More than half his life (36 years) sharing musical projects and stages with La Union as a vocalist and author of the lyrics, but the time has come for Rafa Sanchez (Madrid, 1961) to embark on his first solo project. The legendary Spanish pop group treasures well-known songs in the 80s and 90s such as Falso amor, Lobo hombre en Paris, Mas y mas and Vuelve el amor. He lived the Madrid Movida to the fullest and used drugs until an accident before he was 30 led him to quit. Today, veteran with about 60 chestnuts, embarks on a new adventure with the illusion of a kid.
-The litigation with a colleague from La Union, drugs, homosexuality and denial. What subject do you feel lazy for us to talk about
-I don’t care. I have few cabinets behind me.
-Who dares to call him Rafael
-I don’t even
remember. My mother was the only one who called me Rafita.
-It could be Rafo or Rafe.
I am quite reactionary on some issues. And this genre is stupid. There is a language that can be spoken perfectly without making absurdities like you or saying friends. It’s politics.
-Before I finish writing her name on the internet, it comes: “Rafa Sanchez partner”. How little use it is to be jealous of intimacy!
-True, but I already tell you that I don’t have any ghosts. I don’t show my partner because he doesn’t want to; he belongs to the business world, he is an engineer, and there is still a bit of homophobia there.
-The direct ones of La Union were very notorious, but I was dazzled by the tintinophile reference in the title of Sildavia. Was he or is he a reader of those comics
-I’ve read all of them except two: Ottokar’s scepter, which is where Sildavia comes from, Landing on the Moon… I’m a total fan of Captain Haddock, I thought he was sexy. With certain hairstyles I have seen myself similar to Tintin.
– In the era of offended people, is it more complicated to compose lyrics
Is there self-censorship
-Companies never cut me anything, but there was self-censorship because with La Union I made very gay texts, but I never put the masculine gender, always neutral. In this album I already use the corresponding genre.
-Is it more risky to release an album in a time of triumphs and youtubers or to open a bar in a pandemic
-Being in the media is almost impossible for established people like Sabina or me, there are no programs to go on, they are all talent shows. I am afraid of how to reach the public of my fifth, since they do not participate as much in social networks. There is the handicap for people like me.
-Fifties and sixties are like old furniture
-Totally, even if you don’t feel that way. The artists that I like the most have not been great voices, but great transmitters of feelings, like Tom Waits or Sabina with her torn voice, she transmits much more to me than a triumph. And I like artists who write their own songs.
“Better than going to the plastic surgeon is getting a boyfriend: he changes your wardrobe, your face, everything stretches…”
-Without denying his homosexuality, he has never been one to exhibit it. Why in the video of Dress up princess ends up holding hands with a boy
-It is a tribute to the friendship of a gay boy and a straight girl. She wanted there to be some confusion at first, when she gets dressed and we talk over a martini. But the song is about all those mature women who come out of a marriage, are invisible to men and go out in gay gangs and having a lot of fun.
-The vocative comma is missing in the title of the song. I’m telling you when the album comes out. What was the best national group of the 80’s
-Radio Futura and also Alaska and Dinarama, because Carlos Berlanga composing was a real pleasure.
-What would you say if they proposed to relaunch his career with a duet with Pablo Hasel
-I would, why not
-He has to get out of jail.
-That seemed to me a great injustice.
-Also, the music of the 80s was much more naughty than now.
-We are reaching an absurdity of what is politically correct and songs from other times are being taken out of context. A councilor prohibited It was jealousy. Jealousy has existed and will exist, it is universal.
-Was Tierno Galvan more modern than these politicians
-I had it easier because when coming out of a dictatorship the country needed to open up, although it also had its blows, like talking about John Lennox. It wasn’t that modern, but I tried to capture the young vote through bread and circuses, a very old idea that I channeled well.
-Botany lover, had a partner for 25 years. Entitle your memoirs The Constant Gardener.
-I was, but now the title would be The Unfaithful Gardener. No, just kidding, I’m very faithful.
-He got bored at the end because “we only watched series”. If that is the yardstick, all of Spain is separated.
-I hope they think about it because life lasts as long as it lasts and you have to take advantage of time. Better than going to the plastic surgeon is to get a new boyfriend: he changes your wardrobe, your face, you get to plan, everything stretches…
-Forgive the irreverence, but in the 80s I took for granted he would be bald and go hair lights.
-It stays, eh
I have oily hair and I think the dyes have stabilized it. It’s holding me
-Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool coach, said that the opinion of a coach is not relevant to talk about the coronavirus.
-Totally agree. In fact, from now on I will say that it is irrelevant what I think of this. But there is a negationist current that is not being given a voice and there should be a debate in the media. I inform myself on the internet of all trends. Public opinion is somewhat manipulated through the media and that seems very dangerous to me.
-Speaking of vaccines, how is your friend Bose
-I was very sad to see the interview with Evole because I think they set a trap for him, although I thought he had much more information to defend himself; for example, when they asked him about the AIDS vaccine, which he has been experimenting with for 24 years and it is not there; and that of Covid-19 has been done in a few months.