Manu Chao
a.k.a.
Oscar Tramor
TRAIN IN VAIN
Manu Chao's Unlikely Next Stop: Hope
What happens when a world-class musical rabble-rouser decides to settle down? For ethno-punk provocateur Manu Chao, the answer lies in the title to his second solo album, Próxima Estacíon: Esperanza. The phrase, which means "Next Stop: Hope" is at once a salute to his new hometown of Barcelona -- where it's a familiar recorded message on the city's metro system -- and a direct indication of his sunnier disposition. But given the existential doubts voiced on his groundbreaking 1998 hit Clandestino, a sonic travelogue culled from years spent wandering far-flung places, such optimism is surprising. An anarchist punk, a Third World liberationist, and a sampling fanatic, Chao rarely put a happy face on global events with the amphetamine-fueled ska-funk-Arabic rock of his old band, the vastly influential Mano Negra. While Esperanza continues to trade in the same lo-fi samples and acoustic dreamscapes as Clandestino, it sounds more grounded -- literally. It was recorded largely at home, with the help of friends and neighbors in his rough-and-tumble barrio. More content in his personal life though he may be, Chao is less than sanguine on the state of the planet. It seems that just when he's getting his act together, the world is falling apart. On a brief stop in New York, Chao spoke with World Music Editor Mark Schwartz.
Barnes & Noble.com: The new album sounds very much like a continuation of Clandestino.
Manu Chao: The fact is that I'm never making an album, because I'm always recording. On Clandestino, that was 15 songs which came out of 40 or 50. On the new album, there are some songs that were ready by the time of Clandestino, like "Mi Vida," some lyrics, like "Merry Blues," I wrote that 15 years ago. I'm never really in the studio, but I'm always in the studio. The thing that saved my life as a musician is the little eight-track recording technology that can travel with me. When I stopped Mano Negra, I never missed going on stage. But I realized I was a travel junkie. So finding a machine that could travel with me really helped me to make new albums. If not, I don't know that I could stand staying in one place for two months to make an album. I have to change cities every 15 days, it was like, physical.
B&N.com: After Mano Negra, you traveled extensively in Africa, in Brazil...have you kept up that pace?
MC: Now? I still like moving. After Mano Negra, I was always moving, like a loco mosquito. I wasn't organized in my life...I had things in Rio, in Mexico, in Barcelona. It was fun, but to be a little organized -- to finish a job and put something on the market -- was impossible. Now what changed is I got an apartment in Barcelona, so all my things are in the same place. It makes things easier.
B&N.com: How do you create albums like Clandestino and Esperanza? Are you working with musicians?
MC: For the recordings, the staff is two people. Me and the mixer. It's not so much musicians, it's people who come to the door. If my grandmother comes to visit, or a friend, I'll get them to sing. I love doing that. You get something fresh on the record. If you only work with professional musicians, it's not so fresh.
B&N.com: Can you share an instance where you pulled someone in off the street?
MC: There are two uninvited guests on every track. We recorded it in Barcelona, and there's always these Pakistani guys who sell gas, and they ride through the streets banging on the gas cans. It's on every take. The other one -- the studio is in a part of town with a lot of thieves. So there's a lot of women screaming after thieves on the tapes.
B&N.com: Music like yours, and the music you inspire, has brought so many cultures together. But the more governments and cultures come together in the real world, the more globalization there is, it's really frightening. Borders are indistinct&
MC: For me things are totally out of control. I really think that people who rule countries, who rule the economy -- even George Bush -- they don't know where the brakes are. They're totally irresponsible. No one's at the wheel.
B&N.com: Because there's no clear axis of power?
MC: Because there's no ethics. It's all money. The economy doesn't think for one second about the long term. It's all short term -- money, now. George Bush says the U.S. isn't going to take care of world ecology. More important is the economy, and the planet can fuck off. Even the U.S. economy is part of the planet, no? It's suicide any other way.
B&N.com: Opening the borders economically seems like a great idea&
MC: Who is opening the borders? That's the question. Borders are closing. I don't know a country in the world that's opening borders.
B&N.com: Well, in a bloc -- North America, Mercosur, European Union... Do you think this kind of world can be managed?
MC: The problem is it's only economic. The problem with economic rules is that they forget something -- the people. That's something really important. And most important, they forget the Third World. The Third World is the majority. You know, they're building a wall in Europe, the wall of Ceuta -- Ceuta is a part of Spain, but it's in Africa. It was such a victory, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and now, ten years after, we build a wall even stronger between Europe and Africa. Now Africans throw their babies over the wall with an address. Even the police say it's stupid -- putting so much money into this wall. And more important, it creates anger. When I go to Africa, the youth more and more are angry against Europe and white people. It creates radicalism, fanatic Islamism. It creates something the First World is really scared of. But the First World created fanaticism. Who paid the fanatics in Afghanistan? The United States. Who created the fanaticism in Africa? Europe. The youths don't understand. They say, "My grandfather was in the Africa Corps for France, he died in the war. My father went to work for 20 years in Europe in a factory, and he died of tuberculosis before he was 50. Now I want to go to Europe, where all my family is buried, and they say I'm not from there? F--- you. Anything I can do to f--- you, I'll do it." And more and more, that's what the youth is about. And European government doesn't think about this. They say they don't want people without papers -- it's not true. They want short-term money. They want people without papers to risk their lives to come to Europe, they have no papers so they're cheap labor, they don't belong to unions, they say nothing, if they don't agree with the pay -- back to Africa. They can pay them just like people in Taiwan, so the economy can compete with Asia. In California, it's the same with Mexicans. They say the fight's against immigration, but they need people without papers, the economy needs them. They're playing with fire.
B&N.com: Well, how about with music.
MC: All this mixing, there's good things and bad things. In music, mixing things and mixing different cultures is OK. ...I think it's good, because when I was younger everything was in its own little ghetto. For me it was boring, because I liked so much different music. I couldn't find a band where I could play all these different kinds of music, so I put together Mano Negra. It wasn't a concept, it was a physical problem. To play all this music, I would have to have been in four bands, which wouldn't work with my schedule. Now, lots of people are talking about music that's more open to African music, to South American music, that kind of thing. It's OK. But the business is not from Africa or from South America.
B&N.com: You've spent a lot of time in Latin America.
MC: The first country that I spent a lot of time in was Mexico. Traveling around and knowing the country. Then it was Colombia, where we had a big tour by train, so we spent over a year working on it. Now it's really Brazil. If there's one place I really like and I'm helpful in, it's Rio de Janeiro. My base is in Barcelona, but the second base is Rio. It really inspires me.
B&N.com: All of your traveling must give you insight -- do you feel that you have transcended your position as a Spanish guy living in Barcelona?
MC: I am a world citizen. I got a problem in my life -- I have more hometowns than I can afford. Too many places in the world that I consider to be my home. For a long time I considered myself a citizen of the world. But I can't stand that any more. Now, the only thing that I am is a citizen of the present.
Mark Schwartz
© 2009 All Media Guide, LLC