His characteristic sarcasm forces him to constantly clarify that he is joking. Or half a joke. Antonio Luque (52 years old) is from Seville, but lives in Malaga for reasons that have nothing to do with the renewed cosmopolitanism of the city of Picasso: “I am a climate refugee, but I miss my city. here’s one malfollá…”, he says as he opens the door for a messenger who brings him a box of wines bottled by the Catalan Mishima, his current bandmates. An agronomist, writer and rhapsody expert, he is the only constant member of Sr. Chinarro, the indisputable flagship of Spanish indie with 25 years of history, which has just released a twenty-second album entitled reality show, full of bad milk (although also “sex, sea and sun”) and with which it is clear that the capitalism of large corporations is not for him. “When I go to a job interview I start to sweat profusely.”
Ask. He says he is more Jewish than Arab. Explain that.
Response. Well my heroes are Bob Dylan, Woody Allen and Leonard Cohen. The last name Luque is from Sefarad, from the center of Andalusia. And then, regarding my way of being in the world, there are friends and couples who have directly called me stingy because I don’t understand living as if we were a plague. Now I am suffering like everyone else with the rise in food, which comes from the fossil fuel crisis, and I have proposed on social networks that we live a month on bread and water and without cars. You’d see how prices drop… I can live with very little, really. I was going to be a monk. It’s just that there are things that monks aren’t supposed to do that I like. I don’t want to be a hypocritical priest.
Q. But was he really going to be a priest?
R. It’s a joke. Although it is true that my COU teacher, who was a priest, always called me aside, he must have seen possibilities in me. And then many times people confess things to me…
Q. And does it bother you?
R. Information is always good. That was discovered by the Church before me.
Q. For you, then, what is giving yourself a tribute?
R. Being surrounded by people I like. Or if not and if I can’t find it, be alone.
Q. And is there anything in particular that you find pleasurable being alone?
R. I was lucky to find a place to live that is very small, but it faces the sea and I always have books to read there. Another example of my Jewish character is that I bought a collection of books that clearly no one was going to read for 20 euros from a lady from the rich neighborhood next door. She cost me 50 cents per book.
Q. What are you reading from that collection?
R. the secret agentby Joseph Conrad. I identify a little with the brother because the other day I discovered through a test that a psychiatrist friend gave me that I am very close to the Asperger spectrum. But hey, she told me that we would have to do more tests, talk to the family… and I told her: “No, leave that part alone.” I have always liked having a friend or two at the most and since I was a child to lock myself in my room. I don’t need a clear diagnosis.
Q. In a song from his latest album, he gives a good scolding to an ex-girlfriend for being a workaholic…
R. I could refer to anyone, the lyrics say “my love”. Lots of people are in that situation. Think of Amazon, think of the big music festivals that have bought the small ones, the corporations are getting bigger and bigger and you have no choice but to do what four crazy people want. It’s like in the Middle Ages. The only thing missing is for the managers to come and occasionally benefit the employees. Although it seems that we are not that far from that either.
Q. You say there are very few jobs that you don’t find deplorable, have you thought about which ones?
R. I get the feeling that most people don’t like what they do because they work for managers who just want to make money. Then I don’t know what they do with so much money: they have to eat gold-plated chickens and things like that. I don’t understand why so much pot. I tell the label that if they finished the physical formats I wouldn’t mind. Although, well, it’s not that he sells so many vinyls that he pollutes…
Q. His father had an olive oil cannery. How did he take it when he told you that he wanted to dedicate himself to music?
R. I bought my first electric guitar when I was 16 years old, my mother gave me half the money. When my father saw her, he made a face as if he were doing a black mass… and my mother the same, even though she had given me the money! Although in reality everyone thinks that this is a hobby, which does not have to be paid. Even the musicians themselves today do not stop playing at festivals for free in exchange for four beers or the bracelet. I’m not going to blame my father for thinking that…
Q. But is it the kids’ fault that they don’t get paid?
R. Of course. Let no one play for free if they want to and ask for what that is worth. Do you call the plumber to come and install your garden irrigation for free? So how do you get five people into a van, cross the country loaded with clunkers worth a penny, register [en la Seguridad Social] and they start playing for four beers? If it’s to flirt, let them flirt in the town bar.
Q. Is it possible that the music industry has become more exploitative too?
R. What’s first? The chicken or the egg?
Q. Is the relationship you have with your child now better than the one you had with your parents?
R. Yes, we get along very well. She is still studying, but she likes music a lot and has a fondness for rap and cockfights. [combates de rimas]. He really likes to write and that’s why I try to get him hooked on reading, although I’ve never really understood cockfights. I see them very angry.
Q. You are also pissed off.
R. Yes Yes. And it shows on the new record. But I don’t understand why they give up melodies. What am I going to do if I like melodies?
Q. Has there been any discovery in this paternity thing?
R. What I love is seeing that my son is much smarter than me. He makes fun of me constantly. The new generations are undoubtedly better, they have seen more things, they have lived with less deprivation. Then apparently some come out Nazis…
Q. They say that the success of the ultra-right among young people has to do with the fact that they find it very punk…
R. I don’t know, we should take them to the concentration camps on an end-of-year excursion, to see what they think.
Q. What do you think of the resurgence of Andalusian nationalism right now?
R. This business of inventing a phonetic alphabet to express accents is a bit of a hick in general. It’s okay not to be embarrassed, of course, but it’s very difficult. We carry that so internalized that when we know that we are being recorded, we change a bit. We don’t speak exactly the same as when we’re in private, like Aznar did when he spoke Catalan. To me, the defense of languages seems fabulous, as long as it is not used to throw others into the trough, which is the feeling I have.
Q. Has the new feminism led you to rethink some things about your masculinity?
R. I think that the “only yes is yes” is very easy to understand. Whoever doesn’t understand is that he has a very serious problem. I don’t think there has been a very big change with that.
Q. And do you talk about sentimental education with your son?
R. Yes, we talked about love being difficult. Feelings for a person arise and sometimes you have to stop them for whatever and you suffer. That is not going to change politics. It is also hard to die and we are not going to fix it.
Q. in a song called Pink suggests that some important person in his life had a certain obsession with his mobile…
R. It is a quite toxic habit of many couples to look at their mobile phones or social networks. Although if a couple wants to spy on you and get jealous for a I like it not the biggest problem. The big problem is when the bad, bad, bad guys look at us. The Internet is a military invention. The record that we are leaving in Big Brother, which is the computers, will be used when a war comes. And the neighbor will not have to denounce us.
All the culture that goes with you awaits you here.
subscribe
babelia
The literary novelties analyzed by our best critics in our weekly bulletin
RECEIVE IT
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
