Carlos Segarra: “I am a rebellious boomer and I still have a lot to contribute” | Culture | EUROtoday

The man ready sitting in an armchair on the Ateneo de Madrid with an ostentatious cowboy hat, a mariachi shirt and jacket and a profusion of cranium rings has simply gotten off a practice that has introduced him from Alicante, the place he lives in a city close to Benidorm, expressly for this interview. Segarra, who confesses that he has placed on his finest garments for the appointment with “his newspaper,” comes with the keenness of a newbie, though he credit greater than 4 a long time on stage and the authorship of such well-liked rock anthems as Mediterranean, Under the moonlight o This is just not Hawaii, wow, performed by his shut colleague Loquillo. He is accompanied by a younger lady, his associate’s daughter, who takes care of his schedule. At the top of the discuss, he poses for the photographer on the keys of the home’s splendid piano – “what a creature,” he admires – and lets out some gusts on the astonishment of the viewers. He appears comfy giving the grade.

wrote his track Mediterranean being a rockabilly in love with California. How do you eat that?

I composed it within the lifeless moments of the navy. I used to be a confirmed optimist and I believed I used to be going to should do it near residence, in Barcelona, ​​however I needed to do it in Ceuta, in Regulares. So, from the barracks I might see the Mediterranean on one facet and the Atlantic on the opposite and what I wished was to get out of there and return to Barcelona. I preferred browsing and California, however it was the closest factor I had.

¿Y Under the moonlight?

Haha, that is even higher. I composed it in my creativeness, standing guard in entrance of a hostess membership known as Club La Sirena and the place some nights there could be good instances between the pimps, the women and the navy police. My songs have been a solution to snicker at myself. When I left the navy I continued taking part in, however these songs slept the dream as a result of I believed nobody was going to love them and, out of the blue, I performed them as filler years later and so they rocked it.

How are you aware if a track of yours is nice?

One of the gorgeous issues about this job is that you simply by no means know when a track goes to hit. If I knew it, I might make 20 on every album. Each era has some references and customary locations. Suddenly, a gaggle of Spaniards took the lists by storm, I assume as a result of we related. I took primary from Bruce Springsteen, nobody can take that away from me.

In your nation there was nonetheless no conscientious objection? To keep away from doing navy service, I say.

Well, perhaps there was, however I did not give it some thought. I made nice associates within the navy. He performed within the band, after all: the cajon. There we had a cornet, drum and bagpipes, which is a way more complicated instrument, 99% of those that performed have been Valencian. When I completed, they got here to see me at concert events, managers and everybody. Many individuals boasted to their girlfriends that that they had heard me sing. Mediterranean within the barracks. The factor is that I performed by ear since I used to be a baby as a result of, though I come from a household of musicians, I acquired the dangle of the music trainer in school and I did not proceed, amongst different issues as a result of you then understand that the recorder would not entice, as an example, the feminine gender.

So you play and compose by ear?

Yes, as an example I understand how to learn music, however realizing the right way to learn would not make you a poet. But it was good for me: at the least you might have a foundation to work with different musicians and information inspiration: for the virgin to look to you, you need to be with paper and pencil. At first I did not like composing. When I began taking part in and we put collectively Los Rebeldes we did covers of Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Cochran. I used to be embarrassed to compose, the songs I preferred have been already written. And Spanish is just not straightforward to compose, it’s much less percussive than English. But little by little you get the style for it.

And now how a lot do you prefer it?

Well, look, now that so a few years have handed, and that I am going to work in Mexico loads, once I hear Mexican teams doing variations of a track of mine, that is once I see how good it may be while you take it out of its context. That makes me worth what I’ve written greater than if I play it, and it encourages me to proceed composing. Composing the songs of strident individuals We had a good time and it exhibits loads. The album could be very alive and folks inform me that it appears like it’s 30 years previous, and never 60.

And what number of do you are feeling you might have inside?

I do not suppose I used to be over 14. You know what occurs, I’m fortunate sufficient to make a dwelling doing what I like most. I’ve the flexibility to place myself within the sneakers of that 13 or 14 yr previous Carlos Segarra who requested Reyes for a guitar. I’m privileged. I’m in good well being, I’m in good voice. People inform me that I sing higher than ever. And I’m very fortunate to have an viewers that has been altering and, on every album, there’s a new track that hits. The first rows are full of children who know their letters higher than me.

But they preserve asking Mediterranean. Aren’t you uninterested in singing it?

At all. The final time I noticed the Rollings, in Benidorm, they did present. The guys began taking part in blues and folks simply requested them Satisfaction. Let’s see, I pay a ticket to see the Rolling and also you sing to me Satisfaction as God is Christ. So, if I ask an idol of mine to sing my track, I completely perceive that individuals need to hear the track. Mediterranean of Rebels, who am I to disclaim them.

That track seems like a summer season beer advert earlier than they existed. Have they requested you for it for promoting?

Yes, however very effectively chosen. The final one was for the Mediterranean Corridor, which, as you’ll perceive, dwelling in Alicante, effectively, it is my flip, after which a model of horchata. Let’s say that Mediterranean She has had many boyfriends, however I’ve not left her with the primary one which occurred.

He is the creator of Ugly, sturdy and formal and different subjects for Loquillo. Don’t you get jealous when a subject of yours is a hit for one more?

Not in any respect, I compose for extra individuals, and that is additionally what I stay for. And with Loquillo, we have now recognized one another since we have been 17 years previous, and we respect one another very a lot. Let’s say I make you a customized swimsuit, I’m your tailor.

That’s what Manuel Alejandro stated about his songs for Raphael.

I like Manuel Alejandro, he is a superb composer. I’ve additionally grown up with him I’m thatwith Jorge Negrete’s rancheras. Now I understand that a few of my lyrics rock and rollthey may very well be couplets or boleros. The bolero is the blues Hispanic, since you, in a bolero, by no means speak about how effectively issues are going for you after 40 years of marriage. Spanish has that, its personal codes and sound. Our achilipú may very well be the oh yeah.

Announces tour of Spain and America. At 64, is one prepared for these trots? Don’t you get drained?

No, your honor, I might do it once more [ríe]. I can nonetheless bounce round for 2 hours with a six kilo guitar in my arms.

My knees harm occupied with it.

And me, however scabies gladly would not itch. I began with the truth that they did not let me enter the locations the place I performed, as a result of I used to be solely 16 years previous. I’ve performed for 300,000 individuals on the La Mercé events, then, I used to be well-known and everybody ate me out of the hand. Now I fill smaller rooms. But I’ve the job. That college is just not paid for.

And what’s left of ‘intercourse, medicine, rock and roll’. Did they throw panties on stage?

Ha ha ha. No. That with the sax, the redhead, the good-looking man, different musicians got here to me and requested me how I performed like that.

But I do go away the recorder for the guitar to flirt extra.

Yes, daughter, however I’m very into brides, not a hummingbird. I stay very pleased with my associate and his daughters, who aren’t fillasbut when hairpinsand that they are going to be my common heirs. Having two ladies of their twenties at residence opens your thoughts loads. One is dj of techno. I like rap for its lyrics. What fits me the least is reggaeton. Let’s say I like reagge, however with out rhyme.

Are you continue to as rebellious as while you based Los Rebeldes?

Each one is every one. When I see younger individuals saying that Franco had his good issues, it makes my hair crawl, as a result of that has the nice hazard that somebody who would not know historical past can repeat it. It makes me offended that there are individuals who, as a consequence of an extra of hedonism, consumerism and selfishness, don’t give time to get pleasure from or worth what they’ve, as a result of what’s earned is just not the identical as what’s given. It seems like I’m talking like my grandfather, who complained that I had an excessive amount of stuff. I think about it’s the legislation of life. But I need to consider that every one is just not misplaced, as a result of if not it’s to leap out the window.

How many instances have they known as you boomer as a synonym for previous?

And worse issues. I additionally let you know that once I was 14 years previous, it appeared to me that somebody my age now needed to be thrown off a ravine.

Now there are additionally those that need to bury us.

I might be a boomerhowever I’m offended, I’m rebellious and I nonetheless have loads to contribute. The boomers We nonetheless paint loads and what we have now left. There is a logical factor, which is that younger individuals really feel dangerous about your recommendation, however nobody is born taught, to play you study by taking part in and to stay you reside by dwelling. When we began doing rock and roll, individuals 10 years older did not like us as a result of that they had moved the tree and we collected the nuts. It’s about having nuts for everybody.

Who are the ‘shrill individuals’ on the album?

During the pandemic we thought we have been going to come back out collectively, and look, from in the future to the following the Russian invades Ukraine, the Israeli military massacres the Palestinian individuals, the American is a clown, he thinks he’s the grasp of the free world, he appears like a man straight out of a John Belusi film. All of these are strident. Milei is strident, the battle is strident, the ICE are strident. What can I contribute? The stridency of rock and roll. And that is what I do.

THE SEGARRA BROTHERS

Carlos Segarra (Barcelona, ​​64 years previous) wished to discovered a gaggle nearly since he was a baby and located his first operating companion in his little brother. “We were like the Segarra Brothers,” recollects, dying of laughter, this singer and composer “by ear” who, within the Eighties, collectively together with his group Los Rebeldes, topped the charts with supposedly Californian however deeply Iberian songs akin to Mediterranean o Under the moonlight. Coming from a household of musicians – his grandfather performed in foxtrot teams and his great-uncle performed with Tete Montoliú – he was destined to be “the heir” of his lineage, however rockabilly crossed his path and the remainder is historical past. Today, nearly half a century later, he returns to the highway he has by no means left. On February 20 he performs at La Sala del Movistar Arena in Madrid.