CAMAGÜEY.- After so much walking through life and exploring day-to-day work on the farm, as a builder of his own home, in animal husbandry, coachman, carpenter ... with 42 years, Alexey is still betting on music and for getting his dream of becoming famous.

He almost got it in Venezuela, but apparently fate wants Polo's history not to be repeated and trained as a singer here, in his country, where his talent will be surely recognized, as they already did in the sister nation so that El Grande don't just be for his height.

—When do you start in music?

- At the age of thirteen I began to play guitar empirically, and at 17, I already sang my own songs in the church accompanied by my guitar. There we put together a musical group called Shalón and we kept it for 12 years, but that stage ended when I made a family and that way I didn't perceive anything financially. The same thing happened to all of us, so everyone grabbed their course and that drawer closed completely.

- At that time, didn't you study music?

- No, everything has been empirical, I don't have a school musical base of any kind. My parents wanted me to be an athlete or a military man because of my height, and what I always wanted was music, but they never gave me the chance to do it because they had misconceptions of what I was then.

—How do you get back to music?

—In 2013 I went to Venezuela for an employment contract as a carpenter. There I met a very special person in my life, Dr. Angela Yanes, who motivates me again to write. It was precisely through a nephew of her that I met Ernesto Sepúlveda, with whom I had the opportunity to record four songs, one of them in Estudios Cantor with Ramsés Alegría (Ram), a personality in the artistic world as a sound engineer, recognized among the best internationally. We recorded the other three tracks with Raziel, another Venezuelan producer: Dejarte de querer, Se enamoró and Yo te quiero (Stop loving you, Fell in love and I love you).

—How do you remember those moments?

—It was a real luxury and a privilege for all the musicians who worked there. In Estudios Cantor it was a live work. Jhon Paul (music producer from Chino and Nacho) participated with my producer, Ram, in the idea of developing the theme Pa' que te enamores de mí, (So that you fall in love with me), who was joined as vocal advisor Armando Loera.

—When do you return to Cuba?

—My stage in Venezuela is over because it gets very hot. Now I am performing in the municipality of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, every Friday at the House of Culture, sometimes some Saturdays; but from there I don't know why I am in a very closed room.

—What about the radio?

—When I came from Venezuela I was playing the Pa' que te enamores de mí on Radio Florida for about two months and it didn't come from there. My aspiration is for someone to be interested in what I do, in the message I want to convey and spread it nationally, which is what I aspire to. I already have 20 recorded tracks and I am producing 10 more.

—And by the official roads, what are the prospects?

—The perspective I have is precisely that they audition me for the House of Culture of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, as a soloist, because I don't have a group, what I have is a musical production. But that takes a while, they recently auditioned in Florida a group that had been waiting for the opportunity for five years. Will I have to wait all that time?

—In addition to Venezuela, where else did you record?

—Now I am recording here in Camagüey with some excellent musicians, the brothers Iván and Luis, from the GMG group (Musical Genesis of this Generation). With these guys I create music, I feel with them, I convey how I want to merge it and in the end everything works and turns out what I had imagined.

“It is that all that is in my head because I did not study, but at the time of writing I am already creating and I am feeling what the music is giving me, as I want it to sound. Some people call that a gift and I think it is a gift that God gave me, although I am a musician who does not master the staff, although I would love it. "

—How is the composition process for you?

—That appears at the moment, I hear something suggestive and parallel to that and start writing. When I get home I take the guitar and give birth to an idea, if I see that it is functional, I follow it, if not, then I leave it. The same for me is a challenge for someone to tell me "Look, write me a theme of such a thing". They have asked me songs of different themes, genres, and I have written them with pleasure because I love to write.

—How do you define your music?

—As a very sincere music. I usually write real things that have happened to me, that's why I tell you that my music is true, it's not an invention. I try to do what people want to hear, which sometimes is not the right thing, but for that there is poetry, without saying obscene words to imply any type of action, as El Guayabero did. Today there are singers who do not use even a metaphor, go straight to the action, describe it as is, regardless of anything. I also have some two-way songs.

—Why that stage name?"

—When Alexey Hernández's name appeared there were many with that name on social networks. Ernesto told me: "Look, you are Alexey the Great, for how big you are," and I went on with that name.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez