Roko Banana: "We understand music as an emotion, not as a business"

GironaAlthough Latin rhythms and urban aesthetics have long dominated the bulk of the music scene, the passion for rock'n'roll and the distortion of electric guitars, even if it is a minority, remains alive among new generations of artists from our country. In Catalonia, one of the most alternative and stimulating groups of this genre is Roko Banana, a trio from Banyoles formed by Mak Dzinovic (guitar and vocals), Àlex Abad (drums and vocals) and Edu Rodríguez (bass and vocals), who have just released their third album, Gran Muralla (Aloud Music). It is a highly ambitious album, somewhere between progressive rock and indie, with nine intense, combative and exciting tracks that speak of friendship and offer a fervent critique of the individualism that governs the rules of the capitalist system. The live premiere will be on April 2nd at the La Nau venue in Barcelona.

Roko Banana's foundational style is electric math rock, an experimental and independent genre born in the eighties in the United States and Japan that seeks to break, through mathematical analyses, with the traditional norms of pop songs, based on squared structures, predictable chord progressions and always the same verse, chorus, and bridge schemes. The Banyoles trio deliberately seeks to go against the current of this canon, so that, in their songs, nothing is obvious or expected. The lyrics and melodies are not created to please the general public or to seek climax with the easiest resources, but at the same time, they captivate with their genuine and surprising tone.

"We have always wanted to differentiate ourselves from what most people listen to, especially metrically and structurally. We play rock, but it's not designed to be easily digestible by ear," explains the singer, Mak Dzinovic. He adds: "What people often like is what the industry decides to promote. We don't want to be part of that. We understand music as an emotion, not as a business. That's why we also shy away from the self–from lyrics about ego, about being cool– and we try to get out of this kind of social egocentrism with our music," Dzinovic concludes.

However, this determined militancy to create from the margins also has consequences. Especially professional ones, as the band, after almost ten years of trajectory, occupies a very small market niche; the numbers don't add up for them to make a living from it and, to produce the album with the desired quality, they have lost money. That said, always keeping their convictions intact.

Between Cala Vento and Remei de ca la Fresca, but with mathematics

Everything that surrounds Roko Banana responds to a clear and determined will to do things differently, but, as is logical, they also have influences and inspirations. Especially foreign ones, since, as bassist Edu Rodríguez acknowledges, "in Catalonia the tradition of the math rock style is almost nonexistent". Their references are the British Delta Sleep, the Swedish Masquerade or the French Lysistrata. But they also listen to Catalan groups like L'Hereu Escampa and have synergy with the new wave of artists who, although they don't start from this almost mathematical deconstruction of musical metrics, equally bet on guitar riffs and powerful drums: groups and artists like Cala Vento, Dan Peralbo, Ypnosi and Remei de Ca la Fresca. With the latter, they maintain a very close relationship and, in fact, collaborate "shoulder to shoulder" on the track Esport, which proclaims to the four winds that "this is not dance music, it's protest music".

Sincere praise of friendship

In addition to the collaboration with Remei de Ca la Fresca, the album features standout tracks such as the punk-infused ode Tu guerrer, jo mag, the progressive epic Les pedres or the instrumental introduction Tothom vol semblar genial i jo només vull estar amb els meus amics, which condenses the message of the title into a single, very expressive guitar melody, or the rapped rock against "l'escòria liberal" of Sona a perdre. In all these songs on the album, combining metaphor and literal discourse, more or less explicitly, Roko Banana praises the value of friendship and relationships with others on an equal footing, without personalism or hierarchy. It all comes together in the title, Great Wall: "We saw that many themes were linked to concepts like walls, stone, barrier, refuge, house, shield... From there we looked for an image that would group it all together, and Great Wall seemed very powerful to us, despite the obvious reference to large Chinese kitchen buffets," concludes drummer Àlex Abad.