At this point it will not surprise either locals or strangers to see the new work by Alejandro Guillán, artistically known as Baiucain the lists of the best albums of 2024. The Galician artist is already beginning to be known beyond the underground lies, and his third album ‘Hubbub’ He has the necessary attributes for his name to be remembered for many years. It is a fun work, of its time, a very elaborate but extremely danceable fusion of tradition and modernity, an electro-ancestral foliate against the stress of a pre-apocalyptic world that will sound next weekend at the Sevillian festival Monkey Week.
Is there any conceptual starting point for the approach of that album?
I wanted to create music without being tied to a concept. I just wanted to let myself be carried away by what I wanted to do and when I had several songs I found that in common they had a more electronic sound, with more bpms (beats per minute), and that everything revolved around dancing.
I think it’s their album with the most club flavor, do you agree? Maybe it is the result of the growth of the live project?
I never think about albums in relation to live performance. For me they are two different processes. I don’t like to tie myself down to creating something thinking about how I’m going to play it later. I’ll look for a way to adapt it on a tour. That it is more of a club album is a totally natural process and I think it has to do with ‘Embruxo’, my previous LP, being a much more organic and conceptual album. Now I wanted to do something very different.
I think the foundations of the themes were created at very different times over several years, and not in some sort of ad hoc creative sessions, right? How do you think that affects the tone, the spirit of the album?
For me, LPs are processes that need maturation, giving each song time, letting it rest, feeling that for a period of time I can enjoy them without getting tired. That is essential to feel that a song has to be part of an album or not.
What was the work of co-producing ‘Barullo’ like, and what lessons has it given you?
‘Barullo’ is an album produced by me, like all the previous ones, but I did want to count on Sergio Pérez and Anxo Ferreira to do some sessions to polish the sound and work on certain aspects that I believed could make the songs improve. I am very happy to have worked with them because I greatly admire their work and I had already worked with both of them on other occasions, especially with Sergio, who is a regular collaborator.
By the way, there must be a curious story behind the choice of the title, right?
All the titles of my LPs and their songs are made up of a single word. I always try to synthesize ideas or things that inspire me in the creation processes. The idea of Barullo comes from that feeling of feeling in a club or in a concert hall enjoying these songs with many people.
As for the vocal parts, I understand that there are some samples from old recordings, right? Can you tell us about them?
I always like to be inspired by recordings, also by getting into the studio to record with people I admire, or by sampling voices that strongly attract me to create a new song, as is the case for example with ‘PAEQB’, which contains a Pandeiromus sampler that when I started working with it, I was fascinated.
Do you think that in an increasingly globalized (and therefore homogenized) world, more and more regionalist artistic proposals will emerge, so to speak, as a reaction?
Don’t know. There are already many proposals that are coming out of many places and countries. And at the same time there are increasingly global genres. I guess there is more and more of everything. More audience for each style and for each proposal.
What have been the latest surprises that your inquiries and investigations as a musical “archaeologist” have brought you?
I enjoy the recording processes, being able to connect with other artists, meeting people I admire, being able to listen to them in the studio. It’s what I value most about this album.
In Galician folklore, is there or has there been a purist Talibanism in the style that has existed in flamenco? Have you encountered any criticism in that regard?
I don’t know, if it has existed I haven’t experienced that. In Galicia people are very open to tradition serving as inspiration to generate other music. I don’t make traditional music nor have I ever intended to, but instead of being inspired by what is created on the other side of the world, I take my roots as a reference.
Have you thought about making a qualitative and quantitative leap in live performances? It seems like it’s time… right?
My live project has evolved over the years to become a more complete show, complementing the entire electronic and visual part with live musicians, increasingly, who provide different stimuli for each moment, working especially on this tour. the issue of lighting.
How do you see from your position – relatively ‘outsider’ – the levels of exposure on networks, the aspirations and the rhythms of “content creation” that the mainstream seems to be imposing on all levels of music?
It’s not a music thing. Everything has become a competition to see who uploads the most viral video, even if it’s just telling how you get up, go to work like anyone else, and go to bed. And it seems that if that content is more than two days old, it is already old. Music is a business like any other and people follow trends to connect with the public.
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