Rocío Sáiz was one of the great artists who participated in the recent Boreal Festival (September 16-18) that once again shone with notable success in the northern municipality of Los Silos. Sáiz is a singer far from the big spotlights, with a very personal message and a career in which self-management plays an important role.
Her music, which she defines as real, honest and with a lot of love, is an invitation to the party, to conscious dance, the adrenaline rush as well; all from a perspective of resistance to many of the established canons.
– Combine LGTBIQ+ activism with music. Are both facets inseparable in your concerts?
They can never be separated. It’s like the debate of separating work from person, I am as I am. But it shouldn’t matter who I sleep with so someone can come to a concert. Neither are concerts solely and exclusively for the group, nor are heterosexual people excluded. It’s like asking a straight band that question, it wouldn’t make sense. I want to be called because of my music, not because of who I sleep with.
– He assures that it has taken its toll on him to say what he thinks. What has to happen for Spain to finally wake up and end so many phobias?
Look, when they distributed the deadly sins to Spain, he was envious. The word phobia means fear. Fear of being different, of being stripped of your white and absurd privilege shit, fear of being indifferent, of not being the best, of not getting good grades… It would be better if they taught us what it means to fail, frustration, emotional management . As long as the ways of feeling empathy towards others do not change, I doubt that anything will change.
– In this claim, what role can music like the one you make or culture play?
Because playfulness mobilizes, and that’s how it is. There is a phrase by Brigite Vasallo that says, “that the firecracker does not take away the political.” The mamarrachas are always the ones who throw the stones, the fences, the barriers and the glass ceilings. I not only make music, I am behind in associations, political parties, assemblies, in federations; It’s not just about pink washing and getting followers. What you see is what there is and that’s how I am, with my weaknesses and my virtues.
– How important are festivals like Boreal for you, without country or gender flags?
For me the Boreal is a utopia. And that’s precisely why it shouldn’t be special but normal (although I hate that word). What Boreal does is as if all the films met the Bechdel test. It is not so difficult. In sight is, the question is if you want. The public also has a lot of responsibility. I would never go to a festival where the poster was all men. I am embarrassed. But what do we expect, if there are also people in our country who watch Telecinco and deny climate change. I have seen a glacier melt in Argentina. If everyone read more there would be more festivals like Boreal.
– She assures that the more they censor her, the more strength they give her. Apart from showing off his chest on stage, what is he dying to do in front of his audience?
Well, it’s getting harder and harder for me and that’s how it is. I continue to live in absolute precariousness but with many more insults and threats. Is that life for someone? They don’t give me prizes, nor do they pay me large caches, nor can I almost pay my musicians. What I’m dying to do is be able to regulate the caches so that the little ones don’t pay to play and the big ones don’t get rich at the expense of our time, but that’s another utopia
– After years in groups, you decided to make the leap to a solo career with Amor amargo, how would you define that work? Are you already preparing new music?
I’m with the second disc, but I need to save to record it. The reality is that. I want to release several singles before spring but I do everything very calmly. For me, combining all my works and finding time to compose is almost an impossible mission. Those who bring up a topic a month is because they can, you know the “I’m not ugly, I’m poor” thing, well anyway. My music is pop and it will continue to be pop. I find it very difficult to do anything other than that; I am not a music virtuoso and everything I do is achieved with a large emotional network of friends and people who are involved in this project.
– Today, what do your social networks have, more positive or negative part?
They have both. They have truth that it is what it is necessary to have. I guess that’s why I don’t have as many followers, but the ones I do have are already friends. I talk to everyone and I have made great friends on the networks that have ended up being my family in real life.
– What is your invitation for the public to attend your concerts and festivals?
Speaking of my recent visit to the Boreal, people don’t know what it costs to organize a festival like this. If they want to be modern, let them bet on the margins, let them leave home, listen to music from around the world. It costs less to leave the house than not to. The festival is a party, it is an antidote to anxiety. It is the answer to any anxiolytic.
