Translated Interviews
Translated by Lycos and Altavista.
http://www.tentaciones.elpais.es/t/d/20010316/musica/p01.htm
This is the majority of the interview
THESE ARE THE BOYS DE FIDEL
Manic Street Preachers presented their new album, know your enemy in Havana. Before the Commander, to big drum and subject of gossip. Who used whom?
In Cardiff, the capital of Wales, everybody knows the Manic Street Preachers. The taxi driver, the hotel receptionist... Manic Street Preachers has a legend, and this one is the one of Richey. Destructive and enigmatic, with something of Sid Vicious and something of Syd Barret.
James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire wait for the interrogation.
[on the album]
JDB: We talk about us ourselves. After the previous album we felt that we had become very complex... and we discovered the symptom of not being able to react to our success. In the previous album, the lyrics of songs like If You Tolerate This or S.Y.M.M. they do not contain as much critic... I believe that we made a pretty and melancholic album, and that we were too comfortable.
JDB: the last album we thought too much about it. Here we decided to trust our instinct more. In This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours we had a pile of ideas, five by song; here we have gone to first in each song. I would not call it punk, because that makes you think about something innocent, youthful, rough... and I do not believe that there is nothing of that in the album. We are all 32 years old and we are already better musicians.
Nicky: For me all the album rezuma spirit punk like a mental state; perhaps we are the Sex Pistols cerebral. Everything has become so soft that I do not know if people want to listen to what we say at this point. The last album sold million copies, was brilliant... 10 years ago we formed a group because we wanted to express our rage, sometimes in a political way, sometimes according to the patterns of the traditional and miserable punk. Only we wanted to be different.
And in certain ways you did it. Yours first songs they are rich in axe blows to the monarchy, modern Capitalism. Why is the UK so tolerant?
JDB: in this country certain liberties exist that we can take. We can say... that we hated the royal family, who is a useless one.
Nicky: Three years ago, when the Welsh Parliament opened, they invited to us to act in the inauguration, but we rejected it because there were going to be the kings of the United Kingdom there [?!] I am glad to have done that and to have played for Fidel Castro.
SOCIAL BUENAVISTA PUNK
The way in which Wire pronounces his last words reveals his desire to speak of the experience. Know your enemy, that includes the song Baby Elián, was presented in society last month in Havana, in the theater Karl Marx, scene of the interminable speeches of the Commander-in-Chief. It was the first time that a group of British rock of millionaire sales acted in Cuban ground. The Manic, which they praise the freedom of expression of his country, appearing in Cuba. The contradiction is served.
Nicky: It was like being in a film. He is a very mysterious figure. I have only met two [people similar] Mohamed Alí was one, other Castro. He was something surrealista.
You are conscious that they have used you? Or you have used a situation?
Nicky: We were used, but also we used the situation. The United States portrays Cuba like a territory whipped by the poverty and the totalitarianism, and that is not thus. The freedom of expression is a problem, but there are many more positive things. People live more in Cuba than in America. The sanitary system. The educative one: the young people are better at writing and reading than the British.
You knew that the rock was considered "extranjerizante" in Cuba until two days ago?
[this is more or less what james meant what he said didn't translate very well]
JDB: Yes [sigh] But left is the consolation Cuba has not exhausted its culture for globalisation. Freedom of expression is one theory of western conspiracy, in fact it does not exist like that [people say] that all the Cubans want to go to America, which is a pathetic lie.
A Basque musician: "I learned more of Che than of the Stones" They subscribe to this the Manic Street Preachers?
Nicky: Yes The Clash, for example. When I listened Allen Ginsberg recite in Combat Rock, that made me discover Jack Kerouac, to the beat generation... That was important, but also I studied policy in the university, so I learned much of Marx and Engels. For me it is 50% and 50%. Che Guevara, in any case, was a great star of the showbiz.
They adore Spain. Nick: "One of the best moments of my life was in our last concert in Barcelona. We played If You Tolerate This".
How do they compose songs? "I write the lyrics/words, I give them to James and he composes with acoustic guitar, later he goes to Sean [drums] and he puts more details to it. That's how we do it for 15 years"
It was equal when you were four?
Nicky: When it was with Richey was better. Although it was more difficult to reach a creative voltage... he gave a different perspective to the songs [or he had a different perspective on the songs]
What credit do you give to the rumors that Richey has been seen?
Nicky: Bah, I am not believing anything! I do not mean that I do not believe that he is alive. He can be alive or dead, but I do not believe that... if he is alive and it [he?] walks that way I do not believe that nobody can recognize to him [this isn't clear, it's as translated]
You have thought about his return?
Nicky: Oh, yes! If Richey appeared tonight in a concert it would be fantastic to see him. But I do not know... in a certain way it was very destructive for him to be in a group. I know Richey from the age of five years, we played soccer, we went to University together. I miss him like a person, not like a Manic Street Preacher.
Another rumor is that you're going to separate?
Nicky: They say it all along! With Blur it happens equal, everybody thinks the same. And with Oasis. We do not have any intention to separate. I do not say to you that we continue within five or ten years because we are too old. Simply the moment will arrive for leaving it. When we were young we did plan to dominate the world, but now we live day to day. The boxers who continue lose what made them great. While we continue being excellent, that I believe that we are at the moment, we will continue.
Terribly translated by lycos and altavista and made some sense of by me...