Interview with David Carabén (Mishima)

Write, sing, and the conjugation of other verbs
Carabén David is a guy who smiles a lot more abundant than might be expected, given the involvement of some of his songs. But his job is to pop goldsmith. Have to talk about important things, but in day to day is for those who likes to have fun. David wears glasses portentous. Santi Balmes lenses, Love of Lesbian singer says love him one day to steal a bit like him. And in addition to dressing well their myopia, Carabén is the singer and public face of Mishima. Reference group pop in Catalan, with more than ten year career, and recently released his sixth album, 'L'love Greeting' (The Rest is Silence / Warner Music, 2012). A job that arrives to reiterate that Mishima are the best at it to make the indie Catalunya. Work, craftsmanship and honesty in the proposal that they are carrying, little by little, to stick his head out of the Catalan-speaking territories. The proof is in the living room concert Galileo Galilei in Madrid on 23 May. They were well received and the public ended up cheering. On this, David says, "We know we have grown, but not far. We went to Madrid, a very successful room, by size, and for being a place rich patina, lots of history. There were more than two hundred people. It was a very good bolus. We are very happy. During the last tour and we were in Madrid three times but did not really know to what extent would maintain the trend. "
We met David Carabén to speak to us of the recent 'L'love Greeting' and the creative process of it. But take this talk (and also the good time you saw the terrace of Eixample where we are) to lecture on the history of more than a decade of Mishima, and the current status of Catalan indie scene. David is an educated man, who nods to questions. He likes to talk and to have things. Their concerns are obvious and varied. His lyrics are there to be viewed. 'L'love Greeting' is displayed as a plea for love pop. At the romantic notion of it, which makes it much more time there than we think. On transit to create songs, Carabén says that "when you have a creative process like mine, which really the relationship between life and work is blurred, there is a very clear, and play around with it, really disk ends up being a portrait of a part of my life, you have some obsession at that time, a subject that has captivated or interested me much. This album has been the love and, indeed, popular song, the origin of the song. Why in the readings I've done on the origin of romantic love is the interest of knowing from where folk songs and the genre that speaks of romantic love. It turns out that quite matches. In the book of Denis de Rougemont, "Love and the West ', which is the book behind the disc, the author matched the appearance of the concept of romantic love with the troubadour song, which is about the origin of our poetic tradition . So it's nice to see things that you gave as you put here for life, and your culture, they actually have a story, a source and why. "
Mishima singer weaves his explanations and jump from concept to concept through verbal pirouettes gracefully. It has its peculiar process of songwriting, which is not partitioned hard disk, but its script and subject search are constant, and little by little poetic piece weaves three minutes it can present to the group. And when the whole is packaging, and the circumstances are propitious published records. In this sense, 'L'love Greeting' explores the universal theme of love, a theme already present in the discography of Mishima, but also represents an evolution of their sound. After the success of 'Ordre Adventure' (Sones, 2010), the Catalan band does not fit into the coordinates of the known success and step forward in the evolution of sound. A fact that could cause dislocation between fans in premature hear the new work. About this Carabén comments that "this is good to happen. Why we had the temptation, or fear, that after the success we forced them to grow. Also I have a self-demand high, and that they tend to write about more serious things than I really am, I consider myself a happy person and likes to have fun, so my music would have to hold more life. Many times I realize that the relationship I have with music is another trend that I have regret, nostalgia and formal wear. So for this record I have issues demanded more open and cheerful. But then there was the fear that making this effort had just leaving a more commercial hard and easy (a fear that, on the other hand, is absurd why would ultimately I), this dilemma was present. But once we had recorded the first six songs were very happy. We thought it was best we had done to date. Our producer, Paco Loco, he said he was pleased and encouraged us. And from that point and we took the thorn of fear of not evolve, and we realized it was an album that sounded very different, and likely the audience would cost a bit. He had become a disc to return to conquer the people, even our own fans. "
Thus, a clear attempt to evolve and risk Mishima, a power on account of wrong. Why Carabén adds itself as "when an artist you really like what you following what I do. Everyone can take a shit, and I ask artists to do so. Why two shit will make a good song. So I think it's a good sign that they have been fans of Mishima struggled a bit this album at first. Why it is good that the viewer feel smart. Find their own arguments to like the work, and know himself through song. And not everything is easy. " All this at a conceptual level. But as we said in the beginning, the sound has evolved. And part of fault is Paco Loco, with whom he had worked in their previous two albums. About this Carabén explains that "when you work with Paco, you learn from it. You learn how your study, what is sounds. In the end, I compose and create group considering their study. Everything is more thought. Everything has a more clear and is more structured. The presence of an array leads to the other without interruption. As a group we aim to tune in deciding where they were the arrangements, which were more effective. "This has to do with maturity, no doubt. The passage of years has taught Mishima tempered and know the doneness of things. Or put more transparently, as David says, "when younger you are, in more places you put your cock. And as you get older you see less and more often. "
The years, the discs to the back, and the sheer weight of the packaging gives maturity to things, and the music does not escape this dynamic. Pragmatism appears in the compositional process of the adult group, as Mishima. A band that over the years has led to changes. Xavi Caparrós on bass and on drums Alfons Serra have entered fully into this process for the first time after debut with the group on tour of 'Ordre and adventure'. This fact and the start and good quality of this tour, have led to the recording of 'L'love Greeting' has been more simple, compact, according to David Carabén account. The shared experience has made them accomplices and generate natural mechanisms. In addition, he stresses that we are young and enthusiastic kids and live music earnestly elements that gives an extra quality to the whole. In short, changes and processes that mutate and lead to different ways of making records. But all this also affects the time to prepare and execute direct? Mishima singer believes that "every time the relationship between the disc and the live set is more immediate. I think there is less difference, and we as a band sound that is closer to that in the disk. When you start fatal play live and record sounds much better. Over time, you can live better, but can not find how to reproduce the sound you get on the disc. And then make it all ends interacting. As always everything is a learning experience. "Undoubtedly, the experience seems to have a positive effect once again. In this area, Mishima are well served, with more than a decade of pure musical activism. They insist that this is a passion and no one ever got rich precisely. They regard themselves as artisans. With humility and perseverance that brings the concept. Still, Carabén lights up the eyes when asked about these years. Explain with joy that is a joy to live it, and that music becomes a vital mechanism. Something that you give and you reward. "The guitar, the more you practice, the more you give, the more you back. This is very cool. Few things in life where you go putting pasta and pasta, for hours, and return even better. This is amazing because usually the opposite happens. As with drugs and alcohol, that you are spending and spending and increasingly affect you less. Instead, the music is getting better. More and more people come to concerts, master your technique more, know more and want to explore your limits in a more healthy, have less complex, you better spend it playing. In other words, it is getting better. "
Mishima are mature. Midfielders long haul. With love for ball control and fluency virtuous. Most of the time tend to go on stage every jacket. Why Mishima is a group that has to listen to his shirt. The popular garment par excellence. Mainstreaming textiles. Driven by the learned and the peasant. Maybe the shirts, maybe the glasses, maybe talk about things that others do not has earned them an image of intellectuals. In the negative sense, which is as used in this country the term. Approaching these observations Carabén tells us that "ultimately we do pop, songs that are close to three minutes in order that everyone can understand. So if you do you do to a particular discipline, you do probably why you found it works or artists you've brought a lot, and have not given up talking about nothing. So I think that music is. With a song can explain life, life can contain. I do not want to give up anything when it comes to writing songs and then, necessarily, a part of some complexity or sophistication that can be annoying sometimes, but I think it's important not to give up talking about nothing. So the result is a mix of not giving touch any subject but in a popular song format. Ultimately you have to find the distance between the form and subject. " Following the thread of this discussion, the conversation takes us to the labels and comparisons. Facundo territory for the journalist and drain area for the artist. In this sense, Carabén reflects that "in this country the rock still bears the San Benito to be associated with adolescence. It contains too many values ​​of personal construction. Learn to build your identity, namely to relate to women, people of the same sex, etc.. When only this, and not a cultural product, a work of art, means you have to neglect some things and praise others, be very passionate. The decisions and critical bets here are almost charismatic and visceral. However there are other means that do not work well and are more open. When I was young I remember that was said here that Queen could not be heard, or that were just tacky heavys. But let's stop and think. All have good things, I say. In short, if someone is smart enough to explain that certain things have aspects that I might like, you listen. This is the criticism that I like. Spend your intelligence in me discover things. Do not spend to carry you to a group to an artist, why is the easiest thing in the world. "
Artists with judgment and critical ability. God bless you. Archers ready to put an arrow where the questioner has a target. So David took the opportunity to ask Carabén on the situation of the Catalan scene, which we all filled the mouth of a time now. Why now? We asked what element made flower so many bands like Manel, Standstill, Love of Lesbian or the same Mishima. David notes that "the key is in the public. People have been eager to hear sing in their own language. And it's a new audience, relatively young, with greater access to culture. Then more predisposed to a more special type of product, more intellectual, more locally, for which they have ears. When you have exhausted everything else come to that. A person with a low cultural interest, with a record as Julio Iglesias has enough for the whole year. A person with many cultural interests, the record of Julio Iglesias and take it for listening, why have heard in the supermarket, and needs to hear two or three a week, you end up hundred-odd year. Of these, twenty are in the language itself and hence brings up an audience for these things. It you have groups that can end a career and creating a scene. " If no ears, no fingers to the guitar and some groups. And in these terms refers to the crisis in the music industry. If people buy records, the groups will earn money. And you will live to make records. They may also pay to photographers, designers, etc.. And you have journalists and critics who make money writing. The wheel keeps turning and growing. But until the time comes, we will taste and militancy. As the pleasure of an iced coffee, a few sincere words and all disks in Mishima. Always.