Kiko Veneno, singer and composer. Interview

“I'm trying to learn flamenco's virtues,
especially in the lyrics and essentialness”

Silvia Calado. Madrid, September 2005

The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Kiko Veneno had planned a world tour to present their new albums, but a hypothetical dimwit manager, “who was neither from Jerez nor Cádiz”, left them in the lurch. That an interview should begin like this gives you an idea of how unusual is this “Andalusian-ized” singer-songwriter, a lover of pop, rock and flamenco. Ring, ring. “Rock and roll speaking”. That he should answer the phone like this gives you another idea. Upon hanging up, a sentence: “Life is contradictory, but that doesn't mean you have to stop going about it with zest”. A bit of philosophy, a supposed celebration of Paul's eightieth birthday, a little Betis, another bit about local politics. Before the raving gets out of control, the interview gets on track. Zest, zest.

	Kiko Veneno (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Who is ‘El hombre invisible’ (‘The Invisible Man’)?

Of the three albums mine is the worst one, but it has a good handful of songs that are really nice and heartfelt. I'm not going to go into details, but I can say that I'm very happy. I listen to it now with a great deal of pleasure; it pays me back, it makes me feel like singing it. On the one hand, they're songs that can be sung just with guitar, and on the other hand, they can be done in a musical show really enhanced and really full of ideas. They're very direct songs for people, and especially for myself. Once you're cheerful, the people then get cheerful, which is the aim. Though I don't know why there are artists who are unbelievably serious and people are happy. Not me; I need my music to make me happy for me to be able to make people happy.

It happens a lot in flamenco that it's much more serious on stage than behind the scenes...

Well, the thing is the guy's there saying “ay, ay”, like moaning and groaning... Flamenco has that so beautiful mixture of drama and joy. You've got to face up to pain, and singing is the best way, turning the pain into an artistic motif and a means of personal expression. It provides a lot of joy that way.

What flamenco is there on this album?

Kiko Veneno en directo (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

What there's been on my albums. I'm a great flamenco fan as a listener and as an artist; I like to tinker with it. But my world's not flamenco. I'm in another world: that of modern music, pop, rock. I take elements from flamenco as well as from African music and Brazilian music and American music and blues… from wherever I can. I've done a bit of blues on this album, of course, and songs a bit more "flamenco-ized" … I now call it more Andalusian than flamenco, because it's somewhat more restricted. I always try and see flamenco as something broader, besides the cantes, bailes and toques; bullfight music also sounds flamenco to me and there's Holy Week music that sounds flamenco to me, too. But what I do doesn't sound flamenco to me. Now then, songs like ‘Contigo’ are a bit flamenco; they've got some flamenco in them.

The comments you wrote about that song recall ‘Me voy contigo’ by Remedios Amaya. You say it's “perhaps the best flamenco album in recent times”. Why?

I realized it had the same title afterwards. Because it was a milestone; we loved that album full of music, full of life, full of joy, full of sincerity, full of good taste, full of quality … an extraordinary album. The kind that fill you for the rest of your life. ‘Forever records’.

next >>