- 11 minutes reading‘
They say it and we think it. There are very few bands that started thirty years ago that have their first show fully recorded. It was at the bar where they used to stop, back in their native Montevideo, and they had the good sense to find a friend who had a camera and who was willing to film that first spontaneous “play” in its entirety, for which they had only two songs of their own and a strange drummer who would only last three shows in that position: Sebastián Teysera, El Enano, the singer and main lyricist and composer of The Puerca Candlewhich this Saturday celebrates its three decades of life at the stadium Ferro.
–They return to Ferro after many years, this time to celebrate the band’s thirty years. Do you remember your previous experience at the Caballito stadium?
Sebastian Cebreiro –It was a long time ago, in 2007
Sebastian Teysera –It was the presentation of The impulse.
–Do you remember anything about that date?
Teysera –It was the first stadium in Argentina and I think it was the first time we saw so many people at a La Vela show. I was quite unconscious, before the show I was not aware of the dimensions, I knew it was a stadium but I imagined it smaller. When I went to the sound check I asked myself: Will that many people come? Won’t it be too much? And everything went well.
Cebreiro –I take on dimension once things happen, that’s where the real chip falls. Before, you have nerves, you prepare many things and you are not so conscious and much less visualize the future. But once it happens, you realize it. We haven’t done that many stadiums in our career.
Teysera –It was the first stadium in the history of La Vela, not only in Argentina.
La Vela Puerca – LNPLAY 1″/>–Rehearsing, choosing songs, sound check… There are many instances that a band goes through before meeting its audience.
Teysera –In this case it is a difficult list to make, when turning thirty it takes time to prepare it. Luckily the musical collection is large. There are more than thirty that we are going to play and they all say “I want to be there.” Then there are the songs that logically cannot be released, but the others… It is difficult to choose them, but it is a beautiful challenge. You play some of them, as happened to us now on the European tour, and then you take them out because you notice that they didn’t perform.
–Last year they played quite a bit Backlitwhich is a complete playable album.
Cebreiro –In fact, I think it is the album that contributes the most to the present of La Vela and to any present of the band. They were always “Zafar”, “Full of magic”, “It’s going to clear”, “Making it light”. It was a pivotal album, more guitar-driven; The future of the band began to be glimpsed, in terms of its musical imprint, not its lyrics, although this was also mutating. It was an album that has given us a lot and continues to give us a lot. Last year we paid that tribute to him by reversing the songs live in our living room. We wanted to give people a gift. A mutual tribute.
–Let’s go back, do you remember your first show? How was that street show put together on December 24, 1995?
Teysera –We had two songs of our own and that was the kick. We had two songs, we had to give the band a name and La Vela Puerca came out. It was at the El Tigre bar, the friend’s bar where we always stopped because the bassist lived half a block away and we asked Maní and Dani who were the owners for the plug; We rented a pair of speakers and Maní said: “We take the tables outside and they put them on the sidewalk.” Luckily that was recorded because a friend brought a camera. At that time no one had a camera, and they filmed everything. I don’t know how many bands have their entire first show filmed. I have an incredible memory. That first concert opened many doors for us. It was the cassette that we presented in a contest.
–Did you play the drums Enano?
Teysera –I was banging the drums and Manolo, the one who was going to play at that time, went to live in Maldonado, so I said: “I play and sing.” From there came the cassette that I submitted to the contest that we won. [y gracias al cual pudieron lanzar su primer disco]. One time we saw it on the tour bondi and I said: “this needs to be hung up.” “But we played horrible,” some said. And it is logical that we played horrible at the first concert. Most had never played. I played the drums, said one, two, three, started with everything and was running out of steam as the song progressed.
–At that time you had dreadlocks, Onion; I imagine that the band’s ska and reggae came from your side…
Cebreiro –At that time I listened to rock brazilianpunk rock; I was never one to listen to ska bands. I actually started listening to Madness around that time. La Vela is my first and only band, I never had another. When I met Nico (Lieutier), I had just gotten married to Rafa’s sister (Di Bello), that’s why I got close to the family. I liked to play and sing in Portuguese, Nico heard me one day and told me: “I and a friend are about to form a band, if you want to join, welcome”, and that’s where the NGO La Vela Puerca started. Anyone who does something we throw into the bag. And I started singing without having ever sung in front of a microphone in my life.
Teysera –And the incredible thing is that the six of us who were there, at that first show, are still in the band today.
–Enano, you made a great trip through Europe, before or after that first recital?
Teysera –After. We did two more dates and then I went on a trip. When I returned, Lucas (De Azevedo) entered in his robe. Logically I wasn’t going to be the drummer.
–And you came back with songs from the trip?
-And…
Cebreiro –He returned with “High Magic”, “Common Crab”…
Teysera –In Spain I started playing with a band a couple of times, El Brote Psicótica, a punk band (laughs). That was a very musical journey. I went with the guitar, I played on the trains, in the parks; a beautiful experience. But before I left I submitted the cassette recording of the first show to a contest. I went on a trip and when I came back a friend told me: “congratulations.” “About what?”. “Like what? They are among the 22 finalists.” “Finalists for what?” ”But you didn’t submit a cassette to a contest?” I didn’t remember and I hadn’t said anything to them. So I told them, I apologized and told them that we had to go to television to do playback. It wasn’t possible with that audio, so we had to go into a studio for the first time. We recorded the demo, we made the playback on television, we won the contest and they asked us to come do that again playback and another one, so we had to go back to the studio to record one more song, “De tal palo, tal astilla.”
–From unconsciousness to commitments in two minutes…
Cebreiro –That is the story of La Vela…
Teysera –Always trying to ensure that the wave does not pass us, does not crush us.
–Shortly after, in 98, they released shamelessthey later reissued it under the name of The Puerca Candle and now with the production of Gustavo Santaolalla…
Teysera –Of course, that was another of the very strange coincidences. I was studying graphic design and I was doing an exercise on the computer. I was listening to the radio and at that time, on Saturdays there was a program that was Radio MTV. They drove him Ruth Infarinato y Enrique Lopetegui. “Whoever knows the name of this song and the band, send an email and they can win three albums” and I don’t know what else. And the name of the song was “Break On Through” by The Doors. I say, “how easy”, and before sending the email, we already had seventy to record the shameless and I tell it in the email. He reads it on the air: “here is a band, La Vela Puerca, that will soon record their first album.” Three days later I received an email: “compatriot, when you have the album, send it to me, I’m Enrique Lopetegui, Uruguayan.” We recorded the album, we released it, a lot of time passes until I remember that email and I tell Sibyla Trabal, who was our manager at that time, that there is a Uruguayan journalist in Los Angeles to whom we should send the album. A month after that, Sibyla told me: “Gustavo Santaolalla wants to talk to you.” We knew he was working with El Peyote, but how did our music reach him? And Lopetegui made him listen to “My seed” and “El gavilán” on the phone and he wanted to sign us. All because of “Break On Through” by the Doors.
–These are beautiful stories prior to social networks…
Teysera –Exact. We ended up going to Los Angeles, we met Lopetegui, who worked as a taxi driver and he picked us up at the airport.
–From there to the first tour of Argentina…
Teysera –The first tour was through Córdoba, San Juan and Mendoza. In San Juan we played in a candy store
Cebreiro –He was a boliche stripper…
Teysera –No, it was a candy store…
Cebreiro –It had a pipe…Well, that’s what I remember. They are both visions (laughs).
Teysera –I remember that we couldn’t get people to get out of their chairs. We finish playing and a waiter brings me a letter, a piece of paper. “I loved the concert, divine, excuse me but it is difficult to move the mountain people,” the paper said. Afterwards we did go to a bowling alley in Mendoza, a big one. And then we toured the coast. We settled in a house in Villa Gesell. We had a bondi with our own sound. We played in Miramar, Mar Azul, Mar del Plata, Gesell, Necochea; We shared some concerts with Bersuit.
–At one time, many Argentine bands had La Vela Puerca’s marathon tours through Europe, mainly through Germany, as an example of what to do. Do you remember those first tours? They played and slept in the same places they played or in the houses of those who hired them, right?
Cebreriro –It was, come with your sleeping bags. What was surreal was that the one who contacted us first was a certain Humberto Pereyra, from Germany. We said, “this is bullshit: Humberto Pereyra from Germany?” But yes, he contacted us, told us that he wanted to do a tour and we didn’t believe him. We asked him to send the tickets and in time we received a schedule with 56 concerts in 65 days and the tickets. We were dying of anxiety to see that we had 16 concerts in a row without a day off and we doubted if we could do it. We arranged conditions, saw the cities and began to study. We bought German-Spanish dictionaries, we put together sentences. The first concert was in a small town lost in the north of Germany for 30 people and there we said: “this is going to be hard.” And no, it was a wonderful experience.
Teysera –We had just played for 20,000 people in Montevideo in the quarries. Maybe we realized right away that it was very healthy to have concerts like the ones at the beginning, going from 20,000 to 20 people playing for 30 people; and even more so in a place where they don’t know the songs and half don’t know the language. We thought the Germans were going to be cold and they gave us a tremendous slap in the face. They saw a band with enthusiasm, rocking it and by the third song they were already on firedoing mosh and asking for more. In the end we played so much that when we left we didn’t say “Auf Wiedersehen”, we told them “forget it”.
La Vela Puerca celebrates its thirty years. This Saturday, at 8pm, in Ferro. Tickets on sale at Enigma Tickets