“We were recording ourselves”

“Anandamide” (El Dromedario/Altafonte, 26) is the new studio album by Sober from “ELEGY” (21). After several reissues, re-recordings and live albums, this release finally brings truly unreleased material from the band with eleven songs in which, to the trademark metal, new sound elements are added.

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

Anandamide is a chemical compound that our own body produces and is commonly known as “molecule of happiness”. Something that responds to the sweet moment that the quartet is going through, as its singer, bassist and composer, Carlos Escobedo, tells us. “Thirty years have already passed. When you focus on a new decade, in the end, either you get excited and you return to reinvent yourself and believe in what you do or you are lost. I believe that the group today is at that point. Our anandamide is music”. And they were looking forward to publishing new songs. “We were recording ourselves (laughs). We were really looking forward to it, and I had songs composed since 2021 or 2022, with the necessary consistency to be part of the album.”

“Either you get excited and go back to reinvent yourself and believe in what you do or you are lost”

Escobedo also released two solo albums last year, “Solitude” and “In its purest form”quite an act of creative incontinence. “You have to take advantage of it. I always say that inspiration has to catch you working. Suddenly a melody comes out, a song comes out and you say ‘Well, let’s do it’. You have to take advantage of it for when there isn’t any, right? Because I have many colleagues who say ‘Man, I haven’t composed for a long time. I haven’t gotten anything in a year.'”

As for deciding which song will go to Sober or to his solo project, the composer explains that “You don’t know until later, until you say, ‘Holy shit! This feeling, this type of melody or something suits me better for the more personal part’. It may be because maybe you undress a little more and then you can decide. But at first it happens to me at home. My wife tells me ‘Oh, what a song! Is this for Sôber or for you?’. And I tell her that I have no fucking idea.”

This time, instead of working on the songs previously in the rehearsal room, they have gone directly to the studio. “And we have gone practically song by song, giving it the point, but in situ, because that way we also had the freshness of a Manu, of a Jorge, of a Juan who arrives and practically just picked up the guitar, hears the song, and what comes to mind is pure gold. Although I was very clear about the demos. Furthermore, now we want to do something, something that we always do with our fans, and that is to publish the demos, give them away or invent something. So you can see how that idea was born and how it goes later to the study. Make them participate in the process.”

From the first single from “Anandamida”, “Indestructible”, you can see a careful production with various additions such as almost gospel choirs and touches of electronics. “We like not to stagnate. When you release a new song and you have that idea in your head, you always look for what sound, what type of amplifier to record with, what approach you are going to give when singing, what you want to express, and in the end that always makes you look forward.” The second single was “My refuge”, which was accompanied by an amazing video clip. The direction is by Ángel Gómez, author of several horror shorts and two feature-length films, “Voces” and “El hombre del bogey.” “I am a big lover of horror films and, of course, at some moments in those films you always imagine a bit of music of our style. I met Ángel Gómez, a director who comes from a cradle and who came to see us at the age of thirteen. On top of that, he is a musician and a fan. He knows the group and their theme. When I played him the song, he was amazed, and in that moment of effusiveness and creativity he came up with a script and told me: ‘Let’s do it'”. Another song, “Tell Fear,” talks about overcoming precisely our fears, those that enslave us. “It is a declaration of intentions. I always speak in the first person because I am the first to experience them. You always have those fears there, which make you not leave your comfort zone, but, suddenly, one day you try, go out, face it and put an end to that fear. That makes you even more invincible. We always want to have everything under control, and when you get out of that control is when wonderful things start to happen.”

The first dates of “Anandamide Tour”which will begin in the fall. “We are preparing a very extensive repertoire, because in Madrid we want to do ‘Sôber al square’, two concerts with two completely different repertoires. There will be people who like it a lot and people who don’t, but that has forced us to prepare more than forty songs (…) That has forced us to give a twist to the repertoire, to return to songs that we have not played for many years. This regenerates us and keeps us in the venue preparing everything. Of course, we will present ‘Anandamida’, but we know that, “After thirty-some years, people want to listen to the repertoire that we bring. The new songs have a very great importance, but without forgetting where we come from.”he concludes.

Concert agenda: