Agustí Burriel: Above all, a fan

"If you like music, the best thing you can do is buy records and go to concerts. That's the only real way to keep the wheel turning," reasons singer Agustí Burriel, as he sips a Black Label on the rocks at the bar to the rhythm of Les Baxter's Jungalero, after a hearty meal.

"I always had an excessive passion for music. As a child, I spent the money my parents gave me for sweets on records. Later, I was lucky enough to discover that I could sing, and that has allowed me to make a living from music, but, above all, more than a professional in the field, I have always been a fan," explains the man who, as a tender teenager, discovered Juan de Pablos' program Flor de pasión on Radio 3, and it blew his mind.

In the late 90s, this Barcelona native, vintage '84, used to go to La Boîte on Diagonal to see a band that played there regularly, The Big Jamboree, the deans of Barcelona swing. "I tried not to miss them. At that time, I couldn't have suspected that over the years I would end up becoming their singer," laughs Agustí Burriel, and announces that they are preparing the band's next LP. One of several fronts through which Agustí survives in the difficult world of the stage.

"With Los Torontos, we are touring quite a bit and are about to release a new single, in addition to preparing the repertoire to accompany singers Vel Omarr doing Sam Cooke and Big Sandy songs. With the Elvis Tribute Band, we also have many concerts in sight, and the same goes for my fixed project of Sinatra covers. But to these formations are added countless small projects with which I try to fill my schedule and make ends meet," adds the one who also organizes the quarterly Rhythm'n'Boobs sessions at the Jamboree in Plaza Real. And then, of course, there's his first band, the standard-bearers of Barcelona doowop, The Velvet Candles.

Things that happen at the Screamin'

When he was still underage, Agustí Burriel attended Screamin', the veteran festival of 50s and 60s music held every June in Calella. "That day I saw for the first time in my life people dressed like in the 50s, frantically dancing R&R, and I decided that was the reality I wanted to live in."

A few years later, already experienced in that world and with a pronounced taste for vocal R&B, he sang at the gates of that same festival. "A few of us started singing a cappella songs and that's when they told me for the first time that I wasn't bad at singing," he laughs again.

The next thing was to meet one of the great activists of Barcelona doowop, Eddie Peregrín. "Paradoxically, a mutual friend from Valencia introduced us, because, although we lived in the same city, we didn't know each other." Together, 15 years ago, they would found The Velvet Candles, "with whom I started earning money singing." A combo that boasts an enormous trajectory with several albums —and an upcoming EP— "and the pride of having contributed to rescuing singers like Tommy Hunt of the Flamingos, Norman Fox of the Rob Roys or Gaynel Hodge of the early Platters and Hollywood Flames."

Needless to say, the Candles perform with stony regularity, year after year, on the Screamin' stage.

The city of good mornings

Although, thanks to his work, the regular has traveled a lot and seen many places, his favorite city is still Barcelona. "I'm still in love with the fact that, despite having lived here all my life, this city is still capable of surprising me with new surprises of its architectural beauty." It has sea and mountains, just the right size to be neither too big nor too small, "and in some neighborhoods people still say good morning when they cross paths."

However, something that deeply displeases him is "what has been happening in recent years, which is that they try to impose on me how I have to be, to be a good Barcelonian". And he finishes his whiskey as Les Baxter's Wheels starts in the background.

--- Here we don't impose anything, but if you want another Black Label, this bar is your home.

A laugh then takes over Agustí Burriel, who nods his head. Outside it has gotten dark and, for an "absolutely nocturnal" animal like him, things have only just begun.