While the music industry is controlled by algorithms, La Gusana Ciega, one of Mexico’s most “mature and experienced” Spanish-language rock groups, is reluctant to give up its essence, forged over more than three decades of existence, which will shine on a tour of Europe starting on September 5, its members told EFE.
“If we work for the algorithm we’re not going to transcend much, it’s going to be very impactful in the moment, because you’re giving people a piece of candy and they want to eat the whole candy store, but when they’re done they’re going to feel stuffed,” says Daniel Gutiérrez, vocalist and guitarist of the group.
Their tour will arrive on September
With the experience of having produced eleven albums and hundreds of songs, the 53-year-old composer maintains that rock continues to oppose the conventional, because its current niche is after the “empacho”, when the audience wants to listen to other genres and “eat a good salad”.
The creator of the legendary song ‘Tornasol’ (2000), confesses that if the band gave up its style to the algorithm it would “screw it up”, because “it would not be natural for us”, and “we are aware that, for example, the algorithm does not recommend you if you do not listen to the whole song”.
That’s why, he explains, there are no longer such long songs, but still “in our new album ‘Claroscuro’ there is a seven-minute song”.
“Because that’s the story we want to tell, that a sad song that talks about a rain that won’t go away, and that’s the essence of the song: that you feel like it’s never going to end,” defends the artist about this album that will be released in full in November of this year.
La Gusana Ciega wants to conquer Europe
That tendency to go against the current “makes rock transcend, unlike other genres (…)
And when they say that it no longer exists, it is very false”, defends drummer Germán Arroyo, and insists that “there is a way to conquer other audiences”.
And he brings to the table the moment when Maná became the first Mexican band to play at London’s OVO Arena Wembley.
With an eye on the Latin public and increasingly on the European one, La Gusana Ciega, together with singer José Madero, will have its next tour in the old continent starting with the Vive Latino in Zaragoza (Spain) -originated in Mexico in 1998- and then landing in Barcelona, Madrid and even Munich, Berlin and Paris.
This is the debut of Madero, former vocalist of the emblematic rock band PXNDX, in Spain, but not of the band formed by Gutiérrez, Arroyo and Luis Ernesto Martínez ‘Lu’, who were in the last edition of the Sonorama Ribera music festival.
Although La Gusana Ciega already has a number of milestones in their career – such as when they opened for Oasis in 1998 or three years ago when they shared the stage with Lenny Kravitz – for this tour “they have high expectations”, because they hope to meet the Mexican audience, which, they say, is often the perfect magnet to musically infect the European audience.
Even more so when La Gusana Ciega’s songs are characterized by having taken root in the rock generation of the 90’s and even reached the youngest audience in Tiktok, as when ‘Califórnica’ was trending.
The bond with the fans of that time is very deep, Gutiérrez emphasizes, because when people listen to La Gusana Ciega they remember “an important moment in their lives: when they were in love or had their hearts broken,” it’s not just about chanting a cheer or dancing at a party.
Because of this connection, Lu reflects, artificial intelligence will not transcend in music without humans, because “it may sound very good, but there’s no one there, it’s a void,” and people will end up identifying it and choosing what doesn’t sound like that, reported Agencia EFE.
Find out more at ‘QueOnnda.com’.
