Opening act for Queen in 1981 with the band Zas, Miguel Mateos has returned to live performances with a tour that began in March at the Colón Theater with a symphony concert. “I feel very good, satisfied and also lucky to have reached this point”, says the composer and voice of ‘Tira para arriba’. We spoke for a few minutes on Zoom with the Argentine who summarizes his 40-year career and 18 albums as paintings of each moment. “Paradoxically, I arrived in Mexico (1986) when Argentina was world champion, look what a coincidence”, he tells us from Monterrey, after completing a tour in the United States. “I come very happy. At least for that allegorical idea of a united Latin America. Songs are what ultimately unites us.” His tour closes in Peru (on Friday in Campo de Marte). “Every time I go to Lima it is a joy for different reasons, because of the people, because of the vibe, the gastronomy. I’m like a fan and I always have a great time.”
— The so-called ‘rock movement in your language’ began, precisely, in Mexico. But there were also coincidences between what was happening in South America: dictatorships, crises…
Yes, and it seems incredible, but there are metaphors, even, of the songs that, for better or worse, are still valid. Okay, I have given a record of the different times we spent with each song. I have had my times… like painting and the blue period of Picasso (smiles), I had my darkest time, that of the dictatorship, my most brilliant time was when I talked about democracy, my most contemplative time, which They are the most current ones that speak… I speak to the inside now. I have gone through the different feelings, through the different experiences. And I think I have recorded each one of them.
— You played in Peru in the 80s. How do you remember the rock scene?
I remotely remember arriving in Lima for the first time and my records still hadn’t arrived (smiles), they arrived on clandestine cassettes that sounded lousy, which was more noise than anything else, but underneath that noise there was a song. I said: how can they listen! But all of that was really wonderful, there is a great memory even now with the whole digital age, all those moments in which music was initially repressed because it sang about freedom, about values. Those values that are still defending or having that flag against music…(like) reggaeton that sounds almost monotonous and with misogynistic lyrics that for me are really puerile, without any content. Sometimes there are eight dancers and a DJ with everything recorded. Rock’s response, precisely, continues to be: play live music. Having a band with three guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, wind instruments; that is, all playing live.
— And that’s why in 2019 you sang ‘The rock and roll assassin’. Can you commit a ‘crime’ with music?
(Laughter) It’s not a criminal accusation, but it’s an idea of mine that helps me say: wait a minute, there’s not only reggaeton, there’s also rock. For a guy like me, who has always physically and poetically defended freedom, I can’t ban a genre, but hey, if you do, do it decently, playing live, with lyrics with certain content that defend certain values. But if you do it for the same vulgarity, I’ll be against it there. Mine was a metaphor because everyone told me: ‘Rock is dead!’. I say enough, nothing died, and if it did, I didn’t realize it.
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