Iñaki ‘Uoho’ Antón, who was a guitarist and composer for bands like Extremoduro, Platero y Tú or Los Inconscientes, presents a new project under the name of his own alias: Uoho, this time, as the group’s main referent (he continues on guitar, but debuts as vocalist). And it is that, although Iñaki has always been comfortable in the background, after the latest events he has decided to boost his solo career and continues with new releases. In interpretations (2022), for example, revisits the songs of his old groups with an updated sound. After publishing the first two ‘acts’, the third has just premiered with Sin solución, by Platero y Tú, where the Basque group collaborated with Rosendo.
More than three decades of pure rock and roll without fissures guarantee Uoho (the group). Because together with Iñaki they form Miguel Colino and José Ignacio Cantera, bassist and drummer from Extremoduro, as well as the organist and pianist who accompanied them on tour, Aiert Erkoreka. All of them have also been members of Los Inconscientes, a parallel band that the guitarist put together in 2006, and together they opened the Guns n’ Roses concert at the Benito Villamarín in Seville last June. There they advanced their album Recordings for Live, a selection of songs from his entire career, produced and performed by him for this album. And they’re doing the same on the theater tour, Two hours is a short time to be with you, which arrives this Tuesday at the Garaje Beat Club in Murcia.
How does it feel to be a leader in this new project? Does the responsibility overwhelm you? Is it like starting from scratch?
Maybe from under the stage you feel differently. Personally, I still see that we are a band of four elements, four legs of the chair, only now I have to sing. At first, seeing myself there in the center and having a bus in front of me was a bit overwhelming, but I’m getting used to it and I’m having a better time every time. And yes, I also feel like I’m starting from scratch; I have already said it several times. The situation reminds me of when we started the Plateros, and I like that.
I suppose it was unquestionable that the band had to be this yes or yes.
Absolutely. They have been my companions since the beginning of the century (Cantera, even, from before). Without them, I wouldn’t do it.
Has putting yourself in the role of a singer been the most difficult?
Yes of course. It’s something I’ve never played with before, and I had – and still have – a lot to learn. That rejuvenates me. Learning a new role in music after so many years is amazing.
What was it like to pull back on the Extremoduro tour with almost half a million tickets sold? What a ‘tinglao’…
We were two who had to decide. It’s simple: one thought that one thing had to be done and the other, that another had to be done. I always wanted to do the tour above all else, when I could, no matter how much time passed. Just two different opinions. There is not much more to scratch. And yes, what a ‘tinglao’…
After a friendship with Robe For thirty years, how has it all ended? Was the controversial end of Extremoduro painful?
We have been much more than friends for thirty years. We have been family, partners, confidants…, brothers. The end of a project to which you have dedicated your life is a sad moment, of course. But life is that: beginnings, endings, encounters and disagreements. One of the wonderful things about living is that we cannot make a closed design of how life is going to be. We are adapting to what happens, to that entropy. You have to accept it: it has been like this and it will not be otherwise.
And in this very personal process, back to songs by Platero y Tú and Extremoduro that are also not the obvious ones, what does it feel like to sing songs by Extremoduro now? Is flying without a Robe like taking a load off your shoulders?
I choose songs that I feel like, that I identify with, and I try not to get into songs that are very personal to Robe. I’m simply putting my room in order; compiling part of what I have done in my musical life. Once I have this sorted, we’ll start flying with new songs.
Has it been difficult to face issues that are practically hymns and take them to your own ground? More difficult than making a record of new songs?
Yeah, it’s harder in some ways than making a new record. I have done it, in the first place, because they hired me for it and I accepted. And secondly, because it seemed like a good idea to me, given the circumstances, laying the foundation of who I am before starting something new. It’s been a moment of rupture, of starting over, and I think it’s good at this moment to settle on a base, see who I am musically and then start from there.
They are going to look closely at the review of those classics. Is there an answer for those who say that Uoho is a tribute band?
It is what has the current right to publicly comment on everything without knowledge and without assuming responsibilities. They describe themselves. Why would I bother responding to such nonsense? If I start to explain it, it would mean assuming that I communicate with fools, and I don’t want to.
And how does Uoho handle this current of neopuritanism, or the so-called ‘cancellation culture’?
At first I was very bored with that current. Then it started to make me sick. Now it starts to scare me.
“I’m tidying up my room; collecting some of what I’ve done in my musical life. Once I have that done, we’ll start flying with new songs”
Uoho would not have existed if it had not been for the rupture of Extremoduro. What happened?
We let a couple of years go by and we (the band) started to see what we could do. They proposed a project with my name, my voice and my songs at that time, and we thought it was appropriate. At another time it would not have been, surely, but the opportunity came to us at the right time. And here we are.
A version of Barricade opens interpretations.
It has its history. It is the song that he was going to do with Kutxi [Romero, cantante de Marea] for the tribute to Boni, and finally ended up being the first song of this new project. ‘We are like that’.
Back to the halls, how do you take the change when you go from playing in large venues?
I’m lovin ‘it; I have always said it. I really like to play rock in rooms. Especially rock. I enjoy a lot. In the halls I feel like the group and the concert attendees end up doing something together. Unique nights.