It would take a year for Clandestino to pick up commercially. Although some in-the-know radio stations programmed a few songs, no singles were initially released, in part because his label, Virgin, thought it would hurt Manu to heavily promote his album. Touring was out of the question, since there was no band to back him. The record arrived in stores to little fanfare, and was slowly picked up by an audience of hippies, backpackers, audiophiles, and festival goers, who discovered the album by chance and embraced it, spreading the word about the music to any acquaintance who would listen.
Press was also key to its growing influence; prominent Spanish alternative magazine Rock Delux declared it album of the year. Five million copies of Clandestino were sold worldwide. Its legacy is now cemented and has surpassed that of Mano Negra. All this gave Manu newfound confidence. This time, he assembled a band and toured the album, prompting invitations to play at prestigious U.
Manu Chao's music does not follow a logical textual narrative, but in its eclectic construction it invokes a deeper understanding of its subject than any literal form could. He sings songs about the people of the streets, the outer provinces, and the marginalised; he sings with the forgotten and uncounted billions, the underclass, and in so doing, he speaks about the fragility of human kind.
His music is a bridge, exploring the common ground and means of mutual understanding that are available to us, exponating the idea that beyond superfluous differences in cultural identity, we are all the same. Artist descriptions on Last. Feel free to contribute! All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply.
Don't want to see ads? Upgrade Now. Do you see any comparison? MC: Well, the difference is that Franco could do bad things in a small area. The decisions of Franco were terrible for 40 million people. But the decisions of a person like Bush are terrible for millions of millions of millions of people.
That's the difference. Pitchfork: Is it the duty of anyone in a democracy to speak out against that kind of injustice? MC: Personally, I do.
The activities of the government and Mr. Bush I feel are something quite dangerous for the future of my children. And of the children of everybody. I'm really worried about his decisions and authority. What worries me even more, in truth, is his lack of intelligence. Pitchfork: Do you think musicians still have the power to influence people on a mass scale?
MC: Well, we've got responsibilities. We've got access to the mic, and lots of people don't. So maybe our responsibility is to give this mic to the people and say loudly what a lot of people cannot say loudly.
But there are 1, ways to be an artist. Pitchfork: So you don't have a problem with artists who don't use their platform to speak truth to power? Who remain silent? MC: That's what I'm a little worried about. Of course, there are activists in the United States denouncing [the government], but it's not really massive, you know? For me it's really strange. The first thing I want to say is that I've got a French passport, and a Spanish passport, and in both countries our presidents are not very good presidents, too.
But I'm so sure that in France or Spain, a President like Bush would get , [protestors] every week, in front of his house, to say no to him. And why not in the United States? Why are there so few people in front of the White House every day? It's not like Europe. Pitchfork: It's easy to criticize a president. It's a lot harder to unify people. MC: Well, I don't know why, but my shows are really multi-cultural. A lot of people from a lot of parts of the planet. In Spain and France the population is very mixed.
There are a lot of people from North Africa, from Mali, from Senegal. But I've wanted to play Algeria. It would be a dream of mine, and for a lot of people I know. And to Morocco. Pitchfork: A lot of musicians from Algeria, someone like Rachid Taha, have found more freedom to perform in a country like France.
MC: Rachid Taha is a singer that lyrically says something very courageous, and the system doesn't like what he says. The government, but also the more radical Islamists. He tries to talk about North Africa as more modern and free. He's very courageous.
MC: I don't know. I don't think like that. We've been playing in places all our lives that people have said to us were very, very dangerous. We found a little bit of danger but a lot of soul and incredible people. So I never think like that. Pitchfork: When you performed in Chicago, the crowd was having such a good time. Are you ever worried that people don't understand the message and are just reacting to the music? So how did his live return to the city pan out? Asking someone like Manu Chao where he calls home seems a fairly pointless question.
For those in the English-speaking world this might come as a surprise. But that was nothing compared to his fame in mainland Europe and Latin America, where he can still fill stadiums.
As well as working on new material, Chao keeps up a busy schedule of summer festival appearances in Europe and Latin American and recently helped to produce the new album by Tobagonian singer Calypso Rose.
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