Interview. October 2000

"It's good. Real, real, good. No way to tell what's going to happen, but up to now I can't complain, everything's gone well and I'm glad to have begun my solo career. It couldn't go better. I know that I haven't sold five hundred thousand or a million records, but I don't even know if that's good for a person.

Photo by Alejandro Ruesga

PICKLED KIDNEYS

Kiko is playing some blues with Raimundo's Fender Gild, giving a spit shine to the guitar his buddy of 25 years has used to punctuate many passages of his recent record. This old friend arrived at the ramshackle studio (built five years ago by Raimundo when he was getting started on his solo career) just as the interview was getting underway, after Kiko had put away some stewed cabbage with his wife. But Raimundo didn't get to try it, glued to the telephone, what with the promotional obligations, rehearsals... While Kiko plays the guitar which was broken in by his gypsy friend, Raimundo is saying that he has never performed so much as in recent years, that he's a wreck, and that his kidneys are 'pickled'. Two years ago they both made recordings made from live performances, and this year Raimundo was a component of "La familia Pollo" of Kiko Veneno, who has just finished listening to "Okupa". "Yeah man" says Kiko, "Raimundo's record is straight from the heart". And kidneys.

A 'GOOD TIMES' FACE

With that flamenco pop smile always on the ready, you ask Raimundo a question and he hardly answers. And so much the better. For example, he made two records with a couple of producers, and another two with another, Carlos Narea. "I'm delighted with him, with this record I've learned a lot of things I never knew before."

Are there many differences between Carlos', Fernando's and Arturo's respective ways of working?

I'm very grateful to them because they're the ones who really got me going, and Jesús Ortiz, they proposed the idea to MCA, if it hadn't been for them I would probably still be accompanying others, which I also like. But what I really like is the change of pace, after two records we'll see what happens.

He's knowledgeable but doesn't comment. And a real good guy. "There's a good feeling on this record, and in every studio a 'pata negra' ham, so you can imagine."

PATITA AND A TOUCH OF AMNESIA

On this record you used seven different bass players.

Seven? Wow...I had no...I'd forgotten.

And the pleasure of hearing Churri (younger brother Diego Amador, ex member of Patita Negra).

Do you know where his bit was recorded? Right here, making the demo, and it stayed. I said "Let's call Churri", so Carlos says "What for?...it's fine as is, come on...". It's MIDI and has quality. If he comes he'll do something else, and since this is how we like it, let's just leave it at that.

That's some good record that's going to come out....

Yes, the thing is, it's taken a long time....he's Mr. Perfect. It was practically recorded in his house on a Roland, there's one thing he plays with two percussionists.

He could have played the bass on your record.

Well, yes, for example, in the rumba "Enciendo un pitillo" he could have done a good job. Although what Pepe (Bao) did is very nice.

'FRONTERA BLUES' AGAIN

And his brother Rafael. I mention the pain we all sensed in his last two public appearances; the first, in a municipal gym in a program of Gomaespuma, where Juan Luis Cano didn't even have the graciousness to present him and he ended up furiously tossing the cable of the guitar; the second, in a patio in Triana during the flamenco Bienal, during the show of Las Tres Mil Viviendas. There he also just did one song, "Yo me quedo en Sevilla". Alone. Stop. Raimundo's index finger points to the stop button on the recorder. We chat a while. You don't get to know his feelings. The red light goes on again.

That's my thing, that everything should go well.

And it does, doesn't it? How many did you sell of Las Ventas?

At least 150,000 copies. Thereabouts.

"Thereabouts". The memory of Rafalillo, to whom "El blues de la frontera" is dedicated in Las Ventas where he says "anda por ahí" ('he's around somewhere').

FROM THE 'TRES MIL'

After this let's see what we can talk about. Oh yeah, the record. That's what it's all about. "Un okupa en tu corazón". It's not that Raimundo doesn't sing bad, but rather that the best thing on the record is the instruments. "A mi primo Tomate" is a takeoff on the buleria "Mundi" which he recorded four years ago on a record with Tomatito. "It's bulerías on the fly, that takes off as soon as the this jazz guitar comes in".

He shares authorship with the violoncellist Nicasio Moreno who doesn't actually play. "I already had it recorded when I was living in my apartment, and "Me voy a las 3000" as well, from six or seven years back. If you remember, when I came back from Japan I told you that I had begun to mull over ideas, well the same thing now, with this new work, there are some things that when we work them over they'll be good."

'BAK-BURNER'

How long were you in choosing the lyrics?

I've been here assembling, choosing lyrics, and preparing the music, nearly four months, and two more recording. We've mounted some thirty pieces, and there's a lot on the back-burner.

'PREOKKUPIED'

Kelvis Ochoa, of Habana Abierta (author of Tomasito's impressive "Resaca"), gives him two pieces, one of them in the Santana style "Caminito"; another Santanesque number comes through in "Un okupa en tu corazón", part of whose lyrics ("I'll be able to live when I can occupy a place in your breast that will never squeeze me out") Kiko would find later on among some papers because he hadn't realized what he had on his hands. "For me, in the final analysis, it's a kind of tribute to Carlos Santana. This piece isn't mine or anything, I even took out one of my pieces to put this one in, I said it was very Santanesque but I really like it a lot, I did it my way but respected the melody pretty much the way it is on the demo.

GETTING INTO IT

They didn't introduce him to José Alfonso Lorca, the author of the lyrics, but he does know Carlos Lencero quite well, the person who wrote the best lyrics for the record, those which are seemingly so difficult to sing, like from "Enciendo un pitillo". "And look, one of his creations was left out, I think he's put out and everything, my old friend. There are times they give me lyrics, like this, and I work out the music quickly, and other times I don't know how to get it together. It irks me because my old friend's lyrics are the ones that really speak to me.

He ought to be put out.

Of course, but it's all I can do. If my friend worked with someone who also wrote music, well okay then, I don't have to make any music, but it's not the same when they just hand you the lyrics and 'let's go, now we have to record'.

You've had two years boy...

Yeah, two years working, two years of performances here and there. I do one-night stands or records. I don't do both at once. I can't split myself in two. Unless you go on tour and you bring along a little guitar and a parrot and whatever occurs to you, you record it as it comes...

It's that since "Las Ventas" you haven't stopped...

Exactly, there've been more galas, more promotion, more everything...

MAGNET AND STEEL

"Qué maravilla!" is one of Queco's pieces (the singer/producer from Córdoba) that reminds me of Kiko.

Queco is a friend of mine from way back but he had never done anything for me, the thing is Pinga from the record company, I told him "what...how much you got there?" and he got all upset because he believed it. He asked him for a piece and I liked it, it's got a rhythm that gets to you, like J.J. Cale, samba-like, with the flamenco guitar and the steel.

The reciting reminds me of Kiko.

Right, it's that Queco really admires us ever since Veneno. He called me to record with Cherokee.

María Morales wrote three songs for you. Did you know her from before?

Not for long, I know her kid better, Pulgar, the child prodigy from the Underground entrance. In the end two of her pieces were included. She's from Cádiz.

THE FAMILY TRADEMARK

Your fourth record is touted as "twelve views to music".

Oh yeah? Well, the trademark is mine, it's always been there. I'm thrilled there's twelve views and all that stuff, but as long as you don't lose your trademark, I mean you listen and you say 'there's my guy'. Although in a few pieces on this new record I do some subtle vocal variations which I hadn't discovered before, but since I'm still new I'm ready to learn many things.

And that trademark, isn't it best seen in the last song, the second instrumental, and your only solo composition?

Of course, in "La parienta" everything comes through, the work that there was here, with my family, my children, the sponsor... That piece I had going a few years ago, and with Alvarito I worked it over.

We could hear the sound of a duo with Gandul, "the record's right-hand man, who doubled as technician and musician"; a keyboardist who reached the heights accompanying the Soles, Álvaro Gandul is one of the young people from Seville who forms part of the new band.

SALES

It's fine, really fine. Good, good, good.

As if you'd sold the rest of your...

The rest of my whole life, all together. Now we'll see what happens with this. And I hope to god to stay healthy. In order to do more. No way to tell what's going to happen, but up to now I can't complain, everything's gone well and I'm very happy to have begun my solo career. It couldn't go better. I know that I haven't sold five hundred thousand or a million records, but I don't even know if that's be good for a person.

You hadn't imagined yourself in a TV series ("Siete vidas") like you were in yesterday.

Well of coouurse not.

Full stop....period. The chat goes on in the sunshine of what was once his orchard, where the chickens used to camp out. Kiki and his wife have already left, and Raimundo never got to taste the stewed cabbage. We also get going, leaving him to rehearse with his new group. And his pickled kidneys.

Luis Clemente
Translation by Estela Zatania.