Planet Mambo

Chats about growing up, Ewan MacColl, blah blah blah

More recently I've heard your name associated more and more with Latin music, this is a recent love of yours, isn't it?

"I'm a gatecrasher. I always had this slight thing for it but I didn't know much about it, and I've just increased my education generally over the last few years. The more I got into it, the more I wanted to get into it."

You said earlier that you were in the process of recording a new album, some of which I believe is Latin influenced.

"It is but I'm not trying to do a Latin record because I think it would be completely pointless. There's a lot of fantastic Latin artists out there. Latin tends to mean Spanish speaking stuff as opposed to Brazilian which to me is a completely different kind of music. I think on my album I've got both. I'm using the rhythms but I'm keeping Kirsty pop songs over the top."

What, a bit like Paul Simon?

"No." [both laugh] "Better than that, hopefully."

GL plays 1965 track by Narada

"That's probably my favourite ever Cuban track, actually, it's just got such a great vibe on it - it just sounds like they're having a great time, and that's what you want to hear, isn't it?"

Was there any particular musician or event which got you into the music?

"Well it all started with a Mexican record. When I was about four I had this Mexican album that was just so exciting. I just thought "Wow! Isn't it fantastic?" It just sounds like they're about to gallop off on their horses every three minutes. That's when I realised that people who speak Spanish have a better time than we do! When I was about nineteen I went on holiday to this tiny little Spanish island and I met this bloke there who was Argentinian-Irish who made guitars. He gave me a Fania All Stars album and I'd never heard anything like that before and I was gobsmacked, you know. I thought "Wow!" So then I tried to find out more about it, and when I was doing Electric Landlady in 1990 or '91 I got to work with all these great New York based Latin musicians, a few of whom I'd met when I was working on Rei Momo with David Byrne. That was just the most fun I'd ever had in a studio, it was also the biggest band I'd ever worked with at one time. It was fantastic."

Quick plug for Cuban benefit gig - see Live section

Have you been to Cuba?

"Lots of times. Not for a couple of years but I went about ten times in the preceding three or four years."

Is it just Cuban music? You like your Puerto Rican, New York and Colombian ...?

"Yeah, I like a lot of the New York jazzy kind of Latin stuff but probably not that modern - I'm stuck in my time frame."

Lots of other chat but without hearing the music it would all be a little pointless...

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Planet Mambo

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