Balago is a sample-based project from Barcelona. With their upcoming performance at Digital in Berlin’s 10 Years in Sound Festival, the band will make their first ever appearance in Berlin. Steeped in science-fiction, mysticism and philosophy, the result is closer to the ideas of Aldous Huxley, J.G. Ballard, Charles Darwin, Philip K. Dick or Arthur Schopenhauer than to any of the currently hot tropes associated with the global electro-scene.
FACTS:
1: With the exception of man, no being wonders at its own existence.
2: How to live in an ecosystem within an egosystem?
3: The mass that lacks abstract thinking is manipulable.
QUESTIONS:
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Inspiration comes with work. There is an obsessive feeling in this process based on a need to express
existential issues in music’s form.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
We started in adolescence with friends with whom we shared similar concerns. Also by family tradition. Our first project started in 1993 and at that time we played in bands withs guitars, bass, drums, voice, etc… where we made more noise and there was more testosterone. In 1998 we decided to create Balago
and started working with machines.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
This question is practically imposible to answer. We thought that in our case the soundtracks are as much important as in any other band so we will tell you five soundtracks that we have found exceptional:
The Thing (Ennio Morricone)
Psycho (Bernard Hermann)
Alien (Jerry Goldsmith)
Twin Peaks (Angelo Badalamenti)
Interstellar (Hans Zimmer)
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Culture, Art, Philosophy, Industrial Design, The Wall,…
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
The forest.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
We would set up a company, after having a great idea, and we would have become millionaires.
7. What was the last record/music you bought?
Gonzo – Sound Scraps (Sucata Tapes, 2018).
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Obviously with Wolfang A. Mozart but I think it’s not possible and it will not… So we would like to do it with Ian Crause (Disco Inferno).
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
David: Depeche Mode – Violator Tour (Palau St.Jordi. Barcelona, 1990).
Guim: Tortoise – It’s all around you Tour (Palau de la Música, 2004).
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
In this project is the only important thing, the use of technology. Without it, this project would not exist or wouldn’t be the same project. We have always worked with the same hardware and music software. We have incorporated very few new elements in these years and in terms of sound we like that the result does not sound very produced.
11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
David: I have a brother, who is an illustrator and graphic designer and has collaborated from the beginning with us doing all the artwork of the band.
Guim: I have 3 brothers and 2 sisters, all linked to music (teacher, luthiere, play or have played in bands, etc…) and they all support and like our work.
Balago will open the main stage on the second evening of Digital in Berlin’s 10 Years in Sound Festival on Saturday, 11th August 2018. Day passes for 15,00 € are still available via Eventbrite and KOKA36.
Photo © Balago
