Episode 1.4
Interview with Rodrigo Castillo Filomarino, by Stephanie Gacía on May 13th, 2020
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Stephanie (S): Our guest today resides in Mexico City. He studied a Bachelor of Composition at the Superior School of Music of the National Institute of Fine Arts, he also studied a Bachelor of Orchestra Conducting at the School of Live Music and Movement of the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center and also, studied a Bachelor in Computer Science at the College of Sciences of UNAM. Rodrigo Castillo Filomarino has a twenty year professional career, where he has made original music and sound design for theater, dance, and cinema with more than eighty works in total. The Theater Critics and Journalists Association has nominated him on several occasions for the ‘Best Original Music’ award, which he was awarded in 2018 for “Parte II: Clitemnestra”, by the director and playwright José Alberto Gallardo. He is a member of the National System of Art Creators of FONCA, since 2019. In 2020 he wrote, directed and made music for his theatrical debut opera ‘Eco’, which was presented at the 20/20 Residence of Grandguignol Psicotrónico, at the Teatro el Milagro.
S: Hi Rodrigo! Welcome to AQUI&ALLA conversations with contemporary art creators from Mexico and the US. We are very happy that you accepted this invitation. How are you?
Rodrigo (R): Very well, thank you very much – you and Peter – for the invitation. Very happy to be here with you.
S: Very good. Well look, we already gave an introduction of who you are, but we would like to know in your own words, for you to tell us; who is Rodrigo, and where are you from, and what do you do?
R: Ehh, well, I’m from Mexico City, in the country of Mexico, Planet Earth. Ehhh, who is Rodrigo? Why, Rodrigo is someone who lives on Music, for Music and for Music.
S: Why… Why the Music?
R: Ehh, since I was a child, around the age of 10, when I had my first encounter with music, after passing, although you do not believe it, through various arts such as painting, sculpture, engraving, etc. It was like a moment … ehh, of an epiphany for me, when I discovered music. At that point, I said, “That is what I really want to do.”
S: And what does music mean to you?
R: Well, a way of understanding and expressing the world around me, and the world that is within me… in my head.
S: In what way do you determine what is important to pursue in your profession and what you want to pursue, not only as an artist, but also as a human being?
R: Ehhh, ok. Well, I think that as an artist and a human being, I don’t think, I can’t separate them … but, something that moves me a lot is ‘leaving the world a little better’ than how we received it, or how I had to live it, right? If I can do something for the world, for others, for the community, this, I think is something important for me.
S: Tell us a bit, ehhh, already as a professional, that is, when, when, you know, you dabble in the subject of music? What exactly in music do you do? And how does it come to this assertion to dedicate yourself professionally to music? In which branches of art or in what disciplines have you worked? If you can tell us a little bit how, creators or directors, right?
R: Ok. Well, as I was saying, I started Music at 10 years old. At 12 I started to train professionally to enter the career of … playing piano. At 16 I took my exam at the Superior Music School of INBA, and already I was too old to be a pianist. So, very frustrated, I returned to my house and my mother said to me, “Why don’t you study composition? They are going to give you a lot of piano because it is the instrument, this one, ideal for composition, so you are going to have many piano lessons.” So, I signed up for composition. I made a small composition, a waltz, which, I really liked the experience. I went to a recording studio with ‘Chas’ who was, he is a very important musician-composer for dance in Mexico, and… I presented my exam. I passed and when I received my first composition class, it was like a second epiphany, and it was like, wow! The world opened up to me like that, like they raised a curtain, you know, a curtain, right? And I saw my life in composition. From then on, more or less in 1999, it was my first professional job as a sound designer for a play, which consists of, therefore, choosing and editing pieces and transitions for a play. Tons from there, let’s say my professional life in the theater begins. A few years later, I made the original music for a choreography by Rossana Filomarino, it was called: ‘Jardines del alma.’ And let’s say that was my first approach, a professional approach with music in Dance. From there, I have continued to collaborate with various directors, choreographers. from Mexico and also from abroad. Well, they are almost … they are already 20 years old, that’s really it.
S: It is already a stretch.
R: It is a good stretch, yes. I have more than 80 works done in my career, either as a sound designer or as a composer. Ehh, as a sound designer, I don’t compose music as such, but sometimes I fix it, edit it, choose it, ehh, maybe I make some bridges, between one and the other. Ehhh, either for theater or for dance, right?
S: Well, you tell us that you have worked in disciplines such as dance, theater, ehhh … what could they be like, the differences to create for a discipline such as theater, unlike dance or making sound design, ehhh -you also worked in cinema? So, talk a little, uh, what difference do you make, if you detect? Right? Between the disciplines, and what are some possible convergences? Uhhmm, what do you like? What don’t you like about it?
R: Ehhh, yes, I have also worked in cinema. I think that theater, dance and cinema, can converge in that music is always at the service of the whole work, right? It is, say, at the service of a greater good, than music itself. In different, in different ways, of course. Music, I think it is much more important in dance than in the theater or in the cinema, right? Because it is a complete speech, which goes with, uh, what we are seeing on stage, right? In the theater there can be a long time without music, just like in the cinema; but in dance, then, not so much, although there are silences, of course, let’s say that music has a much more important role than in theater or cinema.
S: Mhhhm.
R: And, uhh, well, I think the biggest difference between making music for the movies, or for the performing arts, or making concert music, it is exactly that, that the music is subject to the director’s vision, or to the aesthetics of the staging, or the choreography, or the film, etc. And when you are composing concert music, well, you are solely responsible for what, what you want to do and where you want to go, and in what time, right? Because then in the theater they say to you, “Ahh yes, I want something sad but, it needs to last 45 seconds.” Then… suddenly like that, it’s not very nice, it can cut you off from the inspiration or the idea, right?, of what you want to do. But, well, you have to understand that precisely the music there is at the service of what is needed on the scene, right? In that sense, dance is much more friendly because, because it allows you to expand in time a little more, and develop more the ideas or the musical structure that goes along with the… or as a counterpoint to the dramatic structure of the choreography. So yes, I could say that I like it, or I enjoy making music more for dance than for theater. Although they are completely different things, with different challenges, right? This challenge, suddenly, to synthesize in the theater and not, to emotionally describe with music, is suddenly a challenge. And in dance, the challenge, sometimes, is the extension of the music, right?… when there are large format works of 30, 40, 50 minutes, to keep a musical speech during all that time, because it is almost a symphony.
S: And so, here between ‘us’, as a spectator, which one do you enjoy the most?
R: Oh Man! This … well, when they are well done, I enjoy a good movie, or a good staging, or a good choreography, although I think it is more difficult to find the latter, than the other two, right? It is like when I go to a concert, and I suffer because the violins are out of tune, or the guitar is very strong, etc. So, being involved in the performing arts, because suddenly it’s difficult to be a, say, ‘normal’ spectator right? You come loaded then, with information, not prejudice, but with extra information that allows you to see other things and sometimes takes you out of the main thing, right?… which is getting into what you are seeing.
S: That, that is true and it is very curious, because generally stage people and… a, sometimes this is very limited, that theater people who go to see theater, or even theater people who go to see dance, ehhh, if there is something that happens, when you are a spectator, that you are no longer just any spectator. You become like a specialized spectator. So how does it work for you? In other words, if there is something that, when you go to see performing arts, or a movie, or one of these disciplines, if there is a very open disposition to say, “ok, I am going to see this which I came to see, this which is being offered, with a lot of openness,” until this little moment happens when it can take you out of that enjoyment, like out of a slightly more normal spectator… I don’t know…
R: Yes, ehhh, I always go with an open mind and without, as I was saying, without any prejudice, without any expectations. Ehh, I like it when I like things and they surprise me, right? But yes, sometimes something happens that gets me out of what could be, maybe, because an actor who all out of context, in tone, or a dancer who you see has no technique and spoils like, the work of everyone else, or in the cinema sometimes it happens to me a lot that a speaker is distorted, or does not sound, or is very loud, or is very low, or the movie next door gets in, right? So, if they are things that suddenly get me out, but I always try to arrive with an attitude, ehhh, just like an audience, ehh, not specialized.
S: How difficult! But yes, I think it is possible. Very good. I believe that as a creator, specifically of music, whether you make a creation for dance, for theater, or for cinema, they are much more individual processes unlike theater, dance, which are more collective. What are your creative processes like?
R: Well, it depends a lot on who I work with and the project. Eh, although yes. Almost all the composition or sound design work is done in my studio, as you say, being alone, there is a communication with, well, with the creatives of the performance and also with the performers because the music is in the end, because it is at the service, both of the theater, as well as the choreography, as of… but in the end, it is for actors and dancers. So, sometimes it’s the feedback that dancers or actors can generously give you, that also works. So, the work, let’s say, of composition in the studio is divided in two, and the work of confronting what you did alone, already in the forum or in a rehearsal with the director, or the choreographer and the dancers, right? So, it is like a… not trial and error, but if you go adjusting sometimes, things, times, sometimes the dancers need, like musical questions or tracks, to give them warnings of certain things, right? So, all that, let’s say, that would be part of the little ‘group’ work that could have, this, the composition or the sound design.
S: And for example, I don’t know if I asked, or if I was very specific about it, but what challenges does the dialogue imply for you? If with the creative team in general, with the dancers, etc., but with the director, you know? Right now you were saying “trial” is not “trial and error”. But to put it, let’s say, in practice, but in a certain sense, sometimes you can make a composition that, even, has not reached the rehearsal, that whoever asks for it, maybe is not what they were looking for, or the best thing yes, or when it arrives at the rehearsal, it’s tested, or in the end it does not work with ‘the whole’. So, what challenges are there when you face the creator of the performance? How is the dialogue established? How is this feedback to try to understand what they want? Because there are times, and we know it, that there is not much clarity, perhaps, right? Perhaps in the intention, perhaps in what you want to achieve. So yes, if you could share a little of this…
R: Ok. Yes, uh, over the years, I think there is a tendency to create theater, dance through experimentation, right? Or, how do they say it? ‘The search’… so if, sometimes, the directors and the choreographers are not clear about anything, right? Then of course they are not clear about what they need, or what they want from the music. I think they are the people with whom it is more complicated to work, ehhh, not because there is no dialogue, but sometimes they are so ambiguous or so vague in what they say, that because you think you understood them and do something and in the end it turns out that It doesn’t work at all and it’s like starting from scratch, right? But I think it is due to a lack of clarity in what they want to do, right? Sometimes composing the music can be very time consuming, so you have to start before you are putting it together, before you are rehearsing, and sometimes the choreographers or the directors, ehhh, are discovering, right?, in the montage, when, maybe when they are already marking, or when they are setting up certain things with the dancers, right? But when there is some clarity, I think, in my experience, most of the time it has been a fairly fluid and clear communication with the creators I have worked with, right? And in that sense, because sometimes they tell me, for example, they can give me the description of a choreographic picture of what they want to say, what they want to transmit, the type of movement they are going to do, etc. So, that is very helpful to compose, for dance or for theater.
S: Ok. In these processes which you are already focused on composition, which are much more individual, how do you identify your own creative barriers? How do you break them? And in addition to this, we are going to jump as, perhaps it has to do, perhaps it has nothing to do, but also, another question I would like to ask is, do you consider criticism, self-criticism to be important? And how do you face that in your discipline as a composer?
R: Ehh, because sometimes when I am composing, I realize that I am not getting anywhere I want. So sometimes there is, when I feel this, that I reach a barrier that I cannot solve in an effective way or that I like. I usually pause or I start doing something else. I start listening to music. I start to see some things on, some videos on the internet. I read some theory. Sometimes I pick up sheet music and read them, and then I come back to try it either from where I stopped, or sometimes I erase everything I had and make a new start. Ehh, I usually think a lot about what I’m going to compose before sitting down to write, play it, and record it, which for me, I think, is the longest process, right? So, now I sit down to make the music, to write it, it can be faster and when these things happen, I get stuck, because since I already have all the background in mind, say, like the instrumentation, what kind of sounds am I looking for, what kind of atmospheres. Well, it is not so complicated, let’s say, starting over the another way, looking for new way. As for criticism, self-criticism, over the years I have learned to be a little more lax and flexible with myself. Ehhhh, I do not think I am a perfectionist or ultra-detailed but I have learned to, to keep time for the productions, to release the music. To say, “Well, its good so far, it is good, let it go.” What happens next is that, sometimes over the years, when I listen to it again, I say, “Ohh my gosh how could I do that? I was wrong there. I was wrong here. I could have done that in such a way, or solved it in a better way.” So, in that sense, I do self-criticize after it has passed, already ‘crossed the bridge’, right? And external criticism. I think it is always good if it is really a criticism in all the extension and definition of the word, right? There are people who tell you things without knowing, right? Or just with the intention of insulting your work, or there are people who praise you without sometimes having, well, for looking knowledgeably, right? So already, over the years I have learned how to take things by who is saying them and how they are saying them. I think it is always valuable and can always be of use to you. But hey, I think my biggest fear, when I’m composing and etc, is to… repeat myself too much. I think it is one thing… Someone once said to me, “Yeah, I went to see a play, and I had not seen the program but I knew it was your music, because I recognized your style.” And then I said, “Ohh my gosh, did you recognize my style, or am I repeating myself?” Right? Which I think are different things, repeating oneself or having a voice of your own that is recognizable among all the others.
S: Exactly, what could be the difference between the two? Because I was just thinking about it, wasn’t I? I mean, like, I think that many creators develop over the years, a style but that at some point, just that, it becomes already… that is, if it continues to be a style, but if it is no longer… there is no longer something as new within that voice. But it is like going back to what has already been said. And it is very difficult, it is very difficult because I believe that it has happened to all of them. It has happened to all of us. It happens to all of us and it will continue to happen, right? They are like processes and cycles, but, just, like, what could be the difference between one and the other?
R: Ehhh, well, I think repeating is, uh, going back to doing what you already know worked for you…
S: As a formula…
R: As a formula, exactly! Apply an algorithm, apply a formula, this one, which you already know works, which is useful to you and which you know, and then… let’s say it would do ‘the job’, right? a repetition through the trade that one has over the years. And the style well, I think it is inevitable in any true artist and yes, indeed I think that it occurs over the years. I think they are different because you can have a style but try to go beyond where you came from. And I think that can save you a little from falling into this easy thing of, the formulas already proven…. Which is what I always try, that is, to do something different, a little new, perhaps more risky, or that was done, was done, they used it to the best in the 60’s, right? But yes, I always try to make my music have something that the previous one didn’t have, right?
S: Mhm, in this sense for example, who could you share with us who have been your greatest artistic influences?
R: Ehhh, well look, I think I have had many artistic influences from all the arts, and also, ehhh, influence from the world around me. Ehh, I am, I think that every artist, every creator, must be very observant of the world that surrounds them, right? I mean, I feed off, well, maybe from the fight I hear from the neighbor, from seeing a person walking in a certain way in the park, ehh, or the trees, how they move, or the shape of the clouds, no? Ehhh, I think we can ‘grab’ anything, informs us, as inspiration for, to create. As for people, ehhh, oops, well, many! My parents, they, who have taught me the rigor of being a creator, right? Not exactly, of never being permissive with oneself, and not giving less than what can be given, right? Never. Well, in music, because I am very, sometimes I tend to minimalism, if I am, let’s say in that sense, I really like Philip Glass, he is an important reference for me. Like when I was in school, because I was still, well everything is very fashionable, let’s say, in academic music dodecaphonism, serialism, tonal music, that kind of thing, with which I have never communicated much. Ehh, then, my artistic references, because they go more to Neo Nationalism or Neoclassical they call it, right? This, Arturo Márquez, for example, is another… is another example of the musicians who have impacted me in life, right? I remember when I listened to his Danzón No. 2, a … ufff!, that is, before he was famous, an album published by Bellas Artes arrived at the house, where, I’m talking about the 90’s, one thing so, where did the Danzón come from and I listened to it and said, “This is, that is, this is wonderful…”
S: Yes.
R: And I think that there should be Mexican music from the 20th century, now the 21st century, so I’ve always gone down that line, let’s say a little more, maybe, I would say ‘melodic’, not necessarily, but to differentiate it from this music, I call it noise music…
S: Right, have you ever used the term, in any conversation because…
R: Uh-huh, and I think those would be my artistic inspirations.
S: I’m going to ask you a question, that is, I think there is no correct answer, right? And maybe, there are people who might consider the question unnecessary or useless, but I, this is a very personal question that I am asking people, because, for the moment, not only the moment of confinement, but the moment of humanity previous, even, to confinement, and that we have already been in critical or key moments of humanity for many years. Why art? Why in this world? Does it have a function? Doesn’t it have a function? What do you think about this?
R: Ehh, because as Ionesco said, “art, art is useless but it is essential that it exists.” Actually no! I mean, I think art is huh, in the end it is the basis of human culture at all times, right? It is a way of measuring human development, huh, the times of humanity. It has always been, I think, through the art that is measured, for example, the evolution of a civilization, through its, its artistic expression; be it cave paintings, be it cuneiform writing, huh, be it dance, be it song, be it music, be it rituals, which is in the end is the beginning of the theater, like that of dance, right? They were born through rituals, and the advance of civilization through art has always been measured. Lately, through what we call “science and technology”, but that is very recent, that is 500 years old, right? But before it has always been measured through the artistic development of a civilization or a people.
S: Right.
R: So, for that reason, we will always have to measure ourselves through art.
S: Yes. I believe, now that I was listening to you, and as in these reflections of trying to… it is difficult to explain, right? I think that this is an explanation, which seems to me as quite concrete, clear. Ehh, in general it is a complex question, because it implies a series of cultural goods, of cultural products, as they are called now. All this production, because it really speaks of a symbolic value that is much greater than what one could value in economic terms, but, ehhh, it is true and I think that based on this, artistic production does not really have, you know?, as a point of extinction or a point of risk, in a certain sense, because it develops naturally with people, right? Ehh, but yes, at a time like this, which has put various of these disciplines in check, such as dance, such as the theater, where the aim is really to present it to an audience and to complete this cycle. If it makes you reflect what else can be done, right? Of course, right now we are in the middle of a pandemic and it is a good situation, a very specific circumstance, but also, what others can come forward? And how are certain arts going to face that? I think it is an interesting reflection. In this sense, ehhh, I would also like to ask you, with these years that you have been a creator, in a very particular context like this, a country like Mexico, what does it mean to make art in Mexico? How have you faced it? As a creator living your art, right? In other words, the most pragmatic part, which is like, you know, paying the bills, paying your rent, being able to eat, even the non-pragmatic one, or maybe pragmatic, you know? In the artistic career, where receiving is important, or being recognized for this or that is important. So what does that imply, in a context like this?
R: Let’s see. Well, I think that to begin with, you are an artist not because you want to, but because you have no other choice, right?
S: Let’s see, how is that?
R: Yes, that is, if you have nothing to say, if you do not have a message to share, to communicate, I think you cannot be an artist. Eh, in what way, in what way, through what branch or by what specialty are you going to satisfy this need that you have to transmit what you feel, or what I think, or what you believe, way of making a creation, right? I think that it is global now, just, that many artists have nothing to say, and I think that it is part of the debacle of the arts in general in the world, right? That it is already a more poorly structured philosophical discourse, to try to make sense of something that doesn’t make sense and that isn’t born out of a real need to say things, right? Ehh, I think that being an artist in Mexico is more complicated than in many other countries, ehhh, not because there is not enough support from the Government, but because there is no culture of consuming arts in Mexico. People prefer to go to the cinema or the mall a thousand times, or what do I know? But there is no social culture of consuming art, is there? I think that this is a failure in the system and in the model of education that has been followed in Mexico, but well, we are also one, we are a relatively young country. If we compare ourselves with partner countries France or England, which have, we they had a few hundred more years to exist. In this sense, it is difficult to be an artist in Mexico and it is difficult to subsist on an everyday basis as an artist in Mexico, whether you have the support of the Government, of private initiative or not, because it is difficult to survive through the box office, or to sell concerts, or to sell your painting, right? Because there is no broad cultural consumption chain. I mean, it is understandable if there are 70 million poor people in this country, right? Ehhh, but I think I have lived on music for the last 20 years, not only making music for dance or for cinema, but trying to diversify, as all artists do or try, right? There are some who give classes, courses, this one, they go to schools, or sometimes they put a completely separate business, like a restaurant, or a massage center, what do I know? I started a recording studio in 2006, which in one way or another has helped me, suddenly to get the day-to-day, sometimes it is not an artistic work, but in the end it is linked to music.
S: Yes, I think that in general this is a point of convergence for many, many creators, not just creators, just as well, performers, right? Who have not yet become creators, etc. People who are related to art, the way of being, or of living day-to-day, or this part as pragmatic, come back through, often related to what you do. But often not related to what you do. You do it for, well because yes, well because that is the context, and because there is no other way to face it. Ehh, I think this is very interesting, because generally when you talk about why is it so difficult for this productive chain not to work in Mexico? Ehh, if it is emphasized that the Government is the one, it seems that the Government is solely responsible for generating it, right? And, personally, I think the Government has made, these public resources, have made a great effort, as you say. If there are public resources, in fact if there are many, but they are not enough for a population like ours, huh, and what have they been in charge of? Yes, like this part of producing, of spreading, right? That it is not enough, and that they are not the best means, but there has not been much emphasis that consumption has not been taught, and I think that this is the bottleneck, right? Since the State provides certain resources to produce, the State provides theaters where you do not have to pay rent to perform, the State provides certain resources for promotion. But what is being done about educating people, or bringing them closer, or sensitizing them, to have a relationship like, closer to artistic expression? And I think that is the key in all this.
R: Yes. That changed more or less in, I think, in the mid-1990s. The cultural bureaucracy has grown a thousand percent, and maybe I fall short. The amount of money labeled for culture, which goes into bureaucratic salaries is enormous …
S: And I think that this is the biggest expense, I think: the bureaucratic structure.
R: Yes. Much more is spent on bureaucracy than on production, about 4 or 5 times more. I do believe that it is a failure of the State, especially, of diffusion. Ehh, well, of course, it agrees with all the norms established worldwide. Ehhh, but I remember as a child, for example, that advertisements for plays were on television, right? Of those, that were for the INBA or the dance functions, you passed by the street and saw billboards announcing a play, this one, or a concert, or a season of dance in Bellas Artes, or in the Theater of Dance, or at the University Cultural Center. The State dedicated more spaces and times than they have destined, in radio, television and spectacular; for to promote and spread art. In other words, before you saw, for example, also spectacular museum exhibitions and not only outside the museums. You saw them all over the city. Now they are no longer, on TV you will never see an advertisement for a play if it is not in a cultural news, right?
S: Right.
R: But as a commercial? Between the soap opera and the 10 o’clock series? Well, no, you don’t see it anymore, do you?
S: Definitely that if it did not reach me anymore, that is, I do not remember it and it seems to me that, what it was… yes, it was perfect to continue supporting this diffusion of cultural production that they themselves, that the State itself, is supporting to produce.
R: Exactly. So it was.
S: Interesting. Look, yeah, I didn’t know that. Ehh, yeah well, it’s like, it’s like an articulated whole. But it seems that technological development and digital media lower many costs and facilitate many things, but they do not always have the same impact as, that they can have other ways and other forms, right? Now if, we are entering the topic of the Pandemic, how has social distancing affected your practice, ehhh, or your artistic interests? How do you deal with this? Has it affected you or not? Because also, right? Talking about the composing part, it is much more individual, maybe it has not had much impact, in your day-to-day …
R: Ehh well yes. Indeed, it has not had much impact because the creation, I always do it alone. I say, the most radical change is that now I am at home and I am working here, at home, instead of being locked in the studio, ehhh…
S: You practice a lot of social isolation…
R: Yes, exactly. Sometimes a week can go by, and I don’t see sunlight other than when I go from my house to the studio, right? So, in that sense not much has changed, but yes, of course, there have been many cancellations of projects, ehhh, and of seasons, which, therefore, also affects the economy, of course.
S: Have you had any… let’s say, also on a somewhat emotional and psychological level, these things affecting you? So, have you had any kind of… something? Like… motivational, or have you…? And how, if, if you have had it, how do you manage to try not to let it not affect you? …
R: Ehh, well yes. I mean, this thing that the human being has of being morbid with tragedies and disasters, which is something that we carry in our DNA. I don’t know why, and it makes all the time right now, they are bombarding you with news, ehhh, so what I try, one is not to get hooked on those catastrophic things and to be watching the news all day. If I have had a couple of days in which I have been, I don’t know if sad, or worried, or desperate to be in isolation, but they really have been the least. Ehhh, and I always try, like having something to do. I mean, right now I’m doing a series of original musics for videos that dancers send me, which has had me as, well, very busy between editing, uploading, sharing, making music, and it has been an interesting creative challenge. Precisely, because sometimes I make one or two videos every day, and that means composing one or two original songs every day, and just not repeating, not falling into the formula, uh, being reinventing and having the creative part… I think that right now I have it at 200%.
S: Tell us, share what this initiative is called? And can you also tell us how many videos you have already made? This started almost, say, at the end of … March? Or in early April?
R: End of March, yes. March 21, I think.
S: And to date, you have how many videos? Well, or how many original videos and musical compositions were created?
R: As of today, I am at 68.
S: What a barbarian! Yes, yes, well … it’s key, you know? The theme of staying, I don’t know if creative, creating, doing. Sometimes I think you can try to create, but you are not very creative, right? They are things that do not quite go hand in hand. But I think that in situations like this, they are important for, especially for the mental and emotional part of people. I think that is one of the things that art does quite well in people, not only the makers but those who like to appreciate art and well, this, if I imagine that, these days we have been, almost from the beginning, I think, of the isolation, ehh, well if you already have a good number of creations, and what a wonder that people have been like uh, answering the call.
R: Yes. The truth is that I never thought it would be having this, the impact that the Corona Dance Fest has had, but suddenly some stories come to you… that is, suddenly I’m tired, I don’t have as many, just, of start a video and a new music, because even that is already become, routine, right? To get up, have breakfast, sit down to compose, etc. Ehhh, but then you to perceive as the other side of people, right? What does he say to you? Ehhh, for example, with the dancers, “you don’t know how it helped me to get out of the lethargy I had,” do you? “It motivated me to make music for me and I started dancing, so now I am dancing every day at home even if I don’t record myself.” Or people who, I don’t know, there are people who, for example, are locked up in their house with their ex-partner because they can’t look for a house right now. They also tell me, “and I can’t see my daughter,” and so it’s like that as a… it has served as an escape hatch for many artists, and let’s say that motivates me in this part. that I told you at the beginning of the interview, to do something to leave the world better than this, right??
S: How does it suddenly become too… that is, it can also become a practice routine, right? But also, how much of this does it have to do with, you know? Like with this discipline of getting up and saying, “Ok, maybe today I don’t feel very focused, or I don’t feel very creative,” but, you know? In what… how does the discipline intersect with the creative part? Because maybe, if you are only creating in the moments when you feel creative, the truth is that if they are good moments… not very exceptional, but that they are not, you know, as constant, and that if there is no discipline then, that creativity is not going to go anywhere.
R: Sure! That’s why there is this saying that, ‘you have to work everyday waiting for inspiration for the muse to find you working’, because, just… Of course, that each artist has, well, I think that all people, they should have a discipline in what they do, right? And well, there are always these moments, wonderful or of, where everything begins to flow towards creation, or towards the work you are doing, right? But, but yes, effectively, it has to grab you doing it, right?
S: Ok. Based on this, for example, from when you started does it already… what? 20, 25 years?
R: 20, 20!
S: 20 years, I want to add more to you, ehhh, could you tell us a bit, what would you have liked to know, when you were, you know? As well as a novice, young, novice in the arts, on the subject of composition, on the subject of approaching the performing arts …? Ehhh, what would you have liked to know, that you discovered with this experience, that could be advice for that young artist who is perhaps beginning in music, who is going to study composition or who is in these first years? Ehh, what could you share as a tip?
R: Ehhhh, well… that they never doubt themselves. Ehhh, they don’t doubt their creative capacity, and they are honest with what they have to say and find an honest way to express it, either with music, with… whatever your art. Ehhh, trust your work, right? Unfortunately, artistic education in Mexico tends to be repetitive, and to do as students, ahhh, submissive, or clones of teachers. So when someone gets a little out of it, ehh, it can be very complicated, or very difficult, such as coping with not belonging to an aesthetic, or a group, and sometimes you think, or you can think, that it is not good at what you are doing, right? But I believe that if there is honesty, and a real need to say things, well, believe in it. Believe in the result of your work, regardless of what people say to you. And time will give them their place.
S: Ahhh, very good. One, well, yes, two more questions. One is uhh… is there any current, concept, art form, artistic movement that you can see today and that it is like, in any discipline, in the theater, in music, in dance, in the cinema, that you identify as interesting? That is beginning to develop and that it has something that catches your eye, you know? And what do you say, “this can become, this can have, as a certain, repercussion in the medium term.”
R: Yes. I do not know if it is common. I do not know if it is style, or what, I think that a return to the classic is being made little-by-little, to put it in some way, to the melodic in music, to the figurative in Painting, to the anecdotal in the theater. In short, I don’t know. I would put, as in general, ‘a kind of return to the classic.’ Ehh, on the one hand. And on the other hand, because we cannot ignore all the new technologies that are influencing the way art is created, distributed, or implemented based on an artistic work. In that sense, I believe that the future can go there. I have really seen very few things that take advantage of technological resources in a way, ehhh, adequate, or novel, artistically speaking, right? I don’t know, now all the works may have projectors, or projections, or things like that… but I hope, and I think that in the future we are going to really adopt all these new technologies, in favor of an artistic discourse, and not just like a waste of technology without much sense.
S: Or as a fashion, right?
R: Exactly.
S: Ok. Very well, to finish this section… ehhh, we know that you recently premiered, you premiered as a director, right? Of a play, a play that you wrote, directed, made the musical composition of that play. So, I would like you to tell us a little about that. The piece is called ‘Eco’. Ehh, what will you tell us, why? Why does this need arise at this time, or why do you want to write a play? Why theater, right? What is ‘Eco’ for you? What does it mean? At what point does it arrive? Everything that is around that, and if you are going to continue, you know, after 20 years of composing, if you are interested in continuing also, in addition to composing music, uh, are you interested in how to follow that path of stage direction? No? You know? Tell us a little about that.
R: This, well, look, I did not want to write a play. I did not want to direct a play. This, I was really pushed and seduced by Luis Alcocer, a fantastic Mexican playwright and theater director, who had an artist residency at the Teatro El Milagro and told me that, “Why don’t I make something? Whatever I wanted”… and that was the most difficult thing. Ehh, have that carte blanche in front and think what do I want to do? Ehh, I don’t think it’s a play, I think it’s a stage event. And what I wanted to do was combine the three things that I love, which is music, theater, and dance. Ehh, why does it arise right now? Well, for the same reason, at Luis’ invitation, because he had nothing to lose, nothing to prove, and an interesting experiment was done to me. I do not know if I would do it again. I do not know if I want to dedicate myself to stage creation. I greatly respect the people who spend years and years studying, and having a language, and etc… as for me to get into this, via fast track, to do scenic events, or to direct, or to do a choreography.
S: Very well. You have an idea, this you just released, but… do you have any idea except for the Pandemic, but some date or…?
R: Yes, if the pandemic and the health authorities allow us, we will have a function this year in the Salvador Novo room in La Capilla, in Coyoacán. And possibly, next year at La Capilla del Centro Cultural Helenico.
S: Very well. Well Rodrigo already, we move on to the section of faster questions, we are already finishing, these questions are very specific …
R: Ok.
S: Ehh, you can answer them with one word, two words or develop it little… like this, you know, mini-mini and now, so that I can let you go.
R: Ok.
S: Very well. What is your favorite music album, songwriter or song?
R: Philip Glass.
S: Ahhh, yes it’s true. You already said it. What is your favorite movie?
S: Work directed by another colleague who has marked you?
R: ‘De la calle’, by Julio Castillo.
S: If you had the possibility of knowing the absolute truth to a question, or that some knowledge was revealed to you, what would you like it to be?
R: Ayyy Dios !, if there is life outside the Earth.
S: What is your favorite book or reading?
R: “The Music”.
S: What has been the worst and best advice that someone has given you?
R: Oh Man! Well … children, I don’t know. The worst advice? I have no idea … the best advice? Ehhh, ay, I don’t know! Do I really have to answer them?
S: No, it’s okay …
R: I don’t know … None come to mind, really.
S: Ok. What is it that makes you curious?
R: The human being.
S: Do you have any daily routine, any ritual that – you know? – that you carry out?
R: Well, I like to read the news when I wake up and before bed, I always like to think about what happened today, and what I would like to happen tomorrow. They are like the first and last thing I always do.
S: Do you think there is any stigma that we have to overcome as a society?
R: Eh yes, of course I do. Ehhh, all the stigma we put on all things or all people who are different, or opposed to what we think is right.
S: And now, the last one to close, ehhh … If they told you that you can’t make more music today, nothing related to it, what would happen to you?
R: I would become a chef.
S: Very well, thank you very much Rodrigo! …
R: Many …!
S: … Thanks for talking with us this afternoon, sharing a little of who you are, of you, of your own voice, of who you are!
R: No’mbre, thank you very much for the invitation!… Really. And because of what they are doing, which is a titanic job, I know.
S: Yes …
R: Thank you very much!
S: No, quite the contrary! Take care.
R: Same and regards to Peter!
S: thanks!
References:
- Escuela Superior de Música: https://escuelasuperiordemusica.inba.gob.mx/
- Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes: https://inba.gob.mx/
- Escuela de Música Vida y Movimiento: http://escuelademusicaollinyoliztli.blogspot.com/
- Centro Cultural Ollin Yoliztli: https://www.cultura.cdmx.gob.mx/recintos/archivo-historico/centros-culturales/ccoy
- UNAM: https://www.unam.mx/
- Agrupación de Críticos y Periodistas de Teatro: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premios_de_la_Agrupaci%C3%B3n_de_Cr%C3%ADticos_y_Periodistas_de_Teatro
- José Alberto Gallardo: https://17edu.org/jose-alberto-gallardo-fernandez/
- Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte: https://fonca.cultura.gob.mx/blog/programa/sistema-nacional-de-creadores-de-arte/
- Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, FONCA: https://fonca.cultura.gob.mx/
- Grandguignol Psicotrónico: https://www.granguinolpsicotronico.com/
- Teatro el Milagro: https://elmilagro.org.mx/
- Joaquin López Chapman ‘Chas’: http://www.geocities.ws/jchasmusica/curriculum.html
- Rossana Filomarino: https://www.dramadanza.org/rossana-filomarino
- Cues: referencias guía, para ayudar a la entrada de un artista a la escena o de una acción en una coreografía.
- Philip Glass: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Glass
- Dodecaphonism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-tone_technique
- Serialism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serialism
- Música o Sistema Tonal: https://www.historiadelasinfonia.es/conceptos-basicos/musica/fundamentos-del-sistema-tonal/
- Neonacionalismo (Pp. 49): http://www.cenidiap.net/biblioteca/addendas/2NE-11-Un_toston.pdf
- Arturo Márquez: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturo_M%C3%A1rquez
- Danzón No. 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G945MQ1datY
- Ionesco: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Ionesco
- Bellas Artes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palacio_de_Bellas_Artes
- Teatro de la Danza: https://www.timeoutmexico.mx/ciudad-de-mexico/danza/teatro-de-la-danza-guillermina-bravo
- Centro Cultural Universitario: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centro_Cultural_Universitario_(UNAM)
- Corona Dance Fest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y8yO5G3q4I&list=PLAf0UgKVW4uBWi_swkyUMVl_u9CpOuSck
- Luis Alcocer: https://citru.inba.gob.mx/home/directorio/116-fijos/personal/199-luis-alcocer-guerrero.html
- La Capilla: https://www.teatrolacapilla.com/
- Centro Cultural Helenico: https://www.helenico.gob.mx/
- Landscape in the Mist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_in_the_Mist
- Julio Castillo: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julio_Castillo