The Valencians Virgin of the Periphery They have made one of those albums that has everything to hook fans of Nick Cave, Manta Ray, Pixies, Mark Lanegan or The Jesus and Mary Chain, with fragments of sounds that can also remind us of Ennio Morricone’s soundtracks.
The album, the first they published after some singles, is called “Crime in Spain, Vol. 1” (La Synthesis, 2023), and will soon have a sequel. Meanwhile, I speak with Alberto “Correcto” Roselló (previously in projects such as El Futuro Peatón or Megaphone ou la mort), guitarist of a formation of more than experienced musicians from the Valencian scene: the voices of David Pascual (Mr. Perfumme, Jackson Milicia), Violeta Ausina (MAR, Orxata Sound System, also on keyboard) and Irene Tiemersma, Juan Clavel’s bass (Gilbertástica, Golden Peluco) and Santi Serrano’s drums (Carmina Burana and Emma Get Wild).
Does the perception of your songs change now that you already have feedback in the form of reviews of the album?
The truth is that if. A few days ago they told us about Beat Happening, through the voice of Mr. Perfumme, and I love it. I hadn’t listened to them in a long time. I have composed these songs with the bass, and it was the first time I did it. They started to occur to me during the pandemic, I had a lot of time. About forty. Then I started making discards. They are songs that I would not have thought of with the guitar. I create drum loops, I use the bass, and being a guitarist I come up with many ideas. It allows me to get to where I want to go faster.
What is your work like when putting together the songs?
I present those songs quite well worked on, and Mr. Perfumme and Violeta (Ausina) come up with ideas, and then we take them to rehearsal, what happens is that it is true that rehearsing is very complicated, because we are all doing it all day long. a thousand things, so let’s say that when we get to rehearsal the songs are pretty well worked out. Mr. Perfumme began to make sketches of stories that are in line with what the songs tell, and that also gives me certain guidelines of how some should sound. The process is very fast.
“We’ve all been playing for a long time, so everything happens very quickly”
The album is heterogeneous, and somewhat unclassifiable. I guess it’s a reflection of what you are also as music consumers.
There are those who have told us that we are a very arty group, perhaps because each song has different influences. It is also true that the stories Mr. Perfumme tells are different, some very intense, and that had to be reflected in the music. Composing with the bass, going back to what I told you before, has given us a lot of diversity. And each lyric required a different soundscape.
Has anything influenced you in recent times?
I have always listened to all kinds of music, since I was very young, but it is true that lately at home I listen to less aggressive music than what I used to listen to before. In recent years I’ve become quite obsessed with how Ray Davies makes songs. I find it amazing how he makes the introduction, the knot, leaves you a space and then comes a super chorus. I’ve listened to a lot of Brazilian music too. A lot of St. Vincent, which amazes me. We have very varied tastes, but, above all, we must recognize that we are children of the nineties. Our biggest influences come from there. The guitar memory I have from my adolescence is Nirvana, which was successful when I started playing. And there are also the Tindersticks, Nick Cave, Dominique A, PJ Harvey… that’s where we come from. As much as I also really like things from the eighties, like the way Johnny Marr made songs with The Smiths. During the pandemic I had a lot of time and I dedicated part of it to studying how to structure songs. Because I like noise, I like noise, but I want all of that to be within a song format. Because I also understand that the stories that Mr. Perfumme sings require a song. We don’t want to go overboard on experimental things, but on making songs. Possibly I’m getting older (laughs).
I haven’t seen you live yet. Do you resize the album on stage?
Yes, plus now Irene (Villar Tiemersma) is with us, also composing, and we are working with her melodies, and both she and Mr. Perfumme are stage animals. When I’m playing live, I’m very aware of everything I do, I’m not as aware of what they do as I would like, but I have seen in videos that we have a very fun and energetic live performance. We have two singers who don’t stop moving, and things are happening all the time. The sound is more punk and aggressive than on the album. And we add some spoken word, experimentation, things that are really cool. We also now have Charly, a very good keyboard player, who introduces more electronic sounds. I’m very happy with how the live is turning out, honestly. We’ve all been playing for a long time, so everything comes together very quickly. We are quite surprised because they are direct and come out very well, without the need to continually rehearse. Our concerts are a good trip. And we have always been very clear that live is live and the songs in the studio are the songs in the studio, so once we go on stage, we give it our all.
After all, you’ve all been making music for a long time in other projects.
Yes, and over the years I realize that the work of rehearsing, apart from practicing, is very difficult. Of removing layers. I think over time I play less. I’m intervening little by little in the songs. And I look for that in the live show. And also because the voices and lyrics are very important, and it is advisable to pay attention to those moments in which it is more worth it not to play, to look for a silence or a small delay arrangement, than to be playing the guitar without stopping. These things are detected very well in trials. We guitarists like to play a lot and very loud, in general, but over the years you learn that sometimes it is better to remove or not do it depending on what things, or silence, than to be playing.