Ska-P: "If ours is to be sold, I recommend it to everyone"

Perhaps no band from Vallecas ever got that far.

From playing in small venues in the popular Madrid neighborhood —such as the emblematic Hebe— in concerts packed with smoke, noise and colored hair;

to hang the

out sign this Friday in Mexico City, in a venue with capacity for 18,000 people.

In its almost 30 years of history, Ska-P has broken several unthinkable records for a group of neighborhood kids who sang against NATO, about youth without a future, workers' pride or the intifadas in Palestine.

Everything changed for them when RCA decided to release their second album,

(1996

, which became a platinum record.

From there to world tours, fame, signing with a multinational record company like Sony —a decision for which they have always been criticized by a sector of their fans for “selling out to capitalism”— and selling more than 1,600,000 records.

Roberto Gañán,

, singer and leader of the band, receives the journalists in the bar of the hotel where they are staying in the Mexican capital.

His appearance is what he has always had: a tank top that reveals the tattoos on his arms and a crest that ends up becoming a tagline.

The only thing that has changed is that now gray hair predominates, hangovers are more noticeable, jet lag forces you to take sleeping pills and post-concert parties in Plaza Garibaldi are ruled out.

, the group's original guitarist,

joins the interview five minutes later .

Down the hall he prowls the rest of the gang.

They just released a new song and another three will come out in the next few months.

Ask.

A sector of your fans has never forgiven you for signing with a multinational...

pulp.

I find it very funny that when we hit the pitch they said 'they have already been sold'.

What is selling?

Selling yourself is going to a job for 500 euros a month, eight hours a day all your fucking life and selling your time to a son of a bitch who is exploiting you.

We do what we want and live from it like a motherfucker.

Joxemi.

If ours is to be sold, I recommend it to everyone.

I hope everyone has the luck to do what they want.

pulp.

The first album was released by an independent label that is the one that has failed us the most [AZ Records].

In fact, now we have no royalties.

We began to record

with two independent companies.

And when everything was recorded they backed down.

We were left with a sum of four million pesetas from the studio [more than 24,000 euros].

We didn't have a penny.

And a search engine for a record company appeared there who told us 'tomorrow we'll sign'.

It was from RCA.

'Holy bitch uncle, she's a multi bitch, it's not our thing'.

But it was either that or we were in jail.

We did not expect the bombshell that it had either.

We signed a three-album deal.

But in the fine print it said that if you sell 50,000 records they'll fuck you by the balls for two more.

Five albums are many years.

Joxemi.

But it's just that who thought we were going to sell 50,000 records.

pulp

.

There have been scuffles with them.

But we reached an agreement that they would not play the music or the lyrics.

And we didn't want to hit the top 40.

I don't know how it will work nowadays, but before you had to put money on the table to occupy number one.

When the contract ran out they tried to renew and we didn't want to.

The last two albums have been released by us.

The Madrid ska group Ska-P in an interview for EL PAÍS, in Mexico City, on March 10, 2022. Nayeli Cruz

Ask.

How do you deal with the fact that, despite your lyrics, many people still consider you a party band?

pulp.

We are, may they never take away our joy.

We really like the party and we have sucked music from many bands like Mano Negra, which was pure pachanga.

Joxemi.

It is true that we are.

We have killer songs like

or melodic rock like

, and then others that are a fucking party.

pulp.

I remember when I took

to the rehearsal room and Julito [bass player] said: 'dude, this is fucking shit, don't say cannabis, say at least smoke a joint'.

And I, 'Julito, play the bass like you know and we're going to do the song, which sounds like glory'.

And look, it is the one that has opened everything for us.

Joxemi.

Ska-P is a classic of Spanish rock and in all the fucking

that the orchestra ends up playing a song of yours together with Leño, Extremoduro... well, hell, it's an honor man, it's those groups that we listened to.

And if you click me we have even reached higher because that happens to us in many countries.

pulp.

You are coming very high.

Joxemi.

I shit on god!

[laughs].

Damn, but she's the fucking truth.

You go to Germany and there are brass bands and they play Ska-P songs, in Holland, Italy...

Ask.

People dance for you who are anarchists, from the PP or the PSOE...

Joxemi.

There was a time when we were fashionable, that is undeniable.

Between 1997 and 1999 everyone liked us, even people we didn't want to like, but what are you going to do?

It was something that we had a little bad.

Ask.

In 2017, Pipi, an original member of the band, was expelled from the group.

With his other band, The Locos, he was accused in Argentina of not paying his musicians and poor working conditions...

pulp.

With Pipi the chemistry is over.

A lot of times they think it's something personal between him and me, but the whole band invited him out.

It didn't fit.

But we don't want to say any of this.

He came out, period.

Joxemi.

I don't want it to go wrong, but with each group that has gotten involved it seems that it always ends badly.

The facts speak of each person.

The Madrid ska group Ska-P in an interview for EL PAÍS, in Mexico City, on March 10, 2022. Nayeli Cruz

Ask.

Throughout your career you have stopped several times.

What brings you together again?

pulp.

We came back for the music.

I had songs made, I was recording them, we got together to see each other and decided to make a new album.

There was a strong separation [2005].

The group disbanded.

Many things influenced: among them the birth of my daughter.

I barely saw her.

Until her first birthday I missed it.

I was going to miss my daughter's growth.

And we really stop.

Joxemi.

Well, there was a separation more than a break, I thought we weren't going to get together anymore, we spent a lot of time each one doing his life.

At first we did what all groups do: play until you burn.

So almost all groups end badly.

We realized that this dynamic of stopping was good for us.

Playing for two years, stopping for a season, having time to compose.

Ask.

, you have tinnitus [a disease that causes constant ringing in the ears].

Is it compatible with playing at this level?

pulp.

I have had severe tinnitus for 30 years, but for six years it has been growing.

It's like a cage of crickets.

You're in a hotel room after a concert in front of 10,000 people and your ears are ringing... those 200 crickets have become 200,000.

, fetal position in bed and please take this off, but you have another bolus in two days.

I got very scared, I went to all kinds of specialists, and one told me: 'Look, there is no cure, it's a symptom that your own brain produces, but you don't have to be scared, you won't go deaf.

The more you pay attention to it, the more they will beep.

You start reading a book, listening to music, and it will disappear'.

Damn man, hand of a saint.

At the end with the

[a kind of headphones to listen to music at concerts, instead of through monitors] and the four tips that this girl gave me because I wear it.

Ask.

In almost 30 years, has the way of living the group changed?

Joxemi.

Going on tour for 30 days, getting on the pallet of the bus, traveling all night, arriving in another town, in another country, playing, taking a shower in the dressing room... it was amazing, but it was an effort.

I have 52 tacos and I know how hard it would be to do that.

Your body no longer recovers as before.

Luckily we did it at the time.

Now we can focus all the energy for the concert, but then there will be no more chaos than before: go to Garibaldi to get drunk, act like an idiot.

pulp.

Do not fool around, we laughed.

Joxemi.

I used to be stupid a lot.

pulp.

And you did very well, we laughed a lot.

But we're 50 years old now, man.

Man, some can fall, but...

Joxemi.

He's done with picking up the guitar and singing on top of the statues and playing the Indian.

I already did.

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