Jordi Casadesús i Joan Rial: "For something to survive in Vic, it has to be done very well."

BarcelonaChange of cycle at the Vic Live Music Market. The 37th edition, which will take place from September 17 to 21, is the first under the direction of Jordi Casadesús, Joan Rial, and Rubèn Pujol, two from Vic and one from Oristano, respectively. They take over from Marc Lloret and Oriol Roca, who directed the country's main music fair for fourteen years. The new era includes new stages and a program of seventy concerts by artists and groups such as Maria Arnal, Biznaga, Brighton 64, Fades, La Ludwig Band, Rocío Márquez, Mazoni, Mishima, Ouineta, 31 Hambre, and Triquell. Casadesús and Rial talk about legacy, the present, and the future.

What do you remember from your first Mercado de Música Viva, as spectators?

— Jordi Casadesús: I guess it was very small, and it would be a Lax'n'Busto concert, from the time of The box that goes up and down [1995]. But my most vivid memory is of the concert featuring Dusminguet, Fermin Muguruza, and Dr. Calypso in the Plaza Mayor in 2001.

— Joan Rial: The first memory... of going to see Els Pets with my parents.

And as professionals?

— JC: The first time we played with La Iaia in the Plaza Mayor, which was like a preview of The stripes on the swimsuit [2011]. We opened the plaza, and it was very special.

— JR: I started working in the sector at the Mercat, managing hotels. My first memory is one Monday or Tuesday, before I started, when some Brazilian and Argentinian women arrived. Marc and Oriol took them to dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Vic, and invited me to go... me, since I can't stand sushi.

What legacy have Marc Lloret and Oriol Roca left as directors of the Market?

— JC: The change in dates, boosting professional activity during the week and concentrating it on Atlantis, was a very important change. And, artistically, they made a strong commitment to premieres, so that the tour kicks off at the Mercat. They also worked on internationalization.

— JR: The solidity of the project. We've traveled quite a bit this year, and everyone knows the Mercat. Everyone knows what its fundamental pillars are, and this is thanks to the work they've done.

— JC: The legacy of the smile. When we say we're the directors of the Market, everyone greets us with that smile of recognition.

— JR: And few problems with the staff. This surprised me. I won't tell you that everyone speaks wonders; some people have understood each other better and others not so much, but when you start a project you often find corpses in the room. However, here Marc and Oriol's work and craftsmanship are highly respected, and everyone agrees that it's something serious, well done, and well-crafted. And for something to survive in Vic, it has to be done very well, because it's very difficult to do things outside of Barcelona. It's very rare that the Vic Live Music Market is still held in Vic.

Do the groups from the following summer's festivals and major festivals, or the groups from the city council's winter and spring programming, pass through the Market?

— JC: A little bit of everything. Usually, we always work long-term, for spring-summer.

— JR: Mazoni, for example, has the autumn and winter tour closed, and they come to the Market to look forward to the summer. But there are people who aren't at Mazoni's level, who come to look for the January and February concerts. I like to say that September is like a second New Year's Eve, which begins a year that ends on August 31st of the following year. And the Market is like the preparation for summer, which is the end.

— JC: But it's not about starting from scratch, but rather coming with work done. One change we've proposed this year is to work more on the context of each gig. We've opened a stage in the Church of Dolores to hold smaller concerts, for shows that can be scheduled as early as the fall, and another in the Cathedral Square, which will be more sugarcane grower, more open to next summer's festivals. Each group is worked on based on the venue they're playing on and the type of professionals who can attend.

Sometimes artists present formats that aren't what municipal programmers will later request. Or they propose something very ambitious that many programmers won't be able to afford.

— JR: We've gotten pretty serious about this issue. If you look at the bands playing at the Mercado, you'll see a price range. That is, if you're a programmer of a small program, the bands that play at the Church of Dolores or the small Atlántida venue will be good for you. If you go to the large venue, the scale is different. It's important to put each band in their place. For example, we don't put a punk band in an auditorium because they'll probably never play in an auditorium again. We want to break with the system of a stage as a showcase and allow bands to come in. We're interested in giving artists the stage they want and making the audience feel comfortable. Putting people in the right place gives the programmer as many clues as possible so they can do their job.

Rozalén explains that one of the worst musical memories The image he has is from the day he played at a professional market in Buenos Aires. He felt like he was constantly being judged. How do you help artists avoid that feeling at the market?

— JC: All three of us are musicians, and we're very aware of the pain involved when you're on stage and the context isn't yours. At the Mercat, we try to be careful with each artist's needs and talk with them to make sure they choose the best stage.

— JR: We would have scheduled the Maria Arnal in the theater, but talking to him management We decided to hold it in the Plaza Mayor to find the best setting for it. Our job is to ensure the project can express itself in the best possible way. It's a collaborative effort, but we have a responsibility as programmers. If something doesn't work, it can't always be someone else's fault. A concert without an audience is a poorly organized concert. It's very easy to shrug off responsibility and say it's the group's fault, that they don't provide enough audiences. But perhaps it's simply that they're not in the right place, or at the right time. We're aware that, of the more than seventy performances we program, there will be some that might not work.

I understand that the new stage in the Plaza de la Catedral, where punk-rock bands like Biznaga will play, is designed to generate these favorable contexts, right?

— JR: Yes. I won't tell you that we've opened a stage for Biznaga to shine, but we do find the Cathedral stage ideal for bands like Biznaga. This concert will be very important for us: if a programmer sees the plaza packed, everyone grooving to the band, it's impossible not to buy a concert.

And next year you can convince the Cala Vento so that they can play in the Cathedral Square.

— JRExactly. Maybe if they see Biznaga, it's Cala Vento who'll tell us, "We want to play in the Cathedral Square."

— JC: Jazz Cava was a good example. It's a unique space. I remember talking with Marc and Oriol, who sometimes struggled to fit in bands. This year, we've emphasized the jazz and club aspects, the electronic side. The capacity is small, and since jazz professionals aren't the majority, everyone will be accommodated.

And will there ever be black metal in the Church of Dolores?

— JC: We don't think so, because it wouldn't fit; not because black metal doesn't fit, but because the church of Els Dolors needs a relatively small, acoustic performance that fits the space's acoustics. The louder the performance, the less enjoyable it is for the audience. Scheduling a black metal concert would be doing the group a disservice. But it would be very nice in front of the Cathedral; not inside, but outside.

— JR: I'm really looking forward to seeing the concerts at the Church of Dolores. The number of small concert series in Catalonia has increased dramatically over the last five years. Plus, every town has a church. This is the only sure thing in Catalonia. So, it's about showing programmers that concerts can be held in a church, where there are offerings that shine brighter than those in Plaça de la Figuera at 6 p.m. in the heat.

Churches already frequently host early and chamber music, such as the Pyrenees Early Music Festival or the Schubertiad concerts, to name a few. But it's true that pop music has a harder time getting into the scene.

— JR: It's true. Sound reinforcement in a church isn't easy, but it works with pianists, singers, acoustics...

— JC: That's exactly it. At the Church of the Sorrows, we're bringing Bianca Steck, who will be performing in a format that includes a harpist. We'll also be featuring Óskar Gudjonsson and Magnús Jóhann, a piano and saxophone duo from Iceland, which can really shine in a church. And Edna Bravo, which is a very acoustic project.

— JR: Edna Bravo could tour sixty churches in Catalonia.

If nothing else, auditoriums, main squares, and churches are everywhere...

— JR: I like to think that the Mercat is also inspiring for programmers. This summer I've been very obsessed with the concept of the universal cafeteria: You can be in Australia having a coffee and feel at home because the wood is the same, there's IKEA everywhere, the cups are all from China, the coffee is from Brazil... Well, it would be nice if this didn't happen with concerts. It's about motivating programmers to do things in places that may not be easy but that give the artist a qualitative plus. As public programmers, it's a job we're obliged to do. Not having an auditorium in the town isn't a reason not to hold concerts. You have a church, you have a square, you have a charming place: you can give a concert.

— JC: There are concerts that are inspirational, in the sense that they might inspire a programmer to do something special in a particular corner of their town or city. In the artistic world, there are also concerts that don't have such a strict market focus; this year we have Jay-Jay Johanson and Okkervil River, who perhaps don't need to come to the Mercado de Música Viva to have a tour. But it can be inspiring to bring artists who already have a track record.

— JR: I suppose this is our legacy from being from Vic and having gone to the Mercat every year. The Market has fulfilled this role for us.

— JC: Earlier, when we talked about Marc and Oriol's legacy, we should add, "Putting Vic on the map." They really believed in him. And for us, who are from Vic, putting the city on the map is very interesting, because we've been able to see groups that might have had a hard time coming without the Mercat.

— JR: If the Mercat hadn't existed, I wouldn't have been a musician first, and then a professional musician later. And whether you like it or not, the fact that we can become artistic directors of the Mercat, even though all three of us are from Vic, is the Mercat's fault.

Are you worried or afraid of losing touch with current musical trends? That is, that the market doesn't reflect what's really happening in music right now?

— JR: No. In any case, the anxiety might be leaving people behind, people saying, "Where's the same old market?" We've forced ourselves to discard some changes until we come up with something coherent and consistent. But artistically, what people have highlighted most is that 60% of the poster doesn't know who they are.

— JC: They say this in a positive sense. It's very interesting for professionals and those eager to discover these new offerings.

— JR: It's also been fun because it's been like a pinch in the butt for many people. "I'm getting my act together because I don't like not knowing 50% of the people there."

One of the successes is to echo the new scene queer, that of projects like Ouineta, Fades, Svetlana...

— JR: We arrived late, because the speed of the cycle is incredible... We already talked about this scene in the project we presented in May of last year.

And don't turn your back on them, but instead schedule them on the Sucre stage.

— JR: We try to help them. We talk to them. managements of these groups and asked them what they needed from the sector. Because to come and do a showcase From the Ouineta to the big top... The goal was to change the size of the name on the poster, so that we understand each other, so that they can see themselves capable of being on a big stage and saying: there are 5,000 people here, and that they can raise fees, do better productions, become more professional... Because they are on that fine line between charging2. group. The goal is to make them believe that they can raise the level for next year or to make them keep their feet on the ground and say: "Gentlemen, it's not ready yet, because we've done this, we've all agreed that there would be 5,000 people here and they're not there; therefore, we have to do more work. Next year we will have."

What concert do you recommend?

— JC and JR: We can't say just one.

— JR: I'm really looking forward to seeing all these groups we're programming. They all have meaning and appeal. And there are, obviously, some that excite me immensely. For example, Maria Arnal's because it's very interesting that we can present the new project in Vic's Plaza Mayor, because one of the goals we set was to re-mythologize the plaza's stage. We remember it as the great stage of the Mercado de Música Viva, but not in size, but in grandeur. Playing in the Plaza Mayor was a huge deal for us. And we want to recover that spirit, with families coming to see the concerts and discovering artists of superlative quality. We find it very interesting to do Maria Arnal, The Ludwig Band, and 31 Hambre, because there was a bit of fear of filling the plaza and overflowing, because for the most crowded concerts there was already a Sucre. We've understood the Sucre as something more. underground, for the new Catalan and electronic scene, but we want the main attraction of the Mercat to be the square. I'm also excited about the concerts at the Church of Dolores, which are the gems. In fact, there are many gems at the Mercat this year. I have the feeling that anyone who digs a little deeper and goes beyond the big names will discover many gems.