Xavier Barrios: Life is too short to live it without music

"One must be critical and not let ourselves be lulled to sleep. I have the feeling that we are becoming a society of insensitive dolts and we must fight against that, at all costs," reasons guitarist and composer Xavier Barrios at the bar, while savoring an Imperial Stout. The antidote to that socially induced apathy is, for him, the love of art, "in any of its facets, as it is art that gives color to our lives and makes us more human. We must take care of artists, known or unknown. They are humanity's treasure!"

A devotee of music, a compulsive accumulator of sounds in all their possible formats and media --to the debatable solace of his wife and mother of his two offspring--, Xavi is a guitarist and composer in Saturday Blues Project, a rock-blues band "and various other music, all with American roots" that recently released its third album, Thundering Down. The group is captained by him and fellow guitarist and composer Berni Armstrong.

"I am passionate about music in all its aspects. Above all, what I am most passionate about is creating it, composing. But also listening to it, knowing, learning. I need to have new music every week, so I buy a lot. When I travel, I always look for where to stock up. Also, I love instruments, especially guitars, but no less intense is my passion for amplifiers, pedals, etc.," explains the patron, who cannot hide his pride in still being on stage. "After so many years, I'm still rocking it!" he proclaims.

Things that happen at the Crossroads

During his university years, Xavier Barrios worked to pay for his degree. "I didn't have much time and my studies weren't going very well. And even less time did I have to pick up the guitar. It was my wife who helped me get out of that hole and, thanks to her, I managed to finish my degree."

Later, it was also she who encouraged him to pick up the instrument again "and fulfill my dream of studying at a modern music school, because I had an enormous need to understand how the whole harmony thing in jazz worked."

After that, a trip to the United States came, "where I went to try to understand the roots of all the music I love." The local was in New York jazz clubs and then in Chicago blues juke joints from where he rented a car to do the Blues Route towards New Orleans. On that itinerary, something unusual happened, or premonitory. Or call it what you will.

"When we passed through Clarksdale, I went to take a picture at the Crossroads, the place where legend says Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil. And I was doing that when a black man approached me and said, 'yu a-a blu me, yu a-a blu me!'. And, while shaking my hand, he started singing an entire blues to me. He spent three or four minutes singing a blues a cappella without letting go of my hand. When he finished, he continued saying as he walked away 'yu a-a blu me, yu a-a blu me! I know, I know!' and laughing. When we returned home, a few days later, the Saturday Blues Project was formed, and I started playing blues for the first time in my life. I hope I wasn't making a pact with the devil without knowing it!", he laughs.

Spell or not, the fact is that the band is already recording what will be their fourth album, "and we also have in the pipeline the recording of an EP with a more ambient vibe about Svalbard, an archipelago located in the Arctic Ocean and an abandoned mining town."

Unpredictable… and inaccessible city

The musician Xavier Barrios resides in Capellades, but has lived Barcelona very intensely. "At 18 I came to study at the university and, after my student period, I continued living here for a few years until the real estate bubble kicked me out." The fact is that he thoroughly enjoyed concerts in venues like Jamboree, Harlem "or any place where live music was played. Curiously, at that time, I had my guitar completely set aside and felt a musical burning in my gut that was gnawing at me from within."

What he loves about Barcelona is "that it's very unpredictable, you never know what you're going to find. For example, one day, coming back from my weekly shopping at Revolver records, I was walking along Gran Via and, looking up, I witnessed an unpleasant scene. A blind boy, with a bouquet of flowers, had been hit by a boy who was running and fell badly to the ground. I went to him to help him up and, as I did, the blind man started telling me: 'no, no, I'm sorry, we're filming!'. Then I turned around and, a few meters away, I saw a camera set up with its tripod and a team of people laughing!".

But that unpredictable city is becoming increasingly inaccessible to the musician. "I'm concerned about the environment and it's clear that we can't all live in the city, it's neither viable nor sustainable, but I don't like what's being done with Barcelona at all. The concept of emptying it of cars is good, but no one does anything so that we can come with decent public transport. Please, first improve transport and then empty the city of cars."

Suddenly, by pure chance, Slippin' through my fingers, from Saturday Blues Project's latest album, plays, and a big smile lights up Xavi Barrios's face, making him set aside the city's inaccessibility, return to a world of musical notes, melody and harmonies and, consequently, raise his glass and proclaim, at the top of his lungs:

---Ah, life is too short to be acting like an idiot! Long live rock & roll!!