2023-09-24 06:30:48
Xavier Coca and Oriol de Ramon form the fashion group this summer after managing to convince an intergenerational audience with their latest album ‘Epic solete’. And, above all, seduce an unsuspecting crowd with this ‘pilotasso’ called ‘Coti x coti’, an exotic song that fuses reggaeton and sardana
Has this happened to you to greet one town and be in another?
Xavier Coca: It happened… It didn’t happen much, but it happened. When you start summer you know what day you’re living in, but there comes a point where you don’t anymore. For us now Mondays are Fridays. We try to manage it as best we can.
Of all that is happening to you, is there anything that has surprised you?
Oriol de Ramon: More than not expecting it, the reception of the album and everything that has come after we didn’t measure it. We hoped it would be a turning point, but you never know where it will go. Everything that has arrived is very strong. Everywhere we play is always banging. It’s a project that we’ve been working on for five years and before there were 15 people watching us and now to see 20,000 people who have come just to see you is pretty crazy.
It often happens that with cultural and musical phenomena, we squeeze them to the max. Do they feel like it happened to them?
OR: We have a lot of war left to do. There is still a lot to come and we will ride the wave. What happens in Catalonia is that they try to squeeze all the juice out of everything that stands out, but our job is to try not to burn, contemplate tempos, have strategies…
How do you face such a moment, when it is so clear that it is your moment?
XC: You have to try not to lose your cool. We always compose the same, the ideas, the routines, how to produce the songs… Not losing the same dynamics even though the project has exploded is what keeps the group fresh.
They always exude a good vibe, they have the face of good dwarfs… When things get serious and they have to make decisions, and I imagine now is the time, do they continue like this?
X. C: Sometimes we sin by being nice and by not knowing how to manage certain situations, but also because no one has taught us how to do it and here we learn based on things happening. In the end when you work with 12-15 people you have to make decisions that are for the good of the project.
“We use Castilian and Anglicisms because that’s how we speak”
One of the great successes of ‘Épic Solete’ is its intergenerational nature. How and why do you think it happened?
OR: We took the essence of Catalan pop music, updated it and brought it to current sounds and melodies that work. We have renovated it and given it a fresh air, and the people have seen it reflected.
Will they continue to play with traditional music?
X: No, this is a resource. We got it right, but it’s anecdotal. Now it wouldn’t make sense for us to make a couplet. We’re not going to do this: the formula worked, we’re going to repeat it endless times.
The success, being young, singing in Catalan, has placed them in a place of reference in terms of the language. How do they take this responsibility and criticism for how they use Catalan?
We always say the same thing: the language is alive. We wouldn’t be us if we didn’t sing using the expressions and vocabulary we use in our day to day life. We are aware that there are things that are Castilianisms or Anglicisms, but it is our way of speaking.
It is clear that it is time for this new Catalan pop. What future do you think the scene can have?
He will reign for several years. It is a cyclical thing in Catalonia, it goes through generations. There is music of this genre for a while and in a few years another people, another movement will come out. The important thing is that there will be music in Catalan for many years, be it reggaeton, rap or death metal.
#formula #worked #repeat #endless #times