You have adapted songs from various groups and Basque singers to gather them on the album Sugar Growls. Why a disk with versions?

I have never been an interpreter, I have done few versions and much less with songs from the Basque world. However, it was a long time since I wanted to do something like this. It has been a leap to make such a decision, but also a nice and fun task. I've tried to understand what the original groups wanted at the time. I didn't just want to alter a song by stylistically changing it, but I've looked after some clues, with respect in any case. It's true that when you start to change, you create comparisons, but that's not the intention of this record.

So what do 12 songs have for the album by Ruper Ordorika?

Every song is right, it's not an anthology. But why these and not others? I don't know. They're mostly musicians' songs that I started in music, in my environment. I have had a very direct relationship with some of these groups: Hertzainak, Itoiz, Mikel Laboa… I wanted to approach that time from my current view and from my team. They're songs I remembered, I could sing all of a sudden.

On the other hand, I have not included the teams that are continuing together, but that has also been a conclusion, not something that has been planned. The truth is that in this time we've made the record, Balerdi has gone back to the stage, and I think the Delirium Tremens are also with something. In addition, those who don't follow in the same group back then continue to make music.

To fix your songs, you've had the help of the regular group.

It's been a collective work of simple sugars. In the last six years we have worked on it all four of us together: Harkaitz Miner, Asier Oleaga, Lutxo Neira and I. In addition, last year he came to the Jazz Festival of Vitoria Ben Morder, which has participated in several of my albums. We take the opportunity to make some songs between the two: Ama Euskadi, Part of Dogs and Ezekiel Propedectics Only. We recorded it in Azkarate, in the Katarain study, with the usual technicians. It's been important for me to play with the team of always. I have been able to do everything as I like, and that has served me a great deal.

The first of the songs on the album is Sigarrillos Amariyos, from Hertzainak, who has recorded a album in Euskera. Have personal relationships conditioned the choice?

I had my colleagues from Hertzainak very close. Josu Zabala worked on my first three albums, and I knew him about Txanpi; Montoia is also a friend of the school. In addition, I love that the song has a big nuance, and that song speaks as very few songs do of a time. It reflects the reality we live in Vitoria-Gasteiz. I did not hesitate to choose, although, as I have sung and produced with them, there was also another option. It's a hard song, because it's not done by following a model.

You often participated in the creative process of the song Sarri, Sarri.

In a way, yes. I don't remember well, but I know Fermin once came to me, who was still in Kortatu. He did not have much confidence in the Basque Country, as he was learning. I think he asked me for advice: how to pronounce the letter and how to introduce it into the idea I had in my head. Anyway, on top of that, the song gained a lot of strength and it's amazing to see me singing Sarri, Sarri, Sarri, but I also had a relationship with my colleagues in Kortatu. I've never been a telonero for most of the musicians who made the songs on the record.

Some of them [Lete, Laboa…] are not among us, but their songs still have a lot of echo.

They are undoubtedly great singers. A year and a half ago I was invited to Galicia to sing songs made with their texts, on the occasion of the need to publish an anthology of the Basque poets. Among them were Bernardo Atxaga, Joseba Sarrionandia and Luigi Anselmi, but also Xabier Lete. I remember thinking about myself, that it would be best for Lete to sing himself.

This anecdote has a lot to do with this album: when I started maturing the dust of the stars for that initiative, I told my teammates, and then we had fun with the song. So we thought we could make a collection of these kinds of songs.

Therefore, on the same album you have collected the composers of the Ez dok Amairu movement and the RRV.

It's very natural for me to put them together on a single disk. I couldn't see Ez Dok Amairu, but then yes, I saw one by one the big singers. My first work was interpreted as a radical break with Ez Dok Amairu. Surely he had that intention, especially on the musical level, and also because the first album was with the words of a certain Bernardo Atxaga, until then it was completely unknown. However, I have always wanted to think that I have learned something from my predecessors. Seeing Mikel Laboa, Xabier Lete, Benito Lertxundi and company before my eyes was a revelation. My hobbies were other, but I think we're very lucky to have had musicians who have worked popular music with so much dignity.

At the same time, my friends were engaged in what was called Rock Radical. I played often before their concerts, and they protected me, although what I did in their world was very marginal. It is worth mentioning once again: I love music before the musician. In addition, the song is completely primitive and its appearance changes. If Lete made a song, Evaristo does the same, even though it is different formally and stylistically.

In the same vein, is there a musical tendency today that can be mentioned as a movement in the Basque Country?

In general, it is becoming more and more difficult to speak in blocks. I see that there are many trends, and that is good. The first record house, radio and disco were the bases of the music world, but that structure has faded here and everywhere. There are no record labels with a single trend or media that support a particular trend. Then, of course, there will be affinities, friendly relations, but I don't know to what extent that is projected. Seen from the outside, I think there are attempts to do so, like Bidehuts. But more than a set of stylistic criteria, I don't know if it's the sum of musicians and friends looking for an alternative. Before, perhaps, criticism was easier than now to classify people, here and there. It is also important to say so. Many times we take a bath in Euskal Herria, but in music the same happens all over the world.

It's now 33 years since you published Hautsi da anphora. What has changed since then?

As a musician, then we were in big trouble and now too. The rooms, on the other hand, have changed dramatically. I believe that alternative spaces should still be built, because something is needed for the new ones. We mentioned the first Radical Rock, which changed the concert structure at that time. Gaztetxes became a theater and there was a large network. From there you went directly to the town parties. In my experience, the people’s parties are absolutely paralysed. The current conditions are not as good as those of twenty years ago. On the other hand, in theatres and theatres, great progress has been made, but the current structure is not suitable for emerging groups.

What about the attitude of the public?

That too has changed. Being young, Benito Lertxundi came to Oñati, it was as if Madonna came today; all the people wanted to see Benito. Today, music has become very accessible, and it's consumed more than then, but otherwise. Many mention: “The album goes down, but it will be direct that we save ourselves.” Well, in general, I don't think that's going to happen. In any case, I find it increasingly difficult to speak in general. There are musicians who feel that our situation is better than ever before, and others don't find a way, but that's always been the case, and it's very hard to know why.

Do you like other groups playing your songs?

Yes, of course. I don't know any musician who doesn't like that. To make this album, I've been able to talk to people that I hadn't talked about for a long time, and I've felt the same thing with everyone. That's what music is for.

Do you think all songs are versions and that the album will be welcomed?

The records are made round when people listen to them. Until then they were amorphous, more so in this case. You never know, but when it comes to self-made songs, it's easier. For this album, I could do other songs, and those I'd done differently. But I have a good feeling. The idea has been difficult, but pretty; I've approached a section that was inside me in an unsuspecting way.

How will you adapt the new work to the direct ones?

That is a good question. I still don't know how to do it. You usually present records and bring them to people ahead, but now it's not the same thing. We're going to change the entire repertoire, but I don't know if this record is going to send or not. We will start at the end of this month with two or three performances in Ituren and Mirafuentes and later in the capitals: In Bilbao, Vitoria, San Sebastian…