Víctor Manuel (Mieres, 78 years old) is very easy to talk to: he arrives without drama, with humor, and generates a great atmosphere (as the originals share with the interviewer, allowing Asturian desires). Receive it in his workshops in the north of Madrid with the motif of his new album, Solo alone with meand talk about music, life and, of course, politics.
Question. We heard more questions about politics than music.
Answer. Sometimes it’s heavy, but it’s small. And that doesn’t matter to me much: I have an opinion… But I also like talking about my work.
P. You now have a new record.
A. Yes. I sing because I write songs, otherwise I wouldn’t be a singer.
P. I have a friend who imitates Sabina very well… you Víctor Manuel.
A. I found the way to sing with an Asturian singer, The prison (aka José González). I struggled a lot and it was a time when it inspired me a lot.
P. Does inspiration inspire you to work?
A. Yes, if he made me write songs every month, he would keep songs for me. Or maybe everyone has the songs told and we need to make sure time doesn’t slip away. I try to enter new places: there is one reggaea baroque-inspired song or one with a lot of electronics.
P. Ah, he’s the one talking about Gaza.
A. Yes, there is some news that gives me ideas. I saw Israeli soldiers taking selfies in front of the ruins of Gaza, a brutal thing. That’s why he composed a song about dehumanization.
P. It’s difficult to tell a story or define a character for as long as a song lasts.
A. Yes, sometimes it is possible. Or bring in the characteristics of the character so we can complete it. This disc makes it Aris’ novel: the story of a guerrilla who fled to the hills and then his wife fell in embarrassment. So we want to see the city again, at the risk of our lives, as if to say: the priest is me. But if people are not on their side, they may not understand each other in passing. I just think of you.
P. There are now records of his songs. There is one on I just think of you there is another one about Asturias. Kind of curious.
A. These are songs that the han brand already did. The Huella of Asturias he left to grow up alone, he is beautiful when the track is lost and he never realizes that it is my own song because it belongs to the people, in the demonstrations or in the festivals of prau.
P. He says this is what happens to posterity when authorship is forgotten.
A. That’s it. Once I saw (Miguel Ángel) Revilla come out on television to congratulate Easter, with jugs dressed as jugs, and sing songs to him. Stone gatelike he was a bad country boy (laughs). But these things bring joy.
P. Finally, let’s move on to politics. In the first song I say that Parliament is a bottle.
A. When he lights up and is insulted, he looks like a 16-year-old baby bottle. It is a permanent mistreatment of those who listen and are interested in politics, as in my case. I imagine anyone who doesn’t have that interest will renege and send it to shit.
P. Are they all the same?
A. No, of course not. When I defend policy, it seems very noble to me when it is done well. It’s a lie that politicians dress, only some people do. The municipalities of Caborana (small Asturian town) do not charge anything for holding meetings, and therefore the vast majority do. What comes out is the most putrid part.
P.. “The past never passes / and the future never stops coming,” said in a song.
A. I am optimistic, I believe things can improve. But many people feel that we are on the brink of a civil war. Dude, don’t mess with me. It is difficult to decide with the left-wing government: when Governor Zapatero spent five years with the conspiracy theory that I had planted bombs in Atocha.
P. Say Gramsci, bulkthat when the future doesn’t happen and the past doesn’t happen, it happens to the monsters. Maybe the monster is the ultra-derecha.
A. It’s because of the feeling of emptiness, of missing a banderita behind to go to. There is a feeling of helplessness, people saying: who am I? And the spirit of the times is that you are not interested in your life and that nothing is about you. This is a very disconcerting time, especially for young people.
P. There are many ways in which civilization can access man.
A. We have an enormous capacity for self-destruction, even if we leave young people alone, we have a lot to do in the face of the problem of housing, precariousness and a blind future. We need to rectify the capital, I never thought they were so voracious, so many sluts: it’s too much. From abuse in the workplace to charging the viejecitas of their homes to put them in tourist floors.
P. Ya que habla del capital: usted militó en el Partido Comunista de España.
A. I lived through all the good and bad times of that time, knowing very selfless people, it was a religious thing. You would end up in every pond fighting. There were a lot of people in the artist: in our cell there were brothers from Castro from the group Coz, Manolo Tena, Teddy Bautista… We were very similar because we were everywhere, but we were few in number, as was demonstrated when we were able to vote.
P. Why do you hate it?
A. We left him in 1982 when Carrillo handed over the reign to Gerardo (Iglesias). We did not understand that the communist monarchy would transfer power from one lord to another, it seemed to us like hair removal, we wanted an extraordinary congress. Ana (Belén) and I sent a letter to EL PAÍS. It was titled: We go there because we are always in the same place. Plus, we had a small child to transform the world and we had to leave him a long time ago. They told us, “the rats abandoned ship,” but that was to be expected. But they were wonderful years, with the best people, selfless and dedicated. There are also the most sinister people.
P. Now we are told that there are communists everywhere.
A. This is a very rare thing. What we know has been buried for a long time, practical examples have failed. I was invited to communist countries and I behaved so badly, I argued so much, that they didn’t come back to invite me. And it seems that we have defended Cuba for years, to the point of saying: “It is there.” In China, they continue to consider themselves communists… But there is no one today who qualifies as a communist.
P. The Asturian mining basin leaves its mark on us forever: it continues to be present in its songs.
A. Always take water pozu from childhood. I remember December 4 (day of Santa Bárbara, patron saint of miners) listening to the dynamita on the mountain. My priest worked a little in the mine, I was at Renfe, but I guelu (abuelo) and a lot of people in my family work there a lot.
P. Is there still class consciousness in the world?
A. I don’t want to be working class. Maybe someone on a walker has class consciousness, when you do manual and practical work it’s easier than when you work with a computer. Jobs have changed a lot, although they have been outsourced, the only union remains in large companies… To the detriment of the working class, because there is a lot of job insecurity.
P. Talk about “failures” in your songs… But that takes decades of success.
A. Yes, we spend a lot of time talking about success or failure (laughs). Many people only see the dross of life, which gives them amazing things, but there are things that some consider a failure: they didn’t know how to solve a song or a record… He had a lot of work that was a disaster and didn’t work… he only remembers less. These are very benevolent failures.
P. Ultimately, an artist’s legacy is four things, four songs, four poems, and the rest is forgotten.
A. There are no more. Sometimes I say I have over 600 songs, but having 60 more is still valid.
P. In addition to politics, Ana Belén, an artistic and sentimental couple, asked a lot of us. A lifetime together: what is the secret?
A. It’s inevitable that you ask me. I always say: ours works because it has always been provisional (laughs). When we got together we deprogrammed each of our world… Ana was 20 years old, she was hippie and impuntuality, a force of nature. I came from the first successes, with the first money that bought me cars that were impossible to drive… If in a relationship you go with maximalisms because of that, “I am like that”, and you are doomed to failure.
P. What does music sound like today?
A. I listen to a lot of music, I pick all the rats, I like being buried. Sometimes I hear it once and that’s enough, other times I love it and follow it. As they say in the studios, now we want to listen to what was there before. Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Pink Floyd in the van coming back… Now we want to change songs every 30 seconds, so imagine listening to 12 minutes of The wall.
P. We cannot stay in the past.
A. Yes, I have more eclectic tastes. Spotify is bad for musicians, for the artistic media class that doesn’t monetize, not so much for the very big ones, like Beyoncé or Rosalía. But at the same time it’s a miracle to be able to access all the music.
P. Game names.
A. (Consult your smart phone). Look, now I listen to Olivia Rodrigo a lot. I went to see Guitarricadelafuente, which seems very good to me, even if the last album is a bit of a failure, but he is a very good artist, he sings very well, he will play. Fetén fetén, enchants me, like Jorge Drexler or Tulsa.
P. ¿Bad bunny? Is it Rosalia?
A. I listened to Bad Bunny because I feel like I have to listen to it, but it’s not more, it’s just what it is. Rosalía seems to me to be a great artist, I like her records, but Motomamiwith these syncopated screams that weren’t even songs. I believe that Lux I have very good songs, even if this new mysticism seems to me to be a milonga: I hate all religions equally.
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