G Music Reporter: Paco de Lucia 1998

Entrevistamos a Paco de Lucía con motivo del lanzamiento de su disco "Luzia".

[Battery Sounds]

(G Music Report)

Paco de Lucia:

This album is a tribute to my mother

it was recorded

while my mother was ill in the hospital for six months

every single morning I visited her

during the day i was with her and later in the day and at night I would compose

This album is impregnated

of those painful feelings, seeing how my mother was leaving

And I also told her once

that this album will be dadicated to her, which made her very happy

She gave me the most beautiful smile, a smile I would never forget

and that is a good razon to dedicate the album Luzia with a "Z" because

It is important for me to clarify my mothers Portuguese origins

in Portuguese Luzia is spelled with a "Z"

So this album is definetly a full tribute to her

There is also a song that is dedicated to Camaron

but the album in general is impregnated by that painful feeling only experienced when ones own mother is dying

Every experience in life

Fills you up with diferent feelings and sensations

and the pain when is so deep, it think you get used to it

to the point where pain is so intense but so is happiness

so, in a way I believe that what I write and compose is related with whatever has been experienced

If an intense and profound pain has been felt by someone, it is transmited into whatever you create or compose

Flamenco is full of pain and sadness

of the persecution of towns and the andalucian marginalization, poverty, hunger, all that.

there are many people that claim to have undergone hunger, but I

I did not experience hunger, my father made sure we did not experienced it

but we were in the verge of it

and I thing that is important for any artist

each album is like giving birth, it is painful I want to go crazy

I really do. It fills me up with anxiety and anguish

fear and insecurity

I think it is not worth it and throw away more than half of what I compose

because I think is just not worth it

making an album is an illness it turns into an illness

I suffer..suddenly I come up with a phrase that really makes me happy for five minutes

but after five minutes, the insecurities come back again

and the fears and doubts about if this is all worth it

when I could be at the beach taking the sun

having enough money to do that,

but there is something else inside me telling me to keep going and keep struggling

to keep living, to have that fullfilling sensation that I am still alive

and having something to say

I want to make sure you all know that I dont pretend to portray myself as a singer in this album

it has been almost an obligation, because there are two writings in this album

one, i dedicate to my mother and the other to Camaron

and I sang in reference to the recording so later a professional singer could adapt his voice over mine

but I thought it was more intimate according to the circumstances and the real purpose of the song

eventhough I realize he could have done a much better job

to have myself sing those lines was a real homage

(guitars)

Guitarists in general

Of course guitarists dont even buy them, on the contrary they copy each other

these guitarists have put me where I am and they know who Paco de Lucia is

that is why I always thing about the guitarists when I make an album

because they are the ones who will talk about it among themselves

and will say if the album is Ok or not

I am not interested...

there is still much to do with the acoustic guitar

now play the electric guitar is quite interesting

because with the acoustic guitar, you play a note and it dies suddenly

with the electric guitar you play a note and it can last ten minutes

it means that electric guitar gives you more tranquility because while the long note is playing you can think about which note to play next

with the acoustic guitar you can not do that

after one note the next must come quick because you ran out of sound

much more challenging to play the acoustic guitar, it has more posibilities that an electric guitar

in which you can prolong the notes and have time to think

I could not live without a guitar, but at the same time I dont live while playing

because it is such a difficult and ungrateful instrument

you dedicate all the hours in you life and all of a sudden

one day you are completely fine in regards to your hands, brilliant

you go in front of people feeling perfect to play

and you just cant play, I dont know why, a disaster

It is an instrument where all matters, the lenght of you nails matters

Im talking about a microscopic difference in lenght

and I dont know what is going on but it seems like it is the nail that not well filed

it is quite challenging instrument, very tough

I dont have a good relationship with the guitar

I dont like it, really I cant stand it

(laughs)

[guitar playing]

Because flamenco has always been a lower category music

maybe I giving it to much importance

flamenco has always been music for Andalusian Gypsies

It played in the caverns

and, I could sum it up to this

I remember someone in my town saying "Paco de Lucia" plays the guitar really well, he is a phenomena

And there was this neighbor of mine that said the opposite

He said he knew me so well when I was a young boy,

that my face as full of shit as his home, how can he play well- he said

He spoke in a sense trying to say that since he is ours he cant be good

it seams like everything that comes from outsider is better

that is something that happens not just in my country, but all over

everything that is folkloric and autochtonous is not good enough

it is so much more well seen to go see a rock concert even if its a total wreck

than to go see a local folkloric artist

I dont know why, I cant understand, but we are just like these.

There are countries that do have a much more elevated cultural education

Maybe because they have more money, the kinder has been educated in music

and may be they know how to appreciate those things even better that we can do.

This is basically a flamenco guitar album

very traditional, but also have percussion, lute, guitar mandolin

Antonio Carmona plays cajon in a Buleria, for me he is the best player of all

and Luis Miguel he plays also the guitar mandolin, he plays very well is a good musician

Tino di Geraldo, Carlos Benavent

and Duquende, a singer that I like so much, he made some beautiful Tangos

I always be in fusions, because as a Flamenco gay i never went to a School to learn music, I am a self taught person

all I know was learned by hearing

Some times I felt I needed Technical skills of music to make a composition less painfull

Because for me, to find a chord is harder than a person who has music skills and know how to read the chords and make harmony

And so, I never had the discipline to go to school, I though the best way to learn was meeting other musicians

for example Jazz musicians, people at he verge harmonically.

...and like I was curious, inquiring I never pretend not to be a Flamenco

not even dedicate my self to play Jazz, my goal always was go to learn

bring it back to Flamenco music and make it grow some way

And Ketama I think is a splendorous Band, they really make an progression

even the last album was not Flamenco, they move into Flamenco ways to make it them expression

all of they music has Flamenco intentions that I think is very positive

and like Ketama Band a lot of people will make amazing things

as I said, Why take so long to make an album?, Because the level is too high

I can not come out with any kind of album, I have to make something really interesting, very surprising.

[guitar playing]