What distinguishes this album from your previous records?

I wanted it to be a sort of evolution. It gave me the chance to stop and listen to types of music I had never heard before and to understand that the world is a big place. Perhaps on future albums, since my roots are flamenco and I feel flamenco, flamenco songs will surely come out. In fact, I think when I'm very old I'll do an anthology. And I also think it's good to move ahead while looking back, knowing where I come from. It's like the nouveau riche: having a lot of cashola doesn't do him any good if he doesn't bear in mind that first he's had to work really hard for it. And I think that in flamenco as well as in any musical expression of that, we have to be good and enriching. We have to see what is coming and where we're going, but always looking back. That's a difficult balance, but the roots are there... by God, they mustn't be lost.

Unlike your early career, they say that you now draw a more cultured crowd. Is it due to your approaches to jazz and classical music?

It's possible. You have to take into account that until recently flamenco was unfortunately for a select few: for those of us who liked it and for those who criticized it. Now there are those of us who like flamenco; those of us who can decide if we want to do flamenco or evolve in flamenco; those who criticize it and will always criticize it; and everybody else, who are the ones who appreciate it and are gripped by it even though they don't understand it. I'm not going to say they're the best audience, because there isn't a best audience, but if you have them by your side, it's good.

Ginesa Ortega

Those collaborations aren't very premeditated, are they?

They don't just come out of the blue, either. The people from La Fura (dels Baus, a Catalan theater company) don't just call you and you go with them. And it's not a group that creates things overnight. I think it's funny when people know them for being the ones who smashed up cars...

What have you assimilated from experiences such as the group Iberia, 'El amor brujo' or the show by La Fura?

I don't know if they're teachings, although it is unquestionable that we are always learning. The truth is that they were very positive experiences. I invite anyone who has the chance to experiment to do so, not to hold back at all, because it enriches the soul. The first time La Fura offered me to collaborate with them, I went to the rehearsal hall and I saw the look of them... I said: "God, where am I? I'm trapped in here". But afterwards I realized I was wrong in the following months that we rehearsed until the premiere of 'Noun'. The same thing happened to me with 'El amor brujo'. When they called me to do the 1915 version, which hadn't been done since Pastora Imperio, I thought I was meddling in somebody else's business. Pastora Imperio and Manuel de Falla! And it was good for me to realize that good music doesn't die. At the same time, I had to be with La Fura, so I saw some of them all spiffy, who were the ones who came to see 'El amor brujo', and others that looked like thugs.

Let's say you belong to a new generation of Catalan cantaors. Can it be called a common movement?

Not anymore. I think that anyone who likes music interprets it and does it his own way anywhere in the world. Before it was. I think Barcelona used to take a lot of risks, but nowadays other people take the risks.

Despite your strength, there still aren't many Catalan names on the bills in Andalusia...

Carmen Amaya, Barcelona. Sabicas, Pamplona. And from there on... I know a lot of Andalusians who don't know how to sing por soleá or por seguiriyas, just like I know a lot of Catalans who don't know how to dance por sardanas. Yes, it's true that we Catalans are non-existent at festivals in Andalusia. It's not reproachable, it's not criticism; maybe it's logical. In Andalusia there are so many artists that do flamenco that they might not stop and think that there are also cantaors in Catalonia. And like in any region, there is logically the desire to conserve and preserve what is theirs. However, a lot of guitarists, cantaors and bailaors have had to leave there to find success. Madrid was and is a must.

What projects do you have in hand now?

To promote 'Por los espejos del agua'. What I've done at times is to stop in the collaborations that have helped me a lot, but I'm keen on developing my own projects. This is a slow, difficult road, but I want to take that risk; if not, we'd be civil servants.

To close this conversation, Ginesa Ortega wants to talk about the difficulties which Spanish musicians currently come across: the singer contest 'Operación Triunfo', piracy and the lack of interest by the multinationals. Regarding the television show broadcast by the public network, the cantaora is completely critical: "It's hard enough as it is to make it in this business and now they go and operate on our triumphs. God give me strength". Pilar Tabares (director of Spanish Television's musical programming) "should worry a little bit more about the music done by people who have been working hard on it for some time, and stop that nonsense; the only thing she does there is to make a fool of herself". Her commentary on piracy is two-fold, since in her opinion it is not only a question of illegal sales, but also of the exploitation of immigrants by organized crime rings: "It's about people with a lot of power, powerful multinationals that rule the roost. The one with the smallest piece of the pie is the poor immigrant who comes to try to make a living, the poor guy. If the people who bought illegal copies on the street knew the work that went into an album, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the hard times fallen on by the immigrant, exploited by a scoundrel...". Not to mention, lastly, the policy of multinationals towards musicians who do not figure in the top-hit lists. In fact, Ginesa Ortega has released this latest album with the independent label Picap: "It didn't get in my way at all; I could have made any kind of record. And there's a thrill, there's friendly treatment all the time. I see the owner's face and that's cool".

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