The day Soleá Morente finished Hispanic Philology, she returned home wishing that her father, the singer Enrique Morente, would fulfill the promise he had made to her before starting her degree: that once she finished, they would go into the studio together to record an album . He received the answer he expected: “Now, let’s carry out our idea, even if it’s for you to keep.” They immediately started working on it, but the death of the musician caused the project to remain in a drawer. Until now.
More than ten years later, calm sea has finally come to life. “After having released other pop and rock albums, I have needed to return to it, and it is being a beautiful reunion with the beginning that never took place,” the singer acknowledges to this newspaper about what she defines as her “most special” work. . He publishes it while working on his next album with La Casa Azul, which will be released next year and for which he releases a new preview this Friday, with the knuckles.
calm sea It is a compendium of songs that are very different from each other. How did you choose the repertoire?
A hallmark of the Morente house is non-prejudice when it comes to doing what we feel, in art and in life. They had to be songs that moved us. We were not looking for a specific genre, but rather the truth, the emotion. We made a selection. What brought together this eclectic repertoire was looking for a concept that would give it unity, flamenco, but without making a flamenco album. There is bossa, jazz, protest song…
Is working from non-prejudice something rare within the music industry? Do artists have this freedom or was it something you were able to do because you recorded it with your father?
It was born very naturally, looking for songs that moved us and that we could take to our territory. This, which used to be like an avant-garde attitude, is currently being established as something classic. Now the rare thing is to do something simple or classic; tradition, the normal thing is to put different extremes together and see what happens. We are in a moment of absolute experimentation in music, where flamenco, fortunately, has a fairly great priority and importance.
What was it like growing up in an artistic family? Was music always playing at home?
Yes. It has always been very present. I got used to studying with her in the background. My father had the rehearsal and recording space at home, in Granada. It was his factory, his laboratory. My father was very generous and we will always be very grateful to him because he made us very involved in the recordings. Estrella, Kiki and I were his backup singers when we didn’t even get to the microphone. We played flamenco tablaos, I was the dancer, Estrella the singer and Kiki the guitarist. And with the dolls. It hasn’t been imposed on us, but fortunately we have had art very much in mind since we were little.
They were not forced to be artists, but they were not told not to be one either.
The other way around. They told us: “Study dance, guitar, whatever you want.” They always put an instrument in our hands, so we could try whatever we liked. I remember a conversation I had with my father, when I finished college, telling him that I wanted to do the same as the rest, go to festivals, earn money on stage. He encouraged me to study at university because it was something he was really looking forward to.
He told me that it would be great to have a plan B. Now I understand everything. This is a wonderful job, but I understand why it was good to have a job that gave me stability, liberation and relief from continuous absolute and immediate exposure. In the society we live in, where competitiveness, comparison and all these values that are not very good are so current, it is complicated.
Living with it has to be complex.
The formula is to become strong and be aware of the world you live in. Society has wonderful things and others that are there and that cannot affect you as much. Bad reviews, comments on networks. You have to go through it and go through it to place it, manage it and prepare. But don’t let anyone distract you from your goal and do it better every day, because really that’s what matters.
How much does the surname Morente mean?
Now when I look back I think: “I don’t know how I dared.” I am the first to say and accept that if I were not Soleá Morente, daughter of Enrique Morente, I would not have had it so easy to reach certain contacts and places. Then there is defending it, living up to it, and at least trying to do the best you can always. On the other hand, there are the comparisons, which I already managed and placed a long time ago.
I am the first to say and accept that if I were not Soleá Morente, daughter of Enrique Morente, it would not have been so easy to reach certain contacts and places. Then there is defending it, living up to it. And on the other hand there are the comparisons, which I already managed and placed a long time ago
Solea Morente
— Artist
With calm sea They resume the activity of the Discos Probéticas label, a project that was born from their father. Is the idea to continue betting on groups that would not have the same opportunities?
Yes. It is a dream that we are going to fight for from the Enrique Morente Foundation, because that was my father’s intention. Create that label to be the owner of your own work and to help people who cannot reach the great giants. If you are not in a super multinational, it seems that they do not listen to you. Poor albums, which is the concept in the title, poor records of simplicity, of humility.
Is it more difficult to access the big labels now, partly because you have to continually release songs and get on certain charts?
Everything is mixed. For people who are lucky enough to reach a powerful label, it is easier than for those who have nowhere to go and have to do everything on their own. It is very difficult for them to listen to you when the money is focused all the time on the same proposals, the same styles. Doing the same thing all the time. I understand that this has to happen, but there are many very valid people who cannot even express themselves and it is very unfair. It’s super uncomfortable how the music industry works in our country.
And then you add this of having to be releasing songs and being in the spotlight all the time because, to what extent is it really being done because you feel it and not because you have to be there, because of the followers, the Spotify numbers and the networks? It seems that you have to surf this wave and be there. It’s not easy at all. My advice is resistance. And try to combine. It is very important to have a plan B to survive.
What should change in the music industry to make it less unfair and uncomfortable?
Open the doors a little to more people, open the range. Listen to all of us a little more. It seems that something happens to us and we are there all the time. Which is fine, and there are wonderful proposals that are at the top and we need them too. But I don’t know. Many things would have to change about how the world works, how we relate, where we put the focus all the time and put it more on equality, on human value, camaraderie, the dialogue of the different arts. And pay a little attention, sometimes you have to look where you don’t want to look.
Have you noticed changes since you began your career in terms of equality?
Women are in a process of awareness and recovery, because we have been losing points throughout history that we are trying to recover. There is more and more awareness, but there is still a lot to do. Not to be pessimistic, but we cannot relax. We are there, many of us are fighting to achieve an atmosphere of equality, to take care of each other. We are getting better and better, but this is a process and we are in the thick of it trying to keep moving forward.
At the beginning of the year we saw her on Tribulete Street in Lavapiés (Madrid), singing to support the neighborhood against the threat of vulture funds. What importance do you give to social commitment in your career?
Social commitment is essential. If not, for me art has no meaning. Be a catalyst for what is happening in the world. The job of the artist is to tell what is happening, to try to contribute your vision and that your voice and your instrument serve people who cannot express themselves like you, from that place, are not as well known or do not have a microphone in their hand. like the one I have right now.
The actor Alberto San Juan called me and I moved forward. Always in favor of the fight for equality. It seems like a tremendous injustice to me how they ended up with that building, that traditional shoe store, how the woman and the neighbors were crying. And we return to the same thing. Power and money always conquer everything. It’s a pretty difficult and unpleasant part of society. It is there, but we have to fight against it.
Flamenco is at its roots, I said at the beginning that it was in a good moment and explosion, what has happened so that, beyond those who come from tradition, there are other artists who have joined in, like Rosalía?
Rosalía has had and has a very important role in this work of disseminating flamenco. Flamenco has always been in good shape, but more and more people are realizing how important it is for life. It is a living art that will continue to grow. What is happening had to happen, and I think it will continue much more, because it is infinite, it is eternal, it continually offers you possibilities. He hugs you once you meet him. It is something magical and therapeutic.
Flamenco is a very powerful part of our culture and we are very lucky that it is ours. It represents us directly. And not just us, the whole world. You have the proof when you go around, and you sing a fandango in New York, in London, and people respond even if they don’t understand what you are saying. It has a very beastly transmission capacity. It is increasingly having more impact on different generations, different genders. And this was what had to happen and will continue to happen. Flamenco is an art for the majority, it belongs to the people, to everyone.
At a political level there are strategies that consist of taking over some things, taking over others, when this has happened with flamenco, generally more from the right or the extreme right, how do you feel?
Flamenco belongs to everyone, it belongs to the universe, the cosmos; It is claimed only no matter how much they want to appropriate it. In fact, look at the struggles that are taking place with appropriationism. Flamenco is claiming itself, expanding, rebelling, becoming fashionable, becoming the art of minorities, of majorities. No matter how much you want to retain it or want to appropriate it, both races, politics, and genders; it is not left. Flamenco is freedom and it belongs to everyone and no one.
He has just released this album, but continues to release singles from the next one, which he is recording with La Casa Azul. The last one this week, with the knuckles. What is your next album going to be like?
It’s being exciting. I greatly admire Guille Milkyway; and working with him side by side when I went to the front row at La Casa Azul concerts as a child, is very cool. It has nothing to do with calm sea. with the knuckles It is a very special song that goes a lot with this interview. He says: “With the knuckles of my hands, I will hit you in the sternum. They will stick like a stake in your chest.” It is a metaphor of defense, a: “Leave me alone to do what I want. “Don’t bother me.” With a bit of humor Kill Bill.
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