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Interview
Alejandro Luque
2
Antonio Luque (Seville, 1970) exudes in his interviews the humor of someone who does not want to be seen as funny, but whose view of reality leaves him no other option. And the same happens with his songs, such as those contained in Sr. Chinarro's new album, Reality show (Mushroom Pillow), where he debuts a new band and, with thirty years of experience and 18 albums behind him, displays an abundant maturity.
ARCHIVE | "Trap and those songs about getting high and fucking a lot... are touchingly simple"
An album that looks at the post-pandemic world with a raised eyebrow, confirming the fear that confinement was not exactly going to make us better. “I was clear that we were not going to improve anything. I didn't even applaud the health workers, because I knew that all those people leaning out on the balconies were going to vote for politicians who favor private health care. If I had stayed in Malaga, looking at the sea, I would have at least been able to learn something about the behavior of dolphins, but I spent that time like everyone else, imitating James Stewart with a broken leg on my back.” Rear Window, spying on others.”
This observation of others may have led to songs that are less introspective than usual, as he himself admits. “Yes, an album in which all the songs say me, me, me can be too much. Like the altar boy in the joke, you have to ask yourself: Am I the only one who sees this? Is it only happening to me? That has encouraged me to tell stories that happen to other people, although the song already says it: no one can escape from themselves.”
In recent times, Chinarro-Luque has expressed his doubts about whether his career has gone down the right path, or whether he could have aspired to greater success. Does he often compare himself to his colleagues? “It happens to me like it does to everyone, whether it be with people of my generation, like Los Planetas, or younger ones, like Dorian, from a generation that in a certain way had us as an example. I see them on social media, always filling up, and I wonder if I have done something wrong. But I must also have done something right, because things have gone too well for me for the songs I have made,” he says. “I am not envious nor do I like to complain, but maybe what we should do is close Instagram. When we only read RockdeLux we were happier.”
The group of musicians that Antonio Luque has surrounded himself with for this new production is certainly enviable: Dani Vega (guitarist for Mishima), Miquel Sospedra (luxury bassist for Amaia, Alizz and Refree, among others) and Xavi Molero (drummer for Iván Ferreiro, Zahara, Christina Rosenvinge…). The singer accepts the comparison with wearing a new suit, “because I don’t like going shopping, I don’t need it; while one shirt gets dirty, the other is drying. But a band, like a suit, has to fit you well, the shoulder, the sleeve, and that stresses me out. I don’t like changing bands, but what I do like is for the one I have to fit me well, and the one I have now seems tailor-made for me.”
Far away are Sr. Chinarro's first albums from the 90s for the Acuarela label, classics like Mr. Chinarro (1994), I compete (1996), The reason for my hairstyles (1997), I don't know what-I don't know how many (1998), which was followed by the acclaimed The first vacuum-packed opera (2001), Say goodbye to the lake. The oddities of Antonio Luque (2001), Get paid as soon as possible (2002) or The ventriloquist of himself (2003) to show how prolific a creator he was. But everything has changed, starting with the industry. Or not so much? “It’s a bit like when I suddenly turn on Canal Sur and see the same presenters as always, only ten years older. On the other hand, if you watch the Telediario every day, you don’t notice it,” he explains. “In music you see the changes through milestones, like Izal’s triumph, which I don’t know why either. They play well, but are they enough to fill the Olympic Stadium? Well, I didn’t like Héroes del Silencio either and they also filled the stadium… But I don’t stop to think about what people like, I don’t do market studies. Sometimes I think that people’s tastes are precisely the problem. However, I am happy with my own.”
“I don’t know when things started to change, whether it was when the Morán brothers sold Benicassim, or when beer brands started organising tours… Money changes everything, it buys everything,” adds the musician, who will present his album at the CondeDuque in Madrid (28 December), Girona (9 February) and Barcelona (10 February). “And it doesn’t matter what you do, it doesn’t matter if you open an exquisite hamburger restaurant: if you’re next to McDonald’s, it’s the one that’s going to succeed.”
On the other hand, Mr. Chinarro doesn't live off music alone. He also works in literature, a field in which he has made several forays, although he is not sure whether he will have a new book out soon. "I have a second novel underway, but when I get into my ideas and start to live more in the characters than in my own life, I get a little scared. It absorbs me so much that I even stop composing, and I don't know if I can allow myself to have Mr. Chinarro idle for three years. It gives me more satisfaction to finish a song in one morning. The novel is like a marathon: if I'm in shape by running ten kilometers, why run 42?"
Another of his well-known passions is Real Betis Balompié, whose mere mention makes him speak in a somewhat more excited way than his normal sober tone. “When Betis plays, the week already has a fixed, very cool moment, there is something to look forward to. And that, in a life like mine, in which I do what I want, is a key moment,” he says. “Betis is not a game of lies, like that of the Spanish national team. I do not analyse tactics, but I am clear that, in comparison, the football of Setién, Luis Enrique or Cholo Simeone is a scam.”
When asked if he has learned anything from the even if I lose, asserts that “Chinarro has always been like that. What good is it to be competitive in life, if in the end you go crazy, like what is happening to Monchi [sporting director of Sevilla FC, eternal opponent of Betis]. Because people go crazy with ambition. Look, going back to the subject of my musicians, at 50 years old I realized that I had to count on the best, with the people who play with Zahara, with Iván Ferreiro. Can Monchi count on the best footballers in the world? No, but he tries, and that's how it goes.”
Based in the Pedregalejo beach area in Malaga, Antonio Luque believes that this city, which has become fashionable in recent times, “has done an impressive promotional job. I have been here for 17 years and I did not live in the time when people did not dare to enter the centre because it was dangerous. Now there are still streets that are dangerous, reminiscent of Seville before Expo 92, but the truth is that everyone comes here, and I am delighted to live here, because it is a marvel from a climate perspective.”
And what about local bands? “There are some, but like everyone else these days, it seems like they are going to bring out Almodóvar as a guest at any moment. It happens here and all over Spain: except for bell-bottoms, everything comes back. Everyone wants to sound like Los Nikis, Parálisis Permanente and Siniestro Total. To be honest, it bores me a bit.”
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