from CNN, August 31, 1999
La Coruña, Spain

How would you explain the huge acceptance of your music in Spain?

 

Because I'm really a guitarist, a real musician, able to play an instrument as the guitar. In my last tour I've used synths and other gadgets, but the guitar has been the main instrument. That, and the slight influence of flamenco in my music, are the reasons for which I think the Spanish audiences like me.

 

The release of Guitars hasn't let you comfortably enjoy the success reached with Tubular Bells III. Why two records in such a short time?

 

I was preparing my new project for the new millennium and I had few spare time, but it was enough to record the album I owed to Warner. But I wasn't interested in just fulfilling a contract. I also wanted a worthy work with which I could close another of my stages, and thus be able to face the year 2000 with something new and different. For that reason I decided to record an album where everything was surrounded by the guitar, and it was the great protagonist.

 

You have always stood out for your innovative spirit, even stepping forward to the music trends of each moment. What can we hope of Mike Oldfield in the new millennium?

 

I'm currently working on a concert to welcome the new millennium, which will be held the night of the 31st of December. I still don't know if it will be in London or in New Zealand, where the first dawn of the 2000 will be seen. It's a very ambitious project, for which I'll have a musical representation of each country, and will be a historical retrospective from the coming of Jesus Christ until our days, passing through different periods such as the discovery of America, slavery, the golden age of Venezia, the Romanticism, the Second World War... Music and image will combine in this show of intimate character (it will be presented to only a hundred of spectators), and will conclude with the sound of a bell, designed in Japan, which will indicate the change of millennium. Once the midnight is hit I'll play one of my new compositions.

 

Do you have in mind recording it for future release to the market?

 

Yes, I want to do it, and I'll perhaps work again with Richard Branson for this to become possible. He is very interested in my project, and I'm also interested in working with him again. With this we could renew the old relationship of my years with Virgin.

 

The recording industry sees a dangerous enemy in some of the uses of the Internet, as the MP3 format, which allows access to songs without any cost for the user. What's your opinion in that respect?

 

I think that the Internet is something fantastic and exciting, which can be a tool of great help to the artist. While most part of the companies are in hands of 4 or 5 multinationals, the Net represents the total anarchy. The Internet is an exciting world that will help to reinvent music, and I like that because it appeals me. Like serpents, I like to shed my skin every so often and start again... and that's what the Net represents, to leave the past and hope for the future.

 

Are you interested in contemporary music?

 

Only what I listen to sometimes on the television or on the radio stations. My work, be it recording, playing or composing, absorbs most of my time, and when I have some spare time I dedicate it to meditation or to rest. I don't exactly follow the music trends, but if I listen to something and I like it, it can influence my work. This is why I chose the techno rhythms for Tubular Bells III.

 

How started your relation with Luar Na Lubre?

 

It was by chance. During that time I went out with a galician girl. On a trip to La Coruña I called my record company in Madrid to ask about interesting shows in the city, and they prepared me an exclusive concert with Luar Na Lubre. I was impressed. Although at first my plans didn't include working with them, while recording Voyager, I thought that they could perhaps participate in the project, so we started a good relationship, that has been kept until today.

 

Do you think the group could get public acceptance outside Spain?

 

Yes, of course, and it's starting. The traditional music market is very limited and I think that if the galician music wants to progress it has to be open to the influences of other countries, as has happened in Ireland, where other sounds, as rock, have been interweaved with the celtic roots.

 

Are the United States a pending subject?

 

It has been some time since I went there last time, since 1992, and that has an explanation. It's very expensive to bring my show, with 40 musicians on stage, to the other side of the Atlantic. But now it's different, because my band is reduced to 6 members. That represents a great reduction in the expenses chapter, and it could be a great advantage thinking of a possible comeback in the USA. We're actually studying bringing the millenium tour to the US in a small tour in different cities.

 

What made you move to Ibiza?

 

Ibiza has a great history, and a valuable legacy, because of all the cultures that have populated the island and who always considered it as sacred territory. Ibiza was surrounded with a lot of mysticism, but then it was transformed into the party capital of Europe, with inmense discos and thousands of people devoted to fun. Of course, that only lasts a few months each year, but after two years living there, I got a bit tired of all that so I sold my home, and I returned to my country.

 

Tubular Bells III is a record with a very "Ibiza" feel to it...

 

Ibiza wasn't as much the influence as a techno tape that a friend lent me while I was there, and introduced me to a style that was then unknown to me. I liked it, and so I decided to incorporate it to Tubular Bells III.