Sidonie is one of the Spanish groups that has done the most to overthrow prejudices around popular music, going from the psychedelic rock of its beginnings to embracing pop – in all its facets – in its later releases. It is no coincidence that ‘Carreteras infinites’, their biggest success of the streaming era, arrived when the group had been active for more than a decade.
Marc, Axel and Jes, the trio behind Sidonie, now propose a linguistic change by presenting their first album written entirely in Catalan, ‘Catalan Graffiti’, a clear tribute to their influences and a kind of return to their roots, too. We spoke with Sidonie in a bar in Barcelona about ‘Catalan Graffiti’, what they understand as “Catalan culture” or their experience supporting the Rolling Stones, among other things.
How are you doing the promo days?
Marc: Being three better, the downturns that each of us have are better distributed, which are usually quite a few. If someone were a solo artist, they would be blocked, because it is not normal to talk about one all day long. When we were at Sony they told us gossip about artists, and we asked a lot. They told us that many artists in interviews would freeze up, cry, have anxiety attacks and abandon the promo half done.
And they were soloists. You support each other.
Jesús: It’s nice when you detect when one is bad and down, and the other supports you, and I support them.
Marc: We are never completely well, but the three-headed monster has health, a sense of humor and is doing well.
This is your 11th or 12th album, which is many. How do you refresh yourself creatively to get here? Aside from the language change, I mean.
Marc: On the previous album, ‘Marc, Axel y Jes’, we returned to very basic pop, with simple chords and simple lyrics. We wanted to make an album again with the same approach, and then Catalan appears, and the change of language leads us to write other types of melodies and lyrics that talk about adolescence and childhood. I remember being in the store trying to write a song in Italian, and I thought it might be a good idea to switch to Catalan, which is a bit similar to Italian, and also takes you to a different romanticism than Spanish.
Axel: Marc, through the use of Catalan, has been able to connect with his childhood, and Axel and I, as friends, have helped us see Sidonie’s lyrics without the “cloth” of Spanish, which was a mask and prevented you from seeing your friend clearly. When in ‘OVNI 84’ he talks about his childhood or in ‘Mentira’ about his adolescence, as a listener and as friends we are removing a filter; When singing in Catalan everything comes in a more direct way, it is like seeing Marc as a child and adolescent in a very clear way.
Have you learned to play differently?
Axel: We have not learned, it has come out alone.
Marc: I have learned to sing differently. When you speak in Catalan, the way you breathe, you use your diaphragm differently; In English my voice came out of my neck, for example it happens to Bob Dylan, Joaquín Sabina or Liam Gallagher, but David Bowie or Rosalía sing from everywhere. Catalan has made me sing songs in a way that I didn’t know I was capable of physically.
Have you tried converting your old songs into Catalan to see how they sound?
Marc: It’s a great temptation; This was done a lot in the 60s. The other day Axel asked me to translate ‘Sé’ into Catalan and I was pathetic, it was horrible. What a translation job, it’s crazy. It’s a lot of work that I’m not going to do right now.
When you say that in Catalan your songs sound softer and gentler, is it a phonetic or psychological issue?
Marc: Both. When you sing in English or Spanish you are another character, and as a singer I am always a character. English is the music that I have loved all my life, the first songs in Sidonie in Spanish sounded like Los Secretos to me and we didn’t like them, although now they are a group that we adore. In Catalan the letters gain a special tenderness.
Why have you decided to sing in Catalan now?
Axel: It has to do with seeking change, not stagnating, not believing that immobility is going to help us. That’s why we did ‘The Fluid Garcia’ after ‘The Fire’, for example.
Marc: I can’t write a song in Catalan thinking that now Catalan is great and I have to write it. I’m not a strategist. But I do know when the group has something to offer. When Sidonie started, she knew exactly what the group could offer; I had been listening to Radio 3 a lot and was able to detect a Spanish production within three seconds, and Sidonie wanted a record production that sounded good. The ability to understand the “zeitgeist”… artists have to be intuitive, and Sidonie had it when she started her career. Mozart would be killing it today making reggaeton, the guy would have it now as he had it centuries ago.
Axel: It is easy for an artist to believe more in himself and be encouraged to show his work when he perceives that something is happening in the industry in which he can intervene.
‘Dua Lipa, Moreneta of Montjuic’. This is the title of an unreleased song from your new album. What can you tell me, please?
Marc: Before writing songs with a face and eyes for this album, we came up with a few horrible songs trying to imitate Adrià Puntí or Manel, and this was one of those experiments. Inspired by a group that goes out to the Apolo, the club closes for them and, as they feel like having an after party, they go to Montjuic for a rave and coincide with the recording of a Dua Lipa video clip (inde: they are referring to the ‘Illusion’ video), and they are so high that when they see her they confuse her with the Virgin. I think someone should develop this idea and turn it into a play or at least a short film (laughs).
Is it an album of tributes to other things?
Marc: Yes, but we play with the public. At festivals we have played ‘Et puc odior molt més’ and we have merged it with ‘Just Like Heaven’, because they share chords, and only one person has recognized it.
Axel: We thought the festival’s big moment was coming and… no.
Marc: It seems that the public at Spanish indie festivals no longer listens to the same music as us. With what Viva Sweden, Izal, Siloé, Shinova have generated… with that they are already self-sufficient. There’s no need to go looking for The Cure or the Smiths anymore.
Axel: If we had played that song in the 90s, people would have applauded it. But now there are a lot of people who don’t know what The Cure is.
«Our way of understanding Catalan culture involves rejecting the idea that language determines our identity as Catalan culture»
Are you transparent with your references to compensate for the use of Catalan?
Axel: We go with everything. This change has come when it has come, it is silly but it is a decision made with the heart. We do not need to do anything to compensate for the use of Catalan because we do it without fear. We are aware of what we are exposing ourselves to with this album, we know that in Catalonia the reception will be different from outside its borders, perhaps due to prejudices. But we know that this can happen and we are convinced of our idea. And we are excited that, knowing what the reality is, when we play outside of Catalonia we are contributing a small grain of sand to the defense of Catalan in the musical culture of this country, which is not just Catalonia.
Alizzz criticized in ‘Qué Pasa Nen’ that he was not considered Catalan culture because he sang in Spanish or in Castilianized Catalan. Lluís Llach said: «No one takes away your right to feel Catalan nor is that a disdain for your work. You will do Catalan culture when you use Catalan language. If you use the Spanish language, you create Castilian culture from Catalonia, which is legitimate. What do you think?
Axel: We have sung in English and Spanish. Many times we have felt that we have not been recognized as a Catalan group for singing in other languages. We understand ourselves as a Catalan group and specifically from Barcelona. We wouldn’t sound like we do if we hadn’t grown up in Barcelona and spent summers in Alt Empordà. I think that little by little it has been understood that Sidonie is a Catalan group that makes Catalan music, and that now they have also released an album sung in Catalan. But our way of understanding Catalan culture involves rejecting the idea that language determines our identity as Catalan culture.
Marc: You wouldn’t ask a painter if he does Catalan culture or not, Dalí or Tàpies or Miquel Barceló, because they don’t directly use a language, but nobody questions that they are Catalan culture.
Rosalía has been beaten for putting the Escolanía de Montserrat in ‘LUX’ to sing in Spanish.
Marc: I don’t understand the insults that have fallen on her, and there won’t be many, but Rosalía is a radiator of Catalan culture to the max.
Axel: These criticisms will be forgotten in no time and what will not be forgotten, not only the sublime album he has made, but his vindication of Catalan culture.
What do you think of The Cure’s latest album?
Marc: We love it, it’s very good. I was too lazy to listen to it, but the bassist of Los Punsetes, who I don’t know if you know who he is (from: Luis Fernández, director of Sonido Muchacho and co-general director of Universal Music Spain), told me that “if you don’t listen, you’re dead to me.”
It sounds to me like they’re trying to recreate the sound of their eighties albums.
Marc: For me, that sound is welcome. The last song, ‘Endsong’, I’ve never cried more at a Cure song than I have at that song.
What is the best Beatles album?
All: ‘Stir’.
Jesús: When I entered Sidonie I did so playing ‘Eleanor Rigby’.
«We musicians go crazy when we do interviews and it seems that we are special beings, when we are proletariat»
You are inspired by the Brill Building formula. On a technical level, what makes these songs so brilliant?
Marc: The composers and producers weren’t going to be crazy, they were going to work, they put on suits and worked from 9 to 5 in an office. ‘Be My Baby’, probably the best song ever, was written like that. That’s how I am, I don’t like chaos nor am I a composer at night or on drugs; I have tried it but it hasn’t worked for me. I love office hours. Going to the Brill Building was my dream job: they were married couples, the husband made the music and the wife the lyrics, or the other way around. We musicians go crazy when we do interviews and it seems as if we are special beings or have an angel, when we are a proletariat.
What was it like supporting the Rolling Stones?
Marc: Mick Jagger chose us to support the band, and he talks to the concert promoter and sends a voice WhatsApp asking how to pronounce the group’s name. The promoter explains it to him and he responds “okay, well, it’s a French girl’s name, right?” Before the concert they told us about this, and that was it. He was interested in the name of the band. And the night of the concert we played, we experienced everything like a fog because of the emotions that make you live it without being aware that you are there. The concert ends, we begin to see the Rolling Stones conci from the stands and suddenly Mick Jagger thanks “SIDONIE” – pronouncing it perfectly – for the concert. Then we understood why he had asked the promoter how to pronounce the name.
How did you see the Rolling Stones audience?
Marc: When I crossed the catwalk the fans got angry, and we got a good fight from the technical team because it was prohibited, but we didn’t care.
Jesus: It said “NO, NO, NO” everywhere.
Marc: There are very geeky fans who go to all the concerts and looked at us with faces like they wanted to kill us. And, by the way, Mick Jagger gave me a pick.
