“If you don’t like something, they ban it, it’s a paternal society”

2023-12-14 07:30:22

Smoking Bambino (Esteve Saguer) is back on stage, this Saturday (8pm) at La Planeta, within the festival Neu! The musician from Girona will present the new album and first full-length effort in Catalan of his career, “Llampigots i bufarandes”

A colleague told me, upon learning that I would be interviewing him: “he looks like he’s loaded with money”

Ha, ha, let’s say I’m not bad. But not loaded, I assure you.

How long will they let him be called Smoking Bambino in an increasingly less permissive society?

I’m lucky that since one name is taken from English and the other from Italian, they don’t really know what it means. Also, a tuxedo is also a suit. Now, it’s true that I don’t like it very much. We made a video clip where a girl went out smoking and drinking, and just because of that, many places didn’t want to show it. Crazy, with these things.

We made a video clip where a girl went out smoking and drinking, and just because of that, many places didn’t want to show it. Crazy, with these things

Where are we going?

I don’t know, it seems they want to solve everything with bans. When they don’t like something, they ban it and that’s it. It’s a paternal society, as if we can’t choose how we want to screw it up.

And now he goes, and sings in Catalan.

It was not sought after, nor is there any reasoning behind it. While I was in New York, I sang in English.

Maybe he realized that in this country nobody understands him, if he sings in English?

In New York, people came, after the concert, to comment on what he said in the songs. I’m having a bit of fun here now, singing in Catalan. It is also true that here, singing in English discriminates you a little. They really like it if you have some family roots, otherwise they find it a scam. But hey, I don’t rule out singing in English again. Or even in Spanish. The thing is that in Spanish, with my Girona accent…

I don’t rule out singing in English again. Or even in Spanish. The thing is that in Spanish, with my Girona accent…

What was your life like in New York?

During the day he read or wandered. Musically, there are a lot of places where you can sign up and play. If they like it, they give you minutes in concerts. It went very well for me. It happened that, when the pandemic came, I returned. They were starting to close everything, and I thought that, if I had to close myself at home, better here.

As he sings in a song: will he ever come to his senses?

We will try not to. A point of must always be maintained pollution.

Now I will be fifty, and there are things that will inevitably happen, the statistics say it, people are dying. I hope it’s not me

More and more friendships leave prematurely, he laments in another piece.

And I’ve still been lucky, in that respect. I have lost friends, but relatively few. Now I will be fifty, and there are things that will inevitably happen, the statistics say it, people are dying. I hope it’s not me (laughs).

What else does he notice, approaching half a century of life?

You know a little more, you’ve learned things, you look at everything differently, you’ve made a mistake and you know you’ll come back to it many times. Instead, realize that sometimes the heart wants to go somewhere and the legs can no longer take you there. This is a whore. With age you have to be more of a distance runner than a sprinter.

With age, you realize that sometimes your heart wants to go somewhere and your legs can no longer take you there. This is a whore

Do we become tolerant with age?

You don’t argue anymore, or try to look good: you say what you think, and if someone doesn’t like it, they’ll forget about it.

Who wants to keep us quiet and asleep?

Ha, ha, this is from the theme “The eight in the morning”. It suits the government very well that society is so screwed up, that it has no empathy for anything. There is a general apathy. I composed it during the entire mess of the process, I have never been an independenceist, but it served me to show how power has ways of making us shut up.

Despite social media?

No matter how stupid you say, tomorrow someone will have said something even worse. It’s still a way to silence us.

Do you get up often, at eight in the morning?

I get up at six.

If you want to do what you love, sometimes you have to make sacrifices. Even if you don’t get much of anything, as is my case

God of heaven!

I sleep five hours, I go to sleep around one. During the day I have things to do, so from six to nine, it’s three incredible hours, I get a lot of performance out of them.

This is also his handwriting: how many doors has he closed, in life?

I guess many. And often, no more have been opened (laughter). They must be closed. If you want to do what you love, sometimes you have to make sacrifices. Even if you don’t achieve much, as is my case (laughs). Maybe you see your way, but not everyone wants to follow it. Then you have to close doors. If there are things that stand in your way, you have to make a choice.