INTERVIEW 53. doble pletina

photo by Ramiro E

With a song made to close the discotheque, Doble Pletina took Spain by surprise and became one of the main promises of the colorful independent scene of the country.
'Música para cerrar las discotecas' is already a classic, an anthem for indiepop kids and - as spanish indie bible Rockdelux said - "a song to dance with tears in your eyes". With an apocalyptic atmosphere and a calm - yet strong - drumbeat the song goes 'Music to close the discotheque, something to dance if the end is getting close...' and suddenly you're under Doble Pletina's spell.
Mainly an acoustic act, this Barcelona based group delivers mesmerizing indiepop where love and everyday life are sung via a clever, melodical and charming perspective.
Emotional and extremely musical.

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Their first release 'Para que négarlo, si se puedes demonstrar' is available for free download on Bandcamp.

With a mixture of surprise, shock and a certain pride, I present you're next favorite spanish band in their first international interview...

01. First question is actually about Abrevadero, the previous project of Marc and Laura: for how long were you in the band? Any good memory from that time that you feel like sharing?

Abrevadero was not a long life band: it only lasted for about one year and a half. We had a pretty good time playing there, and we remember particularly one week we went to Berlin to play a couple of gigs. It is great to have holidays with the whole band!

02. How did you decide to form Doble Pletina? And where does the name come from?

After Abrevadero Marc and Laura started to compose songs. In the beginning it was a very acoustic project: guitar, bass and two voices. A few months later Francina, Jaume and Cati joined and shaped the present line-up of Doble Pletina.

Doble pletina means double deck cassette player in spanish. This name is related to choose songs to record mixtapes for friends, getting songs from the radio, or record oneself playing guitar with a boombox. We thought it suited us, because Doble Pletina almost started like a lo-fi bedroom project.

03. You are one of those bands that, by listening to the music, people are able to picture an universe with a very clear aesthetic. If your music was a planet or landscape, how it would look like? 

If we had to imagine our music like a landscape or architecture, we could picture it like a network of cities whose inhabitants wander around looking for nice people to live with.

04. Talk a bit about your first release, 'Para que negarlo, si se puede demostrar'. I'm really into creative process, so I was wondering how was the making of it... did you recorded it in a studio or at home? Also, it is available for free download on your bandcamp: why's that? What are your views on music distribution nowadays?

Everything was home-recorded and mixed with Audacity. We prepared 200 hand-made copies, in a fanzine-like package designed by David Marmota, which included postcards, flyers, a patterned poster and other stuff. Lots of people asked us to get a copy, and soon we run out of them selling them in concerts and online, so we left it for free in bandcamp for everyone who could’nt get one on time.

Bandcamp is a very helpful tool if you want to distribute your songs online.

05. It's hard to name the kind of music you make. It's indie pop with refined melodies and clever lyrics dealing with quite mundane subjects that sometimes take me to a Barcelona-esque place (I've been to Barcelona only once, so this might be only a personal perception). What are your references? And what inspires you?

It may be true that our songs are strongly influenced by the fact that we live in Barcelona, and despite we don’t mention it in a single song it’s underlying in the most of the lyrics. When we’re refering to la ciudad -which happens in several songs-, it’s always Barcelona. We’re mostly inspired by our day-to-day life, which may not sound very exciting but it’s an excelent source of subjects for songs.

photo by Joan Sànchez

06. Now, specifically about 'Musica para cerrar las discotecas': a FUCKING AWESOME song, to say the least. The first time I've heard I got crazy and emotional at the same time, imagining the song being played after a night of dancing and when the dancefloor is practically empty. It has an apocalyptic, melancholic atmosphere and at the same time something very playful and celebratory about it. How this song came up? Were you trying to create something for a not very well explored niche – songs to close the clubs - as you say in the lyrics?

The idea for this song actually came out one late night in a club in Barcelona: It was one of these nights when you’re really not having much fun, you feel very tired, and the only thing you want to do is go home and get some sleep. We started joking that it would be relieving to hear a song that gives you the permission to leave the club and finally rest. Later we resumed this idea, changing it a bit, and it became Música para cerrar las discotecas.

07. I'm a sucker for the indie scene of Catalunya and specially Barcelona. What can you say about it? Any bands that we all should know about that you really like?

As you say, there are lots of exciting new bands lately in Catalunya, besides of that, three of our members (Francina, Cati and Jaume) are from Mallorca, where you can find awesome bands as well.

You’ll probably already know almost all of them, but here we go with some recommendations:

- We love the misty pop of Villarroel and the strange songs of Tu Madre

- Another local band we love is Pegasvs

- Francina is really fond of the universe of the majorcan band Antònia Font

- Jaume is a great fan of another majorcan band, The Marzipan Man

- Marc occasionally plays with another band from Barcelona (led by a Greek): Evripidis and his Tragedies

08. How was Madrid Popfest?

Oh, it was great! We could only be there on friday (the day we played), and that night we loved The Garlands and the sci-fi pop of Parade. There was a very warm audience!

09. Perfect place and time to listen to Doble Pletina...

Maybe it’s a good choice for a car trip (not a very long one!)

10. Now that you have a few 7'' released  (on Garibaldi, Discos de Kirlian and Jabalina) and praises from several music outlets throughout Spain as the breakthrough act of 2011, what's next?

In april we will release a couple more of songs in the third compilation of Minimúsica. This is concert series addressed to children in which we’ve played several times. The theme of this new record is “the animals”, so we composed two animal songs for this lovely project.

Apart from that, we’re starting to compose new songs, in order to prepare an album.

11. Anything else you feel like saying?

Thanks for you interest. This is the very first international interview we make, and we’re really thrilled.

(besides of that, excuse our english, of course)