argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Txuma Murugarren:
"I'm at the stage of deciding whether or not I'm going live."
  • A few weeks ago, Txuma Murugarren published his seventh album. With the excuse of this we have asked him about this and that, wanting to know what is going on there, in the kitchen of the singer-songwriter who is so appreciated by few listeners, but with a lot of experience.
Kepa Matxain 2016ko abenduaren 14a
“Musikaz inguratuta gaude, gorrotagarri eta guzti bilakatu zaigu”. Argazkiak: Alina Ivan

It's not like champagne, it's not shiny, it doesn't hook you up in the first audition. Txuma Murugarren published his album Algo is happening there, at the end of October. After the recording was over, he spent the whole summer without listening to the new songs, until they were put in a radio interview: “They gave me a good feeling. They ask for a paused hearing, and if they do, the listener will gradually discover the details that are in the slots of the songs,” he says. During a sunny November morning, he answered the questions while the lentils were sprayed. Today also awaits guests for food.

What is different from the previous ones Something is happening there the disk?

I always try to change the record from album to album, I see the albums and previous songs very different. It happens that it is very difficult to get away from the vision inside, your eternal hangover appears. The way of singing also conditions a lot, and not only by the voice: how the syllables are stolen, how the words are organized in a melody… You can have a very different view of the song, but the result always goes to you. Anyway, I think this album is more narrative than the previous ones, and that I've removed the melody more than ever before. In the letters, on the other hand, all my ghosts appear. Like singing, a record is also imposed on each of them when writing.

Needless to say, the song is lamented: “Time hits you more than you think, nudes you and humiliates you, adapts you to your real size.” You keep a similar tone throughout the drive. Do you feel that life has put you in your place?

No doubt. Life puts you in your place without piety, slowly you realize where your limits are and adapt your dreams to the limit that life shows you. Some call that to give in, others say it's sad, but accepting it is very enriching. In addition, there is no other way. Of course, it can be accepted in a thousand ways: by letting life do whatever it wants to you, or, finally, by facing us a little, not by completely removing those destinations, but by renovating and adapting them. After all, this is how the “essence” of oneself is found, rejecting chimeras and resorting to essence. Life takes a lot of nonsense from his head.

Something is happening in the song, I look like my ridiculous figure, there is a poor man who has taken things very
seriously.”

The Txuma has, therefore, less nonsense in the head than before.

[Laughing] I've always had and I'll have nonsense in my head. I think that is incurable.

Where's the humor? It is to be assumed that in the gaze of those who have fallen their dreams of youth will appear irony, a tendency to laugh at oneself, to take a calmer life…

Yes, and that exists. Something is happening in the song, for example, I look like a ridiculous figure, a poor man who has taken things very seriously. That is why it names the album, because there are dark differences, all the nonsense that you would like to hide, the stupidity made on Saturday night, which repent on Sunday morning.

More than once you have said your songs ask for an experienced listener. What is that?

It's hard to say. It can be a person who has listened to music consciously. We all unconsciously listen. We are surrounded by music, lately it has become odious: we work with music, we listen to music in the elevators, they put music in the hypermarkets – and sometimes it is yours, it is terrible. That's why I mention the adult listener: not in the chronological sense, but because he's done a conscious exercise and he's learned some things. The adult listener, who listens to music with other sensibilities, will more easily appreciate my effort.

How many of those listeners are?

In Euskal Herria there are large quarries dauka.Talde and very interesting proposals, as people have a deep musical notion. I am not saying that they know Basque music very well, because here is a great border that has become more acute in recent years: the world of Castilian and the Basque world live behind their backs. Basque music has no interest in the Spanish world, and that worries me. But among people who don't listen to Basque music, there's also a very demanding audience.

I recently explained on Facebook what happened in a concert: that you were playing, that some of your colleagues were talking and screaming without silencing. You looked very upset.

Sometimes it's unbearable, nothing to say if you're going to do something that you feel about yourself. If I made rock and roll, you'd probably dance. What happens is that my music has to be heard, and it's hard to catch people's attention in these times. People can't pay attention to just over ten minutes. Everything should be hyper-short and hyper-light. Chew to swallow. And above all, we don't have education. If you don't care, leave and leave me quiet. The one who comes to listen to the concert can also not enjoy calmly, because there is a crew of adults with children who look like ESO. The person who organized the concert also feels bad, they want to organize things. It's a chain. Such situations often occur, but that day I felt particularly tired.

How can we avoid them?

To start with, with an entrance for the concerts, a selection of attendees will be made. On the other hand, you can't play anywhere, you have to look for warmer places that keep listener attention better. Many musicians are concerned about this issue, wondering if it is worth giving concerts. I am also at that stage. After the good concerts you go home to taste, but what has been said, on one street, on the other is worth it. It's very exhausting, and in the end you ask yourself: What do I get out of the outlines? Going nervous, a bad roll, a great hangover. So I'm going to make the records, I'm going to manage to open them up on the net, and it's already there.

You said in that text: “Let us leave everything in the hands of the Big Brother (…). We do not have to make any effort, which is given to us by newspaper radio magazines (…). It’s so tiresome to think!” Is the influence of Big Brother so much?

No doubt. Look, in the early years of the Internet, there was a boom with blogs. Everybody would blog, and they would write long posts, mix the texts worked, the words and the images, some video sometimes -- and people would read. Now, 140 character micro-account contests are held. I am not saying that this should not be done, but that it is a very significant fact. We have concentrated everything. This chaos of information from Demas gives us a little bit of everything we know, but we're not able to delve into anything. The landscape is impoverished. If you don't do it with another active attitude, besides reading and writing on Twitter, you can hardly make good use of it.

Self-management is also not a magic formula that solves all the problems.”

And what is the place of Big Brother in Txuma Murugarren?

I think I have a place. My music is heard in the EiTB radios. And at another time they also put him in the bar of Goenkale [laughing]. We know why criteria work Gaztea, etc., but sometimes it is up to them to show that they also promote Basque music, and there we go. We are in the makeup room. What I do in the United States or in Spain could have better market niches, and it might be “profitable”. In Euskal Herria there will always be some geek that listens to you, but you will always walk in precariousness.

In the Basque literature, Jon Alonso baptized with the name of Tropela the descendants of those who today consider themselves canonical writers – Atxaga, Saizarbitoria, Sarrionandia, etc. – born between 1954 and 1972. They're writers that are very varied, unrelated to each other. The only thing that unites them is that they have not gained the same recognition as their predecessors, radiance and media acceptance. Is parallelism possible with music? Can you talk about the platoon of Basque singers that happened to Ez Dok Amairu?

Yes, you can talk. Look: Once Joseba Irazoki told me that we are middle-class musicians. I mean, that platoon. It is said that in this economic crisis the middle class has been the most weakened. For what we do, there is a main reference: Ruper Ordorika. And because our market is very limited, we take two or three benchmarks, and the rest of us run out of place.

Because you don't just have to be a good musician, but also a media musician?

Sure. But in order to be a media player, it is necessary to have the means. I have reflected on this issue: precariousness implies precariousness. We, for example, if we deliver the direct ones once a month, cannot test for a long time, because it is not profitable to distribute those EUR 300 that we will then charge each other. And those precarious conditions of recruitment bring a precarious result. If you don’t have the means to be a media player, you’ll get low visibility and you can’t spend more time because the prediction you have is small, and that will again make the visibility small… It’s all a witch wheel. Also, if you need a live group, the first thing you have to do is put the songs up in the rehearsal room, and you can't do it today, and next month there's another concert to get the whole group back together… The one who doesn't have it doesn't have it. Now I'm at that stage. Will I continue with the direct or not? If I do, how will I do it? It can be a formula: if I pull out the album in October, I will give the direct ones from October to March. But if I don't get twenty dates, I won't do any.

To what extent do I want to control distribution and manufacturing? Besides creating songs, besides recording the album, do I have time to distribute my album, etc. ?”

Do you think of any formula to end precariousness?

Look, I often set the example of the Indonesian island of Flores. There appeared some bones of the baptized as Homo floresiensis. It was extraordinarily small, measuring just over a meter. At first it was thought I had a nanism. Then they realized it wasn't, it was completely healthy. The fact is that the species had been reduced to make better use of the island ' s scarce resources. Our culture has also been nanized, like the Homo florensiensis. We used to go to concerts five musicians, now just three, and sometimes one. In the theater, in a similar way: a props and a team of light, two foci and a poster were worn before. From works by five actors to two. What could we do? Many say that the Basque Government should give some subsidy, something similar to that of France: if the musicians prove that they have done a particular job, they receive an amount. I don't really like that idea. I believe that the intervention of the Basque Government or a government can be quite dangerous, if not done with caution. It can cut freedom or plurality. Maybe they're my manias, but I don't really trust what comes from power.

Do they have to start creating their own economies themselves?

There's the choice, self-producing the disk and spreading it yourself. It is true that by doing this you can have more freedom, more involvement in your work, controlling all the steps of the process. But I don't know. To what extent do I want to control distribution? To what extent is manufacturing controlled? Besides creating songs, apart from recording the album, do I have time to distribute my album, etc. ? The slope gets very high. People say, if you do everything, at least you get back the money you spend. OK. But for that I have to do it? Recovering the money spent? This whole issue is all very well, indeed, I am sure I will one day try it out. But self-management is also not a magic formula that solves all the problems.