“One of the responsibilities of getting older is to be happy”

In “While the Guadalquivir flows and flows and flows” (Fueled by Salmorejo, 26), the people of Cordoba Long live Belgrade They embrace their brightest and most optimistic side and deliver their most popist album to date. We chatted with their guitarists, Cándido Gálvez and Jaime Acosta, about the compositional process of their fifth album and the challenge of building an album based on “hits”.

With its previous length, “Songbook of the Heavens” (24), Long live Belgrade They once again made it into the lists of the best national albums of the year in several specialized magazines, including ours, where they received the highest score. A ten out of ten, they say, totally unexpected. “It was a surprise that it was appreciated so much critically because it was an album made a little at a time, feeling that we were not doing it well.” That work, considered in these same pages as a milestone of independent music in this country, was the first with his own label, Fueled by Salmorejo, despite having some offers from various labels. They will never know what would have happened if they had signed with a record label, if they had been able to go a little further. In any case, the balance is positive. “We are happy with the decision because it gives us all the control and brings us all the benefits, something important for a band of our size.”

“We were joking about making an album with ten ‘skylights’, but it’s not that easy”

Sneaking the word salmorejo, a traditional Cordoba dish, into the name of his DIY label had a very clear localist desire. It was about reclaiming his roots, an idea that his new album delves into, “While the Guadalquivir flows and flows and flows.” Claim your land or differentiate yourself from the rest? There is a little, or a lot, of both. “There are a lot of bands making music similar to what we make: alternative rock, guitar rock, post-hardcore, whatever. But not so many that can mix it with Cordoba, without falling into the usual references, like Sevillian or flamenco. That’s why we have tried to bring our own, but the everyday, not the cliché.”

The longest river in Andalusia functions as a local symbol, but also serves as a metaphor for human insignificance. “I liked that image of man in front of a landmark of nature, something giant that makes you feel very small. The songs themselves are that, small things that happen in the background.” Like its waters, the band’s new length flows and flows. “We are one of those listeners who still consume the entire albums, and we like to give it that form, in quotes, of a labyrinth. That you enter and a phrase from the first song is repeated in another, that one title links to another, even from a previous album. All this means that, as you listen to it again, it seems like a richer and more fluid experience.”

Like unstoppable torrents, the music and personality of Viva Belgrade has always found its way. The difficulties inherent to any independent musical project and the line-up changes did not matter. Currently, the only original member of the band is Cándido, singer and lyricist, who has become something like the guardian of the essences or “gatekeeper” of the group. Cándido is also the only one from Córdoba. The rest of the band’s members are spread across Almería, Madrid and Málaga. “The chemistry is great and we carry the distance better than it seems. We are in a very sweet moment, we all know our place, our role in the band, so to speak.”

Jaime has been playing solo guitar with the band for a few years now, but he debuts on a band album with “While the Guadalquivir flows and flows and flows”. It is also the first recording with the band for bassist and backing vocalist, Cris G. Sánchez. The two were able to contribute from freshness, something that Cándido appreciated as the main composer. “When you try to compose songs in a limited time frame, very similar things tend to come out. Letting other people contribute ideas always helps to open the range and oxygenate the album.”

After a somewhat more atmospheric album as it was “Songbook of the Heavens”the band completed by drummer Álvaro Mérida locked themselves up for more than two weeks in the La Casa Murada studios, in Tarragona, with musician and music producer Ricky Falkner (Standstill, Love of Lesbian, Iván Ferreiro) looking for a more defined sound and, they admit, an album of rounded “hits.” “We conceived it as Viva’s album making singles. We joked a long time ago about making an album with ten ‘Tragaluces’, but then it doesn’t work out because it’s not that easy”. Crucial, in this sense, was Falkner’s way of working and his contributions as an arranger, suggesting choirs, percussion and sounds for the guitars. “We arrived with some cool, rawer demos, following previous recording formulas. With Ricky they changed the songs a lot and, at first, we were a little dizzy, in case it was too pop, but we trusted him.”

This rounder and brighter sound of the band fits perfectly with the optimistic vocation of the album. This translates into surprisingly positive and direct lyrics, nothing to do with the cryptic nature and invented words of their previous album. Love in its broadest sense, not just love, is the great theme, more so than in previous installments. “You can’t be a teenager all your life, you can’t be suffering all your life. And when you get older you have more responsibilities and one of them is to be happy and content with yourself”.

Alain Johannes and flamenco

The song “Menquitofla”, chosen as the third preview of the album, features the collaboration of the legendary multi-instrumentalist and producer Alain Johannes (Eleven, Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures). “It was a joke, it wasn’t planned. One night after dinner, Ricky Falkner and Jordi Mora (sound engineer) began to fantasize about the idea of inviting Alain, whom they know because he has recorded several times at La Casa Murada. None of us took it very seriously, why would a musician of that level want to collaborate with us? But it turns out that it wasn’t a bluff and Eli (Nolla, responsible for the studio’s booking) called him and Alain, who is mega nice and mega humble, said yes.” Johannes heard “Menquitofla”—flamenquito with the syllabic order changed—a piece with a hypnotic 5×4 time signature dedicated to friendship, and recorded a solo and some guitar arrangements that he sent from his studio in Chile.