Twenty-somethings towards: neither lure nor reggaeton, they play rock in Spanish | Culture | EUROtoday

Their faces can’t be seen as a result of they’re lined by lengthy, thick hair that falls over their shoulders whereas they play their devices. Mario Rejos, the bassist, 23 years previous, sports activities a tattoo with the letters AC/DC on his shoulder; Iván Sánchez, 26 years previous, guitarist and singer, wears a Permanent Paralysis t-shirt; and Pablo Aliseda, the drummer, 19 years previous, has placed on a printed shirt that absolutely triumphed again within the Summer of Love in 1967. They type the Amposta trio, they’re from the Madrid neighborhood of San Blas and they’re rehearsing in locations close to their houses. They sound like a mixture between Leño from the primary album (1979) and Triana, additionally from the seventies. They represent, subsequently, an anomaly inside present younger Spanish music, which is nourished, in its most promoting model, by the city style (Quevedo), gentle pop (Aitana) or rappers transformed into mellifluous poppers (Rels B). And residing exterior of traits if you find yourself 20 years previous is an nearly political place. Amposta and different teams look like “proudly old-fashioned”, bands made up of members who weren’t born when their favourite teams have been already reaching success: Rosendo Mercado, Extremoduro, Triana, Las Grecas, Los Rodríguez, Los Ronaldos, Tequila or Platero y Tú.

José Carlos Sánchez, Charlie, He goes to be, by far, the oldest to take part on this report. At 65 years previous, he’s a part of the old-fashioned of the recording business. Charlie, as he’s known as within the sector, is liable for signing Extremoduro and Platero y Tú, amongst others, for Dro/Warner (document firm the place he served as president), and at present he runs the Metales Preciozos label, additionally specialised in rock. “When I started with the new company, five years ago, there were almost no young rock bands. But now there are many groups: I think we are at the beginning of a scene, which only needs a group that explodes, as happened with Extremoduro in the nineties.”

Charlie assumes that the electrical guitar style returns cyclically in music. “Rock has been killed many times, but it is always there. It is one of the few genres that is inherited. If the father has an AC/DC album at home, the son is going to listen to it and with a good chance of getting hooked,” he factors out, and remembers: “In the nineties, when we signed Extremoduro and Platero y Tú, it was the time of techno and indie. I remember that they told us that it was a mistake to bet on rock, that we were not cool. And then look. Now the same thing could happen.” The document government gives details about the loyalty of the general public: “In Spanish newsstands, only three rock and roll magazines remain in paper version: The Heavy, Route 66 y Popular 1”.

A clarification is in order: this report does not contemplate groups assigned to more or less pop-rock. indie, such as Alcalá Norte, Carolina Durante, La Paloma or Biznaga. Not even Arde Bogotá, which have rocked the scene, but do not show such a militant tendency with Spanish rock. of-all-life such as Amposta, La Perra Blanco, Drugos, Linaje, Vamos Con Todo (formerly Volvoreta), Juventude, Bala, Vértize, Puño Dragón or Dura Calá. Many in their twenties, others in their thirties.

Amposta has finished the rehearsal, the three of them open some cans of beer and begin to throw out ideas. In the background you can hear the unmistakable voice sideways by Jaime Urrutia, who rehearses in a nearby venue. Iván, the singer, confirms: “With my tastes, I felt like a weirdo in school. I solely talked about music with the lecturers, as a result of I had no different selection. In my class, solely my instructor preferred Iron Maiden.” Pablo, the drummer, adds: “My colleagues in the neighborhood only listen to reggaeton and rap, the typical stuff. Trap also. When I met Mario and Iván, a world opened up to me. I could finally talk about music with kids my age.” Mario, the bassist, elaborates: “It’s not just music, it encompasses many things. I, for example, don’t go out to party. I’m going to see concerts. And I don’t go to clubs. I’ve sometimes gone with friends and I listen to the music from the club and I say: ‘What the hell are you giving me?’. It’s just that I left there in a bad way. And on top of that they charge you 15 bucks for a drink. Let’s fuck it…”

Amposta publishes its first album in a few weeks. Two songs can now be heard on the platforms. They were the opening act for Alcalá Norte last December at La Riviera, where they performed a furious version of This Madrid, from Leño. “Alcalá Norte acted like a motherfucker. They paid us 1,000 euros. You had by no means charged a lot,” they point out. His name, Amposta, is the same as that of a street in his neighborhood, San Blas, in Madrid.

The incipient movement is spread throughout Spain (there are bands in Andalusia, Galicia, Asturias, Madrid, Catalonia…) and they share youth and a sound architecture based on the classic guitar-bass-drums. Most use the digital universe to travel to the past. This is the case of Alba Blanco, 29, from Cádiz, who introduces herself as La Perra Blanco and who resorted to the enormous YouTube library to research the singers she is passionate about. “When I used to be 18 and my mates went to the membership to bounce techno, I talked to them about Carl Perkins. Imagine. I performed movies on YouTube that have been in black and white. They did not perceive something, after all. They advised me: ‘If a musician is not useless, you do not like him.’ Alba, a superb guitarist in addition to a singer, has simply revealed her third work, Lovers & Fears, brimming with music impressed by that recorded greater than half a century in the past. “In my house there was no rock from the 50s. Everything arose from an impulse of mine,” he explains. “I stayed at home researching on YouTube. I had no one to share it with. But that made it more attractive. I’m a young aunt from La Línea de la Concepción playing classic rock and roll; I can’t go against it anymore.”

Not everybody was educated in that isolation. In some circumstances these younger individuals grew to become captivated with songs in their very own residence, with their dad and mom’ nightclub. Jano Díaz, 29 years previous, Asturian and singer of Drugos, a gaggle that has simply launched an album, Make noise whilst you can, He owes his like to the vinyl he discovered at residence: “My first contact with music was my parents. They are fans of Queen, the Beatles and also Calamaro. I remember car trips and asking my father to put on a loop Maradona, from Calamaro. “I might have been six years previous.”

The case of Lineage is special. The singer and guitarist goes by the name of Aarón Romero, 20 years old and son of Kutxi Romero, leader of Marea. “I was born with a guitar in my hands,” explains Aarón for this report. “We are lucky that in Berriozar [municipio navarro a seis kilómetros de Pamplona] There is a very deep-rooted rock culture. This is a microcosm where young people play guitar and get together to start bands. It is striking that in a place of 10,000 inhabitants there are so many young rock bands. It is a good quarry.” Linaje released its first album in 2025, They unleashed the dogs, and since then they embarked on a tour of venues, which always fill up. Aarón confirms a generational communion at the concerts: “Numerous younger audiences come to our stay reveals, who’ve absolutely inherited the eagerness of their dad and mom, who’ve performed Marea and Extremoduro albums for them. A curious division happens within the recitals, just like the one Robe invented: on one facet the individuals who go to bounce and pogo (the kids) and on the opposite the calmer ones (the dad and mom). It is important {that a} younger viewers follows you, as a result of they’re those who’re going to be there all their lives.”

The message of the lyrics of these new bands tends to update concepts of the groups that have influenced them. They don’t like the world they live in either, digital control scares them, they avoid toxic relationships and unrequited love is still just as painful and prone to writing a good song.

Back at Amposta’s rehearsal, the three joke about their long hair, which they have worn since they turned eleven or 12 years old. “We have by no means seen a reggaeton participant with lengthy hair. That’s why we put on it,” they snicker. And they end: “More than old young, We are normal kids who like old things.” In the three hours that the assembly with EL PAÍS lasted, they didn’t use their cell phones at any time.