HISTORY

HISTORY OF THE GROUP BY EDU "LUKA" (1999). TRANSLATION BY VANESSA LOSADA

Victor Velasco , a boy with interesting things in his head found an old and tired Panasonic multitrack.. Then came Michael B.Errazu which already knew what rock was, so they both talked to Eduard Torres which didn't even know the Re minor from the first position on the guitar.

In those days the streets where Velvet Underground and the bars had a special flavour. Music was something that could not be deformed, ¡t was something structured, with only one meaning . We heard the songs like they wanted to be heard, the damned guitar could only be heard in the guitar solo , the voice was not modulated and the drums were just like they had to.

The three boys from the same streets met every day in Michaels loft to play songs from the Velvet Underground. Time after, music made Michael and Victor meet Daniel "Zanu" in the Doctor Music Festival, a drummer, which was looking forward to playing in the group. We were now walking near the Velvet , Patti Smith, David Bowie and soon we ended up playing in a free local in the tube. The lack of amplifiers, microphones and drums wasn't enough to stop us playing.

We liked playing 25 minutes anything, which had three chords. Then we thought of playing in bars 5O minutes songs with one chord and see the reaction of the people. What would happen? Would they dance? Laugh maybe? or leave the bar annoyed? Well, it would have been interesting, but we never did it. We always thought that our music was very close to performances, theatre, and cinema projections.

Not long after we moved to another local ( Hangar l9) . We shared equipment with another group and finally we managed to record something in better conditions than before. Our best recording was "The horrible aspect of a drop of poetry seen through a microscope"

Little by little the name of the group knocked on our door. At the beginning it was a bit difficult to assume, it was not a common name for a group, it is the name of a character in the novel "Naked Lunch " from William. S . Borroughs. With this name we did our first concert in a bar called "El Grial".Alvaro played the bass for us and it was a very exciting and addicting experience, something similar to a drug, I suppose.

PJ Harvey and Tom Waits soon erupted energicaly in our group , though Charles Bukowski, William Blake, Cortazar, Kerouack, Henry Miller, Borroughs where still there.

After knowing Alvaro was leaving the group we tried to find new bassist and a woman appeared: Melina Grinberg.
In the summer of l997 we went to Cedena, a local which Daniel has in Toledo. There we talked, knew each other, drank, listened to music ( Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, The Beatles, Tom Waits , Zap Mama, Joe Pass, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey , Miles Davis, Grieg) and played , played and played.

Things changed when we left the locals from Hangar 19. We moved to an enormous place called Rhythm and Beat. This local was great, it was opened all night and it has a big bar where they give good concerts.
Before the second month there, Michael and Victor decide to leave the group and only three of us were left to try and force the group up, but its no use; soon only two of us are left (Daniel and Eduard). We start again looking for new people to play in the group and that understand music like we do.

After a few concerts with the new formation (Maria the singer, Mane Arija the bassist, and David the violinist) Maria goes and Vanessa Losada comes in, with a lot of energy. The variety of tastes and people made this new rosa pantopon stronger, more than any other formations. At last four of us are now settled and making a great effort. Daniel "Zanu" (drummer) , Manuel "mane" bassist), Vanessa"Vane" (voice) and Eduard "Luka" (guitar).

We have seen how other groups have fallen because of no communication and problems between the members, and we've also seen groups which have improved and opened their way through such difficult world.

Our Music and songs are strong and what matters to us is the concept and it's environment. We have fortunately discovered that we can sacrifice the sound of an ancestral guitar for a handmade plate (which we make) and a 5x4 rhythm with a distorsionated voice, singing songs about drunken women or about the effects of a drug. Something like this, which does not seem new, turns out to be a very vanguardistic form of music.

From our point of view music was born from blues, but Cuban music from Eliades Ochoa is rock, the gipsy trumpet from Emir Kusturica is Jazz, the German Cabaret with the songs of Bertolt Brecht is a "Fado" and Ravi ShanKar plays the " Palo Flamenco" and Tom Waits makes surf with the sound of a teapot, and Funky music is a "Polka" and that's life and break a
leg all of you.

Edu, 1999