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What kind of format are you working on live?

I do a little bit of everything, but what I nearly do the most is go with a quartet. Like tonight at Colegio Mayor San Juan Evangelista (Watch online video), I also really like to go with one guitar, and above all in performances without sharing the bill. I think that's where you display the variety of your cante more and show how far you can go.

	Arcángel (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

It's like a duel with the public...

It's lonely, but I like art in solitude. It's an intimate format which leaves you a lot of freedom at the same time.

Do you vary the repertoire?

Oh, yeah. Basically, because I get bored. If the performances aren't exciting for you, then you don't do much. I have to change the repertoire because I get bored always singing the same thing; I always need to explore other paths.

Do you keep on exploring, searching, studying?

Always. I'm in a permanent learning process. I try and learn more every day. Now I've even got a mini-studio at home, so the craze is greater and the obsession has grown. What I do is try and perfect, polish all possible flaws.

Flaws?

There are a whole lot of them. And there always will be. It's a question of learning from your mistakes and trying to set them right. At least, I try and approach the concept you have in your head as much as possible... which, unfortunately, can't pass on to your voice completely. That would be the ideal thing, to pass what you have in your head on to your instrument, but sometimes that isn't allowed by your instrument, or the technique, or the cante itself. We've got a barrier there, but I think it's the search I should be in.

You're usually accompanied live now by Miguel Ángel Cortés and Daniel Méndez. Has the change in guitar given your cante a new air following the intense stage with Juan Carlos Romero?

It's logical. Besides each one going his separate way, I think a change in nuances is interesting in a cantaor's career. And it's interesting to change because each guitarist, each person who accompanies you on stage takes you to a different place. Each provides his mark and marks his path. It's completely different.

After exploring the copla in ‘Territorio flamenco’, have you thought of doing further experiences with other genres?

Not for the time being. I love the copla, but I neither see myself capable nor is this the time for it. There are already a lot of people who do it really well and I have no reason to get myself into that fine predicament. For now, I'll try and learn to sing flamenco and we'll see after that.

Can't you say anything at all about the show for Seville's Bienal?

There are too many plagiarists. And it's hard enough as it is to be somewhat original, to go around making things public...

But is it going to be a thematic show?

Yeah, it has a subject; it's a tribute to a cante figure. Mum's the word!

Someone in the back blurts out: “Let's just say it's not Camarón!”

Speaking of Camarón. Now there is an outstanding current of young neoclassic artists such as Miguel Poveda, Estrella Morente... Do you think there's been an effort to get away from Camarón's way?

To be honest, I don't make any effort to get away from that way. I go along the way my instrument allows me to and the way I think I can carry out most successfully. Let there be no doubt whatsoever that if Camarón's way was the most fitting one for my instrument, I'd follow it. I don't have any kind of bias. It is true that a group of people have come out who go along another current, but we all love Camarón... and flamenco. I wish I had the right conditions to be a follower of Camarón's school, but since I don't, I can't fool myself.

What cante figure would you dedicate a show to?

Ha ha ha ha. No clues.

Have you put the facet of cante for baile behind you?

As a cantaor for dancing in the framework of a company, not anymore right now. Doing a project you feel like together with a bailaor could be a possibility, why not? I think it's a combination that's nice and if you reach an artistic agreement, I believe you've got to do things which are coherent artistically, I'd really love to.

And looking back. How do you view your previous albums from afar?

The truth is, I suffer. I'm a natural born sufferer. I'm incapable of listening to my records afterwards. I listen to them when I'm promoting because I have no choice. You get so fed up and you see so many flaws in it... We humans are like that; each of us has our idiosyncrasies and our own way of seeing things. It's true that many times it's just a question of idiosyncrasies. It's really hard for me, but there are times when you have no choice but to listen to yourself...

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