Although he doesn’t spend much time on television, television’s leader David Summers Men Gmade an exception and joined the ‘senior’ team ‘Incredible duos’, La 1 music competition (22:40). The band, which became a phenomenon in the 80s, is still very much alive today with its 40th anniversary world tour, which sold out from Madison Square Garden in New York to Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona.
Why did you want to join ‘The Incredible Duo’?
Los Hombres G is on tour and I have very little time, but since it was recorded in August it suited me very well for the dates. It is also a program that supports live music. It’s a miracle that a TV channel in Spain is betting on music, but the fact that it’s a live broadcast was also very attractive.
Why don’t you work more as a ‘coach’ or judge on television competitions?
Every time they called me to do something, it was almost impossible for me because I’m affiliated with G Men. Even though you might not think I’m much of a TV show person…
Where did they call him from?
Not only from Spain, but also to make ‘La Voz México’ and ‘La Voz Perú’. However, this was impossible because these programs take up a lot of time and we are touring permanently with Hombres G. I don’t know when this endless tour will end!
Sometimes he said they started Hombres G to date. And boy did they flirt!
Almost all artists set out with this intention. First of all, with the intention of having fun, having a good time, and meeting girls. We were students and we thought it wouldn’t last long, we never thought it would be our profession.
Do you think the band was given enough credit in the 80s? Did it make you angry when they said it was for posh people?
No, I don’t care, I don’t hold a grudge against anyone. In Spain, jealousy is something that characterizes us. When an artist is successful there are always those who criticize him. If things go well, there will always be those who love you very much and those who don’t love you at all. But the worst thing is that no one cares about you. From what I understand, there were people who said: These guys are 20 years old and all the girls are crazy about them. They are successful, so they are definitely millionaires. This raises some logical jealousies, doesn’t it?
His revenge is to continue touring after 40 years.
Of course there must be a reason, it won’t be because of how handsome we are in 40 years. Something would happen. Our goal was always to make people happy, to make fun songs about love…
“People prefer music on TV to a lot of nonsense on the air.”
When you look at everything with a magnifying glass now, do you think these songs are getting old?
I think so too. We didn’t want to be a band from the 80s anyway, we were avoiding that style, small keyboards, hairstyles and fashions. We were trying to make good songs, that’s all. And now. We don’t care if reggaeton is trendy or not. We won’t do reggaeton. We do whatever we want. So what happens if you look at songs with a magnifying glass? I don’t know. Instead of looking too much at the past, I think we should try to improve our present. I won’t change a single thing about my songs. I have never written anything with the intention of offending anyone, so I do not regret anything I have written.
Last year, there was a controversy in ‘Pasapalabra’ when Ana Morgade criticized some expressions such as ‘faggot’ and ‘give my daughter back’ in ‘Sufre mamon’.
They don’t understand that this is a humorous song, a musical joke. It is the desire to make the most of everything. I have no intention of making a polemic with my lyrics, especially with what I wrote when I was 18.
Do you think music is well received on television today?
There is a mantra that says music on television reduces viewership, so it has been gradually eliminated. And this is a big mistake. When we went to ‘El hormiguero’ recently, Pablo and the team said that if we sang, the audience would drop. We convinced them to do ‘Sufre mamon’ and the next day they called us and said that they had reached the audience peak at that moment. People prefer music on TV to a lot of nonsense.
Most music programs now consist of talent shows. ‘OT’, ‘Voice’, ‘Cover Night’…
That’s all that survives a bit. They are programs that use music to make a television ‘show’. Therefore, when it’s over some performers stand out, but many disappear because the ‘show’ is over. That’s why we should focus on helping young people who appear on television sing their new songs.
In the first ‘OT’ you said it was karaoke. Do you maintain it?
All formats where music plays a leading role sound good to me, and great artists have emerged from ‘OT’, for example my friend Manuel Carrasco. The problem with these shows is that the songs they sing are not their own, so it’s a cover contest. So it is the artists and composers who need to be encouraged, because what really matters is the music and the songs. It’s easy to applaud an artist if he sings well, but when the show ends and he has to release his songs, that’s where the big elimination happens.
They were banned from traveling to Cuba in the 80’s for releasing Hombres G’s song ‘Matar a Castro’. Are they still banned from entering the island?
Still. I wrote this when I was 17-18 because I read an article with this title in a magazine. So I thought of the songs as little movies and found them interesting. But maybe if I had read ‘Killing Pinochet’ I would have given it a similar title. I thought I was going to sing it at my local bar and that was it. I never thought about what would happen next.