My captaina project headed by the incombustible Gonçal Planas, has a new album titled “Like Surprised Thieves”. Third album in which Gonçal claims to bet basically on rock and brotherhood.
We were able to chat a few years ago and then you already gave me the impression that Mi Capitán is a project that goes from record to record, without thinking too much about what will happen, given the commitments of all its members, are you still considering the records in the same way?
My Captain tries to write his own path disc by disc. Although in the first two LP’s the composition and writing of the songs started from the work he did alone at home to be later reinterpreted in the studio by the band (except for a first collaboration with Julián Saldarriaga in “La sed”), in this album both aspects (composition and texts) have been much more collaborative. 8 of the 10 songs are the result of work together with Julián Saldarriaga (Love Of Lesbian) and Ferran Pontón (Egon Soda), either sharing the composition with 2 or 3 hands or writing the texts in the same way. I think that makes the band a very exciting and open project, since it is not a group that works with established and immovable rules.
Do you maintain in this “Like Surprised Thieves” the formation with Víctor, Julián, Dani, Ferran and the two Rickys? Any collaboration?
The line-up is the same as on the two previous albums, that is: Ferran Pontón on bass, Ricky Lavado on percussion, Dani Ferrer on keys, Víctor Valiente on guitar, Ricky Falkner on drums, Julián Saldarriaga on guitar and myself on vocals and lead guitar. On this record there has been no collaboration outside of this group of people.
“At a certain age you let go of sterile prejudices and dedicate yourself to what you like without aesthetic limits”
It obviously puts you in the bag of bands like Egon Soda, Love of Lesbian… But maybe yours, within indie rock, has more classic overtones. As an anecdote I will tell you that at your Rocksound concert, someone compared you to the Allman Brothers! What do you think of that and such a curious comparison?
I understand that we are part of a generation of bands that share similar ways of doing things, either because we share members or because the musical references are shared and close, despite orbiting in different spaces for each other. For us the comparison with the Allman Brothers is a spectacular compliment, we owe a round to whoever comes up with it.
The guitars are very present again, perhaps that has something to do with what I was telling you before. Perhaps you are the national indie group that is most committed to the sound of guitars, do you agree?
Our commitment to guitars is a declaration of principles on this record, which allows us to recover the freshness and euphoria of rock made without great deliberation. It seems to me that there are rock bands that have been sounding spectacular for a long time on the national scene, it speaks highly of the musicians, engineers and technicians involved in the process.
In “Everything rots in the sunset” there are even thin lizzy-style doubled guitars. Someone more radical can be shocked, right?
Well man, I don’t see why. At a certain age you let go of sterile prejudices and dedicate yourself to what you like without aesthetic limits. We do what we think the song needs at all times and we really enjoy revisiting inspiring arrangements.
While we’re at it, what does the label “indie” mean to you?
I have no idea, really.
It is your third album. How does a band like yours evolve that has to be combined with all those commitments that we mentioned?
The evolution is marked by how the band assumes the composition and recording of each album. In this case we decided that we were going to share the creative process, as well as all the deaf work that a band requires (designs, social networks, promotional texts, etc…), this makes the band acquire a greater sense of community and belonging for all actively participating members. Then, scheduling rehearsals and bowling is still a puzzle that we like to play from the beginning.
In essence, as you said, all the songs are yours again, but Julián and Ferran have collaborated more. I also understand that the pandemic will have influenced, as in so many other bands, some of them, is that right?
As I said in the answer to the first question, the creation process has been shared. Regarding the pandemic and its influence, it has allowed us to have more time to polish the songs, to reach certain places that we would not have been able to reach without some extra time.
Hey, what have you “stolen” on this record? Anything that you were surprised to “steal” when hearing the final result?
Money from our pockets.
With Mi Capitán, tour plans are always difficult, but what do you have in mind?
We are very happy to be able to present the album in Barcelona and Madrid: on March 25 we will be presenting the album at Textil de Barcelona, and on May 18 we will do the same at the Siroco room in Madrid. In both cities we will be accompanied by Saïd Muti and his band. In August we will be part of Sonorama and in September we will announce more dates.
