Interview With Diego Leon - Norwich, June 2023

Interview with Diego Leon, Musician and member of La Perspectiva Artists Collective

Norwich has a long and proud history of welcoming people from afar. The Strangers Hall, which was the home of Thomas Southerton in the 1500s, was nicknamed so because he attracted and welcomed Dutch Calvinists, who fled from Spanish persecutors to England. These weavers had a long-reaching influence on the city by introducing canaries, (the source of the local football club’s  nickname), new architectural styles and strengthening the local economy through the application of their skills.

Diego Leon and Ohianna Garcia. Photo Copyright, Ardin Hasa

One morning, this mid-summer, I had the pleasure of sitting down with a multi-talented musician and cultural entrepreneur, Diego Leon to listen to his experiences of moving to Norwich and his ambitions to build connections between overseas musicians and artists who find themselves living in Norwich.

 

Perhaps the last thing I expected to be hearing was the question, “Do you know how much it costs to get a hired gun in Guatemala?”

 

The home country of Diego Leon is still struggling with the aftermath of decades of a civil war that ended in 1996.  There are extreme disparities in wealth and health. Its place on the Pan-American Highway makes it vulnerable to interference from drug gangs and disruption from neighbouring countries.  Questions of inclusive and sustainable development remain unanswered by the neo-liberal, free market ideologists, so the people of Guatemala are left to worry about life’s basics; food, drink and a roof to sleep under.

 

This also means that Guatemalan artists do what they do because of the need to express creativity.  The dream of making a living through artistic means is nothing more than that, at least while GNP per capita in Guatemala is around $4,490 USD a year.  Which is where it was when last estimated, in 2020.  That is just $86 USD a week.  Bearing in mind that is an average income, many people have incomes far below that, if they have a regular income at all.

 

Leon’s grandfather, German, is a case in point.  A working carpenter and joiner, while planning a door, or making a window frame, German often pauses to write out a poem with a carpenter’s pencil on the piece of wood he is working.  He then returns to his task and the poem goes with the completed piece to the customer. It delights Diego to think that his beloved grandfather’s poetry is decorating homes and buildings in his hometown. This is art for art’s sake, because unlike the graffiti of Banksy, it goes public for free until it is painted over, or sand-papered away, not stolen or auctioned for millions of £s.

 

The temporality of his grandfather’s poetry provides a link with the music played by Leon in the small venues, indoors or outside, that he manages to find to perform in around Norwich. There is an EP online, Ecléctico.  It has a light touch is perfect summer listening, (or winter listening when in Norwich and dreaming of summer), but is in live performance that Leon particularly thrives. The notes following the themes, but interpreted to suit the mood and environment at the time are for the audience now, for the present.

The EP is another point in time, however beautiful.  Being present in a live show, performer and audience is the electricity of music through which we truly connect. Then, like his grandfather’s poetry, the melodies and phrases are carried away to the homes of the individual audience members, the artist’s work now passed to the witness.

 

To be paid £50 for an opening slot at one of the city’s prime venues is a significant step for Leon, but he has long known that this is not the pathway to riches.  In fact, unlike many aspiring artists, he does not want to have a job as a musician.  He does not want to lose the desire to play.  He is staunch in his belief that art and music feed the soul, that there is a sanctity attached to art that might be compromised when earning pay, not art, becomes the priority.

 

Diego’s day job involves coffee, serving tables, washing dishes and cleaning his employer’s premises.  The reality is that making a living as an artist in the UK happens for those who know the right people and who get lucky.  The truth is that there has never been so many practising artists, musicians, writers, acrobats, performers and actors. While the Internet makes art accessible to the world, the Internet fails to pay its dues.  Being an artist from overseas in the UK is just one of the challenges that Diego faced on coming to live with here.

 

But that £50 fee, when the size of the audience and the ticket prices for the headliners, were accounted for, showed that artists in Norwich can make something from performance that will help pay the bills.  The questions then are, where to perform and how to get a manager of a venue to take a risk on an unknown artist.  Businesses are at risk if a venue cannot attract paying customers, The bigger the venue, the bigger the gamble on the unknown. Is this a reason why we have so many cover bands and revival bands, rather than new faces to appreciate?

 

Having arrived just in Norwich in time to get locked down in the Covid-19 pandemic, Leon was desperate to meet someone with whom he could speak Spanish from time to time.  Realising that a young woman working at a bar in the city was from the Iberian Peninsula meant that, at last, Diego had someone to call on and with whom he could speak his mother tongue.

 

As it turned out, not only had Diego found a Spanish speaker, but someone who is a poet.  Oihane Garcia, from Vitoria had already established a network of fellow poets, all from places other than the UK.  Together Diego and Oihanne formed the basis of an artists’ collective, now known as La Perspectiva.

 

The challenge for these writers and musicians was to find venues where they might put on a show and express their creativity to the Norwich public.  With the art world re-opening and audiences returning to live entertainment, I would have thought that venue managers would have jumped at the chance to work with new talent.  However, finding welcoming venues has proved hard work.  Voodoo Daddy’s Showroom, The Last Pub Standing, The Louis Marchesi and The Merchant House, all intimate and friendly venues all were willing to take a punt, but larger venues have yet to prove quite so accepting.

 

Leon realised that an artistic revolution is needed to free the voices of the unheard. “We are not guilty of being who we are, but we will be guilty of living how others want us to live.”  he proposes.  Expressive art, whether it be painting, dance, poetry or music, is a need to be heard.  Art is all about finding a way to share how artists see the world, good or bad, by whatever medium. It is about finding the artist finding their own voice to share with others ideas, to stimulate thinking, discussion and to entertain.

 

The intense effort required to become established as a promoter in post-pandemic Norwich has surprised this Guatemalan musician.  For two years, doors have remained closed, only allowing a little light to creep underneath, offering just a smidgeon of hope.

 

Arts Council funding aims to widen participation and encourage new, young creatives to step forward.  This was a tremendous policy shift during the pandemic, a shift designed to encourage art to bloom from all quarters of the country, as opposed to the idea of predominantly funding an elite cadre of artists, who attract international attention.  Hearing this man’s experience, I wonder whether the change in emphasis at the national funding body has been poorly communicated, or have some people in the arts business grown complacent, or just post-Covid cautious?

 

It is probably more complicated than that, but to an outsider, seeking an outlet to contain a strong local and online following, working with a range of other young artists who have originated from elsewhere, Leon felt he must peel the onion a different way, as despite his obvious talent, he was getting nowhere, slowly.

 

La Perspectiva was originally his and Oihanna’s umbrella name for a collective of creatives from overseas, who want to connect and share their work in a classic artistic circle on a regular basis.  The collective needed a name to help give a focus and to stamp an identity on an otherwise displaced crew.  Naming it made it and created a sense of belonging for those who have found themselves congregated in a foreign city.

 

Diego Leon is technically a highly accomplished musician, whether on acoustic guitar, keyboards, or electric guitar. The quality of his music is remarkable, whichever instrument he plays – and of course he can sing too.  Is this technical mastery what he demands from fellow artists, whatever their discipline?

 

“I believe in good music.”

 

“How is that defined?” I press him. 

 

Leon places his right hand on his chest, “Good music is music that is played with the heart.”

 

With a learning mentality that underscores everything he does, Diego Leon would rather play alongside musicians of whatever current technical standard, as long as they want to grow as performers.  They must want to work at their craft, acknowledge their weaknesses or mistakes and keep growing – every day. For such a softly spoken, undemonstrative character, this is one of two character defining traits that emerge from our conversation this morning. 

 

The first is his determination. Leon is rock solid in his commitment to working to make La Perspectiva succeed.  His vision is to lay a foundation for creating opportunities for fellow Norwich-based artists to launch themselves, to share their work, to have faith that what they create will be seen, their voices heard.  

 

After three or more years away from Guatemala, Leon was encouraged to return to his home town to re-connect with his family and friends, not least his mother and grandfather.  It was his father’s suggestion that the time had come to show his family in Guatemala that Leon had grown up a little, was able to hold down regular work, connect with good people and make something of his music.

 

Working long-distance with his friend Michelle, he laid on a free concert in the impressive colonial-style concert house of Quetzaltenango. With family in attendance, the packed out show, became a magical experience for all.  The home-coming of a prodigal son.  Of course, this is not Hollywood story, life has to go on.  The concert was more of a drop-in to say Hey! I’m still with you and You’re still with me. It was a life-affirming moment for all present, Leon recounts.

 

After that vital reconnection with home, the musician has returned to Norwich, ever more fired up to make La Perspectiva work for his burgeoning ex-patriot artists collective.

 

The Merchant House, by Fye Bridge has an acoustically beautiful walled backyard. Warm it wasn’t when Oihane Garcia brought her fellow poets from La Perspectiva to an event called El Fin de la Siesta.  It featured music and poetry in Japanese, Turkish, Greek-Cypriot and Spanish. The poems were sometimes performed with translation to English, sometimes without.  It was a beautiful evening, while also absolutely freezing cold, (after all, it was only early-June in Norwich).  This was the first big entertainment that La Perspectiva had backed, but Garcia’s hosting and all the poetry, including her own, went down a storm with the sold-out, paying audience.

 

An important part of the evening for Leon was to be able to display and encourage purchase of some textiles, paintings and craftwork from artists from his home town.  He is painfully aware of the disparity in wealth between the UK and Guatemala and the display of these pieces of art was a sincere attempt to show his friends back home that art can generate some income. He wanted to show that it is possible to get something more that intrinsic satisfaction of being creative from artistic endeavour, something that might help feed and house a family.

 

I am not sure how successful this first small exhibition of contemporary Guatemalan art was, but you can be sure that Diego Leon will think about how that idea can be improved.  The simple stall was more evidence of the ambition of the man to open doors, provide outlets for expression to support fellow artists.  I am sure that Diego Leon will be a name that you will hear more about and not just because of his delightful music and The Diego Leon Band.

 

He is a remarkable character, with an inspirational approach to life’s challenges. Follow him on Instagram @diegodeleonar and look out for more “La Perspectiva presents...” events. The first of these have proved very well-supported by paying customers, as well as beautifully executed and quite moving.

 

Oh, the answer to the question of how much it would cost to hire a hitman in Guatemala?  $10.00.

 

As we stood to go our separate ways, I made to shake Diego’s hand and was offered a parting hug, with thanks for how much he had enjoyed our conversation.  That’s not really how interviews are supposed to work, but what a nice guy he is and I wish him every success with his ventures.

A Spanish translation of this article is available here.

Spencer Ide, Norwich

28th June, 2023