To be a new group and invite pleasure: chat with Babasónicos

To be a new group and invite pleasure: chat with Babasónicos

Where they come from and where they go: Panza and Uma talk to Aldo Mejía about the project's renewal.

Text by Aldo Mejía

Photos by Edgar Salazar

After two albums in which they revisited the songs that helped to build what are now the Babasónicos, the Argentine band was not allowed to rest and they immediately went to record their twelfth studio album: Disputable (2018 ).

On December 9, they will make a stop in Mexico to meet their fans. That's why we met the drummer and the guitarist of the group to talk about this new scene.

Lifeboxset: How to start a new cycle after five years since Romantisísmico (2013)?

Diego "Uma" Rodríguez: The most difficult thing was to come back and compose differently, because we spent eight or nine months rehearsing to get Faith and Faith Replacement, having greater ease in playing songs and forming a new group with the same members. . With that, I think we learned a lot for the new stage.

When we returned to the studio, we decided not to repeat because we had done so for a long time. So we thought of a new production method in which, like pop or rap, we would record one song after another without the need to present the song with a guitar and then add it, or give versions. Then, it's a new way of composing, producing and recording that led us to this situation. Some time ago we had introduced Discutable and are now facing the next step of bringing it to a successful conclusion.

For Diego "Panza" Castilian, before entering the recording studio, the uncertainty and adrenaline that they mobilize persist and that "it is the spark that manages to make an imbalance and that makes us out of the limits that impose, "assures the drummer in a voice full of tranquility. "To go a little beyond the limit, you have to be unstable."

Lifeboxset: Is it difficult to make changes to songs that always look fresh?

"Uma" Rodríguez: The changes are minimal because of the technical impossibility of taking a song that is somehow in the album to live. In my case, in The Question, I recorded some maderitas that would not ring with anything next, then I sampled them and from there, I filmed them. For everyone, these technical questions are changing, but the most important thing is to preserve this spirit of the live song. And also some songs that we did not do a long time ago, how are we going to play them with the instruments we use now, what is the current way of transporting this music so that it also has an impact on the new material and does not remain neglected.

Lifeboxset: In the song Orfeo, a character asks who his fans are because their songs belong to them. What is the relationship of the group with those who listen to them?

"Uma" Rodríguez: We have the greatest respect for the public because we make music for them, for those who want to listen to it, and for years we have played in small towns, cities, auditoriums or stadiums , the group changed, but never the first. make music. We love the public very much because we take innovation very seriously, the message to convey and the handshake to someone who is in the well: how to help it out of this confusion . It's like calling the horn in the fog that brings people together to see us, to try to change the world and see who is with us.

We think it's very important in our life that the fan finds a useful life on the disc. We do it so that it lasts a long time, it is not something temporary. And if you listen to Pasto (1992) or Miami (1999), they talk about a conjuncture, from an era in which they were involved and I think that Disputable is very similar in that sense. With the addition that he is concerned to see how this continues.

Lifeboxset: Personally, I have the impression that with each record, they force their fans to sit down and give them enough time for what they've composed.

Spanish "Panza": This is not so much an obligation but an invitation to pleasure. I think when you do something, in this case with music, you wonder if the world needs it or not. We try to do something that leaves a good one, we have to confront the reality to demonstrate that everything is not what is seen, communicates absolute truths. Things generate a certain seat, especially if it's aesthetic. One of the most notable changes concerns the aesthetics of the potada and I think it's strong, we see it and shows you the urban world that is an absolute confusion: one thing that covers the # 39; other. Novelty does not last.

"Uma" Rodríguez: However, we are not against that or against what we are demonstrating, sometimes we do it to see how that progresses. We know that all ages are a cycle and that all forms of music or fashion are also a cycle. In the case of Discutible's graphic art, it is interesting to see that what we are feeling now is covered with a superior sign.

Spanish "Panza": Instead of being like a sign or an ornament of music, it speaks for itself and complements itself with the visual, as it is the snake that still had a head.

Lifeboxset: Have you ever had the feeling of having accomplished all that you had the intention to do?

"Uma" Rodríguez: No, I think we do not have everything, we miss a lot of things. Someone recently asked us what our heritage was, but no, it comes later. I think it's not that I wanted to have more, but that we have more to give ourselves, that we have many more things because every time we come together and we see that the world has a little changed, we can manifest it. The world is changing almost all the time and that is something we can manifest.

Lifeboxset: Is freedom something to brag about?

"Uma" Rodríguez: Yes, from the first step. Our grace is that we do what we want and in the process of creation we decide what is and what is not. This is why discs have so much concept, because the ones we have chosen are the same ones that we have created and which allow the disc to be congruent.

The meeting of Babasónicos with its Mexican fans will take place on December 9 at the Pepsi Center.

This recital will not only be the presentation of the album but also the opportunity to listen to songs that were not yet on the list.