Some people say that the gypsies do the best flamenco. Is that true?
Well, we all know that in every country and in every scene is much talk.
Some of it is true, some not.
And some also trie to exploit the Roma- and racism-issues for ...
basically for nothing.
Because like I said before, it's less a question of your style or your belonging to something ...
but rather a question of your own person.
The artist decides!
No matter where.
The director of the Flamenco Biennial (in Seville), Manuel Herrera, ...
spoke recently about the intellectualization, which is currently taking place in flamenco.
Do you see that too?
Yes, there is something in it.
If people choose to dance or to play guitar ...
because they love the music, and because they like to do well, they learn ...
and the more they learn, the better the entire musical level gets, ...
as well as the musical and artistic intellectualism.
Sometimes even your own fans won't follow you anymore.
But that's how it works. It is a process of searching ...
of trial and error and learning ...
that eventually lead to results with a higher musical level.
Herrera has also called for a professionalization of Flamenco ...
where he thus less said the artist, but rather the other parties.
I'd like to see that too ...
that all the people in the Flamenco industry would work as much as we guitarists do.
Only by this the situation would be much better.
Who wants to be manager … okay, but do the job.
Who wants to be flamenco journalist, historian and musicologist - Please do! But do the job.
And please do it at the same level and with the same commitment as we do.
Then things would be way better.
You yourself have no manager. Why not?
Because in Spain and in the Flamencoszene we have no management professionals ...
and that is something quite different from what poeple in Spain think what it is.
Of that I have made myself a long time ago independently.
I produce my own records.
We have our own record label ...
We organize seminars every year in July in Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
We also organize our own concerts ...
and people know us, they call us for festivals.
But of course I still would like to have a manager.
In Spain, we have the following problem:
We make music that is not easy to understand.
And we also don't want to make a music that is easy to understand.
We want to make the music that we love.
But the Spanish labels want - as well as anywhere else in the world - ...
something that sells in large numbers and quickly.
They do not rely on the flamenco guitar.
The major labels are not interested, because we do not sell one billion records.
While smaller companies rely on us ...
but they do not have the means to record an album and to promote it.
And therefore I have decided to make it on my own.