"We are the first subspecies. We have just been born and we are already going backwards"

After going on stage at Sonorama, Pedagogical Host faces the publication of his debut album, “Homo Lamenttabilis” (Limbo Starr, 26). “Live analog sarcasm” is how the disco group defines it, with which they join the effervescent Barcelona underground scene.

(You can check the dates of their performances at the end of this interview).

Three thirty-somethings – two from Tiana (Barcelona) and one from Valencia – face the publication of their debut album with some nervousness, “Homo Lamenttabilis”. Some more than others. While Jordi Iglesias (bass and clarinet) and Brian San Onofre (drums) admit to being more restless before the arrival of the album, Xavier Javaloyas or Java (voice and guitar) appears much calmer. He is more concerned about being able to pay the installments on his first mortgage, although he also confesses to being “looking forward to the negative reviews”.

They met at concerts, typical “by friends of friends”and they ended up forming a group of “arsonist office workers”Java account. “We are people who, due to life circumstances, have ended up going to the office, but that was not the main plan.” The name was born, like so many things, from beers on a terrace, when a former colleague brought that expression that refers to the “hosts that life gives you and that make you learn and grow.”

“Everything makes sense, although I think we have managed to make it not seem like it”

Without trap or cardboard; the album is direct, without metaphors or filters, designed to maintain “the energy and feel of a concert in the performances.” is born “as a personal escape” to the frustrations of the world of work and life after thirty. “After Homo Sapiens, we are beginning to evolve towards Homo Lamenttabilis”explains the guitarist. “Or to devolve, rather”corrects the drummer. “It’s the first subspecies. And it’s cool that it’s our first album. We were just born and we’re already going backwards.”

“Homo Lamenttabilis” It encompasses influences from Idles and Jack White and the entire new Dublin punk scene, especially Sprints’ debut. But the references of Pedagogical Host They don’t end there. Surprisingly, one of the songs on the album was, in fact, born from listening to Adele. “I was practicing to improve my disastrous guitar level a little. And I heard something about her that seemed cool to me. That’s how the chords for ‘Ameba’ came out.”says the vocalist. An anecdote that shows that, beyond labels, musical influences can come from such different places and from, a priori, contrary genres. And even a punk can listen to reggaeton. “If you like music, you have to be a little bit into everything. Our songs talk about a world in which Bad Bunny also lives, in which Rosalía also lives”adds Iglesias.

All your regrets – never better said – are in “Homo Lamenttabilis.” Twelve songs make up a first album in which they portray themselves and the society that surrounds them through humor. “I personally use it in my life to not sound so heavy or forceful and to take away a bit of importance. It helps a lot to be able to say things without being so confrontational”Java points out.
For the bassist and clarinetist, music is the most immediate art. “Whether it is sung or just musical, I think it is what directly moves you the most, it reaches you the fastest”. Although the disk “does not have a vocation to evangelize anything”it does have an evident political-social charge.

The album opens with “Nativo de ruta”, a song that feels very current, but written a little less than a year ago. Now, the concern is precisely on the other side of that immediacy: that such direct lyrics can be interpreted in the wrong way. The first verses of the song, loaded with sarcasm (“This is an invasion, they come to live off of aid”), are a good example. “It’s so literal that it’s a little scary what the hell they can understand from this.” The song starts from an idea “so stupid and simplistic” about nationalisms and patriotisms. A theme that, with the passage of time, continues to age well. “I wish I had never had to talk about this, because it would mean that no one tells anyone anymore what they are telling people from outside who come here.”.

But behind the apparent simplicity of the letters there is a lot of work. “Where we don’t reach musically we want to reach with the lyrics and provide a different point of view”. He compares himself to Jacob Collier: “I know a total of seven chords; Collier knows a few more,” Java laughs. “Work dignifies your boss’s pool” either “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme” These are some of the phrases that run through the album. “Although they seem like political proclamations, they are very light and fun”says Jordi. Behind each one, however, there is an intention. “It all makes sense, although I think we have managed to make it not seem like it.”

If there is something that can make those letters go further than they themselves expect, it is precisely social networks. With what is falling these days, the debate is once again served: are massive events the place to position yourself as an artist? Are those who accumulate millions of followers obliged to do so? In Pedagogical Host acknowledge having had “some internal debate” about it. In Jordi’s words: “I believe that having a microphone in your mouth doesn’t make you a spokesperson for anything. It shouldn’t. But in very clear cases, if you have a speaker that other people, for whatever reason, haven’t had, you can use it.” According to Java, “Positioning yourself is something you have to do as a person, not as a group or figure.” Brian concludes: “Within all the desperation and overwhelm that is living in 2026, I believe that music is our escape. Letting off steam as we do and being able to express all that anger and frustration is the only answer we know how to give and, at least for us, the best.”