It could be said that the Álvarez sisters have music in their blood, in fact, their relationship with it is something so natural that it has accompanied them, since they were born, throughout their entire lives. They are daughters of Paradiso, one of the most iconic bookstores in Gijón.
Dedicated to the sale of books and records, both new and second-hand, and specialized in humanities, narrative, art, theater, cinema, music and comics, since its foundation back in 1976. But Mar y Alicia or Alicia y Mar They are also the daughters of José Luis Álvarez and Fany Sanguino, two people passionate about music and reading, who gave them a childhood full of books and records, and that’s where it all began.
Calm and smiling, as they usually approach life, the Paulines on the beach look back to tell their story, taking advantage of the promotion of their latest work, The long daysan album in which they continue to delve deeper into the poetic and musical imagination of this intimate pop group, related to their daily life and their closest environment.
Both agree that this work is a traditional song of life, deep and very dreamy, displaying the purest dream pop style. This is the eighth album in the history of the group, which was born in 1999 when they were still the Undershakers.
To put a date on the day that their love affair with music began is to move to the house of their neighbor Gila Hevia, who gave piano lessons right on the floor below the one they and their parents occupied. “Our house always sounded like a piano on Saturdays,” Ali remembers, while her sister Mar leaves her because she is the youngest and the one who talks the most, and little by little she remembers how she started playing the guitar at home with her father, a right-handed guitar “and I was left-handed,” she smiles.
The neighbor Gila immediately saw that there was wood in those girls and recommended to their parents that they send them to study at the Music School, because in those years, the late 80s, there was still no conservatory in Gijón.
“That was when I failed with the cello,” recalls Alicia, laughing, while Mar began to play the piano, an instrument to which he would dedicate himself until, in high school, he came into contact with American folk and asked for a transverse flute for kings. that his father responded “I’m not going to buy you a transverse flute, the kings are going to bring you an electric guitar.” For Mar, that was the beginning of Undershakers, as he began teaching guitar lessons with Juan Mintegui, from La banda del tren, he met the group’s drummer at high school, when he started college he met the singer and decided to join his band. little sister, Alice.
In 1994 Undershakers won the City of Oviedo Model Contest and recorded their first single. A brilliant garage/pop career will then begin in which they have the opportunity to experience the growth of the state independent scene and the second wave of the Xixón Sound, alongside Australian Blonde, Nosoträsh, Manta Ray or Doctor Explosion.
The first wave of this musical scene, which, as the sisters explain, started thanks to a lot of groups making music at the same time in Gijón, although they did not even make the same type of music. It was in the 80s with the band Penélope Trip.
Mar and Alicia would remain in Undershakers until 1999. “We had a great time, those five women packed into a van, with the sense of humor we had…” they smile fondly. Those years were a very fun experience, but also very trying, from which they learned almost everything they know. But already then another type of music began to sound in their heads, more intimate, deeper, more personal, more Pauline. And so, in 1999, Pauline on the beach released her first album Nothing like homeand a new era of luminous pop music begins that they compare to the romanticism of a late September sunset.
“We are people who do things”
Pauline on the beach is a constant in a life full of cultural projects, because “we are people who do things,” they both say, and this is how they have spent 25 years of continuous creation. Music has always been in many of the projects they have launched, together or separately, throughout their lives, although not in all of them. Ali studied journalism, a profession she practiced for almost twenty years at Cadena Ser, while Mar is a music teacher and director of the Sonidópolis music school.
In addition to dedication to their respective professions, motherhood led both to break new ground: Mar founded Petit Popo, together with members of various Asturian groups that shared the music scene in the 90s, with the aim of bringing pop to children and girls, and enjoy with family. Alicia, together with her husband, an expert in Asturian philology, David Guardado, La Fabriquina, an independent publishing house, a source of cultural creation, books and music.
It is up to Undershakers to continue enjoying the music with the same intensity and “the sorority”, as they say, the sisterhood that is born from the twinning between women with whom they have always surrounded themselves. What they do recognize that has changed a little is the music scene, since what was previously known as independent is now nothing more than a label, so the Paulines are more committed to recovering the “old” term underground.
“When we started the game, it was distributed by the record companies, now it is the platforms,” explains Ali, but it doesn’t matter to us, they both acknowledge, because “we are still a group whose priority has always been artistic creation.” They regret that the speed with which the world lives has also been transferred to music, which is why groups today have to do “everything at once everywhere.” They are clear that the numbers must come out, logically, and therefore they must make small concessions to the industry, but “with the greatest of coherence.”
‘I would like to be John Wayne’ is the first single from his latest work, then came ‘Que te parta un ray’. Both are part of The long days They will be presented to the public in a concert that will take place on January 8, at the Jovellanos Theater in Gijón, and on February 27 they will arrive in Madrid to do the same at the Sala Clamores.
#Pauline #beach #life #project #daughters #Xixón #Sound #delving #dream #pop
