An intramural and tumbero term; this is how musicians define ‘street conduct’, the name that usually rumbles between the four walls of the penalty. “It’s not popularly known, like ‘sailed’ or ‘high tires’. This means going to school, doing theater, participating in some activity, doing therapy, looking for the street. Make good lyrics so you can reintegrate into society,” they say. With 14 members – three at large and 11 deprived of their liberty – the band was born in the San Felipe de Mendoza penal station three years ago. “It’s an almost magical story,” the musician says. “The group emerges in a context of confinement, for sharing a joyful activity among friends, sharing music. Some put on, brought a keyboard, pulled out some buckets and started doing a bit of percussion, and so really came Out Street,” he says. “For life’s business, we end up locked up,” they say. Each of them carries a story of overcoming as a flag: Samuel, as he finishes studying the last year of high school, remembers that he did not have much notion of music before entering the penalty. Currently, it is handled with two keyboards at once.
The Band Photo: Facebook Driving Street
“I began to learn, to dedicate time to it. Today I can declare myself a musician, I have generated a lot of notion of music, and this helps me to remain a little free, that my mind is not locked here in the tumour, being able to do new things, make music”, he confesses. In the culture room they gather to rehearse once a week; for “El Cachete”, the music is “freedom, something fantastic”, that long-awaited moment of the day. It was thanks to this effort that they came to play in all the modules and pavilions, as well as in three guest penalties.
Introducing the Band ? Photo: Facebook Driving Street
Even for the last edition of the International Festival of Social Innovation, the singer “Palta” was able to go out to present the show alongside a mega-security operation: “We did a multimedia show, where by streaming the band played in the background and was seen on screen Giant. That was thanks to the provision of the prison service and the support of Federal Justice,” they explain. This Friday they joined Ricardo Mollo to release a new version of “Par mil”, the classic of Divididos that reads: “What about that image in my sky, I do not think I will be so important”. The theme chosen was no coincidence: “The lyrics are very symbolic, it speaks when the light of the stage is turned off and the artist, however rude, becomes a mortal, one more human being,” they explain.
With a rhythm of salsa, she was not the only one: they had already presented “My Old Man” with Piero, “El universal” next to Kapanga’s “Mono” and more. “All songs that are a duet have a meaning. For example, the one we took out with Marciano Cantero was for Friends Day, and here we suffer a lot when we are left alone, but among all of us we are contained, beyond a band we are a group of friends,” says the singer. They remember the case of El Pepo, when he decided to create his own gang in the penalty case. However, the ‘dream bondi’ – as the ‘Monkey’ called it – has already spread from its walls, and promises to continue to grow.” We make tropical music, and Ricardo Mollo’s audience is rock, Victor Heredia is folkloric, Adriana Varela tango; the idea is to have new experiences, that more people know us, that the country’s media accompany us”, they say, and confess that the goal is to collaborate with “great artists of Argentine popular music”.
Introducing the Band ? Photo: Facebook Driving Street
However, they claim to face social stigma: “When a note of something good comes out of prison they are criticized; much of society unfortunately always criticizes the good things that happen in prison.” Whether behind bars or at home, when Pocho, Diego, Polish, Palta, Diego, Samuel, Bocha, Gastón, Gula, Eduardo, Ivan on drums, Leo, Marco and Nacho take the instruments to rehearse they do so with a common dream: to be free and to be able to continue making music. In this note:
Street Conduct
Ricardo Mollo
Divided
