THAT'S THE DEAL - An open love letter to dear, old London town

Music, lyrics, mix, voice, electric guitar: Marta de la Fuente
Drum & bass: Jose L. Rodríguez
Violin: Iro Graonidou
I was in the middle of composing another song when the melody of “That’s the deal” came to me. I felt compelled to leave the former aside since I found myself totally hooked on this new calling. “That’s the deal” has two main inspirations Brit Pop and Surrealism. Some time ago I was talking with Jose during a recording session, becase we talk A LOT, and he was telling me about this Uwe Boll character who has become an eminence in the film industry being the best at doing the worst and giving his movies a lousy, kafkian touch. While I was writing the lyrics to the song, a few days later after this conversation, him, Uwe, appeared in the word flow and its zeitgeist and there he set camp.
Video wise I actually started recording scenes for That’s the deal’s clip before having the very song, when this summer I did a short trip to London to attend Bruce Springsteen concert in Hyde Park. My last day there, was sunny as only London can be, and I spent all morning walking around the city centre with my camera. A couple of weeks later, back home, the muse called on me. Let me say I’m particularly proud of the violin phrases I arranged for this piece and of my friend Iro’s performance. Also I praise thoroughly her suggestion of adding an experimental line to complement the other more melodic line we had agreed on. Iro assumed I would just use some bibs and bobs here and there of her very heterodox proposal, but it was so good I used the whole progression only playing with the levels. Bravo Iro!
I realized after my July trip that my initial clips were concentrating more in scenery and that if I wanted to honour a true portrait of London, as places are its people, my footage needed more of those in it. So I found a cheap ticket and, just last week, I incurred in the surrealism of a 24 hour trip to my favourite city in the world, with the only purpose of filming. Also to have dinner with a friend but mainly to film, film, film and film. It is people who are writing the poetry for this city from dusk till dawn, of course the city’s grandeur is king, but truth is, I find fascinating watching and meeting Londoners because they always have something going on. And above all what I love about this tribe -and this extents to Brits in general-, is that they allow themselves to be special, they cultivate the fine art of extravagancy without artifice, naturally, like it’s a national trade.
Funny as it is, the people who were sitting next to me in the plane in this last trip, to and fro, where examples of this open exceptionality: In my way from Almería to London, Mike and his wife were sharing a word puzzle, doing it in turns, all very calmly, as a team work, one came up with a word, the other guessed another one; I had the urge to tell them how adorable it all was. In my return flight, the very smiley man sitting next to me, changed watches before landing, he disposed the digital one with the English time, stored it in his bag, and tied an analogically one to his wrist to embrace fully his Mediterranean escapade. Ha!
During my long ten hour walk around London in which I didn’t even stop to eat, absorbed as I was by the landscape’s charisma, (the view was nourishing) I reflected on the personality of cities. Paris is THE BEAUTY but London is THE SPIRIT, THE ENERGY. And what a vibe this city has and how lucky I am to have lived there! An irony, because in the very beginning I wasn’t that thrilled with the idea of her, of him, (London is whatever (s)he wants to be), and I ended up falling head over heels in love with this magnetic urban cosmos, a success of a hamlet and metropoli all at the same. That is precisely what I find ever so touching about London, its proficient integration, its rough, dodgy hoods, its lavish avenues, dancing around in a circle chanting Sex Pistol Kumbaya. Like someone who’s mastered the shadow work, London is queen of the bold.
And in my experience queen of the extremely amiable and welcoming. In this last trip particularly. A woman gave me a pen, (take it, you can keep it), another woman gave me a free cookie (since when free exits in London!?) Mike from the plane swapped his window seat with mine without even asking since he had seen me with the camera in the airport, two bus drivers, one of them back in July, let me hop on for free: apparently there is free! and last but not least a gentleman paid me the most charming compliment which is too beautiful to even tell. Isn’t it wonderful when love is reciprocal?
Having said all this, I want to extend an enormous THANK YOU to every single person appearing in the video whether or not they knew I was capturing them with my lens because they’ve made this little work of art possible and moreover they make London possible. And this love profusion is doubly meaningful since I am not a city person but, a London person, I am indeed.

[@OBITO1958]

Hummmm... absolute privilege without a doubt, envy for a moment to have lived in London, memories of a few unforgettable days... magical city, multicultural mix of people, urban tribes, traditions and new ways of life that invite you to discover another day, without rushing, under that strange London light...

[@jojoandthecats]

Nice tribute to the best city

[@martadelafuentemusic]

@@jojoandthecats Thanks man