"In Spain they always say: 'Loquillo, the Catalan artist born in Barcelona'"
The singer revisits his songbook with guest artists on the album 'Legendary Hearts', and performs at the Sant Jordi Club
Barcelona"I was very lucky, because I fell onto the bed after the concert. If I had gone onto the stage...", recalls José María Sanz, Loquillo (Barcelona, 1960). A serious arrhythmia landed him in the operating room. "My heart rate had reached 147 beats per minute. Luckily for the doctors at the University of Navarra," he adds. It's the first thing he says once seated at a table in the Speakeasy restaurant at the Dry Martini cocktail bar in Barcelona. When artists have to speak to the press, they often try to meet in comfortable spaces that convey warmth and emotional security. At Dry Martini, they serve him the drink he wants without him even asking. "I want us to do the interview in Catalan. I need to speak Catalan because where I live [the Basque Country] I can't," he says. "When I travel around Spain and the world, they always say: 'Loquillo, the Catalan artist born in Barcelona.'"
He's eager to talk about the album Legendary Hearts (Warner, 2025) in which he has invited around twenty artists to sing with him some of the most representative songs of his career. The selection is quite heterogeneous: Miguel Poveda, Ismael Serrano, Andrés Calamaro, Bunbury, Raphael, Manolo García, Miguel Ríos, Nacho Vegas, Ramoncín, Kutxi Romero (Marea), Dani Martín, Alaska, Leiva... He also wants to talk about the concert he will be giving at the Sant Jordi Club. However, the conversation begins with health and death.
One of the artists who appears on the album is Jorge Ilegal, from the group Ilegales, who died of cancer on December 9, one day before the death of Robe Iniesta, the leader of ExtremoduroThe generational divide is inevitable. "It's a hard blow. They both represented a way of understanding life. They were wild characters who made personal experience everything. If you don't live, it's impossible to tell stories," he asserts. He had a long-standing friendship with Jorge Ilegal. "We were on the same record label and shared everything, crazy things and also moments of great personal greatness," he says before calming his emotions by recounting some mundane anecdotes. One about toy soldiers. "Jorge was a great collector of miniatures, and he got me some pieces I was missing, some soldiers from the War of Independence. And also some Thunderbirds figures," he says. The other anecdote perfectly illustrates how some things were done in Barcelona: "Once, his guitars were stolen because Jorge had parked his car where he didn't play. He called me, and the whole underworld of the city started looking for them. We found them."
To sing on the album, Loquillo brought together artists from different generations and aesthetic backgrounds. There are contemporaries, but also artists who are older and younger. And each collaboration has something to do with him, either directly or through influence. For example, Manolo García, who sings BreakwaterManolo and Quimi [Portet] gave Loquillo and the Troglodytes their first opportunity. They had created an independent record label, Discos Kriminales, and in 1983 we went into a studio and recorded the first version of Space CowboysThe album wasn't released because the label had to close, but with that master tape I went to Madrid... If it hadn't been for Manolo and Quimi, we wouldn't have made it," he recalls. That's why inviting Manolo García is a way of thanking him for one day opening "his home" to him.
An album
On the album, Loquillo opens the door to Miguel Poveda, whom he considers "the most important artist in Spain right now". I will never be young againThe poem by Jaime Gil de Biedma, adapted by Gabriel Sopeña. It invites Nacho Vegas to The Golden AgeAnd he takes advantage of the conversation to explain the connection between Loquillo and the Asturian musician. "Nacho is a huge Phil Ochs fan, and I'm the most important Phil Ochs collector in Spain. My first album, Times are changingIt's titled after the Bob Dylan song, which I also covered on the album, but it's dedicated to Phil Ochs. When I was 13 or 14, I saw the album cover. And it ain't marching anymore (1965), with that guy sitting on the floor. I didn't know who Phil Ochs was, but I stole the record from El Corte Inglés. I didn't quite understand the songs, but I was fascinated," he explains. Those were times of intuitive learning, like when he discovered the poet Dylan Thomas. "I thought he was a musician, like Bob Dylan, and I went to a record store... Finally, they told me he was a Welsh poet, and I went to the books, ordering a book of poems from an Argentinian publisher," he recalls.
Other collaborations reflect Loquillo's need to connect with influential figures. This is the case with Raphael, who sings Will to do good"The connection with French chanson and with Jacques Brel is absolute. In this sense, the only thing that can be compared to Raphael is Ovidi Montllor. This collaboration has been a gift from the gods!" he exclaims.
The connection with Barcelona is also evident, obvious in tracks like Lone Cadillac, performed with Bunbury. "I'm the artist who has dedicated the most songs to the city of Barcelona," he insists. However, the album doesn't include Barcelona city"There are two songs that I find very difficult to play live. One is A traffic accidentBecause just after we finished it, Eduardo Benavente [from the band Parálisis Permanente] died in a car accident, and that's considered bad luck. And the other thing is Barcelona cityI composed it in the port of Barcelona, on the ship Castile"I was doing my military service and when I was about to disembark to enjoy my leave, they told me I was on guard duty and couldn't set foot in the city," he says, recalling the frustration of the moment.
