Francisco José Arcángel Ramos, known as “Arcángel”, was born in Huelva thirty years ago. After starting out singing the fandangos of his hometown, he managed to construct a solid career based on a broad repertoire, and went on to become one of the most important stars of the new batch of flamenco singers. A few months ago his new record “Ropavieja” was released.
Six years ago, the first interview we published at Deflamenco was with you, on the occasion of your first recording.To be sitting here 6 years later is a good sign. Yes, of course, it means we’re still charging ahead.
At that time there was a lot of expectation.To what extent do you think goals have been fulfilled? I don’t pay much attention to expectations, or what people say, if I listened to that stuff I couldn’t be doing what I do. My goal has always been to do the best possible job, professionally and artistically. It’s like anything else, there are people who like what I do, and others who don’t like it at all. But I’m proud of what I achieve, day to day and little by little, and very pleased because I can make a living doing this, and that’s important.
What does it take to make it to the top, like Miguel Poveda, Estrella Morente and a few others? Hard work and methodology, discipline… no one hands you anything on a silver platter, you climb each rung with tremendous effort.I’m committed to the art and just keep going and going. That doesn’t mean I’m oblivious to market forces, but I try to base what I do on tradition, and then take off from there, as far as my personal ability and voice will allow.
It’s clear that recording is absolutely necessary, but live performance is also important.If you hadn’t participated in the most important festivals, it wouldn’t have been the same. Singers, guitarists, dancers… whatever we have is thanks to live performance, it’s the most important thing, the combination of sight and sound is what catches people’s attention. We have to defend our work on stage, by hook or by crook.Until a few years ago, live performance was a problem, technical means were not up to par, and the stages were deficient. Thank god flamenco has advanced and people’s mind are a little more open and they’ve realized that if we’re going to have professional flamenco, we have to create a parallel structure to support it.
Is there much difference between what you hear on a record, and what you might hear in live performance? I should hope so.To achieve the degree of emotion on a recording that you get in performance is very hard, and it also depends on the predisposition of the listener, it’s not the same listening to a record, where you can’t see the person, as live, where you see and feel the moment.You can listen to a record in varying emotional states, and each time it’ll feel different.
The producer’s contribution on a recording is fundamental.What did Isidro Muñoz have to offer? The most important thing was the love he has for music, and the incessant search for a couple of notes that have art… it really impressed me, I didn’t know there were people who loved this so much, without asking anything in return from flamenco, just enjoying the pleasure derived.
Is it possible to combine quality and marketability? It’s not only possible, but necessary, we don’t have to give up one thing or the other.Sometimes flamenco fans have too many preconceived ideas, and you have to explain things to them twenty times when you do something that isn’t exactly traditional flamenco, and you’re always worried they’re going to reject it. I thing we need to dispell those bugaboos and fears, first of all, because each person does whatever he or she wants and feels like doing at any given moment, but if on top of that, it comes along with a profound respect for tradition, no one can say a word, they have to shut up. We can hold our heads good and high, we’re doing what we want and that’s our goal, whether or not it’s good for us, and whether or not people accept it.
On your first record you had a song that said something like “don’t give me advice, I make my own mistakes”. It’s important to make mistakes.You learn more from a mistake than from doing everything right.
In the collaborations with other groups, and other kinds of music, you seem to feel the need to justify yourself. Yes. You do what you want, what you like, and what you feel is the perfect thing for that moment, and you have to go giving explanations.
Does that only happen in flamenco? I think so, it’s such a special kind of music and the people involved in it, we’re so special that we sometimes clip our own wings, that’s not what art is about, but exactly the opposite.
What songs are on the record? A little bit of everything, the kind of record they make these days, themes you can put on the radio in order to reach more people, others that are a little deeper, and some that are strictly traditonal.
Are fandangos your I.D. card? It’s one of them.It bothers me a little when they typecast me with that cante, a singer is a broader combination of elements. Fandangos are the culture of my hometown, and I defend it tooth and nail, but it’s not the only thing I do.
Others express themselves via siguiriya or soleá.Do you use the fandango? Yes. It sounds good to say you express yourself best in soleá or siguiriya, these cantes are the basis of flamenco, but you express yourself when it’s the right moment, it makes no difference whether you’re singing a fandango, a siguiriya or a colombiana.
The great encyclopedic singers sometimes had fandango somewhat ostracized. It’s strange, in the nineteen forties and fifties it was exactly the opposite, fandango wasn’t a minor cante, it was one of the most important ones, and if you didn’t know how to sing fandangos, you didn’t get called for festivals.
Nowadays the most fashionable voices seem to indicate a return to the sweet melodious cante of those days. What do you think? I don’t like anyone to jump to the conclusion that we defend this because it’s better, but rather because it’s what we like and it’s the beginning. From there on, each one can draw their own conclusions.
How would you rather be labeled, as a singer of the new school, or of the traditional school? It makes no difference to me, as long as they say I’m a good flamenco follower, it makes no difference how they want to pigeonhole me.
Is there anything to be gained comparing gypsy cante and Andalusian cante? It’s a useless debate, cante is flamenco, there are gypsy singers, and non-gypsy singers, good singers and bad singers.
When it comes to live performance, dance has its rightful place, but with cante, it’s not that clear. Cante has a natural obstacle abroad, which is the language, but the funny thing is, within Spain, there still isn’t any stable infrastructure in theaters for our music.Flamenco is the music that represents us, and which is recognized outside of the country as Spanish.We have no established program or circuit where flamenco is presented on a regular basis, and everything comes down to sporadic scheduling, even risking private funding.Until recently, public administration hadn’t done everything it could for flamenco.
Do you still believe that? Well, it’s a little better, but still not up to par, flamenco is what most identifies us.
