Friday, March 29

Christina Rosenvinge: “The legislation is at least ten years behind what is happening in the music industry”

It’s hard to pigeonhole Christina Rosenvinge into one adjective, both professionally and personally. The singer-songwriter and lyricist of Danish descent has been active since the 1980s, exploring mainly rock, pop and indie genres. Since then, she has also made inroads into the world of writing with ‘Debut’, in the audiovisual world with films like ‘Todo Es Lia’ and, not content with that, her latest discovery has been theater with the help of construction site ‘sappho‘.

So far it seems that nothing has been able to stand between Rosenvinge and his aspirations, and he does not pretend that his future will be any different. He does not give up his role as an activist that he has presented since his origins and he does not conceive of leaving the stage either. His idea is not to depend on success or failure, but to continue with his job until it is “physically impossible for him to continue doing it.” At the moment his next stop is the festival music light in Cantabria this Sunday.

You have managed to stay present in the music scene since the beginning of your career, avoiding being what is called a “flower of a day”, a phenomenon that is now happening more and more with virality. What is the secret?

I don’t know, I guess it’s a mixture of determination, stubbornness and also knowing how to adapt to circumstances, to evolve with the times. The truth is that I do not know.

You have been a pioneer as a female singer-songwriter and a strong defender of feminism at a time when it was not so common, did you have many problems defending your ideas?

At the time and at all times, but it has been something decisive precisely to have a long career and not be left out. In order not to fall into all the pitfalls in the obstacle course, it is essential to be convinced that it is a legitimate aspiration and that you have to fight for it. Also knowing that in many of the inconveniences that I found the background was sexist, that it was not directly against me or against what I was doing, right? Having that basic education has been very important when it comes to understanding it.

The ideal thing would have been for that machismo to be concentrated at the beginning of his career and for it to have been diluted over the years, is that right?

No, it’s not like that. I wouldn’t say that the 80s were more sexist than the 90s or the 21st century, for example. I would tell you that the problems and manifestations of sexism or discrimination vary, but they are present in different generations that are the same 20 or 30 years apart.

One of the last was the album he recorded with Nacho Vegas in which they attributed the success to him.

He did exactly the same thing as me and he occupied a position very similar to mine, in the sense that we are both singer-songwriters, although my career is even longer than his, but… That’s when I realized that there was a difference of treatment, it was not only an external thing, it was also internal.

Questions about sexism and feminism should be asked of men more than women

With success, she could have accommodated herself, become less assertive and I suspect that she would probably save herself a lot of problems, but in addition to feminism she also defends environmentalism. What leads you to continue fighting?

These ideas have been evolving, but they have been since the beginning. Environmentalism, concern for the environment may have been later, really, but they are things that I do outside of music as well. In fact, there is a problem with women, which is that, if we have to dedicate half of the interviews to talking about feminism and the other half about our work -this percentage can vary of course- you are actually taking away space to talk of your career, of your music and you are devoting it all to activism. Which on the other hand is not very feminist, not claiming your work. I believe that questions about sexism and feminism should be asked of men more than women. I think that this is a question based on ‘why are they asking me all these questions and not asking them’, right?

How about how to combine music with having a family?

Of course, You should ask them who takes care of your children so that you can have a career. That is a question that I would ask, for example, I would put this topic more on the table and I would put it above all at the level of men in the industry that includes everything. Above all, the festival management part. Perhaps all these questions should be asked of them and not so much of women artists. We are not the ones who have to talk about the problem because we did not create the problem. It is created by a ‘status quo’ of the industry that is something general.

How do you think the music industry has changed with technology in terms of rhythms of production, composition, ways of dissemination…?

The technological issue as well as distribution support in the music industry evolves so quickly that the legislation always lags behind. It’s a problem. That is why the contracts that are signed never take into account the format that is about to come out, so the legislation is constantly at least ten years behind what is happening. That is a serious problem when it comes to defending rights and above all to create a system that is economically sustainable for bands and musicians.

You’ve been in the public eye since you were very young, have you ever considered retiring from the scene to enjoy anonymity again?

You asked me before about how I managed to be here for so long, because when you have a job you don’t have to change it. This idea that artists are throwaway… The normal thing is that when you know how to do something, you keep doing it and keep improving. Do not depend so much on success or failure, but continue until it is physically impossible for you to continue doing so. For me, art is a trade and a vocation; that is, it is not abandoned

What would you say is your favorite song or album that you have composed?

The last and not because it is the last, but because I think I have reached places where I had not arrived before. In songs like ‘La flor entre lavía’, which is the first time I’ve combined a five-four and it’s a very original song because of the way it’s written, I couldn’t have done it before. Or ‘Romance de la Plata’, which is a letter that has a lot of importance for me, because I couldn’t have written it before. This is beautiful: you need to get to certain places in life to be able to write certain things.

You have commented that the famous song ‘Chas and I appear by your side’ is based on a novel by Jorge Amado about a woman’s relationship with a ghost, in a certain sense it could be said that we all deal with our own ghosts… Do you deal with the yours through music?

Yes effectively. This is a letter that is based on a story that I had read, but the vast majority of my songs are based on things that I have lived and creating a story around your own experience is a way to overcome it, also to magnify it. But above all, creating your own story of your life is a lot of fun because by describing it, your life also becomes somehow fiction and something a little unreal, which forces you to live in the present, it is a very therapeutic way of confront your own experiences.

There is a phrase that is repeated a lot, especially in times of crisis like the current one, ‘any time in the past was better’, do you agree?

No, I don’t agree at all. I think that memory sometimes creates these illusions by which we tend to forget the bad of a moment and keep the good. Or forget about boredom and stay with things that at the time did not seem so great to us and that is why one thinks that the school experience is wonderful. Or, I don’t know, maybe it’s also that we despise what we have right now and over time we learn to appreciate it. Anyway, that’s why we do it, but a thought that counteracts what you say is to think: what I’m experiencing right now I’m going to miss it in two years. In this way you learn to appreciate, from the perspective that you always want more.

One of the last things to appreciate is the premiere this summer of ‘Safo’. How was this first foray into the world of theater?

It’s one of those surprises in life because I didn’t think I would have the opportunity to do something like this. It has been a very nice surprise and a wonderful experience. Now we continue at the Teatros del Canal in September-October we have 10 days. We are going to travel everywhere. You have to have faith in the future, because life gives you many surprises.

She was already suffering from what we now call ‘fake news’. How do you learn to deal with these phenomena?

Well, I don’t know if I would call it ‘fake news’. I would say that I have sometimes suffered from a sexist bias in writing about myself at certain times. Not always, but there has been. How is it learned? Well, when you first realize that it’s not about you. How you learn to live in the end with criticism or injustice in this type of profession is by thinking that it’s not all about you. One is part of the times, of what is happening at that moment and what you do at one moment that can be highly criticized, at another time it would not be. Then, on the other hand, you have to be faithful to your own principles and stand firm because sooner or later the waters return to their course. In general, calmly and staying on your site you almost always end up getting where you want.

At the moment, his nearest future plan involves the Luz de Música festival in Cantabria.

This festival makes me very excited because I have a thing for lighthouses [ríe] since I was little. I heard a song about a lighthouse keeper and the figure of the lighthouse has attracted me very much. Everywhere I go I try to visit the lighthouses. I recently saw the movie ‘El Faro’ too. I find it a wonderful metaphor for the human mind.

I’ve never played in a lighthouse, I really want it, that’s why I said yes immediately. It seems to me a place that is a kind of secular temple. I am also very interested in the history of lighthouses. My family and I, in Denmark, have all our lives spent the summer in a place where the lighthouses are very important because they are from the northern tip of Jutland. In other words, it is a topic that interests me a lot and I hope it will be a very special concert. In fact, it’s a new format in which some songs that are rock I’m going to do very piano-based.



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