- Hi Manu Chao and welcome to the arena in Berlin and thank you ever so much for letting us do this interview with you.
- So your life seems a bit on the hectic side and you seem to be travelling around a lot and stuff. We’d like to know whether there’s a private Manu Chao and how or where do you find your peace and quiet?
- So what do you like doing in your spare time when you have any?
- How has your multi cultural background influenced you and your music?
- You once said in an interview that you didn’t want to take part in Live Earth because Al Gore is a politician and you don’t support politics as we know it today. What in your opinion would be an alternative to politics as we know it today?
- Tell us about your trainproject in Columbia.
- How did the people there welcome you when you turned up to the small villages?
- What do you associate with Greenpeace?
- Now a slightly harder question. If you were the head of Greenpeace, what should, in your opinion be the most important topic that they look at?
- Climate change has been caused by only a few people on this planet and it’s the poor people that suffer the most from its consequences. Is climate change a topic hat interests you or that influences your projects in some way?
- Do you have a dream project that you at some point would really love to realize?
- OK so that was it. Thankyou ever so much for letting you do this interview. It was really great talking to you.
- Thank you for your ideas. We wish you all the best for your next projects and for this evening for the concert.
Hi Manu Chao and welcome to the arena in Berlin and thank you ever so much for letting us do this interview with you.
Pleasure, I’m a supporter.
So your life seems a bit on the hectic side and you seem to be travelling around a lot and stuff. We’d like to know whether there’s a private Manu Chao and how or where do you find your peace and quiet?
In my everyday life I try. My days are quite messy but during the day you have to find a little moment just to get inside of yourself and find the energy, breath.…I say my little personal prayers. Im not religious but im a human being. I need some peace sometimes just to stay strong and always have good energy.
So what do you like doing in your spare time when you have any?
The best thing is sleeping. Years ago I always thought that sleeping was a waste of time. Now I really believe that sleeping is the best freedom you can have.
How has your multi cultural background influenced you and your music?
Well I grew up in a neighbourhood in the suburbs of Paris where there was already a lot of cultures mixed together - in the suburbs of paris. So there were a lot of french people for sure but also a lot of immigrants from Portugal, from Spain, from North Africa, from Armenia, from Mali…from a lot of places. So from a young age I learned about all these cultures in my own neighbourhood and later I was lucky enough to be able to travel because of my music.
You once said in an interview that you didn’t want to take part in Live Earth because Al Gore is a politician and you don’t support politics as we know it today. What in your opinion would be an alternative to politics as we know it today?
The problem of politics is that it tends to be mixed with corruption. I really believe that politicians are only puppets of the economy. I think that they can’t really make any decisions. They’ve got no power to decide. They say they can decide but they cannot. That’s what I believe. So the alternative I think, is to do politics wherever you can do politics. For example with yourself, with your family, with your own neighbourhood. It's hard for me to believe in a big revolution that can change everything. I really believe more in thousands and thousands and thousands of little revolutions in neighbourhoods. Because everybody can reach their own neighbourhood and put their energy into their neighbourhood.
Tell us about your trainproject in Columbia.
There are of course a lot of countries in South America, and when we go there, we’ve been there a lot of times, we began to understand pretty soon that the real boarder is not between 2 countries its between the city and the countryside. They are two different worlds. In South America, everywhere actually, we generally only play in big cities. But we were touring a lot in South America and realised that we were totally missing a very important world – the countryside. So the original idea behind the train was to bring our music to the smaller places in the countryside not just the big cities. It would have been easier in any other country in South America but we decided that we wanted to do it in Columbia. In Columbia it was at that time, and it might be even more difficult today, very difficult to get into the countryside because of war, because of violence, because of politics.
How did the people there welcome you when you turned up to the small villages?
It was totally increadible! Well the moment we arrived they asked a lot of questions. Theres a lot of violence in the countryside, so people there always ask questions first, for example: “Who sent you here? The government?”. I we of course said no no no no no no and explained and then they were fine. And of course the conditions of the train, of the show were very bad. So immediately the little village ralleyed together to help us because we had a lot of problems that we had to solve in order to organise the show. We didn’t have any of tools, and there was a lack of people to help organise the show. Immediately we have problems and all the village came to help us solve them. The increadible thing is that, even with all the violence and other things, the people are so good. They showed us incredible hospitality. Incredible!
What do you associate with Greenpeace?
Well i’m French and i’m born in France so the first thing that I remember was the Rainbow Warrior. Yeah, this big shame of the French Government.
Now a slightly harder question. If you were the head of Greenpeace, what should, in your opinion be the most important topic that they look at?
Im afraid that in the world there are many very important topics that for me it would be very difficult to decide which ones are the most important because i’m not a specialist. Water! Water is the big thing. Water is what will cause the wars of this century. They are going to be because of water. We are currently still having wars about petrol but these are wars of the last century. Nothing can live without water.
Climate change has been caused by only a few people on this planet and it’s the poor people that suffer the most from its consequences. Is climate change a topic hat interests you or that influences your projects in some way?
Maybe not my projects but my everyday life. I try to be as little responsible as possible for all the big problems in the world. Of course i’m part of society and of course i’m also part of the problem. We’re touring in a bus! But then we’re not touring in a plane - but thats only a little thing. It's not only ecology - in a plane you can not smoke joints, in the bus yes. I'm sorry.
Do you have a dream project that you at some point would really love to realize?
One of the things I try to do in my life is to dream and after that, to realize my dream. Dreaming is easy. To realize your dreams is very difficult. But its always good when you manage to realize them. Even if you only realize 10% of your dreams its a big victory. The problem is that I have so many dreams and I know that I can’t realize all of those dreams in my life. So that’s why I always try to have very short schedules. If you have long schedules you will at some point have to choose which dreams you want to realize. So you already know that you will never realize some dreams and that’s very hard to deal with. For me its a question of opportunity, and fate. I will go where the flow is easy, like water.
