Smoking Bambino (Esteve Saguer) is back on stage this Saturday (8 p.m.) at La Planeta as part of the festival New! The musician from Girona will present the new album and the first full-length Catalan album of his career: “Llampigots i bufarandes”.
A colleague told me when he found out I was interviewing him, “He looks like he has a lot of money.”
Ha, ha, let’s just say I’m not bad. But not loaded, I assure you.
How long will he be called the “Tuxedo Bambino” in an increasingly less permissive society?
Luckily, since one name comes from English and the other from Italian, I don’t really know what it means. A tuxedo is also a suit. Now it’s true that I don’t particularly like it. We made a video clip of a girl going out smoking and drinking, and that’s exactly why a lot of places didn’t want to show it. Crazy with these things.
We made a video clip of a girl going out smoking and drinking, and that’s exactly why a lot of places didn’t want to show it. Crazy with these things
Where are we going?
I don’t know, it seems that they want to solve everything with bans. If they don’t like something, they ban it and that’s it. It’s a fatherly society, like we can’t decide how we want to screw up.
And now he goes and sings in Catalan.
It was neither the intention nor is there any justification for it. While I was in New York, I sang in English.
Maybe he realized that no one in this country understands him when he sings in English?
In New York, after the concert, people came to comment on what he said in the songs. I’m having a bit of fun singing here in Catalan now. It’s also true that singing in English is a bit discriminatory here. They really like it when you have family roots, otherwise they think it’s cheating. But hey, I won’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 walked around. Musically, there are lots of places to sign up and play. If they like it, they’ll give you minutes at concerts. It went very well for me. It happened that I came back when the pandemic came. They started closing everything down and I thought if I had to close myself down at home, it would be better here.
As he sings in a song: Will he ever come to his senses?
We’ll try not to do it. One point must always be maintained pollution.
Now I’m turning fifty, and there are things that will inevitably happen, the statistics say it: people die. I hope it’s not me
More and more friendships are breaking down prematurely, he complains in another piece.
And in that respect I was still lucky. I have lost friends, but relatively few. Now I’m turning fifty, and there are things that will inevitably happen, the statistics say it: people die. I hope it’s not me (laughs).
What else does he notice as he approaches half a century of his life?
You know a little more, you’ve learned things, you see everything differently, you’ve made a mistake and know that you’ll come back to it often. Instead, realize that sometimes the heart wants to go somewhere and the legs can no longer take you there. That’s a whore. As you get older you have to be more of a distance runner than a sprinter.
As you get older, you realize that sometimes your heart wants to go somewhere and your legs can’t take you there anymore. That’s a whore
Do we become more tolerant as we get older?
You no longer argue or try to look good: you say what you think, and if someone doesn’t like it, they will forget it.
Who wants to keep us calm and asleep?
Ha ha, that’s from the topic “At eight in the morning”. It’s very fitting for the government that society is so fucked up that it has no empathy for anything. There is general apathy. I composed “Les Eight in the Morning” throughout the entire process. I was never an independence advocate, but it served to show me how power manages to silence us.
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 often get up 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 out of it, as is the case with me
God of heaven!
I sleep for five hours, I fall asleep around one. I have a lot to do during the day, so from six to nine, that’s three incredible hours in which I can achieve a lot.
This is also his signature: How many doors did he close in his life?
I guess many. And often no more were opened (laughter). They must be closed. If you want to do what you love, sometimes you have to make sacrifices. Even if, like me, you don’t achieve much (laughs). You may see your path, but not everyone wants to follow it. Then you have to close doors. When things get in your way, you have to make a choice.
