“The album was made at home, as always”
Art above anything else. Alex and Nacho -aka Hnos Munoz– They have learned to curb the demands of the industry and enjoy the process, the during, and not just the final result. “Cat Fun” (Mushroom Pillow, 26) arrives after a creative reset after six years, not counting the EP of “Nice Valley” together with GAZZI in 2023.
“Cat Fun” It is generated from an artisanal soul and with it Alex and Nacho add new layers to their identity, preserving, however, that minimalist spirit that characterizes them. “Of all the productions we had, we saved the ones that caught our attention because they were different. We came from such a production approach in the past and so 808. Things that are linked to a lot of sampling, a lot of MIDI… we didn’t have that concept as a group, of a guy playing the bass. So it has been like implementing a pretty cool figure and feeling that it has served as a turning point for us at the moment,” explains Alex, excited about this new stage.
“In this case we have focused on making it a lively and not sad nostalgia. It is another way to address that sad feeling”
We are left with Hnos Munoz on a terrace in the Embajadores neighborhood in Madrid to drink some beers and celebrate this new leap in its history. Very close to the apartment where everything “Cat Fun” materialized. “The album was made at home, as always. Until recently, I lived with Nacho here in the area and we did it basically in our rooms. That is, we sketched out a song in the studio, but then we always finished it at home.”
“Cat Fun” involves a search for light on the part of Hnos Munoz to try to end the title of “bajoneros”, a title that they say they earned with previous deliveries. But it is a light that burns to cure problems. A strong sun that blinds you because you have no choice but to go out into the street and move forward. “I like what you say about sadness in the sun. We had not seen it that way. It is true that it is a sunny work. Precisely when we composed it we never went to references such as the night party, the club… Instead it was focused on doing things outside, a bit of an atmosphere of friendship and leisure in the sun. So yes, it is very much in line.” Of course, with the dose of nostalgia that characterizes them always alive, although taking away some weight. “In this case we have focused on making it a lively and not sad nostalgia. It is another way to address that sad feeling.”
They have wanted to escape from that obsession with constant singles and with this album they are betting on putting on the brakes to generate material that matters, with true, lasting value. “I think that, given today’s dynamic and that desire for publication, for constant impact, for engagement, in the end it is good, everyone can use a break in life. In that sense, I am glad that we did it, otherwise it would have been a group adrift. In the sense of a group releasing only singles… What kind of group is that? That has no purpose, nor anything. For the great works the group spends years and years doing them. A “Ambitious cultural object requires a certain vision and a certain analysis of the context.
Throughout this great process, they realized that knocking on new doors could make sense and in the process turn the page a little from basically putting the entire focus of the work on the production. “We believe that we had already exploited the issue of having the production as the protagonist to the maximum and, in fact, it has reached a very high level in Spain. That is why it was time to explore.” And so they arrived at “Largo Adiós”, a new drum rhythm and the entry of the basses. “It’s been kind of unpredictable, like we wouldn’t have seen ourselves with this sound before. We would have imagined what we were already doing in a somewhat more convoluted way perhaps. But this is like something that was cool within our sound and that we hadn’t seen coming previously,” Alex comments. A movement that brought them closer to meeting great musicians such as Seye Adelekan (live bassist for Gorillaz) or Will Fry (percussionist for Jungle). Because Nacho and Alex never thought of these artists as collaborations, but as figures who give each song what it needs. “What we told the label is that we didn’t want standard collaborations, that we were interested in more musicians in some aspects. In the end, man, when you do a collaboration with another artist the concepts have to align, not only the song or the theme, but also the identity elements of the artists so that everything comes together. On the contrary, I think they are commercial moves, which all bands have done, but at the moment I feel that it was not what the body asked of us. It took us so long to make this album that that It doesn’t stick with us anymore. Let’s see, it hasn’t been an outrageous twenty-five years like Víctor Erice’s films, but it has taken time.”
