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Interview with Elbicho, flamenco
pop band:
"People like us because we believe in
ourselves"
Fátima Yráyzoz
Photos: Daniel Muñoz
"Locura, la noche loca espera la luz de la mañana y enloquecer
con ella" (Madness, the deranged night awaits the morning light to derange
with her), sings Miguel Campello. He's accompanied by the sweet sounds of José
Luis Alabadí's sax and the chords from Víctor Iniesta's guitar over
the beat of Toni Mangas on drums and David Cobo on percussion. Together with Carlos
(bass), they're the six elements of the band who've chosen to call themselves
Elbicho. The guys met each other at the Escuela Popular de Música in Madrid,
a school run by Guillermo McGill. In mid-September last year Miguel, from the
city of Elche in Alicante, bumped into Víctor from Madrid, and little by
little the rest of the band started to appear on the scene… Carlos, Toni,
"all friends of friends, we didn't run newspaper ads like other groups",
explains Carlos. The group's aim is to invent and put into effect a new musical
formula, with flamenco at its roots and using fusion as a means to achieve an
original sound and a style of its own. As often happens in groups with a lead
vocalist, this vocalist seems to become the group's leader. Miguel, though, in
a flash of inspiration, confesses that he's only the head of the group because
of the size of his head, nothing else! Their repertoire ranges from tangos to
rumbas, and also includes bulerías and tanguillos. But where they really
shine is in live performance: they're street musicians, as you can clearly see
every time they set foot on a stage. They've already taken the Madrid clubs by
storm, and in summer they toured the beaches of Cadiz, dazzling those happy souls
who spend their holidays on that coast. All of their compositions, lyrics and
music alike, are their own, including one or two instrumental themes where they
establish their outstanding talent as musicians.
What has Elbicho got that others haven't?
Miguel: I think it's all down to the fact that the six of us have grown
up with the same influences, and we clicked. I think that's fundamental. That's
what gives us our own style.
And why flamenco if none of you come from the south of Spain?
Miguel: Well I learned to sing bulerías less than a year ago.
I came here singing coplas at home we always sang a lot, we've always had that
party spirit. Since I was young I had music in my head but I couldn't develop
or grow in my city. When I arrived here was when I developed musically. Hearing
names that I'd never heard before.
Víctor: My relationship with flamenco began when I had the chance
to hear the flamenco legends in concert. I taught myself a lot of what I know
about music, by listening hard and long. They worried me, because I could manage
rock fingerpicking, but with flamenco plucking it was really hard for me to get
to play the high falseta notes of bassists like Carles
Benavent.
When you compose, is there one person who's the driving force?
Miguel: I already told you about the head... No seriously, there's no
leader, there's a backbone which is the lyrics I try to write myself, mostly because
I like to sing my own stuff, I can put more feeling into it. But Víctor
is the more musical side. Before it was just the two of us, but little by little
everyone's become involved, Carlos has written some songs, for example. We all
take part; the harmony isn't so much because of the time we dedicate, but because
we're all really into what we're doing here.
Do you think there are still a lot of things that haven't been done?
Miguel: Not so much things that haven't been done, more like things
that haven't been imagined. I mean at the beginning this seemed to me more similar
to other things, but you evolve and study and suddenly you see things more clearly.
I can feel that, and they feel it too, I'm not saying we'll end up playing Techno,
but that's how we feel right now.
Do you mind all the comparisons, with anything from the legendary Triana
to Mártires
del Compás or El Barrio?
Carlos: It's really funny because we've never listened to Triana.
Miguel: One day an uncle of mine told me, "This sounds just like
Triana," when he heard a demo of ours. I'd heard about Triana, everyone talking
about how they put in plenty of flashy little details. Actually I've listened
to them, but not much because I'm afraid they could influence me too much and
rub off on me. I think we're in a phase of absorbing, and we rub off too much
on each other - we're already too similar.
Miguel, on stage you charm audiences strutting rumbas and swinging your
hips with style. Where does your love of dancing come from?
Miguel: Well, my swaying comes from my mother, in my home everyone's
got something special. I just found out that I had a great-grandmother who it
seems was a singer: a 'cantaora de flamenco', but not even my mother knew her.
It sounds like a record deal and fame yet...
Miguel: We don't really know what's going on, to be honest, I'm totally
against these music dealings, I don't agree with the music business. If there
was something else I liked I'd give it up, you're always getting knocked down.
They confuse you and cheat you too much.
Víctor: We see each other every day, have lunch together... we've
been together a short time but it's been really intense. It feels like years!
Carlos: Everything we've achieved up to now is from our own hard work.
Miguel: For the moment we don't have to thank anyone for anything. We've
played in places like in Cadiz because people said good things about us and word
spread fast. When other groups have a record then they make you play in certain
places, like it or not, for promotion. We haven't had to bring out a record to
be able to play where we wanted. Besides, I think when we bring out the disc there'll
probably be things that will be bad for us, will change us, will affect our personality.
We're afraid of getting burnt out and arguing all the time.
Carlos: The problem comes from the uncertainty of not knowing what's
going to happen tomorrow.
What are you sure you don't want to do?
Miguel: I hope, more than anything else in the world, that people who
see us will say, "Wow, a new group!" I know that's a little hard, though,
because Flamenco is everywhere, but I hope we manage to sound different. If they
like us or not - that's another question, but we have to be ourselves, Elbicho.
Víctor: I think people like us because we believe in ourselves.
People can feel that
Out of curiosity, who is 'el bicho' (the bug)?
Miguel: I'm an acrobat, and one Summer I was working away somewhere
and a friend called me 'Bicho'. But we're all 'Elbicho', we didn't put Los Bichos
because there were already others like The Beatles. I say it again: we're all
'Elbicho'.
magazine@flamenco-world.com
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