A few days ago, the Fangoria duo closed one of the most peculiar recording cycles of their career – which is saying something – with the publication of the ep Ex profeso (Sony), with which they in turn closed a trilogy entitled Entre parenthesis.
A brand new album that follows in the wake of two other ep's Pop Existentialism and Pagan Buildings published last year and this year, and that are a direct product of the post-confinement era.
Or at least that's how Alaska and Nacho Canut, the two members of one of the most referential combos of Spanish pop, explain it, not only because of themselves but also because of their previous musical personalities such as Alaska and Los Pegamoides or Dinarama.
Alaska recalls that “in the summer of 2020 Nacho and I met one day and we considered what to do, and what we were clear about was that we did not want to lock ourselves in a studio until an entire album came out. And we prefer to do that, we put out a song.
And Canut continues, stepping on each other's verb: “The fact is that we had a song, which became five, that is, an ep, and when we did it we saw that it was lame and that we had to do a trilogy. And we repeated the process two more times.”
Product of pure entertainment and with the will and objective of entertaining, as they have always done, and with a common concept: "The concept was that there was not, that it was an anarchic project" they say in unison. The songs that they have been publishing in these last two years have barely been played in their very numerous concerts in these two seasons.
In the one that they offered this past April at the Sant Jordi Club, they reviewed their two albums released just before the pandemic and some cuts of the eps published until then (as they had done in 2021 at the Pedralbes Festival).
And tomorrow this series of concerts will end with a macro-evening at WiZink in Madrid called Fiesta en el Disco-Infierno. Alaska tells about the new material that “it is very possible that these songs after playing them in WiZink will not survive. The songs do not survive us in general, one at most, like those of those pre-pandemic albums, Extrapolations and two questions and Extrapolations and two answers, that now we do not play any.
It will be at the beginning of next year when they will put all the meat on the grill, with a live show starring the laser beam "and with programming that will throw what used to be called bakalao machine music," Canut anticipates.
“Besides, right now we are a festival group. We go out and nobody knows us. I mean, we go out and they say 'look, Alaska the one from Cine de barrio and from Who cares and the bald man who goes with her. That's Fangoria now. And we have to put on a show that amuses us and those people too; that is to say, we cannot play B-sides or slow songs”.
And to illustrate it, Alaska remembers that "look, when the Pet Shop Boys play at festivals they only play singles, and so do we".
And the main conclusion for the couple is that pop marks the path and that techno is the great protagonist. “It is true that techno has invaded everything. In the end, the good guys won”, Canut smiles with satisfaction.
Alaska believes that “this return of technopop clearly benefits us, from the outset it feeds us and we no longer feel left out as before. For those progressives, by the way, who liked bakalao but who call it smart techno. You see".
In the opinion of the vocalist and artist of a wide spectrum, "we are living in a very good time for techno. Look at Quevedo, in Bizarrap. Farruco does reggaeton, and it's pure techno. Rosalía is techno. And Beyoncé's new album, which is more that house is techno". “It is true that techno has invaded everything. In the end, the good guys won”, Canut smiles with satisfaction.
And Alaska continues to be delighted that "this begins in 2020 already with the pandemic when The Weeknd, who is a black type of urban music, becomes absolutely techno-pop." And Canut gives one last example by assuring that "the new Harry Styles is as if it had been made in Germany in 1985 with very soft techno.
What's the oldest song they're still playing?
Alaska: Dancing, who must be about 40 years old, and then someone from Dinarama who will be about four years younger.
Nacho: But look, Dancing we put it together with Aitana's, In the car, and it has entered the public phenomenally. Bailando is a song that has hit all ages, except grunge."
The ep, the single are in charge… is the album dead?
Alaska: We don't know. It surprises me that older music people who interview us tell us that “now you only release one song…”. Sorry, the single has always been around, I don't know what you think Elvis put out, or what people who made disco or punk music put out. This has always existed, although now it is digital, which is the same. What is dizzying is the speed. It is a completely different way of working, and I believe that we are not there. I am discovering that Aitana has a single when she releases another… This is not for us. We have other times, I don't know if it will be a single or an album, but we have our own times.
Obligatory question: do you feel an increase in political correctness in all areas?
Alaska: It's something that shocks people our age a lot.
Nacho: But I think it's a matter of cycles and now it's gradually disappearing. The test: who was going to tell the progressives that they were going to return?
Alaska: But do you think a movie like Airbag could be made now?
Nacho: Yeah... and Torrente much less.
