Gustavo Santaolalla: "Rock, like the world, is in quarantine"

Gustavo Santaolalla, at the Wellington Hotel in Madrid.Andrea Comas

It comes from rock.

For wearing long hair and a guitar, he was imprisoned several times in the Argentina of the dictatorship.

He has already produced more than 100 albums, got involved in composing soundtracks and made it big in Hollywood.

With a roncoco, his string instrument of Andean origin as bass continued, Gustavo Santaolalla (Buenos Aires, 70 years old) won two Oscars:

Brokeback Mountain

(2006) and

Babel

(2007).

He is going around Spain these days so that his music that is indebted to Atahualpa Yupanki and The Beatles can be heard with a symphonic orchestra in Malaga (12th), Madrid (17th) and Avilés (25th).

He has produced the documentary series

Rompan todo

(Netflix), where he analyzes rock as a flag in Latin America.

He believes that this mode of expression has not died, nor will it die: "Go into quarantine," he says.

MORE INFORMATION

• The condor feather by Gustavo Santaolalla

• 'Rompan todo': a political history of rock in Latin America

Question.

Not a few have complained in Latin America and Spain about the

Rompan todo

series

, which you produce.

They say that where are Miguel Ríos or Mecano, for example.

Answer.

Mecano appears.

P.

Yes, but little.

R.

The focus was on groups from Latin America. I am only one of the executive producers, but being the best known, they throw all the tomatazos at me. No problem. The idea was to tell the life of rock bands in juxtaposition with the socio-economic and political realities of our countries. That connection was never made. The protest song was made, but the truth is that I was imprisoned in Buenos Aires in the seventies a lot of times for wearing long hair and playing rock. I did not belong to any political party, nor did I consume drugs, but music made me a suspect like many others in Pinochet's Chile or Mexico at the time. There are always detractors, although the series was among the 15 most watched titles on Netflix worldwide. I am very proud to have done it.At least he brought rock back into the conversation.

Q.

Was he gone?

R.

I have been hearing for decades that he has already died and I have seen him resuscitate so many times ... I say that rock, now, like the world, is in quarantine, that the vaccine comes from Latin America and wears women's perfume.

Q.

Is that your producer's eye has already seen something promising out there?

R.

If we go to pop, look at the perfume that Rosalía leaves, for example.

But there are many.

I just produced Kali Uchis, who is born in the United States but Colombian.

The time has come for them, right?

P.

Who has been the worst enemy of rock?

R.

Let's say that at some point it was MTV, also the business, piracy a decade ago and the artists themselves.

Let's not forget that many stopped responding to that tribal and wild energy.

That is why in Latin America we have an advantage over the north: we know who the enemy is, specifically.

And that helps channel a certain energy, an attitude.

Even when I make soundtracks or video games, I feel like a rock musician.

Q.

In what?

R.

I love to get into areas that I do not know.

Playing instruments that I don't know.

That difficulty brings, it places me in a situation of danger and innocence that I love.

It takes me to minimalism and even silence, which is something I use a lot.

Actually, I only know how to play the guitar and the ronroco: that's my voice.

“Alejandro González Iñárritu is a genius, a true genius.

He is several steps ahead of the rest

P.

And so much, that Andean instrument that resonates in much of your music.

How do you win two Oscars with a ronroco in hand?

A.

Actually, in

Brokeback Mountain

there is only guitar, and in

Babel

a previous song of mine appears,

Iguazú

, which is not only there, but in other films.

But Alejandro González Iñárritu, the director, wanted it yes or yes, he asked me for it.

P.

In fact, you made the great soundtracks of the Mexican director:

Amores perros, 21 grams, Babel, Biutiful

...

R.

And ... well, but Iñárritu is a genius, a true genius.

He is several steps ahead of the rest.

P.

Then there are video games ...

A.

I am not a

gamer

.

I'm really bad at it.

My son, yes.

And from looking and listening ... Bands had not been made like I do and that has given me new fans because it reaches that audience very deeply: now I have fans from 16 years old to my age.

Q.

Where do you earn more money?

Cinema or video games?

Because of the records, we don't even talk.

R.

In both you win well, very well.

But with the records, now, nothing.

And with

streaming

, horrible.

That ended.

“The producer has grown up on the basis of the artist's mistakes.

I learned a lot by making mistakes

P.

Is the producer discoverer of talent or should he only channel it?

R.

There are all the cases, I have always felt the need to work with very strong artists.

Not the ones who say: yes, sir.

Artists of whom you have to earn their trust, give them a transparent function and that the records do not sound the same.

I come from school on that of George Martin and not Daniel Lanois or Phil Spector.

P.

Many times the creative aspect of a producer is neglected.

Upset?

R.

It is very important, key in the art of making a record.

He is the one who helps to choose the material, who says that for an album of 10 songs he has to listen to 30 and, from there, remove.

Sometimes he is the one who makes important decisions about a song, who changes your perception of it because it has altered the internal order, the chorus or the chorus.

Q.

And for you, who have produced all your albums, wouldn't a look from the outside have been useful to make those decisions?

R.

Hopefully!

It would have been amazing!

But it is that the producer has grown up based on the artist's mistakes.

I learned a lot by making mistakes.