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Do you see a future for flamenco?

Pepe Habichuela: Of course, there are really good people about, really good.

Who's looking promising in the Habichuela family? Who's going to shine?

Josemi Carmona: Los Kímica! And Lucas, the son of Juan el Camborio, who's eleven years old and already sings, plays guitar... and pats girls on the ass, too! (he laughs).

Pepe Habichuela (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Do they all give you a stronger creative urge, Pepe?

Pepe Habichuela: For sure, it always gives you a great impetus because you have to spend time with them, constantly playing and working - they keep you pretty busy.

Are you working on a new album yet?

Pepe Habichuela: Sure. Let's see if this one is a bigger hit than ‘Yerbagüena’. It's a major challenge, but you have to do it to satisfy your own creative drive, and for the young people who follow me.

Josemi Carmona: We're going to start work right away. And we're going to make the disc at home.

In any case, all your albums are timeless...

Pepe Habichuela: That's true, it's music that stays fresh, that doesn't lose anything with the passing of time. It's true of ‘Habichuela en rama’ and also with ‘A Mandeli’, that's been on the market for twenty or so years. As a rule in the music industry they have a shelf life of a couple of years and then they disappear. And the curious and unusual thing about my style of playing is that there are albums that still get played out there twenty years after their release. They haven't perished, they're still vibrant. It's my thing, it's what I do. They aren't albums that sell by the ton, though. My flamenco comes in a constant trickle - no sudden gushes. I do what I like, I play what I feel.

Do you already have new tracks lined up?

Pepe Habichuela: There are a few bits and pieces.

Josemi Carmona: We're going to make it at home. We still don't have everything planned out, but we do want a lot of people to come and play on the album. We want to make something unique in his career. He's already made solo guitar albums and now we want to adorn them with something extra. We still don't know what with, some little flash of inspiration... It doesn't really need it, but we want to enjoy ourselves and do something a little different.

Josemi, does it make you a little nervous starting on another project that has nothing to do with Ketama? Is it like starting from scratch in front of audiences?

Josemi Carmona: You guessed it. I'm scared stiff. I mean it's a whole new ballgame playing the guitar solo out there... Being a guitarist is really hard, it's a really tough instrument. I'm used to playing in front of thousands of people, but behind so many musicians that you could slip out for a coffee and nobody would notice (he laughs). And here, with nothing but a guitar to defend yourself, you really feel like a bullfighter facing a huge beast. The other thing is like being in a car, with a helmet on, a fireproof suit...

Pepe Habichuela (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Pepe Habichuela: (he laughs). It's really wonderful that he's doing what he's doing but, of course, it's another world.

It also means you're associated with songwriting and production more than with actual performance...

Josemi Carmona: And I'm not going to cast that aspect aside. I have a project in the pipeline to make an album where I'm the bandleader, something that's my kind of vibe, but not just guitar - an instrumental album. Looking at the guitar scene right now, at the virtuoso talent out there, there's no way you're going to pluck those notes faster than anybody...

Pepe Habichuela: Well, everyone has their own thing.

Josemi Carmona: That's just it, my thing is more in that line, an instrumental concept.

Perhaps you need to take that path with so much virtuoso talent around, right?

Josemi Carmona: What's lacking is...

Pepe Habichuela: Imagination.

Josemi Carmona: There's a lack of songs. Even light-hearted ‘flamenquito’ tracks follow an established structure that everybody knows. And you have to think long and hard about it, whether it's looking to the past or moving out in new directions. With that system you already have a world at your fingertips. Ketama in its day was striking, the stuff we played stood out from the rest. And right now it's 'oh no, not the same thing again'. But there are a lot of people working away and I believe some interesting things will come up.

What's the schedule for your forthcoming albums?

Josemi Carmona: The Benavent one's due in November. As for the other album, no rush. When a tune comes up, I record it. I want to get my teeth into my father's album more than my own, dedicate more time to it. I'm going to really get stuck in...

Pepe Habichuela: Oh no.

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