By Mike Sain't Louis ·
Tampoco te escandalices tanto: a manifesto with glitter
Every time someone throws their hands up at something I do, this phrase just comes out of me: tampoco te escandalices tanto, don't be so scandalised. Over time it became a song, and almost a statement of principles.
Tampoco te escandalices tanto is my way of answering those who decide from the outside what counts as art and what doesn't. I've been told many times: that my work isn't worth anything, that it has no merit, that anyone could do it. The curious thing is that those same people never judge a painter by his brushes or a musician by his synthesiser. There's always someone guarding the door.
What I defend in this song is very simple. Every image, every note and every line of PLANETA GAYFOLK comes from something I felt before writing it. Loss, emotional abuse, rage, beauty, madness and hope. No tool invents that. That comes from inside, from a specific life, from scars that have dates.
I don't ask permission
There's an idea that matters a lot to me: I don't need permission to create. What I ask for is respect for the process. If art has to change, let them point at me for being one of the first to cross the border. I'd rather that than stand still waiting for the approval of someone who was never going to give it to me.
For me the soul of a work isn't in the technique, but in the intention. And mine has always been clear: to turn pain into beauty and loneliness into an anthem. If that scandalises, then let it scandalise, but a little less, please.
The tone of the song is defiant but also has something of a wink. It's not a sermon. It's more like someone who shrugs, straightens his jacket and gets on with things while the others are scandalised. A bit of camp, a bit of pride and quite a lot of weariness at having to explain himself.
I'd dedicate it to any creative person who has been told their work isn't real art. To whoever writes, draws, dances or belts it out in the shower without asking permission. Listen to it when you have to defend something you do with love and others look down their noses at.