Ellos

Back when my Spanish was just a motley assortment of "Hola! Que tal?", I chanced upon an independent Spanish rock group in Televisión Española (TVE) over Philippine cable TV. I had no idea what they're singing, but their melody was quite catchy and their fashion, well, bordering on the psychedelic, to say the least.

Being the obsessive-compulsive that I was, I began searching for the group in the Internet, a short line from the one song I heard on TVE as my only clue (Porque siempre despiertos quisimos soñar). It turns out that the title of the song was Diferentes and the band's name, Ellos ("They" in English), with mainmen Guille Mostaza on vocals and guitar, and Santi Capote on guitar. (BTW, if you know Spanish, do read their bios in the official website. Very... interesting).

To be honest, I didn't exactly know why I like the group at that point. One could say that I go for the daring ones, those who don't sound like any other group in the market. True, Ellos' songs can be formulaic and influences from other acts could be heard in their melodies, but for them to be able to fuse all those elements to make create a coherent repertoire replete with subliminal meanings in a seemingly pop packaging is in itself an achievement.


One could also argue that during a time when the airwaves were polluted with redundant American sounds from the same artists whose main goal was to sell, any independent performance from any country other than the US was a welcome respite amid the drab and dreary music scene. Musicians need to eat, that's a given, but when one succumbs to the temptation of going always with the flow, he risks his originality and loses in the process the very essence of this being an artist. Ellos, from where I am at, seem to understand this philosophy and have always gambled with the avant-garde and the ambivalent.

Fuese lo que fuera la razón, fue en ese momento cuando me convertí en fan del grupo y a pesar de los límites que en aquel entonces tenía (si cantas en español pero no eres Thalía, Ricky Martin, Jennifer López o Shakira, no puedes vender ni un solo disco en Filipinas, así que por defecto no se vendían discos de Ellos), conseguí hacerme con su primer disco, gracias a la imprescindible ayuda del primo de mi papá que vive en California. Años después, ya en Valladolid con una beca, uno de los primeros discos que me compré era el segundo álbum del grupo, el cual tuve que pedir en la página web de Subterfuge.

Imagináos, pues, la sensanción que tenía cuando me enteré de que Ellos iban a Valladolid para un concierto de rock. Fue el 18 de mayo, un viernes, y toda mi pandilla me parecía o bien agotada por haber currado todo el día, o bien indiferente por tener otro concierto "latino" que ver el día siguiente, o bien mosqueda porque yo llevaba casi toda la semana pidiéndoles que viniesen conmigo al concierto.

Al final, fuí yo solo, pero a mí no me no importaba pues me topé con un público igual de loco por Ellos y pasamos una noche cantando los hits del grupo. Canté (se puede oírlo en los vídeos que os voy a colgar y quizás hay que tapar los oídos, jeje), bailé, saqué fotos... en fin, hay que ser fan para entenderlo. Y yo sí que lo soy.

I'm going back to the Philippines very soon, but let it be said that I'm one lucky bastard for having been able to catch this group before I go. Hmmm..., is there any Asian record label interested to sign 'em up? Just wondering out loud.