According to the mestizo spirit with which he was born, Amparanoia continues to reinvent itself, always with the incombustible Amparo Sánchez at the helm. This new incarnation arises from the fusion with Artistas del Gremio, a young charanga from Zaragoza with which they take their songs to another level. The result is “Fan Fan Fanfarria” (Mamita Records, 24).
Amparanoia and Artistas del Gremio have managed to take both the band’s classics to another level – there is no shortage of “Que te den”, “Buen rollito” or “En la ciudad” – as well as totally new songs. Ten songs in total that give us a very approximate idea of what is coming on the joint tour that they have prepared for these months with stops in Vitoria-Gasteiz (February 23), Bilbao (February 24), Madrid (March 2) and Barcelona (March 22).
Reggae, rumba and swing will be mixed with electronic music, brass sections and charanguero airs throughout the country. In a cocktail bar in the center of Madrid, Amparo reveals the details of this new adventure where she will also be accompanied by her two children on stage.
The relationship with Artistas del Gremio dates back to 2022, when you recorded “My genetics (charanga version)” with them. How did you meet?
It brought the “algorithm” of the telephone into my life. A video appeared in which they were in a town with their skirts, their styling, their aesthetics and an incredible sound. They were doing a cover of “Killing In The Name” by Rage Against The Machine, and they had people of all ages dancing, jumping. I loved the vibe they had and the energy they transmitted. So I gave them a follow, and later we thought about making a video clip and a new version of “My Genetics.” I wanted to do it with them, I proposed to them and they said yes. We met in the studio and there we really got to know each other. From those days of coexistence comes my invitation to join us in the last concert of the twenty-fifth anniversary tour in Granada. They came, did the first part of the concert, and then they came up to play the songs. We hadn’t rehearsed, when they heard the phrase they quickly caught on: they improvised, they performed alone, they went to the audience… It was an incredible concert. A few days later I received a call from Laita, the leader of the band, and he suggested that we do a few concerts together. I told him yes, of course. We mentioned it to our manager and the team: “How do we present this? You need to make, apart from the “charanga version”, some EP or some songs.” There the idea was born, on the one hand, to accept this invitation and enlarge it, thinking that if we were going to play the songs of Amparanoia I wanted to give them a new concept, aesthetic and musical, which I had already felt throughout the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary that I The body was asking for it. After all this, I had been working in the studio for some time with my second son, Mayito. We had done many productions together, I had things recorded with him and I said: “The change is going to come through electronics and the fusion of artists.” There appears the concept of “Fan Fan Fanfarria”, the name of the album, the circus aesthetic and musically the concept of shooting for the Balkans, for Orleans, and also for the town festivals and the brass band.
“It is an album that brings a lot of joy, that as soon as you press play you are already moving, and that was the objective”
You have recorded in the studio of your label, Mamita Records, and you have mixed and mastered it with Carlos Díaz at the Santa María De la Vega studios in Granada. How have you organized yourself with so many musicians?
First there was pre-production work, a first demo in which we already captured the electronic bases, the arrangements, either played by an instrument or sung by me. That was sent to Zaragoza, a representation of the band came, three people on wind instruments, and there we left the demo to start working on the album. Then there was a first part of taking all the bases and all the material that had been recorded at home, in Mamita’s home studio, to the studio, and once everything was in place, the ten Guild Artists arrived. First we recorded the percussions, adapting to the electronic bases, and then we recorded in sections: two trumpets, three saxes and three trombones. And then the solos aside. We had those days of coexistence in a chalet that we rented next to the studio, where we also recorded the video for “Something is happening”, taking advantage of the fact that they were there. And when they left we recorded some choruses, some ambient voices with Yoyo, who in addition to the production is in the musical part, and my voices. And then we started with the mixes, song by song.
You have recorded four new songs. I imagine that you already composed them based on this new sound…
On the one hand there were those songs that I had already worked on with Mayito, with my lyrics, ideas that I didn’t really know what they were going to be used for, but they were there. When the idea begins to mature and we know that we are going to play Amparanoia songs, on the one hand I make a selection of the songs that the audience wants to sing and want to dance to when they go to an Amparanoia concert, those are on the list. I also wanted to recover songs that I had not included in the repertoire for a long time, such as “Your absence”, “I do it alone” or “In the city”. And I also wanted to add something new. No more than four songs, because in the end there are many songs from Amparanoia. Within the concert there is also an acoustic block, where there is that typical sound of the band but with this fusion of eight metals, with the tuba as bass, incredible.
How have you worked on the instrumentation of the re-recorded songs? I imagine you didn’t want to repeat what was already in the original recording.
Clear. Each topic has had its process and development. Perhaps the one that remains most faithful to its origin is “En la ciudad”, because we didn’t feel like changing the tone of reggae and dub. But each of us have tried to find something. “We are wind” I think is the most surprising, it is not the studio version, which we have, but I chose it to be the live version because really, of the few concerts we have done in 2023, about eight, to filming the technical team, the training, getting to know each other, seeing what happens here, how we sound… When “We are wind” sounded, something very special happened. Then “Welcome To Tijuana” is still very Latin, but it has a very tasty rhythm, very updated. “Que te dios” is more for electroswing, for Orleans. This song that has always been more rock, more Mexican. And then I am very happy with “Your absence”, it is a song that I really missed in the repertoire. I remember singing to my son: “There is loneliness… tucutucá tucutucá”, and he told me: “Drum & bass, right?” It was the most exciting, when I already added the voices and we made the very cool wind arrangements. Live has another part that we haven’t included on the album that people go quite crazy about. That’s also the beautiful thing, having prepared the album and at the same time those songs and others that are not on the album for the live performance. It has been like a parallel work, the structures change live, and there are other surprises.
You have already told me that the public has reacted very well to last year’s concerts. Now the album is already on platforms. How about the response you get?
At the moment the people closest to me love the songs. They are fans, they have come to the concert and those who have not seen us with Artistas del Gremio are looking forward to seeing it and dancing to it. After the press, the journalists with whom I am speaking these days congratulate me on the production, what a very good job, and also the selection of topics. That it is an album that brings a lot of joy, that as soon as you press play you are already moving, and that was the objective, so for now, anyone who didn’t like it hasn’t told me. [risas]. I personally am very proud of the work we have done. For me this album is Amparanoia from 2024, and that gives me a lot of joy.
Now the presentation tour is going to begin. You are fifteen musicians. How are you going to propose it? Do all fifteen of you go out at the same time? How are you going to structure the setlist?
There will be the fifteen of us on stage, as long as we play with Guild Artists. When they cannot come to a date, the Amparanoia format will be seven people, but with this musical proposal. Everyone on stage all the time, each one in their place, exchanging… I have freed myself from the guitar a lot, I only play the acoustic block, and the rest I am dancing and having a good time. Now I go to the DJ, I watch him scratch… I’m giving it to myself like: “Dude, you’ve been working hard, enjoy and have a good time.” They are very organized. We are very happy, a very open relationship. They will have their concerts and I will have mine, giving us a lot of freedom. We really play together because we want to, we are excited and we have a good time. It is a part that will reach people from the stage.
Among the fifteen musicians are your two children. What is it like to work with them?
Well, at first it was a shock for all three of us. I have been working with the oldest for some time. He recorded the choruses of “El poder de Machín” (97), he sold my records at concerts at Sala El Sol, when we presented it. He would bring a beer to Fernando León, to Manu Chao… He has been in the process all his life. He went on stage two years ago, because I asked him to, because he had a band at that time exclusively of women, and he really missed Willy Fuego’s choruses, the guitar, but since I practice free love in music, I Everyone can do other things because I do them too, well, there was a time when Willy coincided with another project of his, Rumbaristas, but I missed a male voice, and to look next to me and see someone who was supporting me. , the choruses, some phrases… I had gotten used to it. I saw him there and I told him: “Tomorrow you are going to get on with us.” He had a great time. He knows the songs, he has recorded on all the albums, he is the person next to me who knows the project the most. That merger was very fast. Then I told him not just choirs, that he had to learn percussion, and he learned quickly. Doing concerts even as a trio, in smaller places, with a guitarist. The three of us went. He has worked hard and we have a good time while we are there. The little one was the study mouse. Come to produce, new ideas and creations, but it was: “Not me the live show, not the trips.” Until with this Guild Artists project, which he has also been able to live with them, I told him: “You are part of this, we have created this together, I think you have to come too.” And he said yes, so here we three go. We are the three of us in the family, they have always supported me in this. To reconcile my family and professional life I have always had them as accomplices, understanding my circumstances. When they were younger it might have cost them more, but as they have grown they have realized how important what I do is to me and that it has been the means of life we have had as a family. It is our union, our trade. It’s nice, I don’t know how long it will last, because they both have their other projects, but it’s nice that we share this Amparanoia project, which in the end is a family project.