The San Sebastian quartet Comic Sans continues his rise to the olympus of national emo divinities with his second full length.
With a cleaner work and recited entirely in Spanish, they accurately manage to convey what the day-to-day life of any kid of their generation is like. Celebration and melancholy in equal parts throughout 8 songs with a lot of melody and complex rhythms that make up this album released through BCore. Once the disc was devoured, we sat down with them to finish deciphering the enigmas of this “We were happy and we didn’t know it.” fresh out of the oven.
-You present us 8 cuts whose titles and lyrics emanate melancholy, nostalgia and only on some occasion, some joy and celebration. How difficult is it to open up and let go of everything you carry inside, even if they are conflicting feelings?
The truth is that it is not that difficult, I would say that it is simple, when you have a problem, move or something, it is easy to let off steam and we do it by composing the songs. In the end, the difficult thing is to open up and express what one feels and we find that facility in music.
-Maybe it’s my perception, but, beyond the lyrics, I have the feeling that this “We were happy and we didn’t know it” is somewhat less dark, at least musically, than its predecessor. Is there something within the band that has caused this new direction?
Well, more technical and clean for sure [risas]In the end, what we were looking for is to make it easier for everyone and it can be seen with the letters in Spanish. The only thing that has changed are the tunings (we play in open tuning), and maybe that’s why it feels cleaner and less dark.
-In your previous job, you had no problem switching between Spanish, Basque and English. For this second album, you have preferred to focus solely on the Cervantes language. Is there a motive behind this decision? How important is language to you?
As I told you in the previous question, what we wanted was for it to be more accessible for everyone and in the end everything was easier in Spanish, both for us and for the listeners.
-The album has a few references to the popular culture of your era: videogames, manga, parties… What role do these day-to-day inputs play when composing?
That happens because we are very geeks [risas], some addicted to consoles, anime, etc and it is seen in the title of some of our songs. But as such they are only in the titles, we found them funny and we put them [risas].
-We read in your file that you have self-imposed the “mission” to implant the midwest emo within our borders. How advanced do you see this implementation? Do you see the average music consumer (and the entire music market around them) prepared for this invasion?
Well we believe that it is progressing more and more, in the end there are many variants in emo and you can see groups that suck from it like Rococo, Nogato, Meeky, Biela, Boys kissing boys, etc. Maybe they are not midwest emo as such (although the latter and Meeky are) but that is what I was telling you, there is a lot of variation in it. Little by little the emo sound as such is getting louder, or that’s what we think, and people listen to it more. People don’t know if they are ready for this invasion, but they should be. [risas].
– Are we, therefore, facing a resurgence of emo in Spain or has it really always been there but did not have as much support and relevance?
It has really always been there, but like trends, it comes and goes, and in the end what people have to do is support emerging bands and get out of the monotony of always listening to the same bands. In the end, what the scene needs is support and it is true that it is becoming more and more noticeable.
-There is a characteristic element of this type of emo (and that we also find in your work) which are arpeggiated guitars and unconventional structures. Is that “virtuosity” necessary in this style or does it come naturally to you to compose your pieces in this way?
I wouldn’t call it virtuosity because in the end in the midwest playing in open tuning is popular and that helps a lot to make what seems difficult to play actually very easy, in the end the hard part is composing it.
Let’s keep talking about dreams. Do you consider it an aspiration to be able to play one day in the United States, the cradle of this type of emo?
Of course, we would love to get there, I think with a bit of luck we will get to play, since we are also with a US label Clever Eagle Records and that helps. Also, I am going to tell you an anecdote. Two years ago we were talking with Keith Latinen who is the singer of Empire Empire I was a lonely state (a band that has already stopped playing) and who now has other projects for him to come here to play. We were talking about setting up a girl group with different bands from the scene, but in the end with the COVID restrictions everything got complicated, and that’s where it all ended.
-We are going to skip the question about bands of the style where you find inspiration because the answer is quite clear. So I prefer to formulate it in another way. What other styles, even if they go beyond the musical, make you germinate that compositional gift when you lock yourself in the premises?
Well, look, to compose the lyrics I’ve always put fi in the background, it’s music that I don’t know why it opens my mind to everything, but also math rock, J rock…
-Let’s talk briefly about your local scene. In Euskadi it is very rare to find bands that play this style (except for a few names, of course). Do you think it’s easier to “succeed” or explode as a band doing emo in other capitals like Madrid or Barcelona?
What the Basque scene has is that the emotional and youthful needs have been covered in a more politicized way or with sounds from more marked genres. Historically, a music scene has been established that covers the emotional needs of people as a group, while we and emo seek to talk about more individual urgencies. Even so, in the Basque scene, even when groups have used more metal or punk sounds, they have always had space in their lyrics and chords for emotions and we can find groups as big as Berri Txarrak where their lyrics largely talk about heartbreak, feelings found or anger fueled not by social but personal situations.
-To close, I always like to ask you about the design and art that surrounds the album. We see that the central axis of your latest singles and the LP itself revolve around the figure of the house. Is this a clear nod to American Football or do you really want to claim the home figure as an important part of Comic Sans?
The truth on the cover is that Mundu (old guitarist) sent us some photos of his house in Finland and we were cool [risas] and so we decided to use it. It was the moment in which we were just looking for a cover etc and we all liked it and we said: go ahead.