Mimi Maura, the search for new sounds, the mess in Puerto Rico and the presence of her son in the band

The door opens into the already familiar house, and even the makeshift doorman is an old acquaintance: Sergio Rotman, partner for years of the lady in question, Mimi Maura (“We’ve been together for twenty-six years and it’s a miracle: before meeting her he couldn’t stand anyone for more than 26 minutes “).

After the usual topics that you can talk about quickly with him (vinyls and CDs, Paul Weller, San Lorenzo de Almagro), Rotman announces “The lady is changing: she is coming” and exits the forum. Enter the home studio of the house that once belonged to him and his partner, and which today manages his son Leroy, beyond the fact that his parents have carte blanche to spend the night when they think about it after their move to. outskirts of Buenos Aires.

So, then, out of nowhere, the Puerto Rican appears Midnerely Acevedo, better known by her alias Mimi Maura. The excuse of the meeting is leaving the scene soul insidetheir excellent new album after more than a decade without source material.

The album has several guests who each exalt the song in question and avoid any possible assumption of marketing convenience.

It is an album that, in its own way, abandons the idea of ​​Mimi Maura as a great Jamaican and Caribbean music orchestra to be reduced to an extra laboratory combo and navigate through other sounds that include spaghetti western, 1950s techno pop. The 80s or the soundtracks of Cold War spy films, all tinged with reggae, ska or rock steady, the winning dishes of their music menu.

soul inside It is a record that has various composers (the same Rotman, alone and with Mimì, Fidel Nadal, Gigio Gonzalez, Rebeka Nogales, Ivo Dimchev) and that it will be presented at the ND / Ateneo next Saturday, 6 August.

The idea of ​​the new album

After the photos (few people in Creole folk music are as photogenic as Mimi), a sunny patio with the train in the background, a table, a glass of wine and another of soda, and a conversation in which, at first, Mimi quotes the years in which he did not release records with original material.

“We released one or the other, like what we did with Aggrotones or Kiseki, which is live in Japan, but not with new and original songs. It happened to us that we wanted to make a new album, but we didn’t have a date. And this new system of music today, where you upload single ones on the Net, is very rare. We do, but the feeling is that you haven’t finished the job, that you haven’t made a record. That’s where we first got the idea of ​​doing something new, ”he recalls.

– More or less when did they start?

-Before quarantine. But we didn’t do anything during the quarantine. We were just moving in at that time, and everything was literally halfway there: we couldn’t even bring a bathroom sink we’d bought into the new home.

We went here with our son and we weren’t bad, because despite the three of us making music, the problem was not being able to be together to do it with classmates. Add to that the fear of sickness and death. It was a horrible time. At sunset we would go out here on the small patio, climb a ladder to the roof and watch the sunset from the top of the house, a kind of Star Wars (laughs).

search for songs

-What did you do when the isolation was over?

– Here we did tell me ifand we realized we wanted a different record. We recorded it with Pablo Martin and his band Du-Rites, and we liked the result, that kind of modern New York soul funk. We aimed to make my voice heard more. Because I identify myself more as an interpreter than as a songwriter, and I am quite demanding about the material I choose.

Sergio accompanied me in this search for songs, beyond the fact that I brought some ideas, such as soul inside, which is by Sylvia Rexach, a poet from Puerto Rico, and we recorded with Maxi Prietto. The 10 o’clock train We finished it a few weeks ago.

It happened to us that the album needed a song to finish: we were not in a hurry, but at the same time we had the appointment at the theater and it was nice to present it in its entirety. Sergio told me “I have this idea for this song”. We sat down and did it. And then he got up in the studio and said “I have to record this!” It’s reggae that ties the whole album together, as we throw in what we always do: Jamaican, Caribbean and dance music.

-There is Prince Buster Jr. as a guest.

-The first thing I want to clarify is that Prince Buster Jr. is a postman and that he is Junior (N. de R .: Prince Buster was one of the pioneers of ska and rock steady; he died in 2016). He is a friend of Pablo Martin. It was a surprise. We didn’t know of his participation, and when Pablo sent us the finished song to listen to, this man was having this beautiful ending and we died. We couldn’t believe it.

-There is another quest on this disc. For example “La calandra y el zorzal”, which they also recorded with Prietto, sounds like a suspenseful soundtrack and your voice even gives it a Portishead vibe.

-It is that with Prietto we are united that they also have a search for the bolero from psychedelia. The two songs we did with them fit like a glove. They were very happy and involved in the project as much as we were. We went to an analog studio, we recorded on tape and it was to make music with people who are passionate about the same thing. We had already listened to Los Espíritus and wanted to have such a sound.

– “When the sun rises”, with Gori, has a spaghetti western thing, like a Morricone sung by you.

-With Gori, who is a friend of ours, we met very often before the pandemic. Not now, because we’ve all changed and stopped going out (laughs).

-How does the production of Pablo Martin, current member of Du-Rites and Tom Tom Club, fit into the album?

-Pablo played with me in New York on several occasions, because when we were in Puerto Rico I put the band together there. Since 2010 we have been doing things together, and he and Sergio are like brothers. Pablo has had a growth in what he does in terms of mixing and production. If you replace any of the musicians, no one is offended.

-And what does “I Can Not” by the Bulgarian Ivo Dimchev look like?

-In the beginning I had a little bit of him singing, surfing the Internet. I loved the way he played. I looked for him, I started following him and I understood that he would come to Argentina, but for the theater. The thing is, I got in touch. I explained that I was a singer from here, that I loved what I was doing. And he said to give him Niceto’s phone number, because he wanted to play there.

It was amazing how cute that show was! The boy is a teacher, he has played for a few people and I am sorry that he has not made more titles. I can not It was a song that I practiced on the guitar, in another key, and I never thought I’d record it. But everyone liked it and I dared.

From Puerto Rico to Buenos Aires

– Changing the subject completely, when did Sergio and Leroy return from Puerto Rico to Buenos Aires?

-We re-established in Buenos Aires in 2016. We got here before Hurricane Maria, which was in 2017 and destroyed Puerto Rico and changed everything. Hurricane Maria changed the island’s economy and, being an island, everything is seen in a more drastic way.

There was a kind of shock doctrine, of sucking up a shitty situation like that. For example, years after the hurricane, tons of water bottles appeared in a field. In other words: in order not to give it to people, for people to consume and pay for the water from their own pockets, all those donations that came from all over the world were hidden.

When it was discovered that water was useless, because it was bottled in plastic in full sun. A pile of garbage generated by a nefarious government. Because it later happened that some chats they had were leaked to that government. And do you believe that Roselló is still trying to represent Puerto Rico today? It’s a cheek.

-Being Puerto Rican, how did you see mainstream artists like Residente or Ricky Martin led that move against Roselló?

-It is that they had no other choice. I am glad that finally there have been artists who have put a face, beyond the fact that sometimes many other artists who have put a face do not give a damn. They were both very good at being there when the city needed them. What happened was something very sad: a mess. I can’t get anything good out of it.

-Excluding the beach, can your life in Puerto Rico and this trip to the suburbs of Buenos Aires have anything in common?

-It must be said that Puerto Rico, despite being an island, has a lot of nightlife. There is everything to do. We belong to a more clandestine movement there, because our friends are also under, and go out between two or three places where the music we like is: El Local, La Respond and Club 67.

All of this reminds us of the city of Buenos Aires, only it happens here to a greater extent and cannot be compared to Puerto Rico. If you can compare the taste that both places have for music, it is something that we have been able to cultivate here and there.

On the other hand, we didn’t expect the dollar to go to hell and we couldn’t have traveled more often, because we had managed to live three months in Puerto Rico and the rest of the year here. I don’t want to go away for just twenty days.

-Finally, you’ve been playing with your partner for years, but tell me what it’s like to play with your child.

-Leroy has been joining us for a long time. On stage since the age of 17, in 2017 in Japan. He made music and studied sound engineering, so it was something that came naturally to him. He worked as my monitor, so it was only a matter of time for it to happen naturally.

Maxi, Sergio’s cousin, is like Leroy. They both play all instruments, so we put them together so that different sounds come out based on what we need. This is new to us. The great thing is that we have fun and the two of them, who are the new members of the band, have a very happy energy.

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