2024-09-13 04:28:07
With more than ten years of experience, the band from Necochea The Butterfly Plan managed to find their own voice and a relevant place in Argentine music. Based on a horizontal and self-managed work, the group rock and popular music Andersen brothers will land this Saturday, September 14 at 8pm at the Movistar Arena (Humboldt 450) to present your new album, Chained (2024), a work that consolidates their sound and aesthetic identity. Transformation, changes, resilience, diversity, self-love, care for nature and respect for humanity and community life are some of the poetic axes of this band that managed to connect with a mass audience. “The nice thing about records is embarking on an adventure that you don’t know where it will take you. Finding a formula is boring, even though there are processes that are repeated. But the new vertigo is always good,” says the singer Sebastian Andersen on the restless spirit of the group.
The conceptual axis of the album revolves around a kind of divine being, Don Correntada, who has the gift of making emotions circulate through the water of the body and transform sorrows into lighter feelings. “This Don Correntada is the character on the cover and his gift is that he brings emotions to the body,” explains Sebastián. “The album is crossed by that: they are songs that try to oil and lubricate the relationship between emotions and the body. If I bring the emotion to the body, I also manage to move and get out what I need,” says the musician. By dint of powerful and sensitive songs, the Buenos Aires-based group is completed with Camila Andersen on vocals, Valentín Andersen on guitars and vocals, Máximo Andersen on keyboards, Santiago Andersen on violin, Andrés Nör on bass and Julián Ropero on drums.
“They are all new compositions, there is no rehash of previous works. There was a lot of work in the rehearsal room, going back and forth with the computer, the home studio and virtual instruments,” says violinist Santiago Andersen about the composition and sound process of the album. “They are songs that we made recently and we sought a more synthetic sound. Link status “It’s an album where the drums sound bigger, the audio is more like a seventies band, but on this album the drums are more synthetic and compressed,” says his brother Sebastián. “Each element is heard more on its own. We wanted to try that journey. We were more on top of the mix and tried to find a sound that represented us. We re-recorded the songs several times,” he says.
More than a place of arrival, the Villa Crespo indoor stadium is another post on the path of El Plan, even though it has a capacity of almost 15 thousand people. It is not considered in terms of results but of processes. Since the debut album, Outbreak (2009), the Necochea band built a musical journey that was earthly, receptive and close to its audience, an almost one-on-one dialogue. They played in the street, in the subway, in independent theaters, alternative venues and created their own festival. (see below) until reaching mass popularity with the album Link status (2020). And that good present was expressed with the arrival at Obras Sanitarias at the end of 2021 and at Luna Park in 2023. “It is not a place of arrival or just another one. We are not interested in getting anywhere, we are going on a journey that is just starting,” says Sebastián Andersen about the show at the Movistar Arena. “It is a learning process, it is a journey. It is always today. It is a nice moment to celebrate that we are doing this date with a lot of people who come to support this story,” he says.
-How much importance do you give to the outside, to what is playing at the moment?
Sebastian Andersen: -There are two instances that are important to be able to distinguish and separate. One thing is the moment of creation, because it goes against the creative act to be thinking about whether someone is going to like it or not. Creating something has to do with a connection with yourself and if you speculate about the outside, the mind intervenes a lot. Art is immersing yourself in the journey of trying to crystallize something that happens to you. There is a feeling and you crystallize it. Then, once you have created the song, you can give it a better chance. And that has to do with the outside, because it implies recording it, producing it and mixing it in the best way possible. That also implies thinking about sharing it and it is a totally valid instance. In that instance it is good to think about the outside in the sense of giving the best to share that essence that I managed to release from myself.
Santiago Andersen: -There is an initial germ that is what is moving to the person who makes it. In a song there is a ray of emotion that runs through you. And we try to keep that germ alive through the recording process and to communicate it in the best way, perhaps with a video.
Sebastián: –The audience that goes to El Plan is very diverse and very open, it’s not like they listen to just one style. If we go to see Jorge Drexler, a lot of people say hello to us, and if we go to a Dillom show, the same goes for us. We’re not stuck in any scene. I like it that way, because sometimes belonging can give you a shield towards new journeys that you want to undertake because maybe you owe a certain “cult” to that scene.
-As a band you are self-organized and horizontal. Why do you think you have achieved this growth and this massiveness?
Sebastián: -I think we were very lucky, but I don’t know why this happens with El Plan. Part of the charm is that it is indecipherable. In all this time we have connected with many people and we have had contact from a healthy place. From playing in the street to seeing someone at the exit of Luna Park, we always connect with people. There is a closeness with the public and that is important in the logic of El Plan. Also because of what the songs say. We always try to be present and connect with people. But there is no formula. The why is important. We make songs to collaborate with the process of people who want to listen to El Plan and that it gives them a hand if they want. The content is super important for us. The songs have an impact on people. That line has deepened in these years. Humans are very similar; deep down, more or less the same thing happens to all of us. And our songs are cathartic. Music came to give us a hand because being alive is a mess. Music takes you out of the rationality of everyday life and allows you to see things in perspective because it has a spiritual component.
-And do you think that in this digitalized and individualistic present it is important to reconnect with one’s own body and with that of others?
Sebastián: -Despite the crisis, the concerts are full. One of the reasons why people go to the shows is the fact of having this moment of contact, of disconnection, of not looking at a screen so much. The connection with the body is important. The body is one and one is with the body. But we always need the connection with others. There are both things. The body is one and it expands outwards. And in the connection with the other we improve as people.
-Is there an idiosyncrasy of Necochea in El Plan? Water is very present in the songs.
Sebastián: –One of the most interesting things about Necochea is that it goes through many different moments in the life of the city. It has a very cold winter, and many people leave the city or go inside. It is difficult to go through the winter, and you have to be emotionally strong or well accompanied. And that bounces off a very high summer that generally carries with it all the expectations of a large part of the city, of the general mood, from the economic point of view as well. It is the harvest of the fields, the ships in the port loading grain, it is fishing and tourism. A very short explosion, which lasts -with all the fury- forty days. And all that is particular to being from Necochea, because not every city experiences such great changes. All that is in El Plan de la Mariposa, which goes through many moods: we can go to the cold of winter, to the thickest, and we can also go to the best day in January on the beach with a campfire and laughing our heads off. That range of emotions and energy is in El Plan, beyond the sea and nature.
Santiago: -And the sea is a great catalyst, which has something of the same as music: a very direct connection with emotionality, a very powerful force. I really like surfing, and when I go there in July it’s a flash. Whales appear in the background and all the winter light creates a kind of great sunset. Necochea offers you a lot of different films.
Sebastián: -Necochea has a lot of music, a lot of culture, a music school. The summer also offers the circuit of inns and places to play. There is a jazz festival, a festival for children, and there was also the Indiegesta festival. There are many musicians in Necochea. The port is also a flash. It is a breeding ground with a lot of density and a lot of traffic.
Festival Isoca
A collective construction
The self-management spirit and connection with nature translated in 2019 into the realization of a own festival, the Isoca. A meeting with live music, workshops, talks, a fair and alternative activities that take place on the outskirts of Necochea, in the San Cayetano district. The intention is to connect with art and nature for three days in a kind of community coexistence. Except in 2021, the Isoca Festival has been held since 2019 every summer, with the participation of artists such as Lisandro Aristimuño, Mocchi, Perotá Chingó, Pedro Pastor, Cata Raybaud, Feli Colina, Dancing Mood and Adrián Berra, among others. This time, it will be on January 17, 18 and 19, with the program to be confirmed. “It is an alternative festival that has three important pillars: there is live music, many training workshops and people stay to camp,” says Sebastián Andersen. “The idea is to go stay and live together for three days there in the woods. In this coexistence, a very positive relational dynamic is created: nobody throws garbage on the ground and everyone takes care of the space. “It’s a festival that doesn’t have a sponsor, it’s supported by ticket sales,” the Andersen brothers say. “There’s no cell phone signal, either. Obviously there are ambulances and firefighters, and minimal satellite connection for emergencies. It’s a very family-oriented atmosphere and the sunset on the lagoon is impressive. The meeting slows everyone down and they get into a different mood. We spend several days putting it together with friends. It’s a great collective construction. And one of the best things is that new networks, relationships and friendships are generated.”