Ojos de Brujo

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Ojos de Brujo, a band born in Barcelona from the multidisciplinary group of artists 'La Fábrica de Colores'(The Factory of Colours), which found in flamenco the starting point of an anxious and innovative musical group.
There are a lot: a community, more or less mutant. A unique band, which has just released their second album, 'Barí', one of the most eagerly awaited albums of the time, and which shows the ripeness of a group with their own name.
We were chatting with Ramón, the guitarist, that together with Marina and Juanlu united a group that appears nowadays like most of respected the Spanish panorama

How was your group born?
It was born of that restlessness to find common points between flamenco and other styles, in jam sessions with friends, where we were playing, without having the idea of creating a band.

But later 'Vengue' arrived, and with that, a great visibility
The idea was that all these jam sessions were recorded and little by little constructing tracks, with different components: there are the people from Colombia, Cuba and from loads of places and that we knew each other.

Departing from the flamenco, people ask, that music genre is yours. They have already classified it as "hip-hop flamenquillo".

I believe that the media put the labels fundamentally. Within us there are many musical worries. What is true if, it is there is a common denominator of what is flamenco, without any restrictions. To make flamenco there are others, we don't try to turn flamenco around, nor to make anything special with flamenco. That music is in us, hip-hop is very close also, like funk and other types. I believe that rapping in a base of tangos, because it is not cool to do it, curiosity epithets are born like the one referred to as "hip-hop flamenquillo".

So how would you define what you do?
One thing that we do as a group is the interpretations which can be a lot and varied and it is necessary to respect them, no? What is clear is that we do not have any intention of doing anything specific. We have a musical eclectic baggage, which goes from hip-hop, flamenco, amongst others. I believe that this makes us look in many directions. For the fact of putting labels, does not mean we want to say that we should go for a direction in particular, but rather we allow ourselves to go for this restlessness that exists in us, of finding common points between flamenco and other styles.

In any case, there are more or less direct influences in the birth of Ojos.
In my case, my beginnings were entirely flamenco based; started to play the flamenco guitar non-stop, and then at the age of 15 I hung up the guitar, and around '83/4 I formed my hip-hop group, a break group, where I was dancing in Spain for five years. I started listening to groups like Grand Master, Chaka Kan, Afrika Bambaataa, Kraftwerk, etc. When this period happened, I bought myself an electric guitar, formed my urban rock group, later we started playing funk, metal, Gothic music… And this is just my experience, which is very diverse. Then there is the singer who has theirs, the bass player, and many more.

Although you all have diverse origins, you are a group that is born in Barcelona. What contribution does the Catalan rumba have in your music?
I am Catalan, and I have rumba in my blood, from Miquel Borull when he was here, Pérez... I started doing rumbitas in my quarter when I was 12 or 13 years, it is something that is in me and that is reflected in what I do, also. It is present in many of our tracks, as 'Na en la Nevera', that finishes with a strong Catalan rumba; like on the second album, in 'Ventilador R-80', which is a homage to the rumbero movement.

The people suppose you have the biggest fan base in Barcelona.
We are from many places, but in some circumstantial way we have met here, and our most direct expression has always been here. We were already playing in the street, in Las Ramblas. Without at least having an album, we started performing here in Catalonia. In fact, the presentation of the first album, La Paloma was packed to the brim, even with people at the door. We were the first ones to be surprised, when we saw that: "man! what have we done? ".

And how is the panorama outside Barcerlona, especially in Andalusia??
This was one of the first questions when we went down south for the first time. The truth is that it was quite pleasant, especially when we were playing bulería tracks and the people joined in measuring the rhythms with their palms. And we were thinking "wow, they are catching on, and super good". Here people like it, but there we were noticing that they were tuning especially with more flamenco tracks, like 'Bulería del Ay!' for example, that is a super funky track. And we saw that crowd was asking for more, from below.

And you have also been overseas recently. How was the response there?
We were in some places, but I believe that you refer to the Festival of World Music, in Belgium, in the tour of "Vengue".

Exactly
I believe that the acceptance was very good. In fact, I believe that it has to be with the absence of prejudices that exists abroad. I believe that they are a much more receptive public. When we do a few tangos with hip-hop, they see the vibe of here, and understand hip-hop, for example. They catch it closely and enjoy very much.

With ‘Barí’, where do you expect Ojos de Brujo to reach?
Hacemos lo que hacemos, no para vender más o menos, sino que hacemos partiendo de esa inquietud, de esa investigación. Pues la aceptación, eso ya depende de la gente en general. Pretendemos llegar fuera. Cuanta más repercusión tenga un artista, mejor. Pienso que podemos llegar a Alemania, Bélgica, Francia, Portugal, Italia… que son gente que ya tiene una buena referencia, y que puede tener una muy buena aceptación con Ojos de Brujo.
We do what we do, not to sell more or less, but we depart from this restlessness, of this investigation. The acceptance, that really depends on the people in general. We try to come out. The more repercussion an artist has, the better. I think that we can go to Germany, Belgium, France, Portugal, Italy… who are people who already have a good reference, and who can have a very good acceptance to Ojos de Brujo.

What is new about this album?
Pienso que "Barí" es una progresión del primer disco, un disco mucho más focalizado, más "centrado", que ya lleva un bagaje de muchísimo tiempo y una recopilación de lo que ha pasado. Es un disco mucho más energético.
I think that "Barí’ is a progression of the first album, a great album more focused, more "centered", which already had baggage from a while ago and a compilation of what has happened. It is in album with much more energy.

And more electronic.
This type of experience could not be recorded on the first album, for time, but it was there already there. On this second album, the participation of the DJ remains super evident, this time we were able to give it much more space than on the first album. The dialogue of the turntables act as a percussion instrument, like an instrument to create ambience, and to create harmonies, like in "Gypsy party", where the guitar is perfected with the turntables, for example. The versatility of the turntables is very important in this album.

The tour commences shortly, true?
In fact we begin the tour the day after tomorrow (25/Oct '02), in Essen, Germany, in a Festival of International Music and in mid November until mid December we will do the tour of the album 'Barí', where it seems to me that on 3 and 4 December we will be in La Paloma. We will perform on two days, so they same thing doesn´t happen with "Vengue".

With the emergence and fame, are not you afraid of commercialisation of the band, which is in danger the proper essence and origins of the group?
There is an artistic worry that goes before everything else. And it is this worry that marks the direction, which it is not possible to betray.

There is a series of topics that are present in a type of ideology of your own, which is against the real estate speculation, against globalisation…
We do not try to do flag these topics. But like citizens, like anyone else could worry, our concerns are present in the lyrics and in the music of Ojos de Brujos. If it was not like that it would be unnatural also. The thing is not to throw rockets, it is true. In the topic of the speculation, I think that nobody agrees not only the big countries but the small ones as well… Since as people we recount our worries without much ado fortitude to express them, without trying to do flag them either.

What do you have for '03, if you can reveal us?
There is a project of re-mixing this second album, where we want to give it a much more electronic, more powerful mood, only for the DJ circuit, with approximately four tracks, where we want the likes of Nitin Sawhney, Massive Attack…let´s see, we are just in contacts even still!


Ricardo Nuno ::
Tuesday, 23 October '02