Hi Laurent,  and thanks for accepting to do the interview. You are a trumpet player, producer, and now you are the head of Musiberia, the International Centre for Iberian Dance and Music,  located in Serpa, Portugal.

You are an internationally recognised musician. How did you get to that level, and what has helped you in your career?

It´s a question of consistency.  You have to have blind faith in what you are doing. But you also have to have a notion of reality. In the end, you work for an audience and it is key that you don´t ignore this audience. The idea of the misunderstood artist, solitary, creating in isolation, waiting for public recognition is not realistic. The truth is that when you are studying, they don´t explain to you how the market works. And art has its market like any other. Sometimes it is easier to enter and sometimes it´s more complicated. Often it is not understood why one artist is recognised and not another, but it is important to know that that market exists and therefore to be conscious of how certain things work.

In literature, if you write light romances, social affairs, something contemporary, it will probably be easier for you to get published. But if you write poetry, you have to know that it is very difficult to get published because the money invested in the production of a poetry book is almost never recouped. This does not detract from the great value of the poet´s work, and a poet can work as a lyricist, librettist, etc.. there are various possibilities for living off your art as a poet.       

In music, if the objective is to be a classical musician, you have several options: you go into the orchestra world, with very tough auditions every 6 months.  If you want to be a soloist you have to start very young.  The level of quality is very high and the competition tremendous. Afterwards, you could be lucky and a record company discovers you, supports you and puts you on the circuit. A circuit which is controlled agents. So the strategy is also to know where these agents are. If you wait around to be discovered, it´s more difficult.  

The musician who has not opted for an agent or “the machine” has to create their own machine : you have to publish your work. Publishing is no longer only in the hands of the publishers. This way you can present your work, and orientate it towards a very specific target audience. If you are a singer and you want your work to be known, to do that you don´t have to upload your entire album on the web, just put 2 or 3 tracks that you think could be hits and try to make them a success then later sell them on itunes, or someone could hear you and take an interest and decide to include you in a concert. In this way you can get into the commercial market. If you are a lone creator and you´re interested in producing work without worrying much about immediate recognition, you have to have the ability to face the frustration that this implies. Like Van Gogh o Schubert. That´s why I say it´s a profession of faith. You have to believe that you are doing something that is fundamental to you.

The other way is to have some business acumen, like Beethoven who was one of the first artists to know how to negotiate contracts and understand royalties and the rights of the author. You just can´t get away from what is, in reality, the other part of the business: author´s societies, the rights, the laws: you have to understand how the market functions.

You say that you have to learn how the market functions. How did you learn?

I learned when I let go of the fantasy of wanting to be the "next Stravinski".

When I realised that I could compose a lot of music that would never be released because I didn´t have the means to do it or the access to an orchestra or a group of musicians.  This is very important. Music is only made real when there are people to play it. I needed to find people, and little by little, from collaborations with musicians from different countries, I experimented with different things.

I started early, at 15years old, but you have to give yourself time to experiment, and you can´t quit on this part. Then you begin to discover that you have your own personality, and you keep working in this direction and you create your own work, which comes as a result of effort. Without this effort you can´t make it, and if you can get the strategic support of a cultural organisation, that is very important. I have many projects that, without the support of networks and production money, couldn´t have been done, or would have had to have been done some other way.

To summarise: you have to be aware of the means that are available. Stravinski, during the war, composed The Soldier´s Story. It is for a quintet. But the music is there.

Let´s look now on your role in Musiberia. How would you define your work there?

We are trying, with the means that we have, to give artists the opportunity to possibly evolve.  We have an auditorium, teaching halls, a recording studio, two dance halls, and a museum, etc. Besides, Musiberia  is located in a remote place: Serpa is a town of 7000 people. This situation, where artists reside, allows us to escape the distractions and really concentrate on their creations.

Musiberia is thought of as a reception lab for projects and people for more or less short stays, in which each artist can bring an artistic project to a head.

Do you have some good advice for young artists?

Above all: you have to believe in what you are doing. Dedicate yourself to that in the knowledge that it all takes time. Then there´s knowing where you´re public is, where the halls are, who could support you for production expenses, and getting to know the circuit. It is a job that requires an effort. The belief that it doesn´t require effort is false.