They should have celebrated their quarter century of life a couple of years ago, but the pandemic prevented it. Now the Valencian band La Habitacion Roja, one of the leaders of national pop-rock, lands in Barcelona (this coming Saturday at Sala Apolo, 9 pm) to offer an anthological tour of their repertoire, as well as songs from their last two albums .
His alma mater, Jorge Martí, speaks from his home in Norway, where he has lived with his family for years.
What do you plan to play?
We are going to try to review our entire career. In concerts, weight is always given to the latest thing that has been released, but it is good to give yourself some joy and play the songs that you feel like at a certain moment because it is beautiful and stimulating. And besides, you don't have to leave aside the public and always keep it in mind and play those songs that you know they are waiting for. There is no need to exercise selfishness. We are presenting our last two albums, Años Luz and Años Luz II, which will have some prominence, but above all we want to do a concert where all our discography has weight. And we are also going to have Eduardo Martínez, who was a member of the group from '99 to 2002, and who is now in Sidonie. So we will exceptionally be a formation of six.
What feeling do you get when you play your very first songs now, a quarter of a century later?
We update some of them, we are also better musicians now and we play them better. For example, Mi habitacion was recorded at the beginning with a very high pitched voice, impossible, and we have lowered it several tones. If there's something nice about The Red Room, it's that there are old songs that we can still play and that we're not ashamed to do, neither instrumentally nor in terms of lyrics, such as My Room, Feature Film, Chronicle or Sports Center.
When you were born, was the environment and the scene musically more flattering than now?
We started in the mid-nineties, and in those years I remember that we were more innocent. Nor did social networks exist and the immediacy of now did not prevail; when you released an album, criticism was more important than it is today in the music media. Now I see artists who release their first song and already have a whole strategy prepared and designed. And we got into this with other priorities, that is, going out to play and going on tour, getting closer to people, knowing places. We didn't have that feeling of wanting to blow it up, like everyone wants now. There was like a more innocent thing: now everyone has their 15 minutes of fame on social networks, which have their very cool things but are also very harmful and addictive.
All things have their pros and cons...
Of course, of course. I am not one of those who thinks that any time in the past was better; if it was better it is because it was younger. Now it's different, but there was a certain innocence because you didn't find out about everything, and now, instead, they give you everything more chewed up and apparently easier. But I have to say that in this vital journey of 27 years, this transition from analog to digital has also been beautiful, from a more isolated world in quotes to a super connected world.
And in the way of consuming music?
Now everything is full of algorithms, how to make music and what to put in that music, even how to record it. It seems to me that there is less reflection when it comes to composing and listening to music. A lot of musicians now think that if you're not in the spotlight at all times you don't count anymore, you don't matter. Now people are editing songs all the time, and we also see that boom in collaborations, many of which are for strategic rather than artistic interests.
From your experience, what are the ingredients that turn a song into an anthem?
It is multifactorial. From the outset you have to be at the right time and in the right place, fortunately there is a part of chance. But the song is always a priority. One always thinks that a good melody, a good lyrics and a good production are the ingredients to pave the way, but maybe you also need a bit of luck. But I also see that over the years I understand the success of C. Tangana or Rosalía, I love them and they make very good songs, but then you listen to other things that are massively successful and you don't understand them. And I see that before I thought I had a good sense of smell and now I don't have it so much.
If at the beginning of your career you were compared to The Posies and the Teenage Fanclub, now what could be your musical references?
Uf… fortunately I still like Teenage a lot, but I couldn't tell you. But I realize how old I've gotten because right now I'm really into REM. They, together with The Cure or New Order, and in Spain Radio Futura, El Último de la Fila, La Granja, Golpes Bajo, La Dama se hides… were benchmarks. I don't know, before the pandemic I went to see The National in Berlin, for example, or Wilco, who are people who don't waste time on nonsense, they move mainly on guitars but are open to experimenting. Or the Arctic Monkeys, who are capable of making those changes without ceasing to be a group of songs.
