How did your interest in music start?

Mum says I started from a young age. All mothers say that, I guess, but probably she is right. From what I know, I used to wake up all the neighbourhood early morning with all the banging. Pots and pans were my first instruments apparently. Now it might have been for the love of music or the love of food. I think it’s a little bit of both.

I started piano lessons when I was about six but after a few years I quit as I couldn’t take any more of Beethoven and Chopin and, which others? Then, I took up classical guitar which later led me to study the electrical guitar. Something few people might find hard to believe is the fact that I started my ‘vocal career’ singing at St John’s Co-Cathedral together with my cousins Ludwig Galea and Conrad Briffa. We were dressed up as altar boys but were more like little devils.

At St Augustine’s College, I had my biggest push as there I gained my first official band platform. We used to play during school Masses and prize days. Teachers really encouraged us hard to participate in drama and music. There I was also introduced to drama. Later on, I managed to merge the two arts of music and theatre together. That’s why my shows are both musical and visual.

How did you get involved with Bla Kondixin?

Bla Kondixin’s bassist Jonathan Galea knew Wilfred Kenely who knew Michael Fenech, the director, who needed a band. A few calls here and a few rehearsals there landed us on the stage of Bla Kondixin.

Writing the lyrics and combining these to music is not a state secret… how do you go about it?

The recipe for Bla Kondixin is that we take well-known songs and turn them into a parody. It works perfectly. People want to come and have fun, and playing tunes that the audience already knows helps the crowd to join in more easily or sit back and just listen to the lyrics, which are the most important element in the song.

Usually the lyrics are written by individuals from the whole team, so you get different ideas and different points of view concerning every aspect of things happening around us…which is very healthy.

Writing a song or music is already something that challenges you but the most difficult part is getting the inspiration. Thank Heavens we live in Malta, so to find something to write about is not that difficult. All you have to do is take the car and drive around. The inspiration can come from a lot of things, like ending up in one of the few potholes we have on our roads, driving behind a bus trying to hold your breath until you manage to overtake it to avoid being suffocated with the exhaust while making sure a warden doesn’t notice you crossing the double line and ending up paying a Lm20 fine. It can also come by simply reading the paper. Politicians always give us a helping hand.

The musical element plays an essential part in Bla Kondixin. Do you agree and why is this so?

If I say I don’t agree, I’m fired… so I must say I do agree! Joking apart, I think a song can send out a message more easily. Sometimes even the most bitter of messages can sound really sweet and still put a smile on a victim’s face… (if you were ever inspired by one of our songs you know what I mean). I also think that the music adds to the whole Bla Kondixin recipe, just like adding brandy to the pudding. People don’t want to come and just watch and listen. They want to get involved and participate, and I think that music helps in breaking the ice. When a crowd starts clapping and singing along to a song, that is a guarantee that the whole show is a success.

This is going to be your seventh time performing in this festival of satire. Does the Maltese scenario offer enough raw material to transform it into satire, year on year?

If it did not, there would not be a Bla Kondixin year after year. Looking back, the past Bla Kondixin shows can constitute a documentary of what happened in Malta during the last seven years. It’s like a year book. Only, you will find the things we think deserve to end up in this mumbo jumbo. So many things happen in a year without sometimes people noticing them... that’s why we are there, to look for the needle in the haystack, and to cover the big gaffes the VIPs make during the year. That’s why Bla Kondixin remains fresh.

Why do you think the Maltese public attend Bla Kondixin year after year? Is it because it is the only form of theatre where politicians are taken for a ride, irrespective of whether they are blue, red, green, black or yellow?

So who’s running for the yellows? I don’t agree that Bla Kondixin is the only show where politicians are taken for a ride but I do agree that people come flocking to buy the tickets year after year. I know people who never missed a year. You get different types of people who buy tickets for Bla Kondixin, and their reaction differs from one another. I think the fact that the show itself has mixed ingredients and what appeals to one person doesn’t always appeal to the other gives the audience a little bit of everything to everyone. As I said, people want to be entertained and that is what Bla Kondixin is all about. And let’s admit it, there are those who come year after year for the simple fact that they like to be spanked.

Give me your description of “heaven”.

Oh, that is a good question as I never thought about heaven. I always wished to go to hell. At least that’s where the bad guys go... no? So I might find some interesting people there.

Don’t run away from the question…

If you insist, heaven is waking up in the morning and having someone serving you all day as soon as you clap your hands ordering good food, listening to good music with friends and family, having a container full of guitars shipped to your house every month and being free to do and say whatever you want. Don’t pay taxes and bills… Choosing the type of weather that suits your mood of the day and be able to switch from one season to another whenever you want. Having one cool prime minister that serves the country well so you’ll never have to think who you will be voting for…

Ok, we get the idea…

My heaven is endless…

OK, ok, and your description of “hell”?

Routine. I think it’s the most boring thing in life but hell must be a place where you suffer a lot. I think Satan will make you listen to all Celine Dion’s music over and over again. Feed you rubbish. Ban you from meeting the ones you care for and shutting your mouth. These, apart from some more gruesome exercises that I’d rather not mention as this page will be read by everyone.

And what about “limbo”?

Limbo doesn’t exist. You see, with religion things work the other way round. Usually people discover things they never thought were actually there. With religion it’s not like that: first we were taught that the earth was flat... then someone said it’s round… so it’s round. They made us believe that there is limbo... but some days ago someone made a declaration that the limbo is not there anymore. So it’s not there anymore… who knows what else is next!

And the other band members this year?

What about them? They are preparing, working hard, ready to deliver, like always. It’s the same line-up as last year. If the menu is good, don’t change it. Mark Attard - keyboard, Reuben Navarro - drums, Jonathan Galea - bass and on vocals we have the two Laras: Lara Lanfranco and Lara Said Pullicino

You are closely associated with the successful band Fakawi. What does Fakawi stand for? No bad language, please.

No bad language, please! OK Skip… Seriously, it’s about a tribe that got lost in a field planted with long grass and suddenly they call the name of the band adding “where the …” before it. Fakawi are working hard too, preparing to finally go in studio to record some songs. We’ve been anxiously waiting for this. Surprises to come.

The Festival of Satire Bla Kondixin 2007

Bla Kondixin 2007 will be performed live in the Sir Temi Zammit Hall, University of Malta on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in October 19- 21 and 26- 28, and on November 2-4. All shows start at 7.30 p.m.

Booking from St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity on 2122 3216 or [email protected]; website www.blakondixin.com.