Amateurthe project of Mikel Aguirre, Iñaki of Lucas and Cheli Lanzagortapublishes his second album, “Impasse” (Mushroom Pillow, 24). The new album maintains many of the hallmarks of the people from San Sebastián, but also some new features. We talked about all this with Mikel, who continues to be one of the finest composers of our pop.
“Debut” was your return after the end of La Buena Vida. How did it place you? Did you find a very different panorama from what you knew?
“Debut” was a special album. As you said, we came from a season in dry dock, after the death of Pedro (San Martín, bassist of La Buena Vida, NdR) and the inactivity of La Buena Vida. We began to prepare some songs, without pretensions, but we saw that there was material to make an album and we decided to put together the project. Everything went very well. It was an album produced by us, then we reached an agreement with Sony to distribute and market it for a few years. The person who was interested in us, Sony’s AR, was Santi Menéndez Pidal, with whom we had worked at the time of La Buena Vida. The album turned out very well, but Santi left Sony a month after it was published and we were left in a bit of no man’s land. We came from nothing, we had the experience of La Buena Vida, but everything had changed a lot. In 2009, which was when we did the last thing with La Buena Vida, social networks were not as strong, the promotion was old-fashioned… It was not easy. It was an exercise in repositioning ourselves. We tried to make it as good as possible and reach as many people as possible. We organize the promotion. What we did was very good, both the album and the concerts.
“Debut” came out in 2017. Many things have happened in between, such as a global pandemic, but why has it taken you so long to release this second album?
“Debut” was released in September 2017. We did some shows in 2018; Few things, but very well chosen. We went with the super band with which we had recorded the album (Joseba Irazoki, Fernando Neira, Paul San Martín). At the end of 2018, we began to prepare the sketches for the new songs and in 2019 I joined Cheli (Lanzagorta) at the venue, and we prepared about twenty-five song demos. When the pandemic hit, we had refined all those ideas and we were already clear about the material we wanted to work with for the album. We didn’t want to repeat the exact formula of Debut. We wanted to give each song the artistic production that it asked for, and we wanted to include the perspective of Yon Vidaur, with whom we have been friends since school; We proposed that he co-produce the album with us. He provided an external vision, he could tell us if he didn’t like something or it sounded like things we had already done before. In September 2020 we started preparing the recordings. We have recorded fifteen songs. We did three batches of five songs each. The pace of work slowed down greatly due to the limitations of the pandemic. We are not the typical group that goes into the studio for a month and polishes the album, that is not the concept. We try not to lose the freshness of the live show, but that it has a good production, that it sounds organized. That, if you are not a very big band, you can’t afford to do it all at once, that’s why we work in parts.
You say you recorded fifteen songs, but only ten appear on the album. What happened to the other five? Do you plan to release them in the future?
There are ten songs on the album, somewhat due to the fleeting nature of time and also to respect the duration of vinyl. I am very happy with the selection, it has been a varied album, although maintaining our style. The other five will be released when the album has completed its journey. They are not discards, we have left them out because we did not want to get a double.
Impasse is a rawer album than the previous one. There are not so many orchestral arrangements, although it maintains that warmth and classicism that are already a trademark of the house.
The sound is more raw, yes. Some songs feel like we’re playing them live, and I like that. We started with some takes in which I sang with my acoustic, and around that we built the rest. When you record in layers, there are times when it seems like everything is very quantized, very cold, but I don’t think that happens. The record breathes, the sound is not compressed.
The letters also retain the characteristic stamp. They deal with personal relationships, love, nostalgia…
I think the lyrics convey a kind of hopeful sadness. There is talk of heartbreak, but there is a light, like things are going to get better. It is a quite personal album: a lot of things have happened to us, we are maturing, I am going to turn 50 in a week, there are people who leave, friends from whom you distance yourself… I write for myself, it is a way of expressing myself. Most of the lyrics have been written by me. Harkaitz Cano and Pedro Gracia Pérez from Viñaspre (Havoc) have also participated, and I think they turned out very well, it fits with what Amateur is and broadens the range of colors when writing, because I have already written many songs and I It’s hard not to repeat myself.
“I think the lyrics convey a kind of hopeful sadness. There is talk of heartbreak, but there is a light, like things are going to get better.”
The title of the song Jane, Sweet Jane, is a nod to Velvet, right?
I’m a fan of the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed. It’s a nod to Sweet Jane, obviously. It’s a special song for me. I separated six years ago and it was a difficult time, in the middle of the pandemic… Suddenly something new arose with another woman, a fleeting story when I already thought that she was not going to make me fall in love again. Talk about it. Musically, the song sounds to me like Spanish folk pop from the seventies, Cecilia or things like that. It also has some Ron Sexsmith or McCartney in it. I am very transparent with my influences. I’m very Beatlemaniac, I like Neil Young, Love… I pay attention to those artists. And I love Velvet, they were the first truly indie group in history.
Isa, from Triángulo de Amor Bizarro, and Diego Vasallo singing, and several musicians and instrumentalists have collaborated on the album.
A lot of people have collaborated, yes. Carlos Subijana, Fernando Neira, Alberto Bosch, Paul San Martín, Charly González, Joserra Senperena, Joseba Irazoki, Oriol Flores, Al Macauley… It’s like a hall of fame in the area. Isa, from Triángulo, sings in El huerto provenzal. We were old acquaintances for a long time. It occurred to our manager, Mariano Tejera, that Isa’s voice would look great in that song. We proposed it to them and, since they are super good people, they said go ahead. I love the result, it takes about fifteen years off our shoulders. His voice gives a lot of freshness. I have always liked duets between a female voice and my voice, which is deeper. In La Buena Vida, with Irantzu, it worked very well. Furthermore, that song is the most “buenavidera”, it is the one that is closest to that style. Diego Vasallo also sings in Duel without summit. He had already participated in Debut. When we were composing that song, we commented that it would go very well for Diego, because he has a very own air, like a Frenchman. We commissioned those lyrics from the poet Harkaitz Cano, who has written some wonderful verses. I really like the duet with Diego, and at first it might seem like our voices don’t match well, but I love that rough vibe, like Tom Waits or Leonard Cohen, that he brings to it, it gives a good counterpoint to my voice. He is very brilliant and he sings to his tune, his phrasing is a little out of sync with mine, and it seems to me that he gives a special magic to the song.
This album is published with Mushroom Pillow, a label with which I believe you have medium and long-term plans.
With them we have a record deal, not a license, like we had with Sony. We are going to make this and another album, and there is the possibility of reissuing that first Amateur album when the Sony license expires. They are excited, they are very eager. There aren’t many people right now making the music that Amateur makes.
How are you planning the tour?
We want to touch everything we can. Rooms, theaters… whatever. Depending on the capacity of each site, we will consider different formats. From going alone with my guitar, to the entire band. We want to reach more places than we reached with Debut. We are very excited. It will be good for us to have the support of a record company to help us with the promo, the tour…
At the time of La Buena Vida, festivals were just beginning in Spain, but now they are very important. Do you also want to play in them?
We would love to, we want to go to all the places we can. With La Buena Vida I was able to play in almost all the important festivals in this country and today they are the strong points in terms of exposure. It is clear that we are not a group to schedule ourselves at 2 in the morning and make everyone dance, but I think Amateur is an ideal group to listen to at 8 in the afternoon. With good lights, good sound and a good repertoire, I think we can give very good concerts. We will present this album, we will play some of the previous one, and also some of La Buena Vida. We want to value all the work we have done in all these years.
Speaking of the work you did with La Buena Vida, it is a shame that those albums are not reissued nor can they be heard on platforms. What can you tell me about that?
That is a headache we have had for many years. In 2022 they uploaded the entire La Buena Vida discography to Spotify, it seems that it was a hacker from London through a Russian attaché. The people were happy, but they quickly removed it. It’s good that they removed it, we’re not going to encourage piracy, but, on the other hand, it was also a disappointment. We would like our songs to be there. My children tell me: “Aita, you often say that you have recorded I don’t know how many albums, but on Spotify there are only two” (laughs). It’s a shame that new generations can’t access our music. We have been trying to negotiate with Siesta for a long time to resolve this. It is complicated, because they are old contracts, the group no longer exists… As of today we have not reached an agreement yet, I hope we can achieve it soon.
Even though they are inaccessible, the songs of La Buena Vida remain valid. There have been several artists who have covered you; Recently, Joaquín Pascual has published an album (Baladas para un atraco, 2023) in which he mentions you in a song; or Amaia, who also used to play What’s going to happen to us at her concerts.
Yes. Amaia played LBV songs for the students of Operación Triunfo, and live she played Qué nos va va a vivir. I love it. She has a sensational voice. It’s not just that she has a spectacular technique, which she does, but that she has an impressive ability to transmit. That she has noticed La Buena Vida, whether she, Joaquín Pascual or other people who have covered us, is something that fills us with pride.