Before we get to the most jaded (and fun) interviewee I’ve ever had the privilege of recording on camera, I’d like to start with a question:

The USA’s Internal Revenue Service no longer thinks so. They just released proposed regulations that would remove the requirement for many workers to pay taxes on their first $25,000 in tips. The professions listed include club dancers, plumbers, lawn care workers, golf caddies, babysitters, rickshaw drivers, water taxi drivers — and buskers.

I know this is a contentious issue. On the one hand, public spaces need maintaining by cities, and taxes are how we pay for that. On the other, you could make a strong argument that tips to buskers should be just as tax-exempt as donations to any other art institutions.

So, I would like to know the thoughts of the busking community — wherever you are in the world.

NOTE: If I get enough good responses I’ll republish them here. If you don’t want to be quoted or named, let me know in your email. I will not republish statements about specific political parties, but general observations about political outlooks are fine.

We filmed Peter playing popular classical music on a keyboard hooked to a small speaker, on a sunny day in a small, leafy plaza between a quiet road and a closed church. When we met, Peter was just a few decorative pieces short of looking like a German SS officer, wearing a black, wide-brimmed hat, a black, ankle-length leather jacket and round, wire-rimmed glasses. The semblance was reinforced by his general attitude, which is, by his own words, “uncompromising”.

Note: a young boy had been learning how to roller skate throughout Peter’s entire performance, causing him to stop playing twice due to the noise. Christian was the incredibly kind ‘fixer’ that had organised this and many other interviews for us while we stayed in Barcelona.

Peter: So, are you going to interview me?

Nick: I am going to interview you. I hate being on camera, but...

Peter: Really, why? Most people die to be on a camera, don’t they?

Nick: I don’t like the way I look.

Peter: Your look? Why, what do you mean?

Nick: I’m overweight and I’ve got silly hair that’s receding.

Peter: Well look at me! I’ve got silly hair.

Nick: Maybe we look good next to each other then (laughs)

Peter: Yeah, we complement each other… They say that the camera never lies, the camera shows how you really are. It’s a terrible sort of weapon, isn’t it?

[Roller skating noises]

Nick: Hey Christian, maybe you can ask that kid if he can roller-skate over there? Be nice, we haven’t spoken to him yet, but we can’t do the interview with that noise.

Peter: That kid never stopped with his roller-skating while I was playing, it’s really annoying actually. I like kids, but some of them…obviously they’re not trying to sabotage your performance, they don’t know, but…you know?

Nick: Yeah, they don’t know, right? Innocence, ignorance...

Peter: They’re just innocent. But the parents should know.

Nick: One of the hassles of street performance?

Peter: Yeah, parents. Not the children really. The children would actually listen and be quiet, but some of the parents are, you know, adults.

Nick: Well, whatever.

Peter: What do you mean, whatever?

Nick: (laughs) It doesn’t matter, let’s forget about it.

Peter: And move on.

Nick: Yeah, in the past, right?

Peter: It is in the past. I can move on.

Nick: Why don’t you tell us a little bit about how you came to be a street performer, and what do you get out of it? And I’m afraid that because we don’t have a massive amount of time for each street performer–

Peter: –I’ve got to keep it short and concise. Snappy answers that sound good.

Nick: Well, it doesn’t have to sound good, just what you–

Peter: –Well, you see, you have to be more specific. Ask me a specific question.

Nick: How long have you been busking?

Peter: On and off for about 20 years.

Nick: About 20 years. Why did you start?

Peter: Because I was playing a lot of piano in a theatre in London. I was playing so much I got tendonitis in my right elbow, here. So I went to this doctor, a massage guy, and he said–

[More roller skating noises]

Nick: Hold on a second. 

Peter: Yeah, those things are noisy. You see, Barcelona is a victim of its own success, it’s dying of success, Muriendo de éxito.

Nick: How do you feel the tourists have changed—

Peter: I haven’t finished my story.

Nick: I’m sorry.

Peter: So, I got this tendonitis in my right elbow and I had to stop playing for a while, more than 6 months. I needed something to do, because I was on what we call “the dole” in England, the social state, because how can I work playing the piano? I was bored, mainly bored. So I started on the mandolin, because I rather like Irish music, and because with the mandolin you use a pick, a plectrum, so it’s less work for the tendons that go through the arm.

I started busking in London playing Irish music on the mandolin, and it was really good. I got to like it so much that when I recovered, playing the piano just didn’t seem that interesting. I preferred busking. And I met some musicians. This was in 1994. They said, “We’re going to Barcelona, we’ve heard it’s good there”. And I thought ‘yeah, it could be’. And I stayed here, like you do. You get into a routine. I’ve traveled a lot in Europe, playing—

Nick: You’ve busked through Europe?

Peter: Yes, yes. Not with the piano, but with the flute and other instruments, some mandolin a bit.

Nick: So you play the mandolin, the flute, the piano...

Peter: …the harp and the saxophone, and other things as well.

Nick: What are some of the positive sides of busking?

Peter: That’s a good question. [Long pause.] There aren’t any, really. Because you’re illegal, you’re a piece of shit when you’re busking. Can I say that on camera, can I say ‘shit’? can I say ‘bottom’? You are just the lowest of the low, you’re a beggar. And so people treat you….

[Peter looks past the camera and straightens up]

Peter: That guy has taken something, you’ve just been robbed.

[Pauses while Nick runs off to stop the guy running up the street with our bag]

Peter: Is the camera still rolling? Yes? You see, that’s Barcelona.

[Behind us, out of view of the camera crew, a man had picked up one of our empty camera bags and was walking off with it. Once Peter spotted the theft, we ran after the guy, pinned him down and searched his pockets for what else he might have taken. He was clean and begging for mercy, so we let him go and returned to ask Peter a final question.

Nick: What do you think of the other buskers you’ve met?

Peter: What do I personally think of the other musicians? As musicians or as people?

Nick: Well, you gave us a choice word earlier.

Peter: Did I say, “Bunch of heartless, money-grubbing crooks”? That’s how many words? That’s too many words. In one word, I would say…capitalists. Seriously into the money.

I—as you’ve seen, if you’ve been seeing me play—I make very little money. But I know people who just mime, but, you know, they make a thousand euros a day. Because, after all, in the street you can make 500 euros in a couple of hours. You’ve got something that connects with people, and there’s a lot of people here, so you can make a lot of money.

Because people are incredibly stupid. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this. In the world, most people want shit. You said I can say that word, okay. They want that. People say, “Oh, I just want the crap that that guy’s playing with the playback [backing track]. I want Ave Maria played badly, out of tune, with some playback.”

That’s a terrible thing for me, being the sort of person I am, which is uncompromising. Now, the thing is—and people hate me for this—but it comes back to the idea of ‘what is success’. Street performers need this kind of ego massage constantly. They see it like, “If I make a lot of money I’m somebody, I’m good.” So, street performers are no different from anybody else.

But, they’re more capitalist than the average person who thinks, ‘Well, I just want a nice place to live and a family, to have a holiday and a nice life.’ But street performers think, ’No, I want to make money, I want to be the best one that makes the most money.’

You might not agree with everything Peter said, but it takes bravery to be that honest on camera. He’s one of the people we met in 2011 that I thought could be the subject of a documentary. I wouldn’t agree that buskers are more capitalist than your average person, nor that generic shows make more money than interesting or unique ones.

Perhaps there is a reason for his bitterness. The Barcelona government had recently cracked down on busking in the years leading up to our interview, and that was bound to poison the water a little. Too many artists were limited to too few pitches, which was bound to lead to tensions.

If you want to hear him playing and talking, here’s what we cut together from filming him that day (I was playing around with transitions, which are a bit distracting):