Klaus, Guillem and Rai return with “HOMAS” (Cukileo Records/Halley Records, 23), his second studio album. Stay Homas They leave behind all that boom that the pandemic gave them to present their most personal work, about which we were able to talk with them days before its release.
In just three days you release “HOMAS” your second studio album, how are you?
(Guillem) Very good, very excited, eager to start now. It’s like we’re about to give birth and we’ve already seen what the baby is like inside and everything (they laugh).
For this occasion you have chosen the title of the album in the same way that you did with the debut one, choosing one of the words that most resonates in the songs of the work. Was it premeditated or did it happen while you were creating it?
(Klaus) I don’t know when it came up, but I think it’s something we’ve never discussed with each other, wow, we haven’t been upset. I don’t remember when it came up as an idea, but since then it’s seemed brutal to us and a very good way to make an album that is very much ours, sincere and our own. We decided to call it “HOMAS”, because in the end the album is that, it is our home.
“We wanted to stop picking from here and there, we wanted to make an album that was with our sound, unified, conceptual”
And what were you looking to convey with that title?
(Rai) What we have agreed on… (they laugh) is that it’s called “HOMAS” and it doesn’t include “STAY” because we’re not at home anymore, we’re on something else, it’s a different vibe. But it’s also this concept that we believe may be the most personal work we’ve ever done, the one we’ve dedicated the most time to. It is like letting people into our house, or rather taking our house to the people. It suited us very well… and so maybe the older people stop calling us the Stays and call us the Homas (they laugh).
Instead of pigeonholing ourselves into one style, as we might think after listening to your debut, you open up to many more genres, including rock, reggaeton, pop… Have you taken a liking to creating sound universes for each album?
(Guillem) I think we wanted to do what you are saying. We wanted to stop picking here and there, we wanted to make a record that was with our sound, unified, conceptual… and in the end we ended up doing what we’ve done up to now: whatever we want. We do a bit here and there, even in some songs we have gone beyond what we had created up to now, as in “ME DA IGUAL” which is more rock. We have tried to limit and find ourselves, but at the same time we have believed that finding ourselves was part of this, which is discovering that within different styles there is a comfort zone and accepting that we are like that, that nothing happens. We don’t have to look for the three feet to the cat, or find a unique sound or way to make music, if we make a lot, we like them and we feel comfortable, there is nothing negative.
One of the things that surprises when listening to the album is that ending with “Tropical.mp3” with which you take us back to that mythical terrace. Why include it and also leave it for the end?
(Klaus) When it came time to decide the royal order there were several candidates for first and last, but I think the one we felt was the most honest with ourselves, the most homas and the least concerned was this one. It is a topic that is very funny, you are not going to put it in the middle. Throughout the album you make a very cool journey, very intense, celebratory and introspective and it’s cool to say at the end like “HO TORNARIA A FER”, which is when we opened up and such, and it could have ended here and left it all like that, but it is that, surely we would also leave a table with a final joke, and this is the same. This is what we have done, we are here to have fun, nothing is so heavy, we like this, we are what we are
(Rai) I think the concept is that. That’s okay, we are very intense here, now very festive, whatever you want, but in the end we are playing all the time. We’re having a good time all the time and almost like you can see it. It’s all a game, for us it’s a lot of fun to do this.
And just as you did with “Agua” (Sony, 20), you leave only two collaborations on the album: Meritxell Nedderman and The Tyets. Was the idea to show again that you can make music without it being a Stay Homas & Friends?
(Klaus) The idea was to make a record without any collaborations, but they came out very punctually and they are brutal. The first, which is with Meritxell Nedderman, is because she is very close to our environment and to that of Arnau, our producer, and we thought it would be really cool if she came to record something, but more as a studio musician than as an artist than just He comes to lend his voice and that’s it. It’s not a collaboration per se, but it’s been provided, like when someone comes to play drums or something like that. When she came out, it was brutal, but it doesn’t come out in a collaboration or on Spotify because she only does the background vocals, which are brutal, and she also plays the piano. And the other one is a song that we started doing with The Tyets and we thought it would be cool if it came out in the summer and of course, we were making a record that was going to come out around those dates. We said to put it on the physical disc because it was an incentive to listen to it, if there are still people who buy it, and later, on June 16, the song comes out on all platforms with a video clip and everything. But already facing the summer, it does not make sense to take it out in another season. It was already late last summer, that’s why we released it now and from minute one it was brewing with them and we’ve been working on it for more than a year now. In general, with these exceptions, it’s a record that, surely we would have liked more people to collaborate, but I don’t think they would have added much, it’s a very personal record. We have been thinking a lot about what we are, what we are not, what we like and this is an expression of what we are, maybe someone could have come to sing a verse and such, but we thought it was cool to do it like that
As you said, you have given a lot of value to the physical edition, including the song with The Tyets only on it. What were you looking for with this?
(Guillem) I think it’s more romantic than useful nowadays. What’s more, as a memory the fact that now you get a record, because most devices no longer read records, cars less and less and it’s a matter of time before having a Walkman will be like having a relic. It’s more to keep the memory and that you have on the physical disc the single that, between quotes, could be part of “HOMAS”. I think it doesn’t hurt that it’s there and that it’s part of the fact that at that time, in the summer of 2023, we released a song and you already had it on the album.
And it is not only you have taken care of the physical edition, but also the issue of the image. Just like all the covers reflect that house, you also have much more elaborate video clips, it gives a little the feeling that, in order to understand the album, you have to keep an eye on everything, is that so?
(Rai) I think it makes it easier, it’s not necessary, but it can be a little easier. The one that you put the visual already enters you through an extra sense apart from hearing. Above all, with this album we have had time to think about things, it had never happened before. Before, it was like we needed the cover of the album that was coming out tomorrow and everything running. We had never stopped to think how we wanted it to be or how we imagined it and this was the first time. It’s been a long time since we decided on the cover, a lot, it’s brutal.
(Guillem) We had the cover before some songs.
(Rai) In fact, we talked about it, after a month, we talked about it again and we liked the idea and such. Everything is much more mature, it’s not all running, it’s more thought out and that’s why I also suppose that we feel it like it comes out more from within us.
“Before we weren’t the protagonists of the groups we were in and we still didn’t have such a heavy focus”
Now that some time has passed since the pandemic, you have left behind that boom that gave you that worldwide repercussion, you have stopped being roommates and you are now a much more consolidated band. How much has your life changed in these years?
(Guillem) I think a lot but not that much. At the level of lifestyle, we lead a fairly similar life, because we were musicians before. We knew what day-to-day was like, preparing a tour, giving shape to the live show, making a record, going out there to play. But at the same time it has taken on a larger dimension, the radius where we arrive has grown, where we do concerts, in the languages in which we sing… Everything is the same, but it has widened much more. The pressure we’ve felt has also gotten bigger, before we weren’t the protagonists of the groups we were in and we still didn’t have such a heavy focus. It’s that, it’s the same, but much more. We were three people in charge of setting up a company, making a group, deciding on the cover, I don’t know what… a thousand things and on top of that now we not only play in Catalonia, but we spend three days in a row with the van and we sleep here today and there tomorrow. I personally love it, we are happy, but it is true that it has taken on a heavier dimension and we can also notice it on our backs.
Also, in all this time you worked for Sony, you created your own label, Cukileo Records, and now you are also part of Halley Records. Has it been a change to focus your audience more?
(Rai) I think that in the end it was due to ways of working or how we saw the project and how Sony saw it or things like that. In the end we needed a very close treatment, we are a bit heavy, we are on it 24 hours a day and Sony is a huge company, so the treatment, obviously, cannot be so personalized and down to earth. And that’s why we decided to do that, in the end it’s cool that the relationship is so close, plus we’ve known each other for years, everything is easier. We have the reins a little more, or we have the feeling of having them more than before.
Now you will start the new tour right away, but what changes will we notice between the ones before the album and the ones we will see now?
(Rai) It’s the year that has changed the most I think!
(Klaus) Yeah, it’s changed a lot, yeah.
(Guillem) Harleys come in, we go in by helicopter… (they laugh)
(Klaus) It’s quite changeable really, both on stage and setlist level. Some of the songs we play are leaving because new ones have to come from this album, as in all groups, but we are also giving the old ones a spin. I think it’s very good, also in 2021 and in 2021 they were quick bowling and with what we had, in 2022 it was like a hybrid format because in some it was a standing format and others seated. And now I think we have a brutal live show, with a lot of music. I think it’s the best we’ve ever done live.
(Rai) It is also the most ambitious. But we still have to prepare it (laughs).
(Klaus) Yes, but it’s potentially ambitious.
And, for the moment, you are going to play in Madrid and in several festivities that you have already announced, do you have more dates saved?
(Guillem) Mainly in summer we will do festivals and for autumn I suppose we will do something different. Surely we will do self-produced concerts in halls and such, but for now this summer we will go from party to party.
Do you have plans for future work or are you totally focused on the release and the new tour at the moment?
(Rai) Having them would be very psycho.
(Guillem) This one hasn’t come out yet, I think we’ll enjoy it well.
(Klaus) It’s been a year or so since the horizon was Friday the 5th of May and everything has orbited based on that.
(Guillem) And it’s very heavy that it’s almost May 5th.
(Klaus) A year ago we had a one-year vision of the future, a month ago we had a month’s vision, and today we have a three-day vision. The album is out now and the tour starts in June and I already think we’ll start a different wheel, one that will be less necessarily creative, without having to go to the studio and stuff. The idea is to do the tour, show our music to people, make them go home as happy as possible and then enter into that vital change of routine. And that’s what I suppose will happen, because I have no certainty about the future, because I almost don’t think about it.
