Transgressive is a term that fits him as well as the tactical suit he wore in his show. Chimo Bayo (Valencia, 1961) was the first to pick up a microphone to invent songs based on other people’s musical bases in those electronic sessions in the early 80s. It didn’t take him long to create his own songs and when his name was already iconic, he insisted on calling a single La Aunt Enriqueta, imposing itself on the record company: “It’s going to be called that because it’s also a true story, a lady who took her bike to go buy bread 4 kilometers away. It is a tribute to the mental age of many older people.”
Essential protagonist of what was called ‘Ruta del bakalao’, he returns to it as an actor: on October 27, Quan no termina la nit, Óscar Montón’s debut film, will be released, in what is intended to be a hymn to friendship.
What did the ‘Bakalao Route’ mean? In an interview you described it as a “social movement.”
I always say that it was the last spontaneous social movement – ??then there was no Internet – in the search for pleasure, mass hedonism and music. People came from all over Spain to a place that was like an amusement park and where DJs for the first time in history, in my case for example I even sang, became the protagonist of the sessions. Coming here to Valencia was like going to another world. For me, culture is also hedonism, because without it the human being would not have life; The escape that human beings have is fun, having a good time, dancing, especially dancing, because since the oldest civilizations people have danced to celebrate something.
Ramón Trecet ended each day the musical program Diálogos 3 with this phrase: “Look for beauty, it is the only worthwhile protest in this disgusting world.” I think you would sign that phrase exchanging beauty for fun.
Man, yes, because when you have a good time everything is beautiful. I think that human beings would not be the same if they did not have those moments of escape and fun, and especially of meeting people. You already know what the character of Valencians is like, we immediately opened the doors, so those who came here felt at home. And from one week to the next, they knew that at that time, that new friend was going to be at that nightclub; They looked for each other and found each other without having to meet. And in the clubs when you always had your place, that little corner where you felt comfortable. It happened normally, people always stood in the same place. And people were not going to flirt, but to dance and empathize with others. There was great euphoria at that time.
In Quan the night doesn’t end, you are a drug gangster.
When they called me to play a role, I made it very clear that I didn’t want to go out like Chimo Bayo but rather play someone who was very different from me, a psychopath, come on (laughs). He is a bipolar and very dangerous gangster. At a screening this week, when I came out the whole cinema applauded. I told myself ‘it’s not Chimo Bayo’, and that’s what I wanted to achieve. Critics have said it too: I know Chimo and that wasn’t him!
It shows that you have enjoyed it.
I have done it because of the trust that the team gave me and well, since I have some experience facing the public… (laughs). La Ruta was also recently released and although I met with them to do something, in the end it didn’t come up; A month later they called me and it was as if they had read my mind. It is a debut feature for everyone, I am delighted with the result and being able to have acted without being Chimo Bayo. Furthermore, Óscar Montón gave me a lot of freedom for the role. Half is spoken in Valencian and half in Spanish, as is the case in Valencia both then and now.
The temples of techno: Have today’s venues changed much from those on the route like Penélope, Chocolate, Puzzle, ACTV, Barraca…?
In addition to the fact that this was linked to a temporal context, it happened that the same DJ could go from one to the other on the same night and so could the audience. That is only done today at electronic festivals and it is once a year. Before, people came to see what Chimo is doing this week, to see what new music there is… Some ask me ‘let’s see if you can revive the route’ but no: it’s too much of a commitment and apart from that, what’s cool is that it’s a moment in which time and unrepeatable phenomenon because that is how legends are born. It cannot be repeated: it was the exact moment in which there was more freedom, in my opinion, after the Transition.
In Spain it was called mákina music in some places and bakalao in others. Where did such a bizarre term come from?
The ‘bakalao’ thing must have occurred to someone very salty (laughs). There are various theories, but one that is quite consistent is that people from Bilbao came to buy records in specialized stores in Valencia, when they played a song they shouted something like ‘Wow, what a cod!’, equivalent to ‘this is going to be a blast!’ ‘. What is certain is that no Valencian gave the name.
How was Spanish techno different from the European scene when you released Así me gusta a mi?
As for the music, in Valencia the bit speed of the songs was not high, 135 on average, we did not go up to 150 or 160. In the good times, then the music sped up a lot and it seemed like the Smurfs were singing. The choice of styles was very important: since the 80s when we played new romantic and white funky, we went to EBM, electro, house, acid, technohouse… We lived the evolution of electronic music. And we made the dark electronica of, for example, Front 242 accessible to a large audience by singing over it. The route began around 1982 until 92, that was the authentic one. Then the stigmatization began as the music changed, less dark electronic… It became more domestic.
For many it remains stigmatized.
Friends of mine have once told me: “Chimo, I saw a report about the route and they mentioned you again.” Well, of course, I have always defended it: everyone must know where they come from, that there are many upstarts, and defend them tooth and nail. I spent six hours DJing in a row, then I rested for an hour and then two more. Curraba. A lot. And every weekend I had to invent things, use the microphone, sing live on bases that were not mine and I would adapt. Then I got into the studio and started making music and everything. It was a testing laboratory, because when the song came out later, everyone knew it, at least the lyrics.
About drugs: Ricardo Urgell, founder of Pachá, told me that alcohol is the worst of all. Would you agree?
Man, alcohol is dangerous, yeah. But everything is dangerous if there is no moderation, that is what must be taken into account. And I, spending six hours DJing in the booth, had to have control over everything: keep in mind that I stood next to the decks singing, I climbed a ladder to a pulpit, I drove with three decks… I didn’t let anyone in. There was no one in the cabin because I always had my headphones connected, I would turn around, play the records and I could be singing with a cable microphone: if someone comes into the cabin and accidentally or intentionally rips off my microphone, everything rips off. I take my job very seriously. You have to have controlled lack of control to give the show that people expect from you. I have always been very picky and the fact that now they are in a cabin 20 packed…
Returning to the question, electronic music sessions and festivals are always associated with designer drugs. The same does not happen with those who go to see Coldplay, to say the least. Is it fair or is it prejudice?
Ah, the people who go to see Coldplay don’t drink anything, right? The sambenito makes you stay there and in life you have to know when to do it, when to leave it and what to do when you are working.
Today, October 25, you turn 62 years old. How many DJs your age do you know who are still working?
It is very important that this be emphasized because in recent months I have had 50 performances, the last one, this past Saturday in Logroño. I do a DJ set with current electronic music and with classics that I remix live, including remixed songs of mine and it is very intense: I am with the microphone, I move around the stage, I go down, I go up to DJ… The other facet is festivals of the 90 like Love The 90’s, where all the number one groups in the world from the time of the route attend and I perform three of my songs. In fact, this year we have released a new song called Let Nobody Sleep, I was going to release a new song but with the movie I haven’t had time and La Fallera Rice called me to ask me to make a hymn for the paella, like this that we have made a super horny techno anthem that has been very successful: “Paella: rice and water, shut up, bring the cassella.”
Where did the song about That’s how I like it come from?
I used to sing that over instrumental records in ’85 or so. It occurred to me suddenly. I worked Thursday night, Friday and Saturday afternoon and evening and Sunday afternoon. There I had a lot of time to train and one day I got that rhythm. Now it has been remixed by Andrés Campo and DJ Regal, and last year it was remixed by Vini Vici, who performs at Tomorrowland and other festivals of that size.
Does your daughter, Tanya, take advice from a veteran?
The truth is that he does it very well. She has been there for 10 years now, she has gone to DJ in London and the advice… She has a lot of character and sometimes she annoys me. What she expects is for me to tell her very well, that everything is perfect, but I would like her to have more perspective to overcome what she has already done. That’s how I did it: no one forced me to sing, pick up the microphone and create a show for myself and with my tactical suit, those things. She came out from inside me. She has a great style, because she sings very well, she releases songs, but I have to give advice with Vaseline. ‘Dad, you’re always doing the same thing, you don’t value what I’m doing!’ and since she is smarter than me, she usually leaves me with the words in her mouth.
What does Hu-Ha wine taste like?
The Bobal grape with which it is made has been carefully selected based on the method ‘this one yes, this one no, I like this one, I’ll eat it’ and with this we can produce a slight chiquitán, chiquititantantan in the mouth… (laughs).
