"An amazing prize is knowing that people have found refuge in my songs."
- Olatz Salvador Zaldua (1990, San Sebastian) has just completed the tour of his album Aho uhal. He fired the project at the Teatro Victoria Eugenia in San Sebastian, with 900 people. “I felt a lot of protection and I am very grateful.” He has now chosen to give new jumps without a mouth strap, for which he will rest first. We talked to him as quiet as in Trosta, about the experience, travel, burden and charm.
Hang the first album and Aho the second. With a piece of final concert you've released the leash. That's what I wanted. I still have a
lot of work to do, or more tasks than I want, and I feel like I'm completely out of here. It is true that finishing the tour has given me the joy of having done something great and beautiful: the pleasure of forming a nice group, the feeling of being connected with people… I have not digested them yet. Peace of mind is what I would like to find now.
Is it necessary to stop to advance? For me. Before the tour ends there
are people who have the next album ready, but before I need a emptying process, have the windows open and act as a sponge to identify and collect what happens in my environment or inside. Exploration gives vertigo.
What was it for you Aho uhal? It can be a
declaration of intent from the title. From being a horse to carrying the mouths of straps, the road is hard: I have resistance to being a driver in some projects within me, and I'm still in that struggle.
On the other hand, it has opened up many windows: in the minority language festivals that we were in Italy and Galicia, it gave me the opportunity to know where the Basque is in Europe, we were in Japan, also in Finland… With our smallness we have here complex and in other places it has a special value. That has given me the strength to continue to do so in Basque, and it has also given me the opportunity to receive that love out of here.
But, above all, for me it has been a playground to improve on the table. At first I was very respectful, but this tour has allowed me to feel more and more comfortable. You don't always have a good day to board. Crises are common: high levels of exposure provide you with sometimes uncomfortable moments.
Did you expect these answers to be
received at the beginning of the journey? My aim was, from the very beginning, to take a step towards boldness. Among the four walls of my class, some songs have emerged with guitar and the idea was to build a bridge to reach people. At first I know I had big walls in that process, fear or.
I've been immersed in a punctual process, I haven't had long-term expectations. I do not think it is healthy or realistic. You never know where you can go. An immense prize is knowing that in my songs people have found a refuge for their important areas. It's the biggest engine I have to go on.
Previously, in the Skakeitan group, I worked in the background on the keyboard. Then it moved to the first line and the individual. Has it been an exercise in empowerment? Yes. I felt the
need to do it, but I struggled to click or take the size of that big lap. I went from being in the background to being in the front line with names and surnames. I still regret at times not having invented a nickname, but there is also an exercise in honesty: the courage to take away all the masks and at least appear and strip me somehow.
"Still sometimes I regret not having invented a nickname, but there is also an exercise of honesty."
"If it does you well, stop there, if it hurts you, don't be there." Does music regard it as a weapon of transformation? Yes, it has the ability to influence us. The phrase is from
Ane Labaka. It has become a new claim, no matter how small, and I have also been painted. Helping to heal with the song is very good. Alaia Martín, in his last concert, said that my music was "hospital for the wounded". I don't want to give you the power you don't need: therapies and real hospitals are needed, but music has the power to change some small things. And I'd also like my music to have that, and it seems that it's served to make small clicks.
"Helping to heal with songs is nice"
Did the last name Salvador give you the opportunity, pressure or strength? I've been to most of Ez
dok hamairu's tributes, my father and my uncle have played an important role in this Basque scene, but I've also felt the need to break with it: look for my place and don't pick it up by inertia… Some call me the new Mikel Laboa, and I don't want these kinds of tags: they weigh a lot and don't help, even know they't have been born nice. I demand that everyone do it for themselves.
We've seen you singing with the Rozales, with the songs in video clips -- don't you have any limits? I'd like to have no limits -- (Laughter). There will always
be limits: temporal, economic, of knowledge -- but you can dream of removing those possible limits and building new ones, and then pulling them back and building more.
I ask for patience from those who await my new things, my decision has been to make them calm. In addition, I claim to take time in this frantic life and listen to music in another way. Listening to music so fast we exhausted it: we have to be music diffusers and not as consumers. As slow food is proclaimed, I want to claim slow music. This is not a steakhouse.
Recognition of friendship
“In addition to the professional road, the road has been very enriching. With people who have had a nice personal story, I wanted to pay tribute to my friendship, as they said in a criticism. That 900 people come to see me is neither the usual nor the normal thing: to round this five-year road has been a great prize. I felt great support and I am very grateful. The closing concert gave me grief and joy. This year I've had two farewell concerts, one always -- Skakeitan -- or no expectations of return, and one of process, but back to the stage. Both have a feeling of vertigo, but closures are needed and they have also been welcome." Text
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