Despite its 55 years of history, Argentine rock has just begun to reflect itself with a multiplicity of voices and points of view in the huge number of books published in the last three decadeswith official and unauthorized biographies, various analyzes and even disc dissections.
However, there is very little written from a point of view other than that of the artist, which is why it is as welcome as it is exciting. brand new autobiography of a person not only linked to local music since the early 70s but also a key figure in the evolution of popular culture in Argentina towards its current grandeur.
is approx Daniel Grinbankwho at the age of 68 was encouraged to take on the task of telling his life, which includes countless juicy anecdotes along with names like Charly Garcia, Mercedes Sosa, the Rolling Stones.
The book
The story of Grinbank, entitled I love you, I hate you, give me morealluding to the subject chili pepper by Serú Girán, is the story of a businessman and producer with newspapers gigantic successes and withered failures.
The book follows a rigorous chronological order, nuanced with small anecdotes at the beginning of each chapter, with episodes such as the creation of a record label, a production company that has monopolized international visits for two decades, Radio FM Rock & Pop, Disney musicals, the Buenos Aires Zoo, the phenomenon Violet and also a step through the football business in Argentina and Spain.
Page after page, you can see how Grinbank has managed to ride the wave of Argentine business cycles with the skill of a compulsive gambler, moving chips and betting hard. He experienced the creation of a young rock market that did not exist in the country, he saw the cultural changes and the evolution towards the current digital world, not only as a witness but also as a protagonist.
Always hyperactive, he is in the Netherlands this week to visit his eldest son, but he eagerly agreed to chat via Zoom about behind the scenes of such a job.
“I tried to be as little as possible on Wikipedia”
-When you started, did you have a dimension of everything you did and everything there was to tell?
-Really, I was just becoming aware of the number of things I was doing when I started writing. They were so many and so different! I didn’t get the size of the book until I was inside the book. It was a very interesting exercise because I wrote and rewrote it several times. There were a thousand stories to tell and I wanted to leave the most relevant. The first thing I did was a timeline of what I wanted to detail.
Was he long gone?
-Yup. Much has been left out, so it’s not a 600-page book. I didn’t want it to be nostalgic and I liked to tell things with the imprint of a producer, both in the entertainment industry and in football. There are some reflections that go beyond the anecdote. It was an important satisfaction to grant myself those licenses, and I have not avoided controversial issues, such as the manager-artist relationship, the Solidarity festival during the Malvinas War, or when I lifted the Rock & Pop programs.
I like how the format came out, because the topics are very well marked and you can skip what you don’t really care about, I also liked the idea of putting a little anecdote at the beginning of each chapter. I tried to make Wikipedia as little as possible and that the gaze was somewhere else than what a journalist or an artist could say. And I didn’t put a sweet tooth on it: I wrote with the rawness that came out of history, which in many cases now sounds politically incorrect.
-Sorry also for the case, from the current point of view.
Fortunately, societies are evolving and human beings are transforming, but we had to tell the facts as they happened. Although I later took a critical look at myself.
“I don’t know if I would have done it without a pandemic”
-There are many works from the last year that may have a stamp that says “This was possible thanks to compulsory imprisonment”. Was your book like that?
-It was written in a special period, yes. I don’t know if I would have made it without a pandemic that allowed me to stay inside for a long time. For me, I’m not a guy who develops a very deep social life, it wasn’t as traumatic a time as it was for other people. It took me a long time to write the book.
It was also a really cool exercise to call other people when I had questions, so I reconnected with people I haven’t talked to for over ten years. It was a beautiful journey backwards, and if there is anything that is in the spirit of the book, it is that an idea of collective work has always prevailed. The groups I have worked with have always been very important, with whom we have given life to the projects, even if I have led them.
-Can you imagine someone making a biopic, a documentary, based on this book?
-Yup. I imagine it as a desired object. It can also be narrated with a lot of non-musical archival material, because there are a lot of episodes that don’t have so much to do with this or that song, but rather another aspect of the show. But not without permanent musical commentary.
“Sounds the same in a different way”
-At the beginning of the book you say that in your early twenties you were playing poker with your friends, but then you see that you never stopped betting hard, sometimes losing and always catching up.
-I think I am an important player in the evolution of the show in Latin America, as well as being involved in the exhibitions and export of Argentine artists through the management. The book contains much of Argentina’s cultural history over the past 40 years, parallel to changes in society, politics and the economy.
– Towards the end you reflect that you will have to have the “clarity” to reinvent yourself and continue in the sector. Maybe when you wrote it you didn’t imagine that today you would end up being the manager of Fito, an activity you did at the beginning.
-Yes, with the clarity of an experience different from the one I had. I think that by updating myself and the teams that accompany me, I can play the same thing in another way. Understanding the digital world a little opens up the possibility of an international vision of the export of talents.
It is very clear that there is a new world, with its pros and cons, and understanding them creates possibilities that did not exist when I was the manager of Serú Girán. I feel a bridge between that story and around the world with Fito Páez. And I still want and it continues to turn me on.
-Tell me a preview of the second volume, if any. How did Fito happen, did he call you, did you call him or what?
– It was a coincidence and now a year has passed since the meeting, because last year it was at the Latin Grammys, in Las Vegas. We spent a beautiful evening, after almost 15 years without seeing each other. We chatted for hours and didn’t talk about work at all. We laughed at millions of memories, even though I was never his manager. We had a great time, and from that good vibe afterwards, the idea of working on this amazing tour we are doing was born.
Anecdote 1: “I have decided to sign Soda”
No, it won’t work. I don’t see any potential in this demo that was sent to me. I listen to it again, put the tape back. Yes, of course, I understand the influences. But its aesthetics … It’s too grotesque, it seems to me a crude imitation of the Cure.
However, time will put things in their place and confirm that I am wrong. so rude That what I am doing is an absolute mistake. Which is part of this sometimes out of control logic, which has to do with the madness in which we are immersed with my team that we do not stop working. We are taken out. And this sometimes makes me lose focus.
I cannot detect all the talent that is in this trio, the enormous potential of the singer who, they tell me, is also the one who composes the songs.
Yes, I just turned to sign Soda Stereo.
Anecdote 2: Menem and the stones
One of the few outings made by the Rolling Stones was at the Presidential Palace in Olivos on Friday 10th, a day after the first show, where the band met with President Carlos Menem.
It was a relaxed meeting, where Mick Jagger discussed several issues with Menem – basically the repercussions the Stones were having in Argentina -. The then president knew nothing of their music, he was just a great cholulo – something we all already knew – and had accepted the meeting as a strategy before a new possible re-election.
The Stones’ visit to the current president was part of a repeated agenda of the band, and in that sense they would also do so with Macri during his last visit to the country in 2016, a meeting with which I had nothing to do. In fact, I’ve never asked any artist for a presidential interview. When it happened, it was at the request of the artists and I just transferred the request.
I don’t really agree with the idea that artists visit presidents, because somehow politics comes into play, the encounter is distorted and moreover hundreds of castes appear, a difficult issue to manage. The colulism of officials and politicians is something that has always existed and always will exist
Anecdote 3: Meeting with Julio Grondona
He makes an appointment for me one weekday morning, very early. The meeting is in the building materials yard he has in Wilde, in the middle of the deep suburbs. The office is humble, very small and is in the back. The only thing there are a couple of chairs and a humble berreta leather armchair, which is quite old, with a round table. “Where you are sitting, except the Pope, everyone is seated”, she tells me as soon as I sit down.
I remain silent. It didn’t take me long to realize the level of power Don Julio wields and how influential he can be with whatever comes into his head. In less than five minutes, things are clear between us. Or rather, they are clear to me, because he always has them clear: I accept his rules or I leave. There isn’t much else.
And since I can’t wait to see what this world is about, I accept the challenge and move on. Grondona rules
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Source: Clarin
