• Albert Pla: "I would love Catalonia to be independent, but I won't lift a finger for it"

Albert Pla (Sabadell, 1966) arrives for the interview in a Madrid hotel incognito and with broken glasses. He is promoting Rumbagenarios, the album of covers where he revisits and updates his mythical Veintegenarios en Albuquerque (1997) in full explosion of fame after giving life to the ultramontane fan Pep in the series La Mesías, by the Javis, which has just been broadcast by Movistar+.

He assures, sometimes laconic and sometimes surreal, that acting is easier than singing, because instead of pulling the cart, he just has to obey. "I'm good at following orders, it's hard to believe."

From Twenty-Year-Old to Rumbagenarians, 25 Years Later. How do you deal with getting old? That's the way it is, it's what it is. That work suffered censorship, especially the song "I Leave It or I Don't Leave It." When you hear that there is less freedom today than then, what do you think? I have always suffered the same censorship, the same aversion from different sectors. I don't see any difference. The thing is that before in music we were more quarrelsome, we weren't crazy about that mania of wanting to reach everyone like it happens now.

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Albert Pla: "Here, if you neglect yourself, they call you 'independent'"

  • Written by: VANESSA GRAELL

Albert Pla: "Here, if you neglect yourself, they call you 'independent'"

Serial killer.

La Mesías, the best Spanish series of the season

  • Written by: ALBERTO REY

La Mesías, the best Spanish series of the seasonThere are many versions of this album, of his own songs but also of Soy rebelde, by Jeanette, or Experiencia religiosa, by Enrique Iglesias. How did you choose them? Pure chance. Jeanette was an idea given to me by Juanma Bajo Ulloa. Lou Red's Walk on the Wild Side happened when musicians spontaneously started playing it at a soundcheck and it turned out cool. And Religious Experience was a joke after dinner. On the other hand, I've been covering myself all my life, I like my first song and the last one equally. The concerts on this new tour are more for dancing than listening, aren't they? The difference is that I've been putting on shows for a few years to be listened to by people sitting down and, this time, it's designed for people who stand, dance and chant. Don't let it happen like in the concerts in theaters that, every time someone sings, they tell them to shut up. When you play at Inverfest in Madrid on January 18th, what reception do you expect? How are you treated in Madrid? Here in Madrid they always treat me wonderfully and, in fact, we come every two or three months to mess it up, almost always in the Galileo room. By the way, do you think the fuss will continue in Ferraz around then? I don't know, I don't know, Christmas is coming and things get complicated. But I can't answer you because I'm a horrible psychic. I'm like Vargas Llosa... But this time Vargas Llosa with Milei has bet on a winning candidate! The exception proves the rule. The other day Quique González said in an interview in this newspaper that he would not like a Vox voter to go to his concerts. Vox voters would have a blast at my concerts. Because, damn, imagine if singers had to ask for their identity card and political affiliation before entering a show. The newspapers say that the Catalans have taken a lot of money from Pedro Sánchez in exchange for the investiture. What are you going to spend it on? Now, as soon as the interview is over, I'm going to look at the ATM to see if I have received Pedro Sánchez's income today. They say that thanks to The Messiah the kids have discovered you and are freaking out. Are you ready to become a teen idol? It seems highly unlikely to me. Yes, it is true that The Messiah has had a great impact and these days in Madrid young people come up to me to cheer me on and tell me about the fear I give in the series. I followed the Javis' instructions to the letter, or at least what I thought the Javis were telling me. All the credit goes to him. Ambrossi gave a lot of guidelines, from the state of mind he had to show to the movements he had to execute before singing, for example, a "good morning". While Calvo said, "Go in there and say good morning. Period." Calvo is a good actor, I don't know why he didn't play my part. I've read that after working with the Javis, you like them better than you thought at first... Yes, I've read it too and I don't know where this comes from. I couldn't dislike the Javis because I didn't know them, I loved what they proposed and I immediately said yes. Have you seen that they are going to take Stella Maris, the fictional group of La Mesías, to Primavera Sound? I've seen it, yes. I've also seen some people get angry, which surprises me a lot. How people like it andIn the case of the S&P 500, the I'll go see them, of course, they're my daughters! Same singing and all. How are your relationships with God right now? The truth is, I've never had a relationship with God, good or bad. In my house we didn't praise but we didn't criticize religion either. We didn't care. But religion is a great topic, mind you. A great song. And it's funny because societies are gradually ceasing to believe in Dios.No I'm so sure, most of humanity still believes in their gods, we are the weird ones. But in the demonstrations of these days in Ferraz they stop to pray! Are they weird because of that? By now, I've learned that I'm the odd one out. By the way, you will no longer need to kill those of Podemos, as you fantasized years ago in an interview, because they have killed each other directly. They have committed suicide, like those of Ciudadanos. The Spanish political system, with a monarch and two major parties, did not seem to be, but it has proven to be better organized and more resilient than we all thought. And do you think Irene Montero would have a place in your group now that she has been kicked out of the government? I don't plan on doing any casting, but if she were to show up I would listen to her carefully. And Esperanza Aguirre too. In fact, I would rather sing with Esperanza Aguirre than with Irene Montero. It's so grotesque that it would give a lot of play on stage. Do you think that AI will one day be able to write a song like Joaquin the Fool? I use ChatGPT a lot, I'm telling you. I have a section on the radio about History and I have swapped wikipedia for AI to find answers to specific questions. I'm a fan of technology. I'm not bothered by people looking at their cell phones. Doesn't it bother you that at concerts the audience is recording all the time with their cell phones? Wow, I make jokes about it all the time. I'm sweating it.

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