Brames to overcome the disenchantment with independence and against the far right

BarcelonaBrams singer Francesc Ribera (Berga, 1967) needed time to respond to the disillusionment following October 1, 2017. At the beginning of that same year, the group released Tomorrowan album steeped in hope. A few months later came "the defeat." "For Brams, the discursive content is fundamental. In fact, it's the defining characteristic of the group's existence," recalls Ribera, who understands that "every defeat gives rise to disappointment, to disillusionment." "We wanted to express our own feelings, but we know that nothing can be built from rage and anger, from the depths of despair. That's why we waited so long to figure out what we should say and how we should explain it," he says. The result of this time spent digesting the disenchantment is five songs brought together under the title Come back, come back, come back! (2026), which aim to offer a positive reflection and include a direct critique of the far right.

They will also explain all of this in four concerts at the Aliança del Poblenou as part of Barnasants (March 19), La Cabra in Vic (March 21), the Pabellón Viejo in Berga (March 28), and La Mirona in Salt (April 4). "We'll do these four concerts and that's it, because we each have other commitments: David Rosell and Jordi Barnola are with Els Catarres, Xarli Oliver is with Joan Miquel Oliver, and I'm directing the Perifèria Cultural series," he explains.

The first song they completed was Return, A synthesis of a feeling of resilience nurtured by the group since the early nineties, when Catalan independence was an extra-parliamentary political option. "Brams is a group that, from the beginning, pushed towards a place that in 1990 we didn't know would have to be consolidated with a date and an exercise in self-determination. Back then, we had little room to bolster hope. And when that process culminated in 2017, we were swept up in it, it involved us. To manage the disillusionment, aggravated after the 2019 sentencing of the pro-independence leaders, the key, says Ribera, was to escape "the dynamic of recriminations and tweets" that leads to "a cesspool," to "a contest to see who can say the most outrageous thing." "We wanted to make a positive album to get out of the mud and be able to resume our journey," he explains. Musically, with the ferocity of other times tempered, Brams haven't forgotten their tavern-like character, present in the track There is wine after deathand they generally avoid darker sounds.

One of the new songs, Fear and cowardiceThis reflects precisely a consequence of the mudslinging some separatists have engaged in by aligning themselves with the positions of far-right parties like Aliança Catalana, which "concentrates" its attacks "on the poor." As the song goes, "neither Spain nor the local bosses will be able to convince us to change our enemies." Ribera, who was a councilor in the Berga City Council for the CUP, has ample reason to confront the far right from a socioeconomic perspective, but he wanted to "expressly" emphasize the national and Catalanist aspect. It is "a patriotic analysis" because he is confident that "many people who have doubts will sooner or later see that the far right is going nowhere, neither politically nor humanly." This is surely due to its proactive nature. Fear and cowardice It sounds more like an anthem than a fierce song.

Ribera doesn't isolate the Catalan far right from what's happening worldwide. "It's a global trend fueled by social media, which are the major media outlets of the 21st century and are in the hands of a Nazi. There's no need for euphemisms. Traditional media have never had the power of manipulation that social media does."