“The challenge is to conquer public that do not know you”

–In Uruguay, new bands did not come out during the dictatorship. In Argentina, the activity was maintained, but in Uruguay no. It was after the dictatorship when a lot of bands like Grandma Coca, the murderous peyote, began to emerge, we will not like it, we … there was a nice exit of bands that, luckily, we have been able to travel and leave Uruguay, which we are a fairly small country.

The Puerca candle was born in 1995. At that time there was already an infrastructure created in the country? Or did it have to open their way?

– He had to open his way, we are cannon meat. There was a coca grandmother, but when we left, in 1995, we were the novel band of the moment. We were lucky to play a lot and get to people. We cross Argentina and in Argentina we met Gustavo Santaolalla, a well -known producer who liked our first album. We sign with him and with Universal. The first album was mastering again, we re -recorded some things … There we already put ourselves at a good level, we had a very acceptable sound level and we were prepared to sound on the radio, keep playing … with Gustavo we were working two or three more albums.

More than for his work as a producer, here Gustavo Santaolalla is known for his soundtracks.

-Clear. He made the Brokeback Mountain, for example, which gave him an Oscar. And he has also worked with other groups such as Café Tacuba, the divided, Molotov … very pegorous Mexican and Argentine bands. It makes sound bands and produces groups, and also created underfond, which was a kind of electronic tango.

The Puerca candle began to work well from the beginning, but I think it was the third album, backwards, which caused the thing to shoot, right?

– At that moment we start to grow a lot. Backwards It was a very important album, yes. He turned 20 in 2024 and we recorded it again. That album has some of our great hits as Zafar o full of magic. It was very important for the group.

Since then, La Vela Puerca has reached many milestones, has played for mass audiences, has traveled many countries … One of its great merits is to maintain the core of the initial formation during these three decades, something very rare.

– Yes, we always comment that it is one of our curious data. There was a battery at the beginning that the group left for a disease, but the rest of the band is still the same. We are friends from the neighborhood. We mark our beginning as a group in December 1995, at Christmas, which was our first concert. Then, for ten years we were doing free Christmas concerts; As the group was growing, we were changing place towards more capacity enclosures. The tenth year thirty thousand people gathered and we decided to stop doing it, but it was a tradition that was very good.

They are accustomed to playing in huge places, and in these tours in Europe they do it in rooms not so large. Is it something like returning to the origins?

-Yeah. We are always returning. Sometimes we tour Argentina, which we play for thirty or forty thousand people, but we also go to other countries like Colombia and there are smaller concerts. Now we have been in Mexico and we have played for three thousand people. Luckily, until now the public has always growing, it is what one tries. You always go back and forward. The challenge is to conquer audiences that do not know you. It would always be very easy to play for fifty thousand people, there are groups that can do it, but we are going to places where we had never been before. You still touch on a Tuesday in a town in Murcia and they go six hundred people, and there you have people very close, which is also very good.

They have collaborated with national groups such as the root or sticker, and have expressed their fondness for bands such as Extremoduro, Barricada or Fashion, among others. Where do that love for Spanish groups come from?

– We were always very fans of the cock; In fact, twenty years ago we made his versions, we liked that answer scroll, the letters, the attitude … Barricada we also like it, extreme, I steal now … fashion is more folk rock, but it is still a rock band with letters that say things, we like it a lot. The last time we play in Pamplona we invite drugs to sing with us. He is a mythical being of Spanish rock and went out to do with us The Bread of Los Angeles, A barricada theme that we used to play.

But are these groups well known in Uruguay?

–Xtremoduro has played in Uruguay for audiences of five or ten thousand people. Beyond the band, people have a lot of love to Robe’s lyrics, which are incredible. The cock is a feeling, those of us who have more than fifty identified with those letters and that attitude. The same fashion is not so well known, but there is some Spanish rock to Uruguay.

It is a pity that, sharing the same language, there has been no more contact. Here are not too many groups from Uruguay or other Latin American countries. It’s as if we’re driving our backs, right?

– Without a doubt, you are right. Vetusta Morla has gone, and some other things more pop. Jorge Drexler is Uruguayan and lives in Madrid, he is doing well on both sides, but it is true that there are many Spanish bands that work very well here, but do not go there, and vice versa.

You who play on both sides, do you appreciate great differences between the audiences of the different countries?

–The most rocker, the most caught, is the Argentine. It is a very passionate audience, very ignited. All letters are known, they sing everything. Any international group that is going to play there usually takes advantage to record a DVD, because they have a lot of passion. In Uruguay we are a little quieter. The Spanish public is very rocker. The concerts that we make the pig in Spain turn on fire, as we say there, because many Spaniards and also many Uruguayans with the flag, which are excited to see us representing the country. We like to do concerts and generate a relationship with the public, that people forget their problems and concerns during the two hours that the concert lasts.

In this Spanish tour are depleting tickets in several cities. In Pamplona they exhausted the first batch and had to expand the capacity … the thing is going well.

– Yes, we have exhausted in Palma de Mallorca, in Valencia … before the Pamplona concert we played in the Riviera room in Madrid, which is quite large, it is the first time we are going there. In Pamplona we have tide friends. They took us from opening in several concerts, we made good friendship with Kutxi Romero and with the boys. We are preparing the list of songs, we want to summarize the 30 years of the group, which there are songs from all the albums. It costs a lot, it is not easy with so much repertoire. We are not a punk or reggae band; We are a band of songs. You have to make a list that starts more cane, then you put something quieter, there must be a good ending … We are slaves of the songs. The songs arise and we are giving them what each of them needs.