Cecilia Peredo and Iván Fonrouge are excited when they see that the stuffed animal of
Óscar the Octopus
is a child's favorite doll or they find out that a garden room was named after the children's musical band they formed,
Pequeno Pez
.
With respect, tenderness,
art and warmth
, they build
games and songs
that give life to stories and characters in five albums and three singles, numerous videos and live performances.
They will soon be presented in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Astros (Av. Corrientes 746).
Declared of Cultural Interest
by the Legislature of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the group started fifteen years ago with the help of Cecilia, who studied at the Municipal Theater School of Bahía Blanca and, once in Buenos Aires, received her degree at the Institute National Dramatic Art (IUNA).
It started as a theater company
for children, it changed and, with the incorporation of Iván seven years ago, it established itself as a music band.
“What's under the bed?
What's up, what's up, what's up?
A monster in pajamas!
"Oh, how scared I am!", begins the song
Monsters
, which emphasizes the
fears of the boys
and released a video recently.
Another - reminiscent of the great
Why I Didn't Send You to the Late Shift
, by Los Raviolis - is
El rock de la cama
, a song for boys and girls to express their desire to continue sleeping in the form of a
tribute to Elvis
.
Body games
are
another of their trademarks, such as
Pez Tiburón
,
Chocolate
or
Palo palito
, playful songs that invite you to play.
The tongue twisters, the
riddles
(they have a whole series) and the new
English versions
of
Fish Shark
or
In my house
demonstrate their educational purpose:
“We realized how important it is
to teach with music
, because they learn in a different way.
When making a record we look for it to be complete and that they have played in all the ways, that is, that it has riddles, a tongue twister, a body game, a cumulative game - which helps memory -, a role-playing game," says Cecilia -aka Galaxia-.
Cecilia Peredo -known as Galaxia- and Iván Fonrouge -Cone- form Pequeno Pez, a music band for childhood.
Photo: courtesy of Little Fish.
Animal lovers and vegetarians, they seek to convey a message of respect and care for the environment: “We feel very
responsible for being able to leave those little seeds of awareness
.”
Iván - known as Cone - tells how they organize themselves to compose: “This wonderful woman doesn't stop coming up with ideas, and I agree.
She brings me the melody with the lyrics, I play everything on the guitar and collaborate as much as I can.”
His songs also gave life to various characters, such as
Óscar el Octopus
,
La Mosca Sopapa
,
Mi gato Toto Tomás
.
Galaxia narrates: “When he taught theater classes, he had a student who was
bullied
because he liked to read and was introverted;
From there arose the story of the
dinosaur Romario
, who instead of being linked to violence, likes to read and contemplate the stars and has a friend who is of another species, smaller, who is a canary.
This is to say that the hero is not always the strong one, but he can be sensitive.”
Own seal
With a proposal to bring quality art to homes, its performers are influenced by the lyrics of María Elena Walsh and the most varied music, which goes beyond children.
That is why they seek to unite “
poetic lyrics, with some message
”, with different genres and styles, such as rock and roll, reggae, salsa, cumbia, chacarera, carnavalito, among others.
Video
The group of Cecilia Peredo and Iván Fonrouge was declared of Cultural Interest by the Legislature of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
They work on their
videos
with great detail, creating a different universe for each song, with illustrations and aesthetics that accompany them: “We make a composition, not just of a song, but we look for illustrators, designers or different techniques - such as stop motion - so that
each “video is a world
for them and it reaches them from different sides, from art in all its forms.”
For example, the
costumes
they use in shows and in many videos are covered with paint: Cecilia makes them
by hand
every six months (because they wear out with washing).
“When the kids take photos with us at the end of the shows, they are surprised to see the layers and texture of the paint.”
The costumes they use in shows and in many videos are intervened with paint.
Photo: courtesy of Little Fish.
“The multiplicity of
artistic disciplines
with which we work when making a song, a show or a video is part of the essence of Peque,” says Galaxia.
“From the costumes, the props, the characters, the puppets or marionettes, the dance, the images that are projected -in the case of a show-.
We like to work with a lot of artistic branches and it ends up being a
fusion
that differentiates us quite a bit from other bands.”
Along these lines, Cone adds: “We work from the
originality
of doing things because we like them and in the way we want and it is not imposed by anything or anyone.
We work and amass ideas a lot,
the work we do
is very genuine .”
ZoomFish
Cecilia is the director, actress, singer, bassist, composer, producer and manager of the group, which
took off in the months of confinement
during the pandemic: “We were left without work, no one went to school and everyone had the need to entertain themselves some way.
We started having Zoom meetings, where we invited everyone - who in fact connected from anywhere - and we played, we made songs."
The meetings were repeated
once a week
and the audience grew more and more.
Which forced them to generate new content to always offer something different.
“We started creating and that's how
the games began to emerge
, so that they weren't just songs, but rather gave rise to a back-and-forth.
The first was
Shark Fish
and that is why it is so special that it was liked so much.
In fact, many games that we recorded some time later were born in the ZoomPez during the pandemic year.”
“
It was the worst and the best year
for us, although we knew it later.
Today there are families who remember us for that.
We maintained that all year, despite our problems, being out of work... It was a very difficult year and then it ended up being the best, since as a result of that we became known much more and our career began to improve," reflects the group director.
They say that it was during a pandemic when playful games and songs began to emerge.
Photo: courtesy of Little Fish.
“Those encounters
kept us 'alive'
.
In a time of so much anguish, it helped us generate new ideas and have a reason, since we had to work to make that day of the week incredible,” Cone recalls.
Shark fish
“Fish fish, palm and head.
Fish fish, palm and feet.
Shark, palm and ears.
“Shark, palm and the nose.”
This is how the catchy
Shark Fish
sounds , one of his “hits” that invite you to play.
The artists also talk about the demands of the world of networks and platforms: “The industry demands content from you to belong, but if you upload a video every day, I don't know how much artistic and creative background it can have... We go at our own pace sharing material of which we are
proud and calm
with our conscience that we are providing something of quality for childhood, because we know that we are their references and that
we are marking the most important part of their lives
.
Pequeno Pez will be presented at the Astros Theater on January 27 and February 3.