Mari Mar Rodríguez, the vocalist and 50% of Chambao
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Chambao have just released their third record. After "Endorfinas en la mente", they return with a record that has some well-crafted lyrics and their characteristic sound. "Pokito a poko" (Little by little) is a veritable declaration of intent: it is the way in which Lamari, the band's vocalist, likes to tackle everything in life, "so as to make it digestible".
 "Pokito a poko", the title of the record, refers to a wish, to a real situation...
"Pokito a poko" is how I like to live my life, my career and everything that I have to tackle, in order to be able to digest it.
Musically, how would you define the record?
Musically, it is not very different from "Endorfinas en la mente". It includes some songs in a 3/4 meter, it has a pasodoble (themes played to the beat of an ordinary march, and the dance associated with them), which is as if it were old, "Te la creío tú", which sounds like this (and Mari hums the rhythm of the pasodoble). There is a personal and musical evolution in the record. I don't know whether it is more musical than personal, or more personal than musical.
What it certainly does transmit is that I enjoy music very much. Every time when you have a good time, something comes out of it. Whether you like it more or less, that's a different matter. I don't know if this record is more electronic or flamenco, but one thing that we understand clearly, or at least I do, is that I have grown up in Málaga and I live in Málaga, and therefore, it is normal for it to sound more like flamenco than electronic music, even if this were only because of my singing, because I don't sing in English and my voice is very prominent.
What is "Pokito a poko" like in comparison with the previous record?
It is quite different from the first one (Flamenco chill, 2002), because what Bob (the producer of "Endorfinas en la mente" and "Pokito a poko") has done is to place my voice in the foreground and leave it on its own. In "Flamenco chill" my voice can be heard behind all the instruments and it is doubled (repeated, chorus-like). This is fine for instrumental or "new age" music, which is how people tend to refer to it, but for Chambao this was not a good path, we had to place my voice in the foreground and it needed to be prominent.
As for the lyrics, they appear to be well-crefted and elaborate… What do you draw your inspiration from?
There is a little bit of everything. "Mi primo Juan" is from the period of "Playas de Barbate" (a track from "Endorfinas en la mente"), although it had not been released yet. "Dibujo en el aire", "Como la luz", "Chicuelo" and "Sueño y muero" have been extracted from a poetry book that an old friend showed us, and we asked him for permission to add music to them. The verses captivated me. I used to hear melodies in my head by simply reading them. He was overjoyed with the final result as well.
When we compose we draw on everything; what we listen to, what we see, what we smell… If we like what comes out of it, we place a special emphasis on it, and otherwise, we leave it aside to pick it up again later, in case we come to like it better.
I think that the personal and musical growth of the band is reflected in the lyrics and the music, in everything, including the artwork on the record.
What it certainly does transmit is that I enjoy music very much. |
How does Chambao function? Who is responsible for the electronic side and who is in charge of the flamenco side?
We do everything together or however it turns out. Yes, it is true that I always sing and that Edi is always the one who plays the guitar, but the programming, the electronic musical base and everything else, are things that we always do between us all. He can handle these aspects better than I can, because he started researching the world of programming and sequences before me, but little by little I'm catching up. It is even possible that one day I will launch the electronic sound bases when we play live.
We like to do research through music, using electronic bases and programming and any kind of instrument. But most of all, what we do is to enjoy ourselves through music.
Oliver Sierra, Miguel Campello (singer of elbicho) and Ara Malikian take part in this record. How did their guest appearances arise?
Oliver Sierra has been a good friend of ours for some time. The song "Roé por la escalera", as it has a Cuban flavour, was more suited to the Cuban tres (a 3-course instrument with 6 or more strings used in Cuban popular music) than to the guitar, and he plays it wonderfully. We asked him if he would like to work with us, and he told us he would be delighted to. We like him so much that he plays during concerts with us, we have made him part of the band.
Miguel Campello from elbicho contributed his voice. We couldn't get the whole band to take part because there are seven of them, and we already have our own musicians. We decided to include his voice to represent all of them. His involvement also arose as a result of our friendship. We have also played some concerts together, in which we were both in the same line-up. One day I gave him the demo tape and told him to "pick the one you like and if you want to add something, go ahead and do it". The one he liked best was "Como lo siento" and it is the one in which he has taken part.
What was the process of making the record like?
It began to take shape when we were touring with "Endorfinas en la mente", it came out little by little. The last song that arose was in November last year (2004), it was the one entitled "Pokito a poko", which will end up being the first "single". The truth is that it was not very hard to do. It was appearing on its own. And we are continuing to come up with songs that we will use for our next project.
Mari Rodríguez and Edi Casañ, members of Chambao
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In the two last videos on the DVD, there is a group of dancers who appear to be blending flamenco and hip hop. How did this idea arise?
Those people are called "Color danza" and we met them some time ago, because they asked us for permission to use our songs in their performances. The songs were "Una de las tantas", "Los muchachos de mi barrio" and "Ahí estás tú". We gave them permission and one day we went to see their show, which is a choreography which has a lot of content. They do a fusion between flamenco and hip hop. We liked it very much, and we have taken them along to some of our concerts. Then the record label saw them performing during a concert of ours, and we suggested that they could take part in the following videos. We are very pleased with the result.
How would you explain what flamenco-chill is to someone who doesn't know anything about it?
At first we labelled ourselves flamenco-chill so that people could have an idea of what we were doing. Flamenco-chill is about bringing together two worlds that are very different. This is because flamenco is so rich and open that it can even be mixed with electronic music. Imagine that, who would have imagined it?
And it is not exactly flamenco itself that we are mixing. Our fusion takes flamenco fusion as a starting point. In reality, what we do is to pick up some flamenco notes for our songs. And my voice, which is more or less "flamencoised". But we don't pick up a soleá and turn it into electronic music.
It is difficult to explain what flamenco-chill is. For me, it is between what is hot and what is cold, between the night and day. My voice is very sweet, but it is also very aggressive at times. It is difficult to explain, even for its inventors.
Do you have any idea of how your records are received outside of Spain?
The company and the media have let me know that our records have sold well in Holland, Germany, Japan, Italy, South America and Turkey. But I haven't seen this with my own eyes, because we haven't gone abroad to do any promotion work or to play concerts. We would like to. Wherever they want Chambao to play, we will be there, and where they don't, well, we won't be there. You don't necessarily have to be everywhere.
Now, you have to tour and promote the record. When are you starting?
We don't have any dates yet, but we will start very soon, I'm sure.
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