This Thursday, March 28, marks the 25th anniversary of Specialthe third album by Viejas Locas that definitively elevated the band of an increasingly sharp Cristian “Pity” Álvarez.
Produced by the British Nigel Walker, it is the one that has classics like Everything remains the same, Homer and I like you a lot, hits categorical that were manufactured with a special sonorous brilliance and that account for a marked process of improvement of an expressive mode that reconciled picaresque with sagacious sociocultural observance and feeling.
“The memories blur a little but they end up coming out,” he tells The voice Fachi Crea, the bassist of Viejas Locas who maintains the project’s work through live concerts.
“In fact, the 25th anniversary of Special “I found out from you, but a few days ago they reminded me that on March 29, 1998 we played with the Stones for the first time,” adds the musician of a project that, at that time, saw how the Argentine Stone movement was witnessing a withdrawal. natural of Ratones Paranoicos after several years in the spotlight and the entry into an experimental phase of some contemporaries Turf.
Now entering into the analysis of the album in question, Fachi says that Special He loves the sound, the audio that was achieved. “I think the album sounds internationally,” he reinforces. What I love most about that album is how the drums sound. You listen to how it begins. What are you going to do alone today? and you notice a superior shine. Did you see when you listen to foreign records, international records, that have a special mastering that the national ones never achieve? Well, that’s what I perceive in Special, is one point above the national records. I speak at an audio level, right?”
Regarding the arrival of Nigel Walker, Fachi adds: “He is an English producer who had worked in Spain with Los Rodríguez and who had brought him to make Páez and Sabina’s album (Enemigos intimates, 1998). He heard us at Circo Beat and perceived a rock similarity with Los Rodríguez, with the Stones. Then, the crazy man asked ‘Hey, I would like to produce this band, I have the formula to make it sound like a gem, what a bang, what a cake.’ And the truth is that it was a mass.”
“Then he came to a couple of rehearsals, it didn’t disfigure our essence much. I mean, the guy worked with us, it didn’t happen that we had to adapt to him,” she concluded.
Fachi Crea remembers that since Viejas Locas was at Universal and Walker was here working on an album for another multinational, Warner, they had to agree on a price for the production work. “We agreed and it was a good time that I went like this… Because look at how it sounds Kids. I remember that although we were already in the digital age, he made something very analog there that sounds great. “He gave it a kind of Pink Floyd touch,” concludes the bassist.
Beyond Crea’s claim for the audio and Walker’s contribution, it is also true that he and his colleagues were at the top of the band at a time. “We were optimal, very sharp,” he concedes.
“Now we talk about Special specifically, but the truth is that in Crazy old ladies (1995) and blood brothers (1997) there was already an evolution in the band. Because perhaps the first album has the most neighborhood songs, more up front, but at the end of time it showed that it is people’s favorite because it has The artisanal, Pulled and rolled, Bottle and Ballad for another woman”, he develops.
“It is the one with the least sound quality, but its repertoire is sacred –sentence-. Then there is Blood brother, which already shows a marked evolution, right? Because there they are Bitch, Psychedelic Woman, The hidden boy and Walking with stones. Special “It just rounded out sustained growth, right?”
–Does that process of rediscovering the work they carved make you proud?
–Yes, although I admit that at first I didn’t realize it. More with the history that Vieja Locas has, with more divorces than anything else. But in the end the themes prevailed over the fate of the band. Because the themes remained valid, as did the eye of the Viejas Locas logo. In other words, wherever you go in the country, or whatever recital or match you go to, you see Viejas Locas’ eye flying on a flag. And there is no Labor Day that does not ring Homer in all the country; nor Friend’s Day without it being put Everything remains the same everywhere. We have epic songs… I don’t know, there is no wedding or birthday that doesn’t sound I like you a lot. Well, what do I know, it looks like a football club, the players pass but the people stay.
–And do you have contact with Cristian? Do you see each other every once in a while or is that relationship very cold?
–We did not have personal contact in the last time. We tried to get closer and they always told us that it couldn’t be done, that the family, that boom, that boom. Then, time passed and we stopped looking for rapprochement. But the reality is that we are not distanced or anything. Life put us in the same moments and in different ones. The last time we saw him, in fact, was at one of our shows. The guy appeared, went up, sang for an hour and, before finishing, got down and left. That happened at the XLR in San Miguel, in 2017. We were playing about to finish, Pity came up, we did 10 more songs and, before finishing, he left. In all that movement we did not exchange a single word.
More information
Joaquín Levinton and Lea Lopatín, from Turf: “We were an influence and we opened paths”
