Labels are odious but... How would you define your sound?
Joan: I think Pop - Rock - Punk, so we're cured of our fears, eh?
Aleix: We make music that is quite melodic but with groove and above all, with a high emotional content.
What has this past year been like?
J: It has been a good year because we have been able to do what we like the most with people we love. We've toured swinging in 25 venues on the peninsula, at festivals, we've done a very long tour in a motorhome, a thousand things have happened that we'll remember for the rest of our lives.
A: With the money generated by the band we have been able to buy a safer van to continue touring and travelling everywhere. Until now we were using mine with a very high probability of dying in case of an accident.
Excuse me if this is a bit personal but, now that some years have passed, what happened in Chile to the protagonist of the song "Abril" from your first album?
J: She lived through the earthquake of February 2010 and when all the telecommunications went down I couldn't talk to her for 3 days.
How have you lived these years of change since 2016, with your first job,
to 2019, where you have released one of the most powerful and freshest albums on the national scene. From playing in small venues to being on the bill of the main festivals in Spain (Low, Sonorama, Mad Cool, etc).
A: We live immersed in the day to day where everything is very normal and evident because we have been working intensely since the first moment we decided to create Cala Vento. Since then, everything has been happening gradually and smoothly and from the inside you can clearly see why everything that has happened has happened because we have been very present in every phase and at every moment. We have learned an enormous amount of things.
What remains unchanged from the Cala Vento in 2016, and how are you different in 2020?
Joan: We still get goosebumps writing songs, we are still two of us on stage, we still understand each other when we play...
A: We are still the same guys who are excited about finding a way to enjoy our music, although a bit older and more mature. It's obvious that now we work every day with much more knowledge and experience, and that gives us more courage when it comes to making decisions. The rucksack is fuller. Even so, we try to use this experience to see things with more distance and start other projects that before would have been impossible to even consider, like our own record label.
What is your favourite Cala Vento song, any song you don't like to play already?
J: I think "Fin de ciclo" from Balanceo might be one of my favourites. The ones where the drums get more repetitive are the ones I like the least, but in the end they're songs that we've made ourselves and we think they're amazing, I don't think I'll ever get tired of playing them (we usually modify them live to bring them back to life).
A: My favourites are the songs with the most rounded lyrics, with which the emotional connection is strongest. So, I could include: "Hay que arrimar, Isla desierta, Estoy enamorado de ti, Do de pecho or Fin de ciclo". On the other hand, I don't like to play those that have more empty lyrics or those that I don't connect with as much.
How do you see mainstream artists taking centre stage at festivals like Mad Cool? Get wet!
J: Well, we should simply stop calling them indie or alternative music festivals, because at those levels the concept of alternative music hardly exists anymore. Bands that consider themselves indie try to collaborate with mainstream musicians to gain success and the other way round, but... Let everyone do what they want, life is too short to be talking bad about groups trying to be happy no matter what!
What are your national and international references?
A: Well, people we admire for what they do and, above all, for how they do it. For example: Nueva Vulcano, Viva Belgrado, Berri Txarrak, Pinegrove, Arctic Monkeys...
How do you see the alternative rock scene, are there bands in the underground that you see with projection, in this era where "urban music" is predominant?
J: That's where alternative music really exists and where there is an audience for the scene. There are a thousand incredibly talented guitar bands playing gigs out there. Urban music, flamenco, electronic, dubsteb, reggeaton, bosanova... may be in fashion, but if anything is never going to disappear, it's rock & roll.
Aleix: I won't get tired of repeating it, rock will never die!
Your live shows are highly acclaimed, is there any concert that you remember with particular sweetheart?
J: From this year's tour I'd like to highlight the presentation of Balanceo in Barcelona, in the main hall of Apolo, where I've seen so many concerts and I've dreamed all my life of playing one there. Seeing it full of people singing our songs was crazy, there is a video summary on Youtube that proves it... I also fondly remember the one at the BBK festival, People from all over Spain gathered there, the marquee where we played was full and it was crazy.
Where does the strength, the rage, the melancholy of Cala Vento, one of your hallmarks, come from?
J: We have been sucked all our lives from rock, punk or even hardcore bands, that viscerality or violence is transmitted in the live performances of these groups. I guess that's where it comes from because there's nothing intentional.
A: De Joan playing the drums.
Thanks guys!
Related news
