Two summers ago, Juan Carlos Fernández told me he wanted to record some music. I offered myself to do it; I very much wanted to, although the amount of reconstruction work that was going on at my house/studio at that time - apart from the fact that my mind was more focused on building than music recording - delayed the project considerably. One sure thing was that if JC was showing so much determination and patience with this, it was going to be worth it. I always considered JC the most talented musician among the generation that formed bands around Gijón in the early 90s. Former guitarist of Penélope Trip, since the band dissolved, JC had been playing music, mostly privately, and listening to many records, although none of those projects crystallised publicly. He even played trumpet once during a La Jr. gig.
We ended up meeting one weekend in July to start off the recordings at my studio (Grabaciones de Campo, or "Field Recordings" in English). On the night of his arrival, JC played some of his songs in the kitchen. To my surprise, they had lyrics, which illustrated quite directly quotidian situations and personal occurrences. At first, it seemed to me that JC didn't plan to sing these songs at all, although I thought it was absolutely necessary that he did in order to provide credibility to them. Next, I looked for a guitar sound. Then, I recorded some vocal references… In short, my job was to transform those songs into completed, recorded pieces of music. The collaboration of Esperanza Collado in the album was, at first, very casual. Even though she had been more focused on experimental film, she had also played music sporadically in the past with different formations (David Loss, Tumulto Dorado, Somadrone, Las Hermanas Diego). Her participation contributed to the accentuated dialogue tone of the album. This is not just notable in the nature of the lyrics (very often sang as duets), but in the relationship formed by electric guitar and percussion. Between barbecues and summer naps, Esperanza ended up being so involved that a band was naturally formed, Dos Gajos.
The vinyl album that AA Records is soon releasing was recorded during three weekends. During the recording, we specially listened to Alan Vega's first album, Cecil Barfield's "South Georgia Blues", and Elisabeth Cotten's "When I'm Gone". In addition to this, the band has already began to record new songs resulting from the numerous and in crescendo compositions by JC, but this is a different story, and a different release to come…
