Entrevista publicada originalmente en vida-london
How would you describe your music?
I like pop and its format but pop doesn’t like my tuning
I like rock and its strength but rock doesn’t like my harmony
I like classical and its harmony but classical doesn’t like my rhythms
I like experimental and its freedom but experimental doesn’t like my melodies
I like folk and its genuineness but folk doesn’t like my computer
I like jazz and its improvisation but jazz doesn’t like my way of playing
I am like a dog of mixed breed; a mixture of different styles
but not recognized by any.
I am a musical duck-billed platypus
Which comes first for you, music or poetry?
When I am creating, I don’t pay much attention to categories, boundaries or the names of disciplines. It is a labeling that is a concern for the critic, the academic or maybe the audience. It is not a concern for me in the creative process.
I experiment with a medium because it is a need from my curiosity with emotions, feelings and thoughts and how they can project themselves in matter.
If it turns out to fit one category or the other, that comes later.
Your musical influences seem to be very diverse. Who would you say is inspiring your work right now?
Always: Los Jaivas, Charly García, Chopin, Scott Joplin and Erik Satie.
Recently: Peruvian Chicha, Argentinean Milonga Porteña, Frescobaldi, Mozart, Bwana, Tsegue Maryam and many others.
Some of your songs contain unusual instruments (such as kitchenware), how do you decide which instruments to use? Which do instruments do you play yourself?
In the music I am doing now on the studio and live -except when I play with my band- I work with songs in just intonation and microtonality. This means that I cannot use fretted instruments. I mainly play the piano or keyboards with the tuning changed and do most of the sounds in the computer. I use kitchenware and other things I find to add a variety of sounds that do not come from the computer/electronic music world.
How many people are in your band at present?
There is Tomás on the guitar, Ben on bass and Roberto on drums and me in keyboards and vocals. That is ‘Cuchufleta & the Wolverines’. It is mainly a jam band, and we do some sort of psychedelic latin rock. We have a lot of fun playing.
Do you have plans for your next record?
I have an album waiting to be released. It is called “Tono de Lobo” and it is a collection with the first songs that I have done using microtonality. The album uses a scale of 36 steps per octave instead of the common 12.
We also have an album coming with “Cuchufleta & the Wolverines”.
Also, I now think of my website -cuchufleta.com- as a publisher or an album in constant release. I am always publishing new songs and materials, and creating free download packages every month.
What plans do you have for your poetry?
To keep doing it. And hopefully have it published somewhere.
I do some home-made cd-books with songs, sound poetry and visual poetry that I sell at gigs (when I remember to take them). I would love to have the opportunity to do one of this cd-books with lots of pages and colors, in a good edition.
Where are you from? What did you study?
I am from the landscapes of Chile. I am from its never resolved colonialism. I am from Chile’s isolation from the rest of the world -To the north we are divided from Peru and Bolivia by the world’s driest desert. To the east we are divided from Argentina by the world's longest continental mountain range. To the west we have the Pacific ocean and to the south, Antarctica. We are the last stop for planes. You cannot get further away.
I studied music composition in Chile. Yet, what has really formed my artistic language is the culture where I grew in, the feeling of being from a ‘new world’ unaware of itself. I have given a lot of thought to this ‘Chilean condition’ and I would say it is something that I have studied to develop my art.
Chile’s isolation is not only a geographical one. It has also to do with a neglect of our own history and cultural identity. It has to do with our incapacity to think by ourselves, of being a colony in every human level except government. Chileans are divided between those who are the proud defenders of our colonial status -the copycats of the ‘higher’ culture of Europe or the U.S. The other team is represented by the opposite faction, the haters of everything that is not from the pre-hispanic cultures. The only middle ground to this division, consists in the falsification of popular culture into a picturesque folk invention.
Instead of embracing our lack of ground for supporting cultural hierarchies, of understanding our 500 year old postmodern condition as an advantage, instead of developing our duck-billed platypus type of identity with creativity, autonomy and self determination; we deceive ourselves with national dances and other artistic expressions that have little to do with the reality of what our lives are. The scary thing is that people are buying more and more this cultural image and now, from the distance, I can perceive a growing cultural chauvinism.
How do you find living in London? How long have you lived here and what do you like best about it?
I have been in London for about 8 months now. I like the foxes in the night, I love the parks and how, despite the overpopulation, there seems to be room and a welcoming scene for more people -like me!.
