|
<<
Previous
And you've been singing since you were a child. Is
it an advantage or a drawback to have begun singing so early
on?
There have been too many experiences to recall, it's all
gone by too quickly. I used to watch the other kids playing
ball and I couldn't, I had to go to work, I earned a living
for my family. I bypassed childhood - I've always been a man.
But it's also helped me to feel flamenco the way I do today:
you have to study everything, but your experience is fundamental.
I think flamenco is more about experience than study. You
have to know how to sing at four in the morning, you have
to know how to sing in a theater, you have to know how to
sing in the studio, you have to know how to sing at a party,
you have to know how to sing at home... They're different
types of cante, different forms of expression. You don't get
that from studying. That's something you're born with, it's
about where you come from, the genes you have. And flamenco
is both what you feel and what you’re born with. I have
two-year-old nephews who already sing a bulería well.
People that study see that and they're gobsmacked. It's unbelievable.
If I didn't have that, I'd have already realized it and I'd
shut myself away in a room twenty hours to sing. There'll
be those who say that Potito doesn't study, but why should
I study if I like what I have and I know all I need to know.
There are many ways to study...
They've studied without watching and I've studied by watching.
I've seen the greatest cantaores right next to me. When I
was six at El Rocío I was with María la Burra,
María Soleá, Rancapino,
La Negra, Los Fernández, Aurora Vargas, Pansequito,
Camarón, Chocolate, Capullo, El Zambo, La Cañeta
de Málaga... I could name twenty thousand of them.
I was the youngest of all. And at the age of eight they'd
get me up to sing at seven in the morning when there was a
fiesta. And I've seen those faces... You don't see that any
more, forget it. That's why I feel flamenco the way I do today.
And when I'm at a party, I like to rip my shirt open if I
feel the inclination. You don't always have to be dressed
up to the nines in a suit and tie. There are moments when
you feel things that you just have to express. At four in
the morning, what am I going to sing? Por seguiriyas of course,
or por fandangos, por soleá... And por bulerías?
In the shower... because I have it here inside.
At this point in the conversation, Potito is relaxed,
sincere, open. And he takes a moment to say that “I'm
coming out with things here that I haven't said in any other
interview. You're going to take away the interview of the
year, I haven't talked about this with anybody. You'll give
me something in return, right?!”
And cante flamenco needs guitarra flamenca. What
has each of the guitarists you have on the album contributed?
El Paquete is perfect for tangos. Do you know how much musicality
he gives it, the tones, that swing it has? I think it's crucial
to have him on the album. When I thought about tangos, I thought
of Paquete. Later Diego
del Morao has an extraordinary sound. And you just have
to see El Churri perform... I mean he's a musician that plays
everything well. He plays bass well, he plays the mandola
well... Technically he might not be the most orthodox musician,
but the flavor he adds sets your spine tingling.
You also add your own guitar on the tanguillos ‘Sonsonete’...
There it is, right there. Yeah, yeah, I played my own guitar.
I'm from the ‘tomatero’ school when I play guitar.
Make sure you put that in the interview.
Will we get a chance to see you playing your own
accompaniment?
I'm trying to prepare a tune I do solo for the Festival Bienal
de Sevilla, where I both sing and play. As for the future,
we have an idea to do a production which is kind of a look
back over my career: as a kid, the fiestas, when I met Paco
and Pepe de Lucía, later the slump that came when my
voice broke, how you'd write songs in your room, later Tomate...
Like a life story, that would be beautiful.
Was it really traumatic when your voice broke?
Well I mean I wasn't expecting it. It's all part of growing
up. You're a boy and you're gradually becoming a man. And
a lot of people didn't understand it. And Potito, just like
other child prodigies, got over it. The thing is that I've
been lucky enough not to have stumbled and fallen there. I
just kept on moving forward, on and on. It's hard, it happens
overnight. Thank God I kept a clear head and I realized that
Potito was here to stay.
Was there an obsession with high-pitched voices?
Tomatito y Potito
(Foto: Daniel Muñoz) |
|
| |
|
I've never felt that. Cante isn't for the hard of hearing.
Chaqueta sang his high-pitched bulerías in the key
of F sharp, and he did it better than anyone! I mean if you
want to just shout then go up into the hills and do your shouting
there. Cante is from the heart, it's something else. Listen
to the voice of Juan
Talega, the voice of Caracol, the voice of a thousand
cantaores who had genius. They weren't those screeching voices
you hear today. I mean the Camarón attitude and all
that he was - nobody comes close to that. Listening to Camarón
today either teaches you or sets you off on the wrong foot.
I took Camarón on board and I understood that I couldn't
have his attitude, but I have managed to learn what I needed
from him. If I took it any further, well then I'd be making
a mistake. Like Paco
de Lucía says, the artist copies while the genius
steals. And it's true. I stole what I needed from Camarón.
I couldn't do what Camarón did, nobody could.
But his influence has crept into many cantaores from
your generation...
Personally I don't want to have the voice I had as a kid
right now. That would be absurd. The voice that I have now
I like a lot more than the one I had as a kid, squeaking away
in those upper registers like a mouse (he laughs).
And what have you learned from Tomate over the years?
I like Tomate's sense of rhythm: the rhythm that he has is
out of this world. Tomate has taught me a lot. It's like I've
been his son for ten years, I swear. He's one of my idols
and I have a great respect for him. He's calm, he naturally
commands respect, he's the patriarch among us, it's unbelievable.
In fact, you open the album with ‘Rosas del
amor’, where you pay tribute to both Tomate and Camarón...
| |
|
| "Seek
ye first flamenco, and all these things shall be added
unto you" |
| |
Yeah, that's right. Also one of the most popular things I
did lately was the collaboration with Vicente
Amigo. I think he's also one of the key figures of contemporary
flamenco. Tomate, Vicente and Paco are three cornerstones.
Right now anyone who comes into contact with them learns from
them. As a musician, I find Vicente amazing, out of this world.
He's creative, he's a unique person. And what can I tell you
about Paco? He's on another plane.
After watching flamenco so closely over the last
thirty years, what outlook do you see for the future?
Wherever we want to take it. No idea. Flamenco is at a point
where, if we treat it well, there are a lot of things to learn
and to do. We're a lot more concerned about other musical
styles than about flamenco. And I think there are a lot of
young people that are dying to learn. But not the flamenquito
of the moment - 'flamenquitos de temporada' as Raimundo Amador
calls them. We're going to defend what we are, and we're flamenco.
And the rest will come naturally. In the words of the Lord:
seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall
be added unto you. Seek ye first flamenco, and all these things
shall be added unto you. Let flamenco be your guide, that's
all. Flamenco is fundamental.
And always respect the artist's freedom...
Of course. I love music. And I dress like this today (in
a T-shirt and jeans), but if I have to put on a cravat, no
problem. And I'm going to sing por seguiriyas because that's
what I like. People come up to me with a lot of songs... but
I haven't sung them. I sing what I like to sing, nobody's
going to change that. Probably I'm making a mistake and I'll
sell less albums than anybody, but I sing what I like to sing.
Anybody can make a song with ‘ProTools’. Like
Carles Benavent says, ‘Saint ProTools’. Click
here, put this ending here... and a cantaor is born.
<<
Previous
revista@flamenco-world.com
|
