-Blending reggae, Caribbean, Latin sounds, even Balkan… your music embraces a true wide range of different musical cultures. How do you keep your music personality so open and constantly enriched?
I believe that every artist needs to have an open mind, this is not only the case in music but I believe it is true for all the different forms of art. As an artist you have to be able to try to find always new inspirations. It is something that is really crucial for me. I try to listen a lot to what people and friends tell me, they sometimes make me discover really nice music. Also, I like to travel a lot, I like to know new people. That also makes a difference. If you travel a lot, you can meet new people and you hear a lot of new music. I like it also when musical inspiration comes to you in a very spontaneous way, I don’t like to follow hypes!
-You have collaborated with so many talented musicians through the years. Now, for the first time you are going solo with ‘Tucson-Habana’. Nobody could doubt that you love music communities but how does it feel being on your own?
Well, actually, I am not really alone. I mean, I have so many people around me, I still work with a lot of people and musicians around me. The thing is that I had the feeling that I had to release some songs with some lyrics that were different of the ones that I released with Amparanoia… That’s the main reason why I started my carreer under my own name, as a ‘solo-artist’. But, I still work with the same musicians I was working with in the time of Amparanoia. So, I really don’t feel alone!
-Lyrics of yours, enclosing clear social comments – more than love-notes, and your trips to the Zapatista communities in Chiapas underline the bond between music and social fight. Is music for you a political act?
Before it was much more the case than now on this album ‘Tucson-Habana’. I think that it is important that art plays a role in the society, but I have never felt I had to change the world with my music. My music was sometimes an expression of how I was looking towards the society on a particular moment, but it has never been a political act. Moreover, on my solo-album ‘Tucson-Habana’ most of the lyrics are really personal and talk about personal feelings such as love, loosing someone,…
-You change a lot and always move further. Tell us one yet unfulfilled music wish that you have.
I have plenty of wishes I still would like to fulfill. I hope that one day I will be able to collaborate with people such as Wilco. But also with many others. I hope that I will be able to continue making music in the future, being creative. Sometimes it is not a matter of big wishes but of simple things, coincidences…
Text: Joanna Papazoglou | Link: Amparo Sanchez MySpace
