Los Delinqüentes, flamenco rock group. Interview

“The lifestyle Veneno used to have is the one
we want for Los Delinqüentes”

Silvia Calado. Madrid, April 2005
Translation: Joseph Kopec

When El Canijo and Diego cross the luxurious threshold of the record company, the revolution is here. Los Delinqüentes are coolness and native ease, streetwise and the real thing... they're garrapateros. ‘El verde rebelde vuelve’ is the third album by the group from Jerez, a musical comic strip full of surreal characters and collaborations by idols of the likes of Kiko Veneno and Rafael Amador. The one not there is Migue, the third founder of the band, but everything on this album recorded live at the studio is a tribute to their colleague who left “in a hurry to Eden”: from the color green to the album's title, with El Abuelo Frederick in between. Self-confessed rockers, streetwise flamencos, Los Delinqüentes want to be up close and personal with the “brotherhood” of followers they have built up through concerts. Patting out a little bit of bulería beat and...

Los Delinqüentes (Photos: Daniel Muñoz)

Tell us the story of this third album by the group.

Diego. It has new songs and some songs that are a few years old; it's not a record that's been made completely on purpose. ‘El abuelo Frederik’, for example, is from the first period, from when I met El Canijo and Migue. We always have extra songs from every album. We don't rule them out because they're bad, but because they might not be finished and they're put on the following one. That's the good thing about this group... we really produce a lot.

The peculiar thing about it is that it's the third album, but it's the first one of a new phase without our friend Miguel. We recorded it live at the studio. Our producer, José Manuel García Pelayo, added on to the studio (La Bodega, in Jerez) for the occasion. We took advantage to all squeeze in there together. The bigger it is, the more people we stick in.

El Canijo. We did the pre-production there, which is what took us the longest. Choosing the tracks, changing some of the lyrics, what to improve, the arrangements...

D. Then we went to rehearse because we wanted to record it live. We had the tracks really well-prepared... we were already sick of some of them.

Did you start working on it when Migue was still alive?

D. All the songs were already done when Migue was still alive.

E.C. Migue, the poor guy, got sick; he had an outbreak of schizophrenia. We told him to get cured, that the group's lifestyle was no good for him. And in the meantime we went on playing without him because he was going to get cured. Meanwhile, we were also composing this record. As soon as he'd left the center, what happened, happened. We thought he was going to get well, but he didn't.

	Los Delinqüentes, with Migue (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

D. We stopped for a time, but afterwards that fell through. It's hard to say we were ready to make an album with or without him, and even so, you don't expect it. Besides being colleagues... we're friends. Even with the hired musicians, La Banda del Ratón, we grew up together.

E.C. People thought it was all over. And we didn't even consider it because Migue wouldn't have wanted it that way. We talked about Los Delinqüentes always having to keep on going.

D. Totally cool; he understood the situation perfectly.

E.C. We're going to keep on making streetwise music for him, too. We're not going to stick in anybody for him; nobody can replace Migue.

D. We even leave him his place live; he used to go in the middle. We're on the sides; we draw up a little bit closer, but we leave the middle free.

On the album a dream comes true by having Kiko Veneno, Rafael Amador, Diego Carrasco, Gualberto... What do those figures mean to you and to the group's music?

E.C. As a result of this collaboration, we've become friends with all of them. We even go out partying with Bebe. She's an artist who's got a lot to say.

D. Bebe is the exception. We've deeply admired all the rest since we were little. Bebe is the other way around; she was a fan of ours. And we flipped out when we were told she used to come to our concerts before she became famous. She wanted to come and sing on our album. We saw she was streetwise, the real thing, not a product. When we met her, we flipped out.

E.C. When she came to Jerez we took her to La Moderna, a bar there, and we stuffed her with meat and gravy. And she ate quite a bit. I think she liked it.

And what can we say about Kiko Veneno? He's fantastic.

Rafael must have been the hardest one to get as a collaborator, wasn't he?

E.C. Rafael was really hard because he was really messed up in drugs. Now he's fantastic. We've wanted to work with him since the first album. Pepe Ortega, who has the studio in Ubrique where Pata Negra's last record was made, told us he'd located him and that he wouldn't mind recording with us. We already had all the collaborations sealed.

D. And check it out, Gualberto, from Smash, before Triana and everything.

E.C. A rock encyclopedia.

Diego Pozo, Los Delinqüentes (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

D. Veneno and Pata Negra are musical offspring of Smash. For Gualberto to come is... to have the beginning. What group before them had dared to pick up electric guitars, let their hair grow long and sing ‘El Garrotín’?

Gualberto didn't collaborate sooner because there wasn't any track where the sitar fit in. Even he told us so. And wow, is he a nice guy.

E.C. What can we tell you about Diego Carrasco? Uncle Diego. He's got more rhythm than anybody; we see plenty of him in Jerez. “Nephew, you give me a call”. He was dying for us to call him. He has rhythm when he speaks.

D. He has a drum in his throat; he's incredible.

E.C. We were going to put him in the bulería ‘Los trabubu’, but he really liked ‘Ya nadie te quiere’. Well then, choose whichever one you want, Diego.

And Kiko Veneno... We call ourselves Los Delinqüentes because of him. He's fantastic. For us, the lifestyle Veneno used to have is the one we want for Los Delinqüentes; they were streetwise people who lived free and happy.

D. I think the most streetwise group is Veneno.

E.C. The one we missed on this album is Raimundo Amador, but because we already had so many collaborations that people were going to think we don't know how to sing. He has to come for the next album, for sure.

D. And Raimundo is a great guy. It's always a joy to see him.

‘Veneno’ has just now been chosen as the best all-time Spanish pop album by the magazine RockdeLux...

D. They sold three thousand measly copies, Kiko was fired by the company...

E.C. Nobody understood them. People weren't ready.

D. It deserves a lot more. It's like a bible for us.

E.C. We like surrealistic music. We love rock from the seventies.

D. Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, AC-DC...

E.C. The Beatles and Veneno are the groups I like the most.

D. When I listened to the Beatles as a boy was when I decided to form a band and make a living this way.

next >>