La Ludwig Band: "Everything is recounted in lurid, dark, and gruesome detail."

BarcelonaUntil now, Ludwig Band had three good albums, a handful of memorable songs, and above all, one of the most exciting live shows in the country. Now they can finally say they've made the great album that does justice to all the praise they've received. It's being said around the neighborhood (L'Animeta, 2026), released this Friday. Quim Carandell's poetic talent, the joy with which the whole band blends diverse influences, and the contributions of producers like Joan Borràs (Oques Grasses), Pau Vallvé, and Santi García bring to life an album dedicated almost entirely to the adversity in love experienced by a clumsy or unlucky lover. Gabriel Bosch (guitar), Quim Carandell (vocals and guitar), Roger Cassola (drums), Pau Esteve (keyboards), Andreu Galofré (bass), and Lluc Valverde (saxophone and keyboards) speak.

Have you reached that point where you want to remain true to what has made you popular while also wanting to change these dynamics to try other things?

— Gabriel Bosch: I would say so. With some of the songs we've released, friends and fans from years ago would tell me, "Wow, I didn't like this song." And then people who didn't know us as well would say, "I don't listen to Ludwig, but I really liked this song." And, you know, I find that quite representative of what you're asking.

Do the rest of you know which song he's talking about?

— Roger CazuelaThere are two.

— Andreu GalofréBut one is clearer.

— Pau Esteve: Which one is clear? A lot has happened since then.?

— GB:We arranged to meet at four o'clock today..

— AG: He is less Ludwig than A lot has happened since then., Yeah.

We arranged to meet at four o'clock today. It is produced by Pau Vallvé. And the album also has songs produced by Joan Borràs, from Oques Grasses.

— RC: We had already worked with Juan on the previous album, and he did the mixing. We were very happy with the result and decided to repeat the process. He essentially acted as our supervisor. We also wanted to refine the vocal sound considerably because we know it's very important, and we really liked how the vocals sounded on Oques Grasses' last album.

Does the energy he transmits live influence his way of composing and producing songs?

— Quim Carandell: On the previous album, absolutely yes. Thank you for coming It was an album designed with our live sound in mind. In other words, a very structured album, in a way. Instead of using a recorder, I wrote it with a stopwatch to time the parts. However, this time I composed without a guitar, notebook, or anything. The lyrics and music just came to me, and I didn't think about whether they made sense or not. And when I started showing them the songs, I remember Andrés telling me they were good, that they already liked them, but that they were all much flatter songs, with much less impact. And that's where the production phase began.

— AG: When we listened to the songs, they were all very good, but they were also very open to being taken in one style or another, or influenced by other things. And since Quim wasn't entirely sure which direction we should take, we felt more inclined to dedicate ourselves to making a studio album, and then we'd see how we adapted it for the live shows, but we weren't worried about that. The idea was to create a studio album that was complete, where each song had its own prominence or character. And now that we've started rehearsing for the live shows, it's been fun. The slower songs, which were difficult for us to perform live, we've now dedicated more time to; we've dared to tackle them, and they've turned out very well. And now we'll see how they sound live.

Songs like How beautiful, To deceive you and We arranged to meet at four o'clock today.Yes, they do have that slower character, but they still redirect them towards one crescendo.

— GB: We are incapable of delivering a ballad from minute zero to minute one.

— AG:How beautiful Yes, it's very flat.

— QC: AND That day will mark a year since that day. recently crescendo.

— PE: But they are not ballads.

— QC: The ballad on the album ends up being From a Mushkaa concert, rather as a genre, as a rock ballad.

From a Mushkaa concert It's a song with several musical lives, with an orchestral arrangement and there's even a hint of Andrés Calamaro.

— GB: That awesome guitar solo is an inspiration. I heard a solo from one of Andrés' songs and, look, the chords were similar.

— QC: Gabriel and I have listened to a lot of Calamaro this past year.

The album Brutal honesty?

— GB: The solo in this song is by Perfect crimes, from the album High dirt by Calamaro. It's a solo by guitarist Marc Ribot.

A super guitarist, Marc Ribot. Not bad as a reference.

— QC: One solaco.

— AG: To wrap up the production, we all remember that in the last interview you asked us if Thank you for coming It was either a keyboard-driven or a guitar-driven album, and I think with this one we wanted to do a bit of everything; that is, not include everything equally.

Perhaps you are the most affected, Lucas, because there are more keyboards than saxophones.

— Lucas Valverde: Well, yes, but I've just come from a job change. They let me play the sax less, because I don't want to go out for a smoke. pite In a song I don't usually play, I'm going to play keyboards now. In fact, I'll be playing keyboards a lot more than saxophones, and I'll have to make up for my two years of piano conservatory. I was nervous at first, but now the rehearsals are going better, and it'll be great, yeah.

Speaking of things that have reminded me of other things: the initial agreement ofA lot has happened since then. is the one ofInsurrection From The Last in Line?

— GB: It does seem a bit like that, yes. The phrase. I think it's something more unconscious, because when they were doing it I didn't notice it so much; it was more when we had finished. And I remember that Insurrection I did it a lot with my guitar students and it stuck in my brain.

— AG: It always happens, you play it first and then you say: ah, this reminds me of...

— PE: Okay, now the demos Initially it seemed much more than it does now.

Incidentally, the CD credits state that saxophonist Eva Fernández collaborates on We won't need anything else.But I haven't been able to find any song with this title on the album.

— QC: I was just about to talk about this when you said that Lucas was the biggest casualty of the album. There's a song that didn't make it onto the album because we were already running out of energy and it just wasn't coming together. It was a song with an arrangement for two saxophones; we wanted to do something like something The Mamas & The Papas would do, but it didn't make the cut.

Except for the last two songs, the character who stars in the album reminds me Adele from the album 30, an album about heartbreak, but in which the breakup is explained calmly, without the spite that was present in some songs on his previous album.

— QC: I really like this Adele album.

— PE: And it also deals with the thirty years.

How do you write about this topic so that each song can be different?

— QC: I was a little worried about that when I started showing them the songs, and they were all very flat. The differences between them were very subtle, and if I had to summarize each song in one sentence, they'd all be the same: either I've been dumped or I've dumped, either I've been cheated on or I've cheated on, either you love me or you don't. But each one has a different approach. They talk about everything the way you'd explain it to a friend, like a conversation in a bar, a laundromat. Maybe that's why the album is titled the way it is. It's being said around the neighborhood That's how it went. Everything is told rather bluntly, without being too explicit but with every dark and gruesome detail imaginable. And I enjoyed writing it that way because I found it very fun. It was a lot to say, I didn't censor myself at all. It had happened to me when I was... Manela, I don't want to work for you either The oldest man in Espolla has diedI thought I was talking about the people of Espolla, and maybe they wouldn't like it, but whatever, do it. This time I've done the same thing, but with myself, and I haven't censored myself. And that's great because writing without self-censorship leaves a lot of room for the imagination. I really enjoyed writing it, and I think that shows in a way: there are many songs that are about taking an idea and turning it over in your mind, moving forward and exploring, that have four verses but could have 24, and I could go on and on about it.

In How beautifulIn your song, you sing about some experiences: "And without meaning to, I'm already starting to turn them into songs." Does this affect your relationships? Has anyone ever warned you: "Ugh, don't make a song about that"?

— QC: On the contrary, the opposite is usually true, because everyone has a very idealized view of songwriting. Everyone wants me to write songs, especially about good things, but lately I've found it much more enjoyable to write about bad things. The best stories are found in adversity. I also have to tell you that Que bone"C" is one of the songs on the whole album that feels least personal to me. It's all fiction, and it's not an album dedicated to any one person in particular—well, yes, to me. If it has to be about anyone, it's me, because of what I've imagined and what's happened to me.

There are verses that make songs more powerful. For example, in Better with him When you say, "And we'll both understand that you'll be better off with him." And in Where have you gone tonight?"the walled city of your room where that early morning you turned me into a lion."

— QC: This album, unlike the previous one, I thoroughly enjoyed writing. I was coming off a massive writer's block, and suddenly I pulled the plug, and everything just flowed out. I couldn't stop, and I loved everything. I copied more than ever, shamelessly. I even spent a couple of therapy sessions discussing whether plagiarism diminished my self-worth. My therapist and I agreed that it absolutely did, and from then on, the rest was history.

— AG: Did you pay him double?

— QC: I paid him double.

Let's not call it plagiarism, but rather influence.

— QC: This is what he told me.

When did you Where have you been tonight? She never saw it as a B-side of Teresa Rampell of the Manel?

— AG: Because of the lyrics?

And also musically.

— AG: Yes, musically it does manelea.

— QC:Teresa Rampell It's made from...

— Ll.V.: But if Teresa Rampell It's the most cynical thing in the world. Poor Guillermo [Gisbert], but I think that Teresa Rampell There's a lot of that thing about the man who's a bit above good and evil, looking down at the woman condescendingly and acting like... "You look more beautiful than ever today, don't you? Even though you're a bit pathetic and you don't know it, but you're going out here ready to conquer the world, champ." It has that somewhat condescending and cynical quality. Quim, on the other hand, doesn't talk about people like that. I think that's where the literary difference lies.

— GB: It's the other point of view.

— Ll.V.: Quim's version is much more authentic; it conveys the anxiety the narrator experiences. Therefore, it's less cold. In contrast, Teresa Rampell It has that cold quality.

— QC: I'm really glad you said that. I've always thought Guillermo is smarter than me, because he can see characters where I see myself. I mean, I see myself anxious and ingratiating myself, going off to Barcelona to look for who knows what, and Guillermo can imagine the character, step back, and have a laugh, because it's true they do laugh a bit at poor Teresa. I always think that ability to stand up two meters away and look at it like a bird is like an exercise in abstraction...

— Ll.V.: I don't really like this. It's like reading Tolstoy and then Dostoevsky. With Dostoevsky you actually feel something, whereas Tolstoy is just cold and sinister the whole time.

— QC:Red and blackRather.

— Ll.V.: Read Resurrection by Tolstoy, and you couldn't quite empathize or connect with it, because it was mostly from the vantage point of knowledge: I, from my desk, am thinking about that character who, poor thing, doesn't know that life takes you through rocky terrain...

— AG: But hey, Tolstoy writes very well, so you just have to swallow it.

— Ll.V.: But less so.

— AG: But with certain Dostoevsky you'll also be like that, as if saying...

— QC: I suppose it's a matter of the narrator's voice, isn't it?

— Ll.V.: Yes, it's cruel to the character you're talking about, because you're putting yourself in a very impersonal situation.

— QC: This is what you and I were talking about, the author's compassion for the characters. And I was thinking more of Stendhal than Tolstoy, because Tolstoy seems a bit of a middle ground to me, but Stendhal has the quote at the beginning of a chapter ofRed and black who says: "The novel is just a mirror by the roadside." He sees himself as a chronicler of the truth, but in reality, he caricatures it.

— Ll.V.: He's a cynic.

It's true, Quim, that your characters are easy to empathize with, at least from a male perspective. I don't know if it's so easy from a female perspective.

— QC: I wish it weren't difficult, but it's possible. It's not the first time I've thought about it. Anyway, in a world so made by men and so designed by and for men, it's likely this isn't something unique to Ludwig Band. The other day we were looking up the list of the 100 best films of all time, and we were on number 23, and they were all stories of men talking about men. And I suppose Ludwig Band isn't exempt from that. Well, of course it isn't.

You guys, who are a great live band, what bands have you seen live lately that you've liked?

— PE: I really enjoyed Dan Peralbo's concert in Camprodon. Besides, I'd never heard of him before.

— QC: It was very good.

— PE: And Gavina's.mp3 at La Nau.

— QC: Gavina's.mp3 was also very good. You liked it a lot. Leiva.

— PE: Yes, it was very good. It was just that it was very far away, but it was a great show.

— QC: I really enjoyed Mar Pujol in Cal Suís. I absolutely loved her because she does a fantastic job.

— Ll.V.: I really like two that look a bit alike. Ypnosis And Ruinosa and Rahola's Strippers, who are really cool live. And I also really like Amaia's live performances. We saw her at Festival B and I loved her.

— RC: They also played Women at that festival.

— QC: Women is THE LIVE STREAM.

— RC: Women is pretty amazing. And one that I really liked, even though I didn't think I would, was Cala Vento.

We were able to conduct an interview without talking about Bob Dylan, although he's not invisible on an album that thematically resembles Blood on the tracks.

— QC: It could be the Blood on the tracksBut the album by 30 Adele's is superb.