“For me Surf Bugs It has always been my soul group. All this time, besides group projects, I give solo concerts and Surfin’ Bichos’ songs were always included in my repertoire”. He speaks calmly and directly, Fernando AlfaroSinger and composer of the band from Albacete, which was ahead of indie in the late ’80s and reunited to release new songs thirty years after their last album, ‘‘Friend of storms’.
On the occasion of the release of “Más allá” on May 5, Alfaro conducts interviews with the media all day in the offices of Sonido Muchacho record label, where the hustle and bustle makes conversation a real challenge. Despite this, the singer retains the capacity to think and create emotional landscapes. For example, say how his new album marked the time it was conceived, a complete epidemic. “The album is very conceptual, it’s called ‘Beyond’ because there’s a lot of death on it,” he suggests. After living in Barcelona for ten years, the artist has returned to his roots after a breakup, and this is where COVID 19 has locked him up. Alone in an 1880 mansion in the Sierra de Albacete, Alfaro combined the composition with walks of up to 12 kilometers across the many courtyards of the house and nights filled with vastness and noise. “There were ghosts in the house at night, there was the afterlife. We’ve all seen death up close in one way or another during the pandemic, and I’m not inclined to forget it with a stroke of the pen like we do, so They talk about the end of the world on the record“, bill.
The singer-songwriter stated that the album was shaped by independent songs, “The pandemic does not mediate the theme of the album, it does not mention the pandemic, but it affected it.. All of a sudden you see yourself locked in a house with a curfew and you always write about your shortcomings.”. Nostalgia for the lost and the need to cross borders In the words of Fernando Alfaro, these are very important engines for the record to work.
Alfaro sought isolation after an emotional breakup and found himself in forced isolation, which, thanks to human intimacy and love, crystallized in a handful of songs that became Surfin’ Bichos’ new album. “I live again in Albacete, where all the members of the band continue to live and pure physical intimacy returns, because we already had emotional intimacy,” the singer explains. “Suddenly we were together and when I think about music, I always act together. I compose by myself, but when it comes to recording that music, I prefer to work with close people and still if it’s much better emotionally“, pointing out. The expected participation of his daughter Natalia (who is currently the premiere of her own musical project), leah leone) and the participation of a friend Joaquin Reyes He confirmed on the chart section of ‘Más allá’ that it is an album of personal intimacy.
the person who is also the leader of other projects such as push anyone Fernando Alfaro and Aliens Personally, he argues that although ‘Más allá’ is “one more album in a succession of albums that I have released with this or that project”, it is another milestone in my evolution, everything is in tune for this album to be the first. Surfin’ Bichos record reference with new songs. “These songs with them will have a character that fits very well with the concept of the album, which is paradoxical, just like Surfin’ Bichos has always been for me. The constant paradox between radical bellow and pure compassion”, he emphasizes.
Thirty years may seem like an incomprehensible space to combine two milestones in a band’s discography, but as with almost anything, the case of Surfin’ Bichos is an exception. Despite The Manchegan formation officially broke up in the mid-ninetiesmembers have remained active in projects as merchrominepooch or Pie Belly and they never lost touch and love, to the point where they met several times in time to go on live tour in recent years. The tours, which they never defended on stage and which, as Alfaro said, allowed them to play live songs, make it easy for them to integrate into a repertoire that is now known and respected by the band’s fans.
‘Más allá’ retains the essence of the bewilderment and heartbreak that characterizes Surfin’ Bichos. inevitable sound update it contains instrumentation that evokes a light and a Mediterranean mood and is literally personified in the single of this name ‘Luz del Mediterráneo’. A record that builds bridges between the past and the present in a country accustomed to burning them. “Killing the father is very peculiar to our country, but I think what’s going on right now is even worse, I’m afraid it’s a kind of progressive stupidity. And it bothers me to admit that because I live in these times and I have daughters,” says Fernando Alfaro. With their ability to create from anomaly, Surfin’ Bichos expands the legend of a group that has always accomplished the difficult task of flowing through difference.