Dj Floro: “My face is too serious and, for that reason, I get rid of many idiots who ask me for songs” | Culture | EUROtoday

Dj Floro (Alar del Rey, Palencia, 70 years outdated) arrives with a wool hat and a kaleidoscopic print shirt, which inserts completely in a type of incendiary classes with which he has heated up the Madrid evening for many years. Also within the document sequence Republicafrobeat, which he promotes along with Sagrario Luna and involves an finish in a not too long ago revealed final quantity. In addition, this Friday he presents the pictures e-book Frequent and unrepeatable (The Cyclops Gaze), the place he offers free rein to his photographic ardour and captures his years within the middle of the Madrid scene. Just when she begins to speak, she performs Violent Femmes in a bar in Lavapiés.

Ask. A DJ who does not play electronics. Many instances individuals neglect that they exist.

Answer. Yes, it’s true, however much less and fewer daily. Anyway, the present DJ scene is heading within the route of up to date disco music. The idea of a membership has been misplaced, a spot the place individuals went to hearken to uncommon issues and you can speak to the DJ about these issues. Places like La Boca del Lobo and Suristan.

P. In each he made a reputation for himself on the Madrid scene on the finish of the nineties.

R. Yes, however earlier than that point, I began enjoying cassettes in numerous golf equipment. It had tapes and used double decks. She would set them to zero and reduce them till she reached the tip of the music that she had managed by the turns. I spent a number of years on the Universal room, which was placed on by Rock-Ola individuals. I mixed my classes in La Boca del Lobo with these in Suristan. In La Boca del Lobo, he performed rock music, derived from black music and Latin rock. In Suristan, he performed music that was incorrectly referred to as “world music”, as if the rock and roll It wasn’t ethnic. World music is an English invention.

P. His classes in Suristan had been one thing very totally different from every little thing.

R. Suristan was one other world. We are speaking in regards to the nineties and the start of this century. There had been many Africans. Some got here from Almería only for the music, to spend the weekend within the corridor. So, I put little or no afrobeat. Africans do not dance it and, for those who performed it, the dance flooring might be empty. Suristan paid for journeys for me yearly to go to London, Paris or Lisbon and there he purchased me music from the previous colonies of every of the locations or from native individuals of every nation.

P. What did you do when the observe was empty?

R. One useful resource I had was to place reduction (Congolese rumba). The Africans had been instantly hooked and the whole room was hooked. He additionally performed music from Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau. Another useful resource was to drag mbalax (Senegalese dance music), whose biggest consultant is Youssou N’Dour. When he put mbalax, The stage was stuffed with Senegalese and it was a spectacle. All the individuals had been gazing some guys who had been dancing like a motherfucker.

P. Suristan closed. La Boca del Lobo was reworked. Are there locations like this left in Madrid?

R. The just one that could be considerably related is El Juglar, in Lavapiés. Places like Sala Villanos or Café Berlin are extra within the trend of overview of the home. It’s one other idea.

P. Is the Madrid evening what it was?

R. It has modified lots. Before there was far more affect of Anglo-Saxon origin, with a lot new-wave. Then, it shifted in direction of the rise of music in Spanish. And, later, many venues had DJs who centered on black music usually, soul, jazz, funk…

P. What does a great DJ need to have?

R. musical tradition. There are many individuals who pay loads of consideration to the playlists. It can be true that there are others who solely search at a barely sick stage. There are many DJs who have a look at their navel an excessive amount of.

P. What does it discuss with?

R. They play music only for them. When DJing, you must be beneficiant and take into consideration the observe. That does not imply you must put in what they ask of you. I by no means play reggaeton regardless of how a lot they ask me to.

P. Can a DJ settle for requests?

R. No. Never (laughs). In my time in La Boca del Lobo, I had an indication that stated: “A DJ is not a jukebox”. When people come to me to ask me for something, I tell them: ‘Look, I’m working. If you are a nurse or a salesperson, I will never go to your work to tell you how to do it. So don’t get involved in my work.’ There are guys who come to you asking for black music when you’ve been playing it all night and they haven’t noticed. Then, the typical one who uses the friend’s birthday trick. Passed. I’m lucky that I have a very serious face and with that I get rid of a lot of fools. You like the session or you don’t like it. If you like it, you stay. If you don’t like it, get out, there are many bars.

P. Have you DJ’d at weddings?

R. At friends’ weddings. Very friends and as a favor. I hate weddings. The problem is that, then, your friends’ friends come and ask you for it too. And I don’t do it.

P. What is the best thing that has happened to you as a DJ?

R. Click on Senegal for street children.

P. And the worst?

R. DJing at a party The world. The kind of everyone with ties.

P. He streaming Has it harmed the DJ world?

R. Yes, to young people. They don’t research or buy. They have everything at hand and it is easier but not better. It happened to me that, one day, I was playing with a guy who was playing crap and, when I played, he came to me and said: ‘How good your stuff sounds!’ I had to explain to him that mine were real records and not music downloaded from a platform. They lower it believing it is 320k, and, in reality, it is not even 128k. It’s much less. Noticeable. You have to buy, otherwise it’s difficult for it to sound good.

P. What do you think will be the next big thing in music?

R. It will come from Africa. Sure. As a famous blog by Chema Caballero said, Africa is not a country. There are many countries and each one has its name, like its music.

P. A song that you’re always excited to play?

R. color, from Damned Neighborhood. It is for relaxation. For dancing, I’m playing Mulatu Astatke a lot.

P. He is behind the record series Republicafrobeat with which interesting artists from the world of art are discovered afrobeat. Now, it comes to an end. Because?

R. Because of fatigue. At least, we have contributed to making known an exciting genre that combines music rhythms from Ghana and Nigeria with jazz and funk and with a lot of political content. That is why Fela Kuti, its greatest exponent, was put in jail so much.

P. Do you think Fela Kuti should be as valued as an artist like Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra or The Beatles?

R. Yes, and more Africans like Hugh Masekela, Manu Dibango, Miriam Makeba, Salif Keita or Caesarea Evora.

P. It was a pleasure to listen to his interventions in Sonideros, the defunct Radio 3 program. Do you miss the radio?

R. Yes, I miss it, but not in the circumstances that we had with the management of Radio 3. It is a station that we all pay for and it should have the possibility of playing all kinds of music. I have never been motivated by country, but I thought it was great that there was a space dedicated to country like that of Manolo Fernández. The station supports groups that already support more powerful stations. There really needs to be a state music broadcaster that is more like the BBC.

P. What circumstances?

R. Some in which they attacked many people. With the pandemic, they made the story about taking away the card we entered with. They began to control us as if it were an airport. They were going after the hired ones, who seemed like intruders when we had been there for years. Then, they gave us another story that they called “image rights.” That meant they took away 1 / 4 of what you earned. And then there was the story of seeing packages taken away from necessary individuals. Anyway, I used to be already drained. Actually, the historical past of radio was thrilling and many individuals nonetheless remind me of it. I all the time had loads of work doing this system.

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