There is nothing that makes you more reconciled with life than listening to a record that sounds exactly like the season in which it comes out: summer records that sound like chumba-chumba or Christmas albums. Then there are those much more elegant, those of spring. And there fits, in its best version, the resplendent fourth album by Renaldo & Clara, “The mouth is watering” (Primavera Labels, 23).
We met with Clara Viñals on one of those afternoons in which the sun is hot but still not suffocating to talk about the whole process that has led to “The mouth is watering”. In a cafeteria that bears the gentrification sign at the entrance, she tells me that precisely today was her first day as a freelancer. Until now he had combined her work with her musical career. “I was working as a high school teacher until last year. But it has always been a small group and it is very difficult to make a living from music. The months that you have concerts could work, but making a record is very expensive. The invisible parts of the process are often not paid for. It gives me a little bit of respect, but it’s been great to focus on just making the record. I had some songs started before, and in these months I have made all the demos, gone through the studio and closed the album”. The result is “The mouth is watering”a work of nine songs as attractive as its name. “I came up with the expression ‘fer-te la boca aigua’, which is very pretty. It’s a very simple metaphor, but at the same time very obvious, very sensual, and it has many positive, very attractive connotations. I like it because water appears twice on the album as contrary concepts: in ‘El Riu’ as a negative thing, but ‘En per tu el que faci falta’ is something good. Although it is not an explicit reference, everything is tied ”.
“It is a great incentive to try to do things that I have not done so far and see if I am capable. It motivates me a lot”
The songs on the album play a little with that two-sided coin, the counterpoint in the sweetest of love and I’m-not-going-to-shut up-any-one. “At the time of ordering the album I did not do it for the narrative or theme of the songs, but rather for the feeling of the music. If I started to order it as an evolution from good to bad, I would lose meaning on a musical level. It is true that it begins with the most positive or the most beautiful and ends with the most dodgy, but it was not premeditated either ”. And if the musical part has so much weight, it’s because it’s the one he plays with the most, the most intuitive, and the one with which he constantly challenges himself. On the album, apart from the sweet, light and positive pop melodies to which we are accustomed, patterns close to hip-hop or much more marked rhythmic bases are added. Like in “S’està miller al carrer”. “Just this song was the one that had the most changes from the demo to the album. When I entered the studio, the vast majority were almost finished, but this one was more difficult. For this song I worked with InnerCut, who is also producing four other songs. I told him how it sounded in my head and he got it perfectly. In a matter of an hour we already had it”. Joan Borràs and Hidrogenesse also co-produce on the album, helping to make their initial sound bigger. “It was very clear to me that I wanted to work with new people to also discover how they worked, but at the same time I wanted to have great decision-making power. He wanted us to improve them, to find the right sounds, but not to change them. I needed it to be a co-production and we just needed to make great songs.
In the end I have some limitations of more technical knowledge, it is something that I had never done. I know how to materialize the most pop things easily, but now that I wanted to go here, it was a bit unknown territory. This time artistic curiosity has moved me a lot. It is a great incentive to try to do things that I have not done up to now and see if I am capable. It motivates me a lot”.
And although nobody asked her about them for a long time, Clara Viñals stands out for her direct and poignant lyrics with which she dares to say what perhaps she would not be able to say in person. “There are times when I even think I should bite my tongue [risas]. But it’s a lot of fun. Now I know that people will understand when I say things ironically or jokingly, but at first I was very respectful that people didn’t notice that I had worked hard. Over the years I’ve realized that I don’t have to dress it up metaphorically for people to appreciate it. So I say a little what I want. Singing in front of people is stripping you naked, it’s something very sincere, so if you’re saying something that doesn’t matter to you, or doesn’t represent you, it can be quite ridiculous. Now I feel great freedom. In the songs I can say what I want and nothing happens. Because nothing happens!”
immerse yourself in “The mouth is watering” It is not only the most refreshing thing you can do now that the good weather is here, but it is also a journey through who it has been, but, above all, who its author is. “I had never done anything so immediate. It had always been to make the record quietly and after a year release it. This time it has been to finish it and take it out. If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that you always try to make the best record possible, but in the end, if this song isn’t as well rounded, the next one may be. For me, the most difficult thing about making music is that you have to limit it because there are infinite possibilities of how to make the lyrics and the music. At the beginning it is very difficult to assume, because you always want everything to be perfect and over time you realize that this is impossible, because you can always continue retouching. So you do the best you know how. Records represent a specific moment in life, and this represents a lot to me because it is very recent”.