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  • Some people say that the gypsies do the best flamenco. Is that true?

  • Well, we all know that in every country and in every scene is much talk.

  • Some of it is true, some not.

  • And some also trie to exploit the Roma- and racism-issues for ...

  • basically for nothing.

  • Because like I said before, it's less a question of your style or your belonging to something ...

  • but rather a question of your own person.

  • The artist decides!

  • No matter where.

  • The director of the Flamenco Biennial (in Seville), Manuel Herrera, ...

  • spoke recently about the intellectualization, which is currently taking place in flamenco.

  • Do you see that too?

  • Yes, there is something in it.

  • If people choose to dance or to play guitar ...

  • because they love the music, and because they like to do well, they learn ...

  • and the more they learn, the better the entire musical level gets, ...

  • as well as the musical and artistic intellectualism.

  • Sometimes even your own fans won't follow you anymore.

  • But that's how it works. It is a process of searching ...

  • of trial and error and learning ...

  • that eventually lead to results with a higher musical level.

  • Herrera has also called for a professionalization of Flamenco ...

  • where he thus less said the artist, but rather the other parties.

  • I'd like to see that too ...

  • that all the people in the Flamenco industry would work as much as we guitarists do.

  • Only by this the situation would be much better.

  • Who wants to be managerokay, but do the job.

  • Who wants to be flamenco journalist, historian and musicologist - Please do! But do the job.

  • And please do it at the same level and with the same commitment as we do.

  • Then things would be way better.

  • You yourself have no manager. Why not?

  • Because in Spain and in the Flamencoszene we have no management professionals ...

  • and that is something quite different from what poeple in Spain think what it is.

  • Of that I have made myself a long time ago independently.

  • I produce my own records.

  • We have our own record label ...

  • We organize seminars every year in July in Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

  • We also organize our own concerts ...

  • and people know us, they call us for festivals.

  • But of course I still would like to have a manager.

  • In Spain, we have the following problem:

  • We make music that is not easy to understand.

  • And we also don't want to make a music that is easy to understand.

  • We want to make the music that we love.

  • But the Spanish labels want - as well as anywhere else in the world - ...

  • something that sells in large numbers and quickly.

  • They do not rely on the flamenco guitar.

  • The major labels are not interested, because we do not sell one billion records.

  • While smaller companies rely on us ...

  • but they do not have the means to record an album and to promote it.

  • And therefore I have decided to make it on my own.

Some people say that the gypsies do the best flamenco. Is that true?

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