They have traveled half the world but they still needed to conquer a peak: the one on the path that leads to Lanuza (Huesca), shortly after the medieval and beautiful Sallent de Gállego. Tomorrow, Friday July 14, they will perform on the floating stage of the Pirineos Sur festival: one more stage, and not an unimportant one, of the tour with the album Viaje Épico Hacia La Nada.
The band founded in Sant Vicenç dels Horts (Barcelona) at the end of the 90s by Santi, Jordi, Joan and Oriol is still in perfect shape 25 years later. From the original English to Spanish for many albums now, with a mestizo style that moves between indie and pop, rock and electronics, an immovable pillar remains: the philosophy that permeates all his lyrics to talk about love, daily life and introspection. staff.
This is your first time at the Pirineos Sur festival. Have they told you about the floating stage on the Lanuza reservoir and the magic that is created up there, among the mountains?
We have information, yes. This is one of those concerts in which you count the hours that remain to arrive and see the place in situ. It will surely influence the dynamics of the concert, it is inevitable!
Actors often say that no theater performance is the same as yesterday because the audience is not the same. Would you agree in your case?
Totally agree. I have to say that after going around a few times it is advisable to take into account the character of each place. There is a more introverted public, but that does not mean that they are not enjoying it the same as, for example, in the south or in Mexico. In any case, the feedback is always different.
Does the same thing happen with the stage, the environment in which you play? I know that you are fans of the Alhambra, so I must assume that yes and I bet that you will feel something similar in the Lanuza reservoir.
Yes, the physical location, the sound it generates, even the wind: everything has an effect and the musician must have enough waist to play on different “fields”, to use a soccer simile. That is the magic of a live show. It is ephemeral, and therefore, if you have enjoyed it, you want to experience those sensations again with another concert.
You will close the tour at Razzmatazz, you announced that you wanted to “return to theaters and continue supporting these venues”. I have to leave that circuit it was due to the covid but the last of the restrictions fell a long time ago. Why have you taken so long?
Well, we must not forget that we were the first to lend ourselves to a concert in the midst of a pandemic, the famous Sant Jordi concert. We have also done several tours of Espejos y mirages that could only be performed in theaters. I think we are a very transversal band in that sense, although, of course, the set-up of the tour for the last album was designed for large spaces, and that is why we have been trying for some time to see how to fit this tour with those spaces that we miss so much. less.
How do you compose? I mean the usual method: lock yourself in to create, take notes when you wake up after a lucid dream, jot them down mentally while you’re driving… How do you come up with lyrics for a song?
Everything you say is part of a varied range of creative beginnings. I personally love starting with chaos. Play with illogical sounds. To get out of said chaos something moderately ordered. And then, of course, the greatest judge is the epidermis. If something you compose makes your skin crawl, you already have it.
Without what musical and literary references would Love of Lesbian be today as it is? Who or what has influenced you the most?
I will not give specific names. But I think that the music of this century, what we could include as pop, drinks as much from music as from literature, movies, comics and right now the series. From the most elitist music to the most commercial. From Lars Von Trier to a horoscope program at three in the morning. The pop is there, right in the middle, drinking from both top and bottom.
Does doing interviews help you to understand yourself? I mean if answering questions gives you new reflections.
Yes. There are times when an interview is similar to talking with a psychologist. Although then you must go with the handbrake on to be very careful with the clickbait.
Do both musicians and rumor mill hook up or maybe popular wisdom affirms?
It is evident that a person who you place at a higher physical height, such as a stage, you throw tons of mysterious smoke and go-go lights, radiates something different and special. Then you find that singer shopping at Ikea, and tell me if you feel the same attraction (laughs).
Love of Lesbian and women. their women. How to have a stable partner when you spend half your life away from home?
It’s kind of bipolar. Our trick is to go home and hang the brilli-brilli jacket in the hall, in a closet that you won’t see or remind you of.
With your tours you have traveled halfway around the world: Mexico, the US, Egypt, Croatia, Argentina, Iceland… What trip marked you in particular?
Obviously, our career has acquired another meaning since our forays into Mexico, where we have felt welcomed from the first minute. It was experiencing first-hand what it means to have your music accepted in places that have nothing to do with the streets of Barcelona where they emerged.
Do you act as Catalans around the world in some way or are your music and performances (in case you send messages on occasion) indistinguishable from a band from Granada such as Los Planetas or Lori Meyers or from Vigo, such as Siniestro Total or Los Piratas?
We always act as Catalans. It is unavoidable. We are used to making jokes about our Catalan identity, perhaps it is the trick that our unconscious provokes to make us fall better (laughs). Right now the watchword is to stop the rise of the extreme right. Previously it was the Procés. Always in the trenches (laughs). Hey, but with humor. We only have that.
Because of your age, I’m sure you saw the Blue Summer series. Do you wait with longing or with fear that at the end of this month we will be able to experience its remake?
A remake? With part of the previous cast? I have no idea, Pancho (laughs). Although a Ouija board with good old Chanquete could break the mold, like Stranger things.
Good feint to escape. To finish I will give you a list: Van Halen, Daft Punk, Slayer, Motorhead, Black Sabbath, Siniestro Total, Manel… These are some of the artists or bands that have come down from the stage in the last two or three years. I hope you still have a long way to go, but have you considered what your life in particular would be like without Love of Lesbian?
Yes. And it is clear that, after a long time together, in order not to break something as beautiful as the band and our friendship, both marked by fire, there must be parentheses to catch our breath.
