A committed Valencian rap group: When and how does Los Chikos of Corn be created?

It all started in 2004, I was on a project called 13 Steps, but it had been a long time standing. Toni [the other voice of the group] did the same with The Highest Note. We had great admiration for each other. One afternoon we decided to get together and we made a tracklist with five songs. Everything else is history.

It's been time since you published your first job. Is the life of musicians tough? How has your rap improved?

The project has recently been ten years old, we have been living with music for about five years. The road is hard, sleeping out of the house, eating out of the house, it's not easy. In my case, however, my current life is much better than repairing heaters or welding tubes. You don't get rich -- and less so with the songs and words that we do -- but you're the boss of yourself and nobody exploits you, that's the most important thing.

I think everything we do today is more measured and much more worked. We can often lose naturalness, but everything is more professional.

Social commitment and the ease of connection with youth make your group special. Is it easy to reconcile commitment and fame?

In these times of political mobilisation it is difficult to reach all places. We are called and asked for protection from a thousand places: imprisoned, the case of Alfón, the case of Andrés Bolado, the Basque youth... There are so many cases and injustices that we are forced to be selective. Unfortunately, we cannot reach all the sites. On the other hand, invoices have to be paid and militancy cannot always be used. I believe that all of this is a constant struggle, seeking a certain balance. We do what we can.

Fear will change sides (“fear will change sides”) from the slogan of Riot Propaganda to the slogan of Podemos and Mareen: How far does your influence go?

It's weaker than we would like. However, that motto has always been there, we put it in a song, but it's the result of collective wisdom.

You have always kept in mind the problem of Arnaldo Otegi and the Basque political prisoners. How do you see the leader of the Abertzale left facing the new challenges he faces?

I see it strong and with many possibilities. Furthermore, I believe that he has used the prison he has suffered to continue to train himself intellectually and politically, and that can be used as an advantage. It has many challenges, from the internal conflicts of the Abertzale left to the impressive rise of Podemos. Of course, there are very important times for the Basque Country and also for the Spanish State. I believe that we are living in a historic and decisive moment at all levels.

You are one of the most important groups in the Spanish State that make a protest rap. How is the hip-hop scene in Spain? Is it still decaffeinated?

Very caffeinated. There they are, but they are not. Sometimes I feel like I scream in the desert. It's like they don't live here. Many of the rappers that are famous today I follow via Twitter and most have not written anything about refugees or the latest attacks. It's like they live on another planet.

Due to the Moorish Law, Axier López of this journal has been condemned for his work as a journalist. On your journey they have also often censored you. How do you feel about these things?

It generates a lot of frustration, you feel very powerless. You also know that censorship always goes in a certain direction. Every time Federico Jimenez Losantos takes the shotgun and says he's going to kill the people of Podemos you know that nothing is going to happen to him. The right can say any barity. We are experiencing tremendous hypocrisy in the Spanish State. The same ones who say “Je suis Charlie Hebdo” ask for your concert to be censored. What’s more, Getafe’s pp asked for our concert to be suspended claiming that we are criminals. Many of the members of the organization are now charged with corruption, according to Interior.

The economic side is also there, that is never mentioned. You had that concert in mind to pay the rent and all of a sudden the concert goes to the pitch. In these cases we are obliged to juggle.

How can we cope with this lack of freedom?

It's not easy. Today, the Internet is one of the most effective tools for overcoming dictatorship and media censorship. However, as before, the strongest thing we have to avoid such attacks is the popular construction and mouth-to-mouth.

Censorship has not been an obstacle in the long way of his latest work, The Saigon Pond, published in 1998. It has been a resounding success both in the Basque Country and in the Spanish State. Did you expect that tsunami?

No, absolutely. It's been crazy. The disc has worked very well everywhere.

You have managed to integrate Hip Hop into the musical agenda of Euskal Herria. Do you notice that boom in concerts?

It has been difficult, in Euskal Herria movements like the Basque Radical Rock have had a lot of weight and still today rock/punk tradition is strong. We have been playing and noticing in Euskal Herria for a decade how in recent years the anglerfish has made its place in the Herriko Taberna, the txosna and other spaces of the popular movement. I remember one year I came to Aste Nagusia in Bilbao and I heard it in living wood on Taliban Passion Street, that was the anthological moment. Today it's something you notice rap in Euskal Herria, and more and more groups sing in Euskera.

What is the Basque public like?

The truth is that you have a reputation for fools. I've noticed that people in the inner towns are slower. That's not bad, people are like that in many places, it's part of their way of being. The one who hasn't made the least leap in the concert comes to congratulate you at the end of the performance and tells you that it's been one of the best concerts of his life, it's crazy.

The most surprising place we have lived in Euskal Herria has been in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The performance was a constant collective madness of jumps, screams and pulls from the beginning to the end of the concert, we will not easily forget it.

Beyond the public, Euskal Herria is one of the best places to access. In the sound, there are always professionals and the musician takes great care of himself. On the other hand, you have a gastronomic and landscape plus. After spending the whole summer playing in the towns and cities here, I spent the September holiday in Lekeitio and Mundaka. You cannot get tired of the Basque Country!

On 23 April, La Estanquera de Saigon will receive Lur 2zio in Andoain (Gipuzkoa), according to the organisation. What will we find in the concert?

We're going to change some of the features of retransmission. We really want to play in a gaztetxe. Playing often in big festivals and theatres separates you from reality, going back to origins is a beautiful thing.

A lot has been said about new songs, when will your new project be on the street?

In mid-May we will publish a EP with four songs as a closure of La Estanquera de Saigon. After that, Los Chikos of Corn gets fired for a while. The following year Riot Propaganda will return and then we will dive into the individual works.