Since he began singing professionally, Pedro Heredia Reyes, better known as Pedro El Granaíno (Granada, 1973), has heard an insistent refrain: “When is the album coming?” Although the music market is no longer a shadow of what it once was, for many, an artist has not fully demonstrated their qualities if they do not pass the test of the recording studio. This moment has arrived for the singer whose first album They say that to sing It’s already underway. On October 15, it will be presented at the Teatro de la Abadía in Madrid, as part of the XIX Suma Flamenca.
“I’ve always seen this challenge of the album from the tranquility of thinking that things happen when they’re supposed to, and that it’s a mistake to rush. It’s not about recording for the sake of recording,” he says. “In recent years, I haven’t stopped singing and it has given me a lot of security. I’m also very calm with the content of the album, because there is nothing that I haven’t already sung: soleá, seguiriya, taranto, granaína and a few other surprises. But we didn’t want to change anything that brought us here.”
There was no specific moment to make the decision, no “click” that made him lock himself in the aquarium in front of a microphone. He assures that in general he does not like to listen to himself, and that the idea that albums are cold always weighs on those who record them, but it is no less true that he had already made some collaborations in this sense with other artists. and splendid results, like the bulerías The four moons by Vicente Amigo, dedicated to the bullfighter Talavante. “In my case, a lot of people came to me and said they couldn’t find anything of mine on Spotify or YouTube, where could they find it… Now they’re going to get it, well, that’s also a question of leaving something that remains.
Fingerprints
On the other hand, he is aware that in flamenco and in music in general, there is a certain psychosis around records. “The recording world has changed a lot, everyone is a little crazy now about what to record, when, how… Most record a song and release it as a single, and we’re not going to become any less crazy, we’ll release ours shortly. . Do you know what I would like? Release a seguiriya as a single. But in the current state of the market, it’s impossible,” he smiles.
Another example of how troubled times are can be found at El Granaíno in this widespread idea that today’s flamenco is finished. “I say quite the opposite, it seems to me that we are living in a very good time, I have colleagues who sing very well and who sing flamenco. It makes me angry that people say that today everyone sings the same. I invite you to listen to Antonio Reyes, Miguel Poveda, Arcángel, Rancapino Chico, Israel Fernández, José Valencia, Jesús Méndez… They are all different, none of them are alike and they are all faithful to flamenco.
And the same thing, he adds, happens with the cantaoras, “from La Macanita to Tía Juana la del Pipa, passing through Marina Heredia, Estrella Morente, María Terremoto… How can they say that the song was lost ? We drink from the same sources, of course, but everyone has their own imprint, as if they had their own fingerprint. Another thing is that geniuses emerge, which are always rare. But listen, I defend that the flamenco artist is capable of covering any music, while the opposite is complicated. And despite everything, I am sure that in 20 or 30 years we will continue to hear that “today we no longer sing like before, singing has been lost”.
curve your back
For Pedro El Granaíno, many things have improved since, at the beginning, his father tried to discourage him from devoting himself to the art of flamenco. “He said to me: ‘Are you sure of the quality of the artists? They all take cardboard. And he was partly right, because it was very precarious work and what they earned, they spent. I had my job, I was a hawker and I had my route to market, and for him to take the leap into professional singing was unwise.
In fact, El Granaíno began to be known as the artist who emerged from the markets, the pearl hidden among piles of clothes and stalls of trinkets. It was Galli de Morón who first began to make this extraordinary talent known. “One day he said to Guadiana: ‘There’s a boy in Seville who has very special metal, let’s see if you listen to him.’ And when Tío Guadiana came, they invited me to a small party with a lot of artists and I made myself known. Then Farru invited me to a show he had in Madrid and I had to go there. go.
When asked if there are more hidden talents in the markets than one might think, he agrees, but immediately clarifies: “There are a lot of people who sing well, but that’s one thing and becoming professional is another. Having art is different from going on stage and devoting yourself to it knowingly. If you have qualities, you must work, study, unless you are touched by the wand and can afford not to.
Do you miss anything from your past life? “Yes, I would have liked my children to see what I earned for a living. The sacrifices of this work, the heat we endure in summer and the cold in winter. Now his father is a singer, we are privileged, although I also travel a lot of kilometers and sometimes I encounter surreal situations, like festivals where I don’t even have anywhere to change. But yes, I would have liked them to know what this other life was like, to see how the markets bend.”
