On 17 December 2019, too harsh They released a statement announcing their separation. Two days later, the group held a surprise press conference. farewell tour announced This news, which will take place between May and July 2020, caused more than two hundred thousand tickets to be sold in just 24 hours, as unexpected as expected. However, this tour never took place.
Although it was necessary to reschedule dates initially due to COVID-19, bathrobe iniestaThe band’s leader was involved in a script change: instead of looking for other options for the band’s final tour, he would release it. giving birth (El dromedario recordings, 2021), his new solo album to be followed by the respective promotional tour. While followers of Extremoduro remain hopeful, in August 2021 the band confirmed that they will definitely no longer tour or band.
What really happened to make this strange series of events happen? Was it really the epidemic that interrupted all plans? What was the relationship between the group members like? These and other questions were answered by musician and journalist Jesús Casañas in 2015. Extremely difficult. innate talent (Alianza, 2023), the latest and updated biography of the band from Extremadura.
“Alianza Publishing has a collection of music biographies with names related to foreign bands up to this point. They had released Pearl Jam, Elvis, Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, and the publisher. diego blascodecided to post one about Extremoduro. He asked who could write, and a colleague gave him my name. When he learned that I was a musician, he insisted that I write as a journalist and musician. What is the metronome, what does the producer do, what are the arrangements, rhythm guitar or lead guitar, and why Robe after the first album to bring a solo guitar and devote himself to rhythm and singing…”, why his book has been described as an “unauthorized biography” of the band from Extremadura. remembers Casañas, who also explained
third biography
“Mine is the third biography of the band. There was a biography from 1997. Inaki Fernandez which was very old and then there is another one written by Javier Menendez Flores authoritative biography, that is, not ours. Having it on the cover is a bit of a commercial claim, because while the book might seem like it would tell something dark or scandalous about the band, it doesn’t match up with the truth. The book is written with great love and impartiality and actually puts an end to some of the myths surrounding the band. For example, when Robe Iniesta died several times or the song Jesus Christ Garcia talked about Records of Evaristo de La Polla“.
As Jesús Casañas explains in his book, one of Extremoduro’s achievements has been to reach a diverse and crossover audience that goes beyond rock lovers. “Extremoduro’s music can please a vagrant, a socialite, your brother-in-law, a ragtag . boycottwe are fans punk rock but don’t ask my sister who they are because she won’t know, even my mom knows them when it comes to Extremoduro”, explains Casañas. Some followers of the group, far from rejoicing at their success, were uncomfortable with being so popular. and at times they turned their backs on them.
“That’s the rock, punk, and metal orthodoxy. Some things are unforgiving. strong, mighty, valiant they recorded their first video clip when they cut or recorded their hair load. They feel betrayed, they are offended, and they do not forgive. An audience that doesn’t understand that the band has evolved musically and that as Robe said, ‘I can’t spend my life singing’. police state, among other things, because I already did. I’m sorry if you missed it.”
Experimental, poetic and punk
Contrary to what its die-hard followers might think, Extremoduro’s success has not come at the expense of the quality of their music or their commitment to commercialization. The exact opposite. In addition to increasing your skill with instruments over time, Robe Iniesta and his teammates chose experiment and creativityeven if this is not fully understood by the public.
“Robe is not a methodical or academic musician. i have never read music but he always knew how to surround himself with musicians who contributed as he always felt. He also always had a concern that caused him to never repeat the same formula. already in Where are my friends? (DRO, 1993) put two bassists, saxophones on half of the songs and then did non-commercial things like recording. stone which is a half-hour song (DRO, 1995) or innate law (DRO, 2008), which was again a single song in six parts, and was a little bit so as not to frighten the public if it eventually broke into pieces. On the other hand, the thing that refers to the letters, they always escaped the bookshop. While other bands had a song against the bulls, another about the legalization of marijuana, another about disobedience… They talked about all this, but they sang it in one sentence in one song, the next stanza spoke of it. girl or wanted to go to the country. It has been one of his virtues that he says everything in a very original way, being very punk and at the same time very poetic”.
Complications with registrars
Despite all these successes, the following marked Extremoduro’s career: complex relationships with record companies. After some bad experiences with small independent companies, the group signed a contract with DRO, which was never very fond of such experiments. For example, when Robe Iniesta offered to embark on a solo career to those in charge, the company offered him worse conditions than to record with the band, and when the band offered to release an album under another name than Extremoduro, the DRO flatly refused.
“It was only in the late ’90s, when the band was already hitting the ball Waste (DRO, 1996), they got better terms from the company. In any case, unwise decisions continued to be made. when absorbed by DRO stimulant, the band offered to tour Latin America. To support this, a compilation was released which made sense, but what was inexplicable was that only 500 copies were made for all these countries! When Robe Iniesta asked for clarification, they said Extremoduro was not Alejandro Sanz and the tour idea was abandoned. The strangest thing is that scorebutusThey had indeed traveled to Mexico, where they were well known for their catastrophic and urgent life, their cassette copies. The same thing happened to Extremoduro when the internet came along. Although his records were not sold there, he was listened to by pirated downloads. So, although the Latin American tour couldn’t be organized until fifteen years after it was first proposed, when it was finally done, Robe Iniesta recounted that people were humming to the beat”.