indigo, and soon-to-be-born Amaranto to play in.
But when Indigo isn’t around, Camilo crawls in there with his guitar, microphone, laptop and a little lamp, and he writes songs. So was born “Canción de amor para la pulga”, or “Love Song for the Flea,” the term of endearment for Evaluna, Camilo’s wife and muse.
“It’s one of the most important songs in the album,” says the Colombian star, referring to Cuatro, his album released late last month, which gathers four EPs released in quick succession in the past three months. Camilo, barefoot, has crouched to roll up the folding door of this little hideaway, one of dozens of unexpected and often wondrous nooks and crannies to explore in the Colombian star’s new creative workshop, simply called El Taller Creativo.
Located in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood behind an encircling garden and a small waterfall, the vast hangar-like space has been tailored and arranged to serve many different purposes, all thoughtfully executed to the last detail with homey touches.
In May, Camilo took Billboard on an exclusive tour of the space, where he made us an amazing cortadito, and showed us around like only he can.
There’s the date in which Camilo received the keys to the workshop — Dec. 5, 2023 — carefully written in white chalk on an overhead wooden beam; flowing curtains painted blue and white, like the sky, the color scheme of most of his recent videos; the plexiglass walls behind the curtain, which allow for sound recording to take place here; a manual typewriter that serves as the workshop’s official record-keeper of visitors; a dining room table that works as meeting ground and “operational center” for Camilo’s staff and producers; the studio that houses not only recording equipment, but dozens and dozens of instruments, each with a given name.
Camilo had long dreamt of having his own creative space. “Physical spaces affect creativity,” he says. “Everything intervenes … It’s not so much about having possession of a place, but having autonomy over my things. It’s different.”
Inside Taller Creativo, Camilo does what he wants, when he wants to. He can arrive early and leave late, take a nap on the hammock, work with his headphones while Indigo sleeps, film his videos and record his music. His parents, who live two blocks away, often stop by and bring the Colombian lunch.
As for the creative output? It’s flowing. In just six months since he first opened the door to El Taller, he released his four EPs — Un, Dos, Tres and Cuatro — the “first creative work to come out of the workshop,” he says. “I dreamt with that; with having from the very first spark of an idea to the last close of the master recording and the videos, all done here, by hand, in El Taller Creativo.”
Follow Camilo’s tour with us in the video above.
