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What benefit do you see in the use of other musical styles?

	Moraíto Chico. (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Personally I don't see the sense of a jazz scale played to the rhythm of a soleá. I can see the usefulness of that jazz scale applied to a flamenco melody, that fingerwork has to sound flamenco. You could be playing great, but to me that doesn't sound like flamenco. If you're playing other scales, using other techniques drawn from other musical cultures, from another context, with another tonality... well to be honest I'd rather be with a musician from New Orleans than with you. You can't go and insult someone who's been two hundred years playing that music. You just have to do it carefully and with enormous respect.

Anglo-Saxon music - American music is what we've been hearing here for years - is great, and so is the crossing of musical paths, not fusion. To make fusion work is the hardest thing in the world, it's like alloying metals, the alloy doesn't always come out well. You waste your gold if you mix it with lead... and you have to keep a careful eye on the quantities - very careful. I call it an encounter, a crossing of paths, where you don't cause any upsets and things are done carefully, with respect. I'm not saying the musician doesn't use flamenco techniques or rhythms, but since we're talking about flamenco, we're defending flamenco. If you make out you're a flamenco artist and you're taking work away from flamenco artists, then make sure it is flamenco. And if it isn't, move over and make a little room for the real flamenco guys. Plenty of people are jumping on the bandwagon, calling what they do flamenco. And I think it should be given a different name: ‘fame-enco’, perhaps?

When are you going to bring out an album of your own?

We're already getting excited about it. I have a few tunes, but I'm not ready for the studio just yet. Let's see if we do this one more calmly, there's no hurry and when I have four or five tracks I'll start recording. That way I can take a few months playing around with it, without rushing. The way things are right now, I'll have to do something by these new guys...

Is it rougher out there now?

Of course, of course. But we're hanging in there. I'd like to get an album on the market.

They just reissued ‘Morao, morao’, how you see that album in today's light?

	"I don't like digital much as far as sound is concerned. OK, it's a lot easier to work with"

I'm not a great fan of that album. I would've preferred to see ‘Morao y oro’ reissued. The first one was an analog recording, everything sounds more natural. I don't like digital much as far as sound is concerned. OK, it's a lot easier to work with, you can do more with it, but at the end of the day I'm just not convinced. I prefer the old way. Now they do the mix in the States, and there they reverse engineer it like they did in the old days, with a reel-to-reel. You pay a fortune, for nothing. We're back to recording all the musicians in one room, like they used to. Technical advances mean you can make an album at home, with a computer. You can even bring your work home from the studio and overdub the guitar at home. They send you the vocals from Madrid and you lay the guitar down here, you send it back again and - wow! You don't have to even visit the studio. Nowadays the technology's there to allow you to record that group in your bedroom, and for it to sound perfect, warmer, more natural, more like you were hearing it live. I'm all for it. And just look at how it's come into fashion, just like any other trend. Now shoulder pads are all the rage, now they're not... Hang onto them, they'll be back in fashion. They're using digital recordings to even try and put in background noise. But if they're trying to make it sound old-time, well let's play it old-time.

But it is also helping young musicians to record their music, almost to do their own production work...

	"I wouldn't give the recording industry very long now"

That’s true. Besides I wouldn't give the recording industry very long now. Just take a look at the big multinationals, even people that used to sell loads. José's disc is selling, but not in the same quantities as ‘Aire’. But the same goes for everybody. It's all about sticking to the big guys, making a quick buck and that's all. There's no interest in trying to develop artists' careers, for artists to keep working and gain artistic recognition. No, no, it's hard as hell out there, and this comes from someone who doesn't mind passing a few hardships.

Besides, I think the CD's day is almost over. There'll have to be a different kind of format with much more stringent controls, or the tracks will have to be sold over the Internet. I think that's the way forward. There's no future, no future. Even for selling previously unreleased material, you put it on the Net and if you get lucky, fine. Spain is one of the countries with the worst piracy record, the listening public has turned against the multinationals. It's the same as the big banks, they sack thousands of workers because instead of making ten billion dollars, they made seven thousand. They're interested in Mercé who sells 200,000 copies, but they don't have time for someone who sells 10,000 copies, even though they'd get returns on that amount after two years. Most of them aren't people from the music scene, they're number-crunchers.

Is your production company Mukazo still going?

I'm trying, but without funding it's really hard. I want to do some stuff with young artists from Jerez.

Another project you took part in is Jerez Puro, where you go back to your roots alongside Antonio Malena. What did that mean to you?

On stage I got excited, but not as much as during rehearsals. When we were doing the soundcheck, and that video came on where I'm with Antonio Malena, the two of us just kids, it really brought tears to my eyes. And he used to sing at that age... Even my guitarwork is impeccable. I mean, I thought I was going to play worse now. I liked the concept behind the show, I like the idea behind it and it was very well received.

When you see that video now, how would you say life has changed in Jerez for a flamenco artist?

I see it from a different age perspective, but I suppose fourteen or fifteen year-old kids nowadays, like my daughter, still make flamenco music, but out in the plaza. Private patios aren't as popular, all they see is a few old ladies and a water tap. These kids open the fridge and find everything they need - it's a different story now. A whole new ballgame. They have computers, they can visit the Internet café. But flamenco's still there and people still like it. They have their eyes wide open, they have TV, they see kids from other places. Music is out there on the streets, it always was. Flamenco happened on private patios when there was a party, but when we were kids we played at singing out in the street or playing marbles. Patios were for christenings or weddings, with kids, parents and grandparents - we'd all take part. Kids are still really smart and at that age they can still do what we did on that video. It'll always be the same. If there's less of it now it's a consequence of life out in the barrios. Take my son Diego - he was brought up in our flat. In the neighborhood where we lived I was scared to let him out in the street. You can't imagine what you'd find out there. The kid was kept at home like an animal in a cage.

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