Marina Heredia, cantaora. Flamenco interview

"I have to show things on this album
I didn't show on the previous one"

G. Cappa. Granada, July 2005

The gypsies of the Sacromonte art have traditionally been called ‘The Aristocrats’. Proof of the proud lineage of the family Marina Heredia comes from is that they've always been known as ‘The Pharaohs’. She lives in Albaycín in a house located next to La Platería, the oldest flamenco peña in Andalusia. Her son is playing restlessly there while her husband, Pedro Pérez Chicote, is getting ready to go to a tienta, a test of bravery of young bulls. While she speaks, Marina Heredia beats out the rhythm of her words by doing percussion with her knuckles on the table. Although she acts like a housewife, from time to time a spunky gleam appears in her eyes.

Marina Heredia (Photo: Pepe Torres)

Have you noticed the expectation caused by ‘La voz del agua’?

I guess so. We've really looked after it and we didn't want to rush things when bringing it out. I hope it'll be out in the stores by September.

With regards to your previous album, you've been quoted as saying that Marina Heredia isn't ‘Me duele me duele’.

It wasn't a bad record. It's not that you can listen to it and say how bad it is. The thing is it wasn't the album I wanted to do at that time. It wasn't what I wanted to show. We sold nearly twenty thousand copies of that album, which means there are a lot of people who've listened to it. Maybe fifty percent of those twenty thousand want to buy the second one.

The sales of ‘Me duele me duele’ led you to a confrontation with your previous record company, nearly to the point of going to the courts.

I was compensated and we've made this album with that money. If it sold twenty thousand copies it had a bonus and they wouldn't recognize that the album had reached those figures. In the end we came to this agreement.

Pepe de Lucía was the producer of that record. Do you still have a good relationship?

He had nothing to do with it. On the contrary. He helped me out quite a bit.

You also changed managers. This has been a lively year...

I always say that you should stick to what you do. Everybody has his own place and mine is singing. I'm no good at fighting for the money or the concert dates.

Marina Heredia (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

It can't be from a lack of character...

I assure you I'm really bad at it. I can fight for my career, to make a place for myself... But not for other things.

You already provided a glimpse of your album at the Granada International Poetry Festival. A lot of people were surprised…

The record's been a challenge for me because I want to show things I didn't show on the previous one. I didn't even perform that album live because I didn't identify with it. Everything's done to my taste on this one. We've got an Argentinean tango called ‘Tango de las madres locas’ (‘Crazy Mothers Tango’), which I dedicate to myself and which is a special way of paying tribute to myself as a mother.

Could it be the first single?

It's possible. I've always said that Carlos Cano, the song's author, didn't have a privileged throat to do a deep ‘do’, or anything like that. But he used to say things with incredible taste. That track comes in handy for me precisely for that reason. I'd never heard it before, and the first time, I thought I had to sing it no matter what. It was love at first sight.

In fact, it's a track that fits your voice like a glove …

I listened to it, I liked it and we did the arrangements for it to adapt well to my voice. We made little changes in tones so that they wouldn't be too low for me. It's a song that has many colors because it has a lot of highs and lows when you sing it.

Have the flamenco gurus understood this song?

There are some that haven't, who don't see it as a commercial track to open the album. I don't really see it that way. It's a song that doesn't have a square refrain and silly lyrics for people to learn. In that sense it isn't an easy song, but all the people who've heard it live come out singing: “Con Malvinas y sin Malvinas, grito tu nombre por las esquinas” (“With the Falklands and without the Falklands, I shout your name everywhere”).

There's also a bullfight tune, ‘El paseíllo’, which you didn't dedicate in that concert to your husband, bullfighter Pedro Pérez Chicote. Are dedications unnecessary?

I don't know. I guess he takes it for granted when I sing those things.

There had to be Granada tangos.

Of course. There's also a seguiriya, a very pretty soleá through bulerías by El Bolita, a lovely traditional taranto because it's done only with piano and voice. It's also the first time I've done something of my own, in this case a bulería called ‘La rosa tardía’… It's already all been recorded and mixed. There's a special collaboration with Eva Yerbabuena, Miguel Poveda, Curro Albaycín, my father... What's very special is ‘Balada del que nunca fue a Granada’, which is a poem Alberti wrote to Lorca's death.

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