Dan Peralbo: "The songs on this album are composed from euphoria and joy"

BarcelonaThere is an encouraging impetus on the new album by Dan Peralbo and el Comboi. Obviously, the name makes the thing, and the title Quin goig (Montgrí, 2026) already predisposes to joy, and the suspicion is confirmed as soon as some melodic rock songs play that continue the good news from the album of two years ago. They will share the joy with the public on a tour that begins this Friday, May 1, on the stairs of the Girona cathedral (7:30 PM), as part of the Strenes Festival. Dan Peralbo (Torelló, 1998), singer and guitarist of the group completed by Albert Rams, Pol Piti Villegas and Aleix Jimmy Vilarrasa, talks about all of this, and also about a dark memory.

What would you say is the prevailing mood in the songs?

— They are always composed from euphoria and joy. I think I have almost never composed from sadness. I know there's the cliché that artists create when they're feeling bad or when they have a breakup, but I always compose when cool things have happened to me, and many cool things have happened to me these years. There have been many changes in my life, like returning to Torelló, getting a new apartment, changes in relationships... We are in a very good moment. It's also complicated to talk about happiness and euphoria, but we are content.

Mazzini demanded euphoria.

— Talking about happiness is something very big, but I've been very happy for a while now, and it shows in the music. We've released a cheerful album.

However, not all lyrics speak of euphoria, there are also A ticket for you and The world tour, which are not exactly cheerful.

— They are not, but at the same time they speak of a joy, especially A ticket for you, which can be about a relationship that is ending, both of love and friendship. The trip around the world is indeed harder, and it shows in the lyrics: I want to make it public, and that's why I made the song. It talks about a child molester from Osona, Artús Roca, of whom I was one more victim. I had been thinking about it for many years. This guy has done a lot of harm, and I wanted to talk about it also because it would have been very helpful for me to have a role model, because I didn't understand anything that had happened until I was 22 years old.

In what area did the abuses occur?

— They were children in music classes. And then he reoffended in Zaragoza [he was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl]. With Joan Reig, for example, I've had conversations.

I was just thinking about Joan Reig, who explained the abuses he had suffered in the song Corvus by Els Pets.

— Joan has helped me a lot, also to make public what happened and to be sure whether I wanted to do it or not, because it is a very delicate subject. And if I can help someone else and they can call me, that's fine. The fucked up thing about child abuse, in my case it was abuse, but there were also rapes, is that you don't really know what happened to you. And it all remains a kind of game, because he was a very intelligent, gifted guy. Until you realize that something is not working in your life. I spent two years in therapy...

¿In live, how will you relate to this song? I don't know if you give a speech before singing La vuelta al mundo?

— No, no. Besides, the song has a very playful point. It has this point of Blur's "uh, uh, uh". I'm so good right now and so happy with my sex and being who I am and understanding myself well...

From the previous album, what would you want to preserve?

— We repeat the production with Cala Vento and the mixing with Joel Condal. We wanted to show that the other album was not a coincidence. Those songs and that attitude were as they were because we did it on purpose. And the new album, which follows the thread a bit and sounds like we want to be right now.

The album Qué gozo speaks a lot about the four of you as a group and as friends.

— Yes, I'll get A ticket for you and The trip around the world, the rest are songs of love and friendship. After all, I've been playing with Piti and Jimmy since I was 12 years old. They are my best friends.

Can you explain to me how Jimmy's medical evolution went, who had to play many concerts playing the drums with one hand?

— It was spectacular! He is fine now, but it was all very complicated because they didn't do the operation well and he had to go back into the operating room. It has dragged on for a year and a half.

What did he/she have in his/her hand?

— A very rare illness that affected the lunate bone of his wrist. They put in a prosthesis, but they placed it incorrectly and had to operate on him again. A year and a half playing with one hand. That's why the album has been delayed a few months, but he's been able to record it with both hands. And they dedicate a song to him. Jimmy's the only one. Besides being a star on the drums, and playing with one hand, and doing whatever you want, he's very energetic. We were on the subway one day, the four of us, and he was telling us the story of the night before, the typical night that ended up at so-and-so's house, at the other guy's house... Also, he speaks so loudly... So, suddenly an elderly man, about 80 years old, gets up, gives Jimmy two pats on the shoulder and says: "When I grow up, I want to be like you". [Applauds]

You had the verse for the song. You say it happened on the subway, in Barcelona. When did you return to Torelló?

— I've returned to Torelló, I have an apartment with my cousin and I work a few days in an artisanal coffee shop, but the rest of the week I'm in Barcelona. And what happens? Where do I sleep? We have rented a rehearsal space, and right there they have rented us a room that was empty for 100 euros. We've put two beds to sleep in, Jimmy and I. But we don't have a sink, or a shower, or a kitchen...

And how do you do it to...

— We have a gym next door, a gym that is quite funny, because it's one of those typical gimbros places, where there are only people doing bodyweight exercises. Jimmy and I went in, as scrawny as we are, we tried to pick up a weight to pretend a little, we showered and went to the bar. I think when they see us enter together they must say: what are they doing here?

Could you have a more pop side to this album?

— We don't think about it much. Yes, they have told us that there is some song that is clearly more pop, like Els amics and Ai, ai, quin goig que fas.

Or Penguins, what does this thing have more from Petit de Cal Eril?

— Yes, but we haven't overthought it either. It's cool to let it flow. We did a concert at Sala Vol, for the people buying the records, in a small group, and the conclusion was cool, because I thought we had made a more pop album and the live performance remained the same.

Pop I don't mean it in a bad way... I think of The Kinks, for example, pop with guitars...

— When talking about the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, I think The Kinks should be added, who have these crazier melodies. If I were to draw from somewhere, it would be more from The Kinks than from The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. The Beatles are unreachable, the Rolling Stones are attitude, but there are fun melodies from The Kinks or Blur that are very present in my universe.

A band that is often associated with you is The Libertines, Pete Doherty's band.

— They have often compared me because I had idealized him a lot, Pete Doherty. He was very handsome... I wanted to be Pete Doherty and dress like him. But well, nothing beyond the typical idol you have when you are little. I wouldn't like to end up like him, either. Now he is fat like a...

You are a band that many musicians speak highly of.

— I don't know. We get along well with people because I think we've never had many pretensions. I remember that with the previous album, Cala Vento told us we had to do an Apollo. We were already fine doing a Heliogábal with our friends... And we did an Apollo. But it's a bit about this point of apathy, which is very important in music. Apathy doesn't mean we don't like what we do or that we don't care, but rather trying not to understand it too much, because if you understand it, I suppose you would give up, because there are many things that aren't cool. For example, right now, the album has just come out and it's shit because I have a heavy distrustheavy.

Yes?

— Yes, I'm scared. I act very nonchalant, but I'm scared, because you don't know how something will turn out. And now I've felt a little more pressure than ever.

Why do you dedicate a song to penguins?

— The song talks about the moral superiority that humans have, about seeing a penguin and laughing at it. I know it's very funny, but if you think about it, maybe you realize that it's the best swimmer in the world. It's a conversation between a human and a penguin, and on top of that, the human ends up convincing the penguin, and the penguin ends up going to Evolution Human Resources to ask if they can make some changes for him. How can humans be so disgusting, thinking we are above everything? Leave it alone, it's a penguin, it has to walk however it wants!

This duality you have of living between Barcelona and Torelló...

— I will go crazy.

Do you think it is reflected in your music?

— Yes, sure, because I really like peace, the mountain, getting lost in it. Many ideas come to me in Barcelona, with this frantic rhythm, which I absorb in the city, but when I return to Torelló, I go for a run, I go to the forest and there everything falls into place... I'm thinking about what you said, that it's more pop...

For example, Que pasen las horas, which is a rock song very much in the style of The Strokes, precisely because of that it has this more pop point, especially in the chorus.

— This chorus is very thought out. If we were simple..., the chorus is classic rock, but we've given it this twist. Like Real Estate, who could be punk.

Yes, but the hardcore fans considered them too pop, Real Estate.

— Exactly. And we did this exercise of stripping down and leaving the guitars in their place sharper, thinner, without so much distortion. And I think it's really cool. The chorus of "Que pasen las horas" is one of my favorites. The stripping down makes it more pop, but at the same time it continues to be very rock and live it works like a charm.

It's like Jimmy's song, Jimmy is the only one, which is pop if we consider that The Ramones were pop.

— Carolina Durante is pop. And Jimmy is the only one would be more similar to Carolina Durante. It's a pop like a village song. Everything sounds good, in its place. There's no pretension of being very indie.