Three years and a pandemic after their last work, Els Amics de les Arts, the trio made up of Joan Enric Barceló, Dani Alegret and Ferran Piqué, invite us on a dreamlike and vital journey through eight songs where they review their life forty, when the dreams and whims of youth are far enough away not to be taken seriously. With a simpler and more direct sound, Allà on volia (Pistatxo Records), the group's seventh studio album, comes to the greater joy of the band's fans, who were looking forward to it after tasting the songs from their musical Pares normals and the EP of Christmas carols Vides llunyanes. Eight songs that are eight new stories of these troubadours with the happy and kind melodies that characterize them. Sitting on the terrace of the Palau de la Música, they show a tune that explains how they have created their own style.
The album begins with a dream trip through New York that opens the door to the rest of the songs. “We have all wanted to live inside a dream at some point because it is a more idyllic reality, but this moment of mourning is also beautiful, when you know you will lose it but you are still able to maintain the illusion”, explains Joan Enric.
The songs in Allà on volia go through situations of the Amics generation, recently released in their 40s, already with children but without having completely lost the illusions of youth. Or yes, "the objective you have when you are young is static, it does not have any type of condition, it is a photo, and photos do not exist", explains Joan Enric. "When you are able to refocus and get rid of the initial objective, which does not have to be the best or the most pleasant or realistic, that is when you are free." “I get rid of everything, I fail, but at the same time I feel good”, completes Ferran. “Throughout the album the characters find themselves in this dichotomy, people who are not there where they wanted, but in another place. But in the end they feel free."
This freedom also involves getting rid of the servitude of new technologies, a detoxification for which the Amics invited 120 followers to listen to the album for the first time at the Palau, without contact with the outside world. “We were very excited to recover the idea of listening as it was done 20 years ago, when you bought a record and put it on the music system with the book in your hands”, explains Joan Enric.
To record the album they have had collaborators for the first time, the brilliant voice of Andrea Motis in Cada cel, the luminous and at the same time sad piano solo of Marco Mezquida in Estimeu-me, and the contribution of the incombustible Amaral in La nit sembla what will be ours The Aragonese artist brings to the song the nod to the festivities of the turn of the century, when Nicolas Cage from Moriría por vos sounded everywhere.
Love and heartbreak, addiction to social networks, parties with babysitters for children or the value of family are the themes that are included in this album, the shortest of the Amics with only eight songs, but at the same time Tiempo is the result of a period of great creativity after the premiere of his musical, Pares normals. “Writing is like a muscle, the more songs we write and the longer we have the machine running, the better it works”, Dani justifies himself. “Before we would make the record, stop, focus on the tour and come back. Now both things happen at the same time, and you see how the creation machine does very well to be in shape”. So fit that, they say, they have enough material to return to the studio whenever they want.
