The afternoon breaks in La Bisbal d'Empordà. We are on the terrace of Escut, a cafeteria located in the city's arcades, with Jaume Pla (Mazoni) and Carles Sanjosé (Sanjosex). Both are from La Bisbal, born in '77, and musicians who publish their work on the Brankrobber label, which, to close the circle, was also founded by people from La Bisbal. "This bar was the Long John in our parents' time, but when we were little it was called El Principal. Now the back part is a warehouse, but back then there was a large room for concerts. We had played there." The anecdote goes back to their teenage days, when they were part of Enderrock, a band that Jaume Pla had founded in 1991 with school friends, and which Carles Sanjosé joined some time later.
"The Enderrock (the eponymous magazine did not yet exist) started by doing covers in English," says Pla, "and little by little we incorporated my songs in Catalan." Among the covers, Dire Straits' "Sultans of Swing" was never missing. Sanjosé played his Stratocaster with his fingers, not so much to emulate Mark Knopfler, but because he was the only one in the group who had studied classical guitar and solfège and did not master the pick. The group recorded a demo with their own songs and opened for Els Pets in the context of the presentation tour of the album Fruit Sex (1992). "We made very pop songs," Jaume Pla points out. "We really liked to tune, to take care of the melodies, but we didn't have effects, we played raw. And we were very organized." "We are a generation of very studious, orderly and formal boys," Carles Sanjosé notes. "I suppose that at that time people had a certain hope, in the sense that, if you were good, things would go well for you. The generation that came after was more mischievous, ha, ha, ha!"
The Enderrock group lasted until 1994. They rehearsed in the garage at the house of drummer Toni Molina (Adrià Puntí, The Guixut's...), a place that acted and continues to act as a radiating nucleus of the Bisbal music scene. "Everyone from our generation passed through, like Miquel Abras," Pla recalls. There were always friends (male and female), other musicians, and even a cover band was formed, made up of different members of local bands, including Carles Sanjosé: "We called ourselves The Wonderful Baby Dolls, and we did covers of The Cure, U2, Police, The Clash... It was something to have fun with. Thanks to this group, I got laid for the first time!" he confesses.
It's a good moment to note that, despite being a small city (just over 10,700 souls currently), La Bisbal has a quite robust music scene. Before our friends, groups like Club Moriarty, Komando Moriles, or Pixamandúrries stood out, and later, names like Sanjays, The Gramophone Allstars, Pau Blanc, or Medusa Box should be noted. How is this phenomenon explained? Sanjosé believes that two reasons must be considered to resolve the question: "The first is that La Bisbal is a boring place. We are in Empordà, but inland. We don't have as much movement or economic power as Palamós or any other coastal town, and when we were young there weren't many things to do. The second factor," he continues, "are the music schools. Here there is a strong sardana tradition and, therefore, sardana and classical schools: there is a tradition of formal, public and private music education."
Jaume Pla agrees: «The boredom Carles was talking about,» he comments, «actually encouraged us. We had to set it up ourselves, and that motivated you to lock yourself in the rehearsal room with friends to make songs, and to quickly have the opportunity to play them in public for the enjoyment of the people in the town. It was a good life plan.» Perhaps that's why, he adds, «as long as I can remember, the thread hasn't broken, neither before nor after our generation. Never more than four or five years have passed without a new and interesting group emerging.» On the other hand, and without leaving the local coordinate, the Empordà has also left its mark on the lyrics of both artists. The influence is very evident in Sanjosex's songbook with songs like "Baix Ter-Montgrí" or "Plana". According to the author: «I have always had this attitude. I think it's very important for people to connect with their surroundings. Otherwise, we are not truly human.» In a less concrete way, Mazoni's work also includes these references: «Nature is quite present in these lyrics,» explains Pla. «We have "El riu", "Cap al mar", and three or four more songs that take place in forests. And of course, when I talk about the forest, I imagine the forest here.»
The afternoon progresses and the conversation moves to Toni Molina's garage. Among the friends who always stopped by, there were two guys his age who, without being musicians, would be fundamentally important in the careers of Jaume Pla and Carles Sanjosé. They were Marçal Lladó and Xavier Riembau, who, with the new century, would become entrepreneurs, which led to the birth of the Bankrobber label. «In fact,» Pla recalls, «Bankrobber was born because I had a band, Holland Park, that wanted to record an album, but there was no way, and Marçal and Xavier said they would take the plunge and release it themselves.» Today, Bankrobber and its artists are recognized as responsible for a revival of Catalan music that will never be celebrated enough, but the brand's early years were not exactly easy. Jaume Pla, who experienced it very closely, states that his friends «kept releasing good albums, but they had to work very hard.» The label made its big leap with Viva! by Sanjosex and Somnis de llop by Guillamino, both from 2005, and with Esgarrapada (2006), Mazoni's first album in Catalan.
The episode marks a turning point, not only for Bankrobber, but also for our protagonists, who released these albums under particular circumstances. Carles Sanjosex, who had just finished his Architecture degree, admits that "at that time I was very screwed up emotionally, I was going through a personal crisis and, fundamentally, I recorded Viva! (in Toni Molina's garage, by the way) because it was one of the few things that made me happy. I approached it almost as if it were the last thing I would do in life." Although Jaume Pla had been clear from a very young age that he wanted to dedicate himself professionally to music, "at the time of releasing Esgarrapada I thought it would be the last album I would make. I had already made a first Mazoni album in English, but I had been stopped for a year and a half, and I almost didn't expect it," he indicates.
The subsequent history is well known. It is supported by the albums, concerts and collaborations that decorate the curriculum of these musicians who, at over forty years old, still maintain a certain provisional outlook regarding their work. "Humility and a certain naive spirit," says Carles Sanjosé, "is what allows me to keep going. When I have put too much pressure on myself in pursuit of professionalism is when I haven't known how to do it well. I speak for myself, but I believe this pressure is anti-artistic. I don't want to have the obligation to make an album every X years no matter what: if I don't truly feel it, if I don't completely believe in it, I pass." Jaume Pla moves on a similar wavelength: "I took the fact of starting to make albums as a gift, and I continue that way. When the year begins, I always think: 'damn, will we make it?' And when it ends, I say: 'look, another year!'" Perhaps the greatest secret lies in the art of making the days go by...