Antón Álvarez Alfaro (Madrid, 32 years old), C. Tangana either Fag for the whole world, he is sitting on the ground with a yellow polo shirt to match his socks, a gold chain, under the impressive view of the estuary from the roof of the Celta de Vigo headquarters, his father’s club and his own . The star that has burst the seams of the industry with The Madrileñoan album that has fascinated critics and the public, has taken over the command of the centenary hymn of the Galician club (Oliveira two hundred years oldhas titled it) and an impeccable musical and audiovisual theme has been marked made in Tangana & Little Spain. He has not been alone. With him, the writer Pedro Feijóo, and musicians like Rodrigo Romaní, from Milladoiro, or Alfredo Dourado, from A Roda; Xisco Feijoó and the teaching team of ETRAD, the municipal school of traditional music in Vigo. Or the Casablanca Choir, the pandeireteiras As Lagharteiras and a representation of the Tropas de Breogán rock with the presence of Sime, leader of the punk group Keltoi!
Ask. His father is from Vigo.
Answer. My father, who has been living in Madrid for more than 30 years, is still asked about a street and he answers: “No, I’m not from here.”
Q. And by extension, you from Celta.
R. When I’m little I realize that the team to be at home is Celta. My mother says that she is from Madrid, but she doesn’t really like soccer. I am from Celta and that’s it. I have experienced exciting moments such as the Copa del Rey final, the Eurocelta, beating Juve or Liverpool. That marks. It’s your team, it’s your father’s team, and that’s it.
Q. We are all here because of a tweet [C. Tangana contestó en 2021 a una encuesta de Radio Vigo sobre quién debía componer el himno del centenario con una frase lacónica: “Puedo intentarlo?”].
R. I answered jokingly. I was looking at the Celta networks and the Vigo media as always, I saw that and responded. I never thought it could really happen. I am more excited than a child. It is the closest thing to scoring a goal in Balaídos that I am going to do in my life.
Q. What changes when composing a hymn?
R. A lot. It’s the hardest job I’ve ever done and it goes against what I usually do. When I think of the public, I think of always bothering them and awakening new things in them. And here I wanted to awaken new things in Celticism and propose symbols, propose an aesthetic that gives Celtic something new. I have not wanted to stay in the same place where we were. But it’s the first time in my life that I want to please, that I want to please with what I do: I don’t think I’ll ever put myself in this situation again. Artistically it’s fucked up, that.
Q. He composes with the wind in favor for a fan audience, but he also takes risks: he composes for a symbol, for a feeling.
R. And it’s something I can’t control. But the will is there. My dream is that no one knows who composed this song: it is a Celtic song, of all the celtists. I hope the video gives away images that people will always remember. It is the dream of all things that have to do with tradition and popular culture, which is the highest and most indispensable culture of the human being.
Q. It has been steeped in tradition, folk music, Celtic roots.
R. That has been a gift. I knew that this was going to be a complicated process and that I was not going to be comfortable with the idea of having to deal with an institution with so many sensitivities. I gave myself some time to investigate and that was the best, the most beautiful part: being here, investigating, surrounding myself with impressive musicians.
Q. Is art possible without passion?
R. No. Everything I’ve learned here I hope I can integrate it in many places. Galician percussion and female voices is one of the most radical, strongest and wildest things out there. I have not seen music that has that power.
Q. Everything or almost everything is in the video: the estuary, the Rande bridge, the rafts. How long has it taken her to figure out what she wanted to do?
R. Lifetime. For me Rande, for example, was a symbol. My father exalted anything from Vigo, he valued it highly. The feeling of going through Rande is powerful. And a cinematographer as fussy as Pep [Gay de Liébana] It is said to be one of the best illuminated bridges in Spain. I’ve been soaking up things all my life and I did a very deep investigation, but in the end I took simple images that have always seemed spectacular to me. And the estuary is incredible. It has always seemed like a place from another world to me.
Q. Do you dream of singing the Balaídos hymn in order to win a title?
R. I hope so. I think Rafael [Benítez, entrenador del Celta] going to do something big. I am very excited about him. Look, among my colleagues there are none from Celta and there are many Madridistas. I’m not that much of a soccer fan, it’s cool to see the Premier. I am from Celta, I really enjoy when I go to the countryside, I have been to many in Spain, but I am not an expert. And when the signing of Rafa became known, many friends wrote me to tell me that he is a great signing. And, in addition, there is a tradition of the type of game that Celta is supposed to play, and suddenly Rafa seems not to be following that line. I love that: being from a team that can afford a Rafa Benítez in every way. I want him to get like a general [ríe].
I do feel that the stage turns you into another person, makes you an asshole; all that happens
Q. That is a characteristic of his. Change, collide, influence. This of the anthem, for example. The rap. Your name change. the fusion of The Madrileño. A few months ago Jorge Drexler spoke passionately about your curiosity, about how you rescue sounds and influences from the places you go.
R. You think that I have to do a lot of things to fill the void of not being a virtuoso of anything. I have already managed to believe myself thanks to people like Drexler, who is a giant. In songwriting, I do believe that I can write some couplets that are moderately valid. But other than that, that’s a very little skill, man… I’m not, I’m not a virtuoso at all. I don’t sing or play anything. I have to fill that void with creativity. And yes, one finds a certain technique. And I think that I have developed a certain technique to select and measure the ingredients that I make.
Q. You connect with the public. A lot.
R. That’s strong. Because the more complex and more against the current the project has been, the more successful it has been. I have many fames. One of those fames is that I am ambitious and mercantilist. But the truth is that when I have put more art and I have done what has come out of my mind the most, and I have started to make music with older people who were not in the trend and with things that the parents of those who are listening to on TikTok, I’ve done better in my life. That’s funny: you never know what’s going to happen.
Q. Does each new Pucho take something from the old one? To not lose footing, more than anything.
R. All the characters are an exaggeration of a part of the personality. I really like culture and popular art, and popular art uses everyday things, but then you have to give it an artistic twist: you have to put it up, you have to rhyme. I am this person, but you are searching within that person for what interests you. Sometimes all of a sudden something pops up, and you’re like, “Oh, okay,” and you focus on that. When you go from one moment to another, from one character to another, you feel that this character was already in you and continues to be in you.
Q. And what remains of those characters when, for example, he gets off the stage of his last massive tour in America and Spain?
R. I do feel that the stage turns you into another person, makes you an asshole; all that happens. You get on stage and you are able to make thousands of people move, shout, move at the same time and then your body, your ego, your subconscious reacts. Of course it happens. And then normal life has to satisfy you, a beer with your colleagues has to satisfy you and they tell you something they’ve told you 80 times.
Q. It has to satisfy you and it has to be a break from so many people on tour putting you up to the altars.
R. Honestly: we were going to do a lot more gigs than we have done. But December came and I said: “So far, I’m going to spend Christmas with my mother and next year is over, guys.” That’s why Celta has been very cool.
Q. I don’t know if you have seen the viral movement of artists against censorship in institutions governed by PP and Vox [en 2019 Tangana fue vetado, tras anunciarse su concierto, por el Ayuntamiento de Bilbao en una iniciativa promovida por Bildu y Elkarrekin Podemos].
R. Censorship can come in different ways, but I am in the same place and thinking the same thing: that censorship is a mistake and does not achieve its end. That it is a failed attempt that only generates conflict and is worthless. No one is going to get them to stop writing the things that are written. Quite the opposite.
Q. Are you worried that this will go further?
R. I understand people who say that we can’t take it as a joke, I agree with them. But on these issues I have to put up with the horses. My most visceral part comes out and I come up. Do you seriously think that you are going to tell me what I can sing and what I can’t sing? Right now nothing has splashed on me, but I do see all the people around me and my colleagues concerned. And I never like to see my colleagues worried.
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