In 2015, little by little, something new started for me, to start running live songs with my group. One day we did it in Orio, in the local sports club. It was recorded by the technicians, it happened to me and I thought it was clean. By then I was already thinking about how to work on the next album, my intention was to make a collection, because I had never done it. I didn't know how to make the collection and we finally made it live at Orio. I'm comfortably live, musicians are very professional, they're very honored, and the certainty they offer me also helps me live exciting moments live. I feel truly protected.”

Therefore, the Orion zuzenean disc was not intended in advance.

Well, no. Many have told me: That sounds good! Microphones are direct, if we had intended to turn the performance into a disk, perhaps we would have done it with other, more powerful materials. I would have liked it to have been better applauded and closened by the public. In that sense, we've left it forever, and the songs do the work.

I look for a song (1991, Elkar) was your first album. It will soon turn 30. How do you remember that time, today?

The truth is that the references I had at that time were not the ones I have today, the instrument chosen also conditioned me, but I felt, on the other hand, that I had before me a wide world to experience, that I still feel. After Benito and the singers of his generation, the influences of Celtic music arrived. In addition, I've always been clear that I would sing in our language, which for some can be a limit, for others we see as a personality, because personality is good in all areas, and in the art world, including music, let's say nothing. Today, my musical references are more numerous than they were then. There I continue to take some of the sounds or air that I like and giving an answer to my resources (tools, voice, language, ideology, philosophy…) in the form of singing.

Olatz Zugasti, singer and arpist. Something unusual in our house.

Here is something unusual, common in Ireland. At the time of the album Altabizkar/Itzaltzuko bardoari de Benito, in 1981, we somehow got albums coming from Ireland, among others, from Alan Stivell. I got a record of yours and I was fascinated. With that natural aura that he gave him, not as traditional, as is often heard in Ireland. It was natural, it was very creative. He recovered the celtic harp, his father was luthier, he started with a harp created by his father…

I wanted to learn harp, I met a person with celtic harp and left it. I started as self-taught, I repeated Stivell's music recorded on the casetas, from one side to the other, until I learned their pieces. So here, there were no celtic harp studies, but it was classic, and so I started in the conservatory.

You're the author of many songs from the album. Is it your hidden part? Or maybe I hadn't noticed it.

The hidden side? Not so much. In the shield no, the letters have been like a snake, perhaps camouflaged... [smiles]. As I have so far had very little chance of playing live, it's possible that the lyrics of the songs stayed on the record, that people haven't read them; the truth is, people don't care too much who wrote them. Now, by presenting the songs live, then you're counting on the creation of the song and maybe now they're already more present.

In the presentation of the song Sena, you criticize the lightness of universality. Are you concerned about the situation of this people?

I don't criticize universality, it's a question of how universality is understood. Universality, at least in our country, is understood as the renunciation of ours. There is nothing more universal than the confession of oneself, the confession of the people themselves. Thus, the demands of the universal are often erroneous, as if they were celestial in character. In this regard, these ill-conceived demands express the denial of our people. However, I've had to write the letters of those songs, it's a way of expressing my ideas.

Together with Benito, in a way, you are defenders of it. How do you feel in that “political” role?

It's the least how we feel. He said politically, but a song doesn't influence politically, it excites people and it generates emotions, a song doesn't change anything. This people has had the misfortune to be occupied by another and it is up to them to denounce it. There are many decisions that have been made at the international level and, precisely, the lack of such an answer leads me to emerge in the songs this issue, aware that the songs have no capacity to change anything in this matter.

What has changed from Franco to this time? Is the artist obliged to take on that role?

We are still busy, but now with the support of the supposed political representatives of the people. The oppression of the Basques, the occupation of our Nabarra State, is the result of the brutal aggression suffered for centuries. At the basis of these attacks, what we see today, or what we don't see, is built. For example, in the 1970s, the aesthetic operation of a regime in which the biggest criminals suddenly became democrats was completely normal. The political response of Euskal Herria had to be very different. However, as we claim it, the people are alive, but this demand requires an attitude, it implies a denunciation, a denunciation of the occupation, even of those who support it from within the house. Everyone does it from what has touched him to live, and the singer does it too, but he has no obligation.

Is the flow of searching for the song the album Orion Zuzenean?

Yes ... I read the album and your opinion about the album gave me something to think about. "Is there a lot of words? I thought. My father charges me. Maybe you're right. I feel a great appreciation for the simple songs, which in a nutshell make the songs “bring you”, move you and get excited in one way or another, which I love them. Well, my concerns have brought me to this album. Yeah, that's the flow rate.

Among other things, here are the words of the song Mezularia: “This melody of the night, written as if it were a message, comes from your hand.” Who's behind the song?

Behind the words is my daughter. You don't even know... She started learning how to play the piano, but she didn't like it too much. After a while I said: “Don’t touch it anymore, leave it.” And after some time, he started playing on his own. He soon played Chopin's Night, as if he was obsessed, as soon as he was released from pressure. I understood it as a message: the person comes with the mind necessary to advance in life and has to find the way and resources by himself, making decisions freely.

“You have left a very clear mark on me...”, the song also says.

“...the messenger who walks on the waves”. It's funny, rowing. A mother receives a lot from her children.

Her father and mother, the daughter of well-known musicians, would not find it easy to make their way.

Yes, he has had his fight, but he does not show that difference, for the moment he is with us, he will see the path traveled, torn…

What is Gratxina in your musical activity?

We do better in music than in any other area. If not, we are two volcanoes… Gratxina left the music aside, not entirely, in the background. When she felt free from the tasks of her studies, she started working again on her own, playing the songs she liked. He remained silent until I suddenly told him I needed a keyboard player. I realized that they soon took over the chords and the sequences, that the choir could even touch them. It's at ease.

Daughter, you are yourself. Itxaro Borda and Henriette Aire are some of the letters they have written on the album. The album has women's air...

But I have not chosen the texts because they are women, but because they are very suitable for me to sing. That's the reason.

What do you think of feminism?

The question has a political character and I will try to give the answer politically. You cannot confront the social issues of a State or international level, if your State, your nation is occupied: that is why feminists (workers, businessmen, educators, linguists, musicians…) cannot claim to their State a change of law, because imperialism has taken away the right to international independence of their country, the fundamental and the previous right to all other rights. In other words, the feminists of the Okupa people are the oppressors of the feminists of the occupied people. In Congress and in the Government of Spain there are feminists: Basque Country Herria is denied and violated their right to self-determination, denied the same character, since feminists are also imperialists. So to whom does it claim it? I'm not playing anything at all. If I act, whether I like it or not, to improve the policies of the occupant, I am legitimising the occupation.

You're a follower of Irish Brendan Graham, his influence is evident in your career. You love Celtic music. However, the disc has other rhythms and melodies. You're always looking for styles.

My song has not been linked to a single style, there are brushstrokes here and there… At one time, when I did the Kantaita program of the Basque Country Irratia, I got a lot of the so-called music of the World. I learned a lot from those melodies and cultures, from peoples, some that don't appear in the world. I have, of course, been influenced by them. I also like Bob Dylan, Suzanne Vega, Judy Collins or Leonard Cohen, among others.

With Benito you have been working for 40 years, also on your own. Have you ever thought that without him you would be a different musician? What did Benito give you? Has it taken anything from you?

I look for a song when I made the album – Benito was a long time ago – I did two performances, one at Getxo Folk and one at the Teatro Principal in San Sebastián. Nothing else. I had already left with her, she was firm and strong. Mine didn't see it so easy, and I left out the direct ones; I wasn't OK. It was my business, the decision I made. I felt I lacked honesty, I don't know if that's the case, how to say it ... I was too much in the light, at that time I became very well known, and I was not comfortable on stage – in my name – as if I had to show “what I am not.” I could not take the measure. I remember that once my actions and yours were matched, for me, the work I did with him was a priority, because he did it very well. I felt like I was making a contribution, that Benito took my contributions into account. So what to remove? Nothing. If I had made a different decision, I would have developed something else in my career ... I am pleased with the decision I made. Now I feel it's time to act more on my own.

Benito Lertxundi has worked in the production of your last album, but in the background.

In the live, the singer was the great listener of the song, and then he has made the production. He told me that he was OK and that he had to take him to the record. Throughout my journey I did not want to use the presence of Benito. He is asked by many musicians to participate in his albums. I didn’t want to “fall” on that. I have made my journey, with all my incidents and consequences. We have always thought that everyone has to defend their own. Without him on the record, I have also brought his lyrics and some songs.

You know the villages of Hernani and Orio. What's the difference? What contrast?

Terrible. In a few kilometers there is a great contrast. When I got in touch with Benito, before I got back, I said: “A marine town, a fisherman... not just from the coast. For a Hernandez, at least for me, finding that culture was exotic.” In fact, there is an elite Rowing Club, the atmosphere created around rowing is extraordinary. A special culture.

A winter afternoon is a nice story of the song. It happened in Hernani. When an arpist, you yourself, met another arpist.

Yes [laughter...]. I'm seeing that boy. Two men entered the door of the house, one of them very crude, the other very sweet, with aspect of life and music, and wanted to know how the harp is played. She surprised me and surprised me.

Will we ever know the work of Olatz Zugasti & Benito Lertxundi bikoa?

We are not looking for the way forward. This option will be created if the time has come. We don’t say “this we will...” We are not of that view. In my live performances I started to give concerts in the city of Marruz olak of the album Ulu zolia de Benito. It has background or background in Hernani. He created the music, and I put the lyrics to it. That's how it came out, who knows that later?