"At five years old, I told my parents I wanted to play the piano. Not the guitar or other instruments. The piano." The musician and composer Andreu Ros sips his beer while the notes of Thelonious Monk's Epistrophy vibrate in the nocturnal atmosphere of the Bar. "I don't even remember why, I just know that's what I wanted to play and I insisted until, after a year, my parents gave in… and signed me up for piano."
He smiles shyly remembering that premature response to the call of the keys. "At thirteen, tired of playing classical, I went to a more modern piano teacher and he told me about Jerry Lee Lewis." It's not hard to imagine the impact that the music and image of the Louisiana killer had on that pre-teen. "I was blown away. And I started pulling the thread, of course, discovering others: Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Carl Perkins…".
He had just been introduced to R&B and R&R and, as often happens when these types of sounds cross someone's life at the right moment, there was no turning back. "I spent the next few years playing for hours, deciphering those notes, learning the basis of what I know now." Until the day came when, at the high school in Lleida where Andreu studied, they were organizing a party and needed a band to liven things up. And he didn't hesitate. "I gathered some friends and we prepared a repertoire of covers. That was my first concert on a stage and that's also how the Boppin' Cats were born, my first band, with whom we started playing in clubs in Lleida and the surrounding areas."
It seems like yesterday, but quite a few years have passed in which the artist has matured as an instrumentalist, discovered himself as a composer, and participated in various projects (when not creating them), even playing with legendary names from the golden era of R&R like Alton & Jimmy, Chan Romero, Robert Gordon or Santo & Johnny, and major names from the current scene like Deke Dickerson or Sister Cookie. But to get to that, he first had to leave Lleida and go to Barcelona.
Something like military service
"For me, coming to Barcelona from Lleida was an unimaginable qualitative leap. Here there was everything that was missing in my city at that time: concerts, record and clothing stores, parties, specialized bookstores…". And there were also bands, many bands. "I juggled my university and master's studies in computer science with concerts. First, with the Boppin' Cats, but soon I was called to join the Double Six,that it was a very experienced group with musicians who were almost double my age. And that was like doing military service for me," he laughs.Soon he also joined Jorge Nunes' Full Time Fools and his activity became frenetic, "with a lot of concerts and festivals." Andreu Ros was making his way in the world of roots music at notable events such as Screamin' or Destination 2165 and legendary venues such as Rock & Blues in Zaragoza or 16 Toneladas in Valencia.
After Boppin' Cats and Double Six, the musician joined Sick Boys, a powerful combo of classic R&R and R&B in which he would soon develop a new facet. "At this stage, I started composing songs, feeling the call of the studio, a bit like the Beatles in '66 when they decided to put live shows aside to dedicate themselves to creating songs." With this band, he recorded two albums and an EP, realizing that, as is logical in a group that is not led, his songs did not sound exactly as he had envisioned them.
"The pandemic arrived and what was supposed to be an EP with a few songs that I was going to record on my own became a broader repertoire," he recalls. This is how his band, Doc and the Mads, was born, debuting in 2022 with the self-titled LP released by Buenritmo and now returning with the digital EP Believe it or not, with a sound that mixes the best of the sonic language of the 50s and 60s: R&R, R&B, Boogie Woogie and Blues.
An unclear relationship
"I remember when I arrived here at eighteen. That was brutal," the regular evokes. "At first, I went back to Lleida every weekend, but soon after it was every two weekends. Now I go once in a blue moon." And, even so, he confesses not being clear, right now, about his relationship with Barcelona."All the reference places, clubs, bars... are disappearing. Before, every week there were parties and things to do, now there are weekends when there's nothing. That's why I've launched Hide-a-Way with some friends, an event that functions as a new meeting point for lovers of 50s and 60s sounds, and that somewhat counterbalances that city that blurs under the weight of gentrification and the masses of tourists crowding the center," he concludes, sipping a long drink that finishes his beer.
--- What is not going to disappear is the gastronomic offer of our Bar. It's dinner time and we have everything: menu, tapas, portions, sandwiches, combo plates… Everything delicious!
Andreu Ros directs his expressive brown gaze from one side to the other. Monk charges with the notes of Bemba swing. The musician smiles without losing his characteristic reticence.
"I think I'll opt for a combo plate and a good dessert," he finally decides, capturing the essences of the bar, breathing them in. And, who knows, perhaps one day turning them into great songs.
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