2023-07-21 23:15:04
“I do things like Depresión Sonora and I don’t know what I want”. In a world that tends to hide his insecurities under the rug of appearances, the honesty with which this 26-year-old from Vallecan presents himself on TikTok is appreciated. Marcos Crespo (Madrid, 1997) is a sound and image engineer for whom the same pandemic that paralyzed the planet would serve as a shuttle to success. Paradoxes of life. The confinement, boredom and that atmosphere of hopelessness motivated the man from Madrid to compose, from minimalism lo-fi and the sinister but danceable cadence of post-punk, a handful of songs that earned him public support, especially in Mexico and other parts of Latin America. An epé of the same name, uploaded to his Bandcamp in May 2020, connected with thousands of young people who had seen their desire for fun frustrated in an already demoralizing context, and with one of his songs, there is no summer anymoreerected in an updated version of the identity motto of punk, “no future”. From the circumstantial to the universal, the cut has more than 26 million views on Spotify.
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Further
After publishing several small and medium format works, in November of last year he premiered his first feature The art of dying very slowly (Sonido Muchacho, 2022), a concept album divided into three acts in which he develops his particular neighborhood existentialism, of lives doomed to precariousness and an urgent and redemptive romanticism, a proposal that could be reminiscent of El Último de la Fila or Extremoduro in the narrative and The Cure, New Order, Golpes Bajos or La Mode in the musical, references from 40 years ago that seem to bother him when they come up during the interview .
He was born in Vallecas and seems proud of it. What does the neighborhood contribute to Depresión Sonora?
Despite the fact that there are many in Vallecas because it is very large, that is, Entrevías is not the same as Ensanche, it is a neighborhood that has historically been proud of being a worker, with a lot of movement in the 50s and 60s. We have always felt happy to be, we are not ashamed of our origin. It is a pity that the peripheries are stigmatized, that they are shown as dangerous places when those of us who live there know that this is not the case. And in Depresión Sonora there is a lot of that, I am a neighborhood boy, it is what I am and I am not going to hide it. I will not try to give an image of marketing that is not mine nor pretend to be more than what I am.
A few days ago he played with La Paloma and Alba Morena at the PSOE campaign kick-off rally in the Casa de Campo in Madrid, can it be considered an act of militancy?
Not at all. I do not agree with the PSOE. But I think it was an opportunity and a key moment, with all the talk about culture. I have a very progressive vision, of progress and of defending my sector. But it’s also important because it’s been many years since we artists have positioned ourselves politically and I think it’s a shame. It’s like we don’t want to be judged or branded as x or y. Now there are artists with a very powerful ideology that do not show it for fear of reprisals when historically these, the culture in general, has been to position itself a lot. I saw it as an opportunity for a sector, that of independent music, which is not present in so many places. It may thus encourage other people to position themselves against everything we are experiencing and against a right that seems to want to censor us in many cases.
It doesn’t stop being curious to do an event with these kinds of bands. Perhaps there was an interest in young people who seem to be excessively aligned to the right.
Yes, it is possible, but if that was your intention it has not been done well. Three projects that in Spain, for now, are between small and medium will not reach a large audience. And my audience is already aligned to the left. If you want to reach more young people, you still have to call Bizarrap or Quevedo. I suppose they counted on us because the event was focused on the profile of Pedro Sánchez more, let’s say “indie”, of festivals, of his playlists…That on his part. For mine because it is time to try to stop all this that is happening.
About his music, you will have already been told that it sounds like the eighties: Joy Division, New Order, The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen, Golpes Bajos, La Mode… Gerard Alegre, leader of El Último Vecino, one of the pioneering bands in the recovery in Spain of a sound between post-punk and techno-pop. He commented that he opted for that style because it was the one he had to listen to as a child, that when he felt the need to express himself, it came out that way. Was this the case with him?
I had also heard that music. My parents were my age in the eighties and they used to play it at home. But this “sounds like” comment comes from not knowing the entire current scene around the music lo-fi. I mean, this part there, but I’m not trying to imitate the eighties, I’m trying to imitate a feeling. And it arises from having investigated a lot in a type of sound that objectively does not sound good but subjectively brings you closer to sensations that perhaps if my music sounded clean and mixed from the beginning, with a hundred percent modern sound, it would stop transmitting nostalgia or recreating the effect of feeling trapped, which must be communicated through other types of textures.
It gives the feeling that he prioritizes the message over the sound.
Yes, totally. They also ask me many times why I don’t sing in a more melodic way, in a more traditional way instead of reciting, and this comes from the creative process in which I put the message before the music. What makes it end up having another audience, that it arrives in a different way, but I think just as powerful.
He became known during the pandemic thanks to several minimalist-sounding, self-produced songs uploaded to his Bandcamp. All very DIYvery “do it yourself” and hLittle by little, he surrounded himself with other professionals in the processes, right? On her debut album, The art of dying very slowly Harto Rodríguez (C. Tangana, Rels B or Cariño) and Miguel Grimaldo are credited in production and recording tasks.
The project started in a very genuine way. I had no intention of anything. I made songs and uploaded them to the internet just to share what I had done in my room. Miguel Grimaldo is my sound technician and friend, Harto Rodríguez is also a colleague. They both come from rap, which is a world that I really like because of its relationship with sound. lo-fi and with the sampling, and the possibility of working with them arises through the Sonido Muchacho label, since I can now finance a lot of things that would have been unthinkable before. They also connect me with people and offer me more means. In fact, soon I am going to record an epé with Diego Escriche from La Plata, who is also a producer and one of my best friends, and I will also repeat with Harto Rodríguez, both great professionals. I think that, in the end, it is more important to surround yourself with people with whom you have confidence and a good feelingespecially if you work on something artistic.
Bombs in cards explode your dreams / From a cabin I end this empire / Virtual apocalypse / How difficult is the real world!… In Apocalipsis virtual (2022) refers to Unabomber and the manifesto with which he blackmailed various media outlets in 1995, The industrial society and its futureWhy did you want to dedicate a topic to it?
Well, your manifesto is very interesting, but rather than dedicating the subject to it, I take it exclusively as a reference. I talk about him and about that virtual apocalypse that he proposes, but brought to the present, to the now, because in 1995 it did not have the same meaning. I’m talking about that collapse, not of society as he does, but on a personal level, caused by technology that with its constant overstimulation makes us feel empty many times. I use his story and his manifesto to understand this virtual apocalypse we are living through.
also referred to Lucius Urtubia In a recent interview, what attracts you to the figure of the historical anarchist?
Well, he seems to me one of the most curious characters in history. And one of the most hidden. By the way, he died recently. He has not been a particularly praised or very public figure. I think his was an act of bravery, of faith in humanity and of defending your own ideology and your morals at an important level. To live very movie adventures.
In a world where capitalism has rendered the image of some of the most transcendental bands in rock history meaningless, why would you choose a T-shirt with the overused Nirvana logo for your album promotion session?
I was wearing it yesterday. I wear it many times. I like it a lot Bleach (1989) and it seems to me a very powerful band that represented many subversive things beyond what became commercial in the end. I admire the figure of Kurt Cobain, I am fascinated by his story, what he suffered and how it ended.
Apocalyptic, hopeless, dystopian, sarcastic, nihilistic…do you identify with these adjectives? Are they still defining the Marcos of 2023?
No, not now and not ever. People are exaggerated. I don’t think it’s apocalyptic. Sarcastic I think so, that’s the only one I buy. All these qualifiers come from not being able to find that within oneself, when it really is within everyone. One cannot be well without assuming the negative.
Do you think that identifying with a generational or even circumstantial feeling, due to the pandemic, can constrain you? Do you feel that your creative freedom is tied to the Depresión Sonora project and what the public expects of it?
Yes, I feel partly tied, because the project is not called Marcos Crespo. It’s not me. And in Spain I have been stigmatized by my name, something that in Latin America has not happened to me. Sound Depression was something I did for no purpose, with a play on words that comes from the sound pressure level of a loudspeaker, and here people have thrown their heads a bit over the name. But I keep evolving and I think that, in the end, that doesn’t matter so much, and what people want is to listen to me.
His latest release, Markusiana, is actually an exchange of versions with Carolina Durante, with whom she shares a record label, Sonido Muchacho. They have done the same with there is no summer anymore. How did this loan come about and what motivates it? And, if so, why did you decide to Cayetano?
Honestly, it all started as a joke. One night someone started to sing it to me, changing the lyrics to Markusiana and I thought it might be a good idea. I saw it as fun. Not everything has to be serious within the project. I raised it with the label and from that we made the exchange. I try to turn his song around, to be Cayetanoa posh from Madrid to Markusiana, a neighborhood kid. Maybe some more versions will come in the future, but not on my part. I find it very interesting, as Depresión Sonora is something very specific, like a niche, that is interpreted from different points of view that do not have much to do with it.
He let it be seen on his social networks that a change of style is coming for the new epé, where to?
Yes. I think there are changes. But I don’t know how to classify it. You journalists will do it.
Do not doubt it.
Genres and labels are for journalists. They are always the ones who decide what it sounds like.
#shame #artists #dont #position #politically