Silvio Rodriguez: “I think a lot about what I write”

The Cuban singer-songwriter said in this interview, “I believe that art is even more necessary and necessary in difficult times. Silvio RodriguezOn Friday, June 7, he releases his new work, the twenty-second of his career, I wanted to know.

An icon of the new trova and one of its few active members, this new album is a mix of themes, moments and genres, “nuances” and preserves tolerance and inspires hope in times of crisis like the current one. on the island. The album, for the first time in three years, is a collection of eleven songs composed between 2015 and 2019, in which intimate and social lines are combined, and instruments and other songs are reduced to their minimal essence, all with the stamp of voice and poetry Silvio. “I wanted to know This is the continuation I have; Songs that I wanted to put together for this occasion,” sums up the 78-year-old singer-songwriter.

Among them, “Por no podar el soba” stands out, a song with the subtitle “editorial song”, published in text in 2016, then performed live, which is now collected in a studio work. It draws attention to its condemnation of “mass” migration, “fires of homosexuality,” “evils and doctrines,” and censorship of media and artists.

“I mean the things that hinder us, that hinder us, that instead of liberating us, they bind us, they entangle us. There were some Traditional cultures such as machismo and homophobia. Others were absurd sanctifications of a system of thought initiated by a German whose goal, according to himself, was to doubt everything,” he explains.

Rodríguez closes the song with a pinch of hope and optimism in the title “The quota”, “counting another one” and growing up in the face of challenges: “Look, increasingly, now calls us to fly. “Keep going”. However, the author of songs like “Holy” Don't want to define yourself as an optimist (or anything permanently) because viewpoints change over time.

“One day we understand something, see it one way, feel it one way, and express it that way. The next day nuances, if not contradictions, will emerge. That's why one day you can write 'The Fool' and a few days before (or later) 'In Search of a Dream' or 'Kingdom of Still',” he says.

Silvio Rodriguez He believes that “it's hard to qualify sometimes,” but he tries to make sure “it's fair.” “I always try to do that. I definitely can't stand it There's a lot in all directions,” he says. Faced with those who talk about “the reality of a dream,” as he sings in “Vene la Thing,” Rodriguez sees Cuba “as it was,” giving it “the benefit of the years,” and he's been on stage for 56 years. .

“As long as my opinion is considered, of course, I can live within the most open opinions. I only believe that our future is the future of Cuba. Jose MartiIt's not in the pocket of the North American government,” he says.

As a preview, the previous two weeks saw the release of two singles, “I Wish I Knew” and “America,” a song about intellectual restlessness and unrequited youthful love, respectively.

His lyrics say little about the island's present, in a dire crisis with no way out and an unprecedented wave of immigration. “I think a lot about what I'm writing,” he says, though he hinted that he might address these topics in the future.

He talks about a tour of the neighborhood (“one of the most beautiful things that ever happened to me”) and how he used the “hiatus” of the pandemic to “discover a lot of things that I've been putting off.” And since Pablo MilanesAnother symbol of Tenueva Trova who died in 2022. “The absence of Pablo, an exceptional musicianship, an incomparable talent, is irreplaceable,” says Rodriguez, who knows the time: about Tenueva Trova, he says, “almost everyone has it. Already left, “there are only a few of us left.”

Source: EFE

[Fotos: REUTERS/Edgard Garrido]