translated from Spanish: Roberto Marquez: “Since 1973 we haven’t spent so much time without seeing each other. Direct contact cannot be replaced”

Despite being away from the stage, the band constantly uploads archives of past concerts. The singer is eager to return and is preparing for his concert via streaming “I come back… With meaning and reason” on September 26th. Javiera Palta OlmosDesy the band started in 1971 it was decided that they would rehearse every day. “I remember in Antofagasta we rehearsed from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday to Thursday or Monday to Friday,” says Roberto Márquez, vocalist of Illapu.In the almost 50 years of the band, this proposal has not been fulfilled twice: after the Military Coup and now, in the pandemic. However, the essays have been returning in preparation for their next presentation “I return… With meaning and reason.” The appointment is scheduled for Saturday, September 26 at 9 p.m. and tickets are on sale on the DaleTicket system.According to Marquez, the idea was given. “We are a group that acts a lot live, we have a very special connection with the public. We have been with us for almost 50 years now and in those 50 years we have been reflecting that bond, that history with our people,” he says. In April, the band released “Surviving in Quarantine”, a video in which members appear in their homes playing Victor Heredia’s piece of music. “We tried to make a new theme but we felt it was coming back, it was repeating the same thing,” the singer says, “How was the idea of the concert born? We started to come up with whether it wasn’t possible to do something here in the rehearsal room, and prepare it so that we could live stream at best two, three songs. Then the alternative arose from those who are producing the concert and also, on the part of a friend who was even linked to the work of the Illapu, calls me and says that they are thinking of starting live streams. There they joined both and started walking all quickly, have you met with the band? I’ve met some of them. In our case it’s very incredible. From the beginning we decided that we had to rehearse every day. At the beginning, in Antofagasta we practiced from 3 to six in the afternoon from Monday to Friday or Monday to Thursday if we had a presentation on Fridays. That was interrupted at the time of the coup in Chile, where we were almost a year untouched. But there the group had practically disarmed and reassealed, say by the end of the year 74 again. We are a group that we are seeing every day, that we have a very daily connection and this moment came, it must have been about 5 months without seeing any of the musicians… But now we’re done, we’re starting to get together because we’re already putting the concert together, and we’re going to start working again with all the measures, do you miss the audience? A lot. But look, I’m lucky to work with whoever’s in charge of our networks and that means that from the first day of lockdown we started publishing daily. I started to dig into everything we had, all my files and with Osvaldo we started to devise every day in a very direct connection with our audience. We’ve consistently maintained that communication so I’m seeing the answers every day and coming up with other things to maintain that connection. I feel like it’s a way we’re getting used to. There are other sensations that also occur when you are with people, so we are so critical suddenly when you are in a group of I do not know, 4 young people, and each is with their cell phone communicating with anyone and the 4 that are there have 0 interaction, you look? I think direct contact with the person can’t be replaced. Yes, especially since we are with sensations that are not easy to cope with. The truth is that the band misses it so much and especially when you see them again, when you’re in the rehearsal room working you feel how much you needed them. How did you think chili changed after the outburst? Look, I think the deepest change has to do with feeling again that it is possible to change this Chile that seemed structured, right, immovable. Those who were in the dictatorship – and many of them are today – worried about leaving everything in such a way that there was no possibility of change. What caused October 18 was to say “no, this is not immovable, this can change, and we want to change this.” Then people went out to say no more. No more abuse. There is a resounding change in society and above all I feel it in the mentality of our people. We feel that pDo you have plans for October 18? There will be a lot of things and we’re going to be absolutely on it. As we were at the demonstrations, as we were right there in the Plaza de la Dignidad. We were very closely linked and obviously whatever comes when it’s going to be a year old, we’ll be. Today, September 11, Illapu will participate with different groups in commemorative events. “We’re going to be in the way it’s used now, Zoom, or whatever, with some songs, some messages,” he says.

Original source in Spanish