“La Calçotada” It is a highly anticipated album both by its followers and by the entire Catalan music scene, and which has been shaped over the last year and a half. (Pep) “We had the path mapped out, but we have done the bulk of the work these months, from September to January. Until January 10th we were playing music stuff and the person who mixes and masters was horrified. [risas]. “They have been hard months because we have been very self-demanding.” (Xavi) “But we have tried to live it with joy, because if not, there is no point in dedicating ourselves to this”. So far, Figa Flawas have differentiated themselves from the rest of the scene by breaking out of the norm, something that is already shown in the fact that “La Calçotada” include twenty topics. (Xavi) “At the time we thought about making a new album we didn’t imagine it would have so many songs, but this summer we put together everything we thought fit into the concept and we had about eighteen songs, so since we were there we wanted to round it up to twenty”. The result is an extensive album that connects with the party that gives it its title, a calçotada that we know when it starts but not when it ends. (Pep) “It is a celebration that you have to live calmly, because it is a full day”. (Xavi) “It is a Catalan festival, but especially from our territory. And it is a tradition that represents values that our music has, since it is something that everyone can access, and we believe that our music is the same.”. To make matters worse, they have adapted the tracklist to the party. (Xavi) “Everything fits, we have placed ‘La salsa’ at the beginning, since it is made a few days before the calçotada. Then there are many different moods, happy moments and other more reflective ones, typical of such a long party, collaborations are the moment in which guests begin to come… and at the end of everything, paradoxically, we end with a ‘Vermutillu’, which is a kind of invitation to go back to the beginning and enter the album again.”
“In ‘La Calçotada’ it was very fitting for us to have diverse things, that’s why there are up to twelve different genres in twenty songs.”
Another of their most characteristic points is the number of styles they are capable of playing, from rumba to reggaeton, with everything that fits along the way. (Pep) “Whenever we have worked in a different style we have gotten closer little by little and if we were not on the right path, we have left it. If it’s on the album it’s because experimentation has worked for us.”. (Xavi) “The fact of stylistic variety characterizes us. Not having style is our style. And in ‘La Calçotada’ it was very fitting for us to have diverse things, which is why there are up to twelve different genres in twenty songs.”
As for the guests at that party, Figa Flawas have decided to team up with Mushkaa, Alba Armengou, Pol Bordas & Compte and Lluis Gavaldà. (Xavi) “We didn’t want to make an album with twenty songs and fifteen collaborations, but between making four or seven, it didn’t matter to us. There is some topic that we believed could also be a collaboration, but due to time issues it could not be”. They have also honored three of his references: Raimon, Lucio Battisti and Lluis Llach. (Pep) “Raimon and Lluis Llach let us sample their songs like rappers did in the nineties in the United States, and Battisti’s song has been more of a play on the title than anything else.”
Now they will take to the stage again to present “La Calçotada” in halls and festivals. (Xavi) “Now is when we are starting to work on the live show that we will carry all year. We want to incorporate more live music than we have done until now because this album is more organic, but what we want is to surprise the public. In the presentation concerts we will offer many more things than in those we will do in the following months. We can’t say most of the concerts yet, but we will be at several festivals that are confirmed. Between April and November we will do about seventy or eighty gigs, something that is another challenge, because we will also have to surprise throughout the summer.”
Quick Round
A national artist: C. Tangana
An international artist: Amy Winehouse
An album to listen to in the car: (Pep) “Salad Days” de Mac DeMarco y (Xavi) “Blonde” de Frank Ocean
An album that everyone should listen to: (Pep) “Mainstream” from Calcutta and (Xavi) “La Calçotada” from Figa Flawas
A song to cry: (Pep) “Aony” by Yung Lean and (Xavi) “If you ask me” by Figa Flawas
A song to dance to: (Pep) “Bad times for lyrics” by Golpes Bajos and (Xavi) “La salsa” by Figa Flawas
Dream collaboration: (Pep) Rosalía and (Xavi) Michael Jackson
Your best song: “Let it not end”
A place to listen to your music: (Pep) Walking down the street with helmets and (Xavi) in a calçotada
Describe Figa Flawas in one word: (Pep) Divertimento and (Xavi) Currantes