Els Amics de les Arts: "How do you sing on a song after Roger Mas?"

BarcelonaThe Friends of the Arts have chosen Casa Batlló to address the press. "It's a Catalan heritage site, but it's hard to see Catalan people. Sometimes we struggle to appreciate our heritage," says Ferran Piqué, one of the three members of the group, along with Dani Alegret and Joan Enric Barceló. 20 years of Friends (Pistatxo Records, 2025), an album in which they combine their own songbook with around twenty collaborations with bands and artists as diverse as Tomeu Penya, The Tyets, Lluís Gavaldà, Judit Neddermann and Roger Mas. The celebration also includes four special concerts: on June 25 at the Poble Espanyol in Barcelona (sold out), on August 30 at Sueca, on September 19 at the Trui Teatre in Palma and on October 10 at the Sala Prat del Roure in Escaldes Engordany (Andorra).

How long have you been preparing this album?

— Joan Enric Barceló: Technically, twenty years, but... Look, I'll look for the email we sent to Sergio Dalma, who was the first person we thought had to be on the album.

— Dani Alegret: While you're searching, let me say that when we came up with the idea, it seemed like a lot of fun. 20 years, 20 songs, 20 artists. We weren't aware of the level of production this would require. And not just because of rearranging most of the songs, which is a musician's job and we're used to doing it, but because you have to juggle the artists' schedules.

— JEB: The email was sent on April 16, 2024, at 4:46 PM. At 4:58 PM, Sergio Dalma said: "Thank you so much for thinking of me. Of course, I'm very excited, there won't be any problem." That's when the possibility of making the album began to take shape.

What collaboration has pushed you the hardest?

— JEB: Vocally, surely the collaboration with Flawas Fig to CarnivalThese people, when we released the album Species to be catalogued (2012), they had to be twelve years old, and they chose Carnival because they told us that at the time that song blew their minds. Once we got going, they wanted to do it in the style of a lying down run, as they had done in their song AuroraAnd they'd tell us, "You have to sing that like that, more raspy." And I remember going into the studio and thinking, "I don't know if we'll be able to do that, because our style is much more melodic, much more than not having to fake our voice..."

— DA: There have been many demanding moments. For example: with Roger Mas in I told you. How do you sing on a song after Roger?

— Ferran Piqué: Or Sergio Dalma.

— DA: How do you sing and not look ridiculous?

Did Roger change his tone?

— DA: We suggested it to him, but he said he could play the melody an octave lower or an octave higher. And the magic of this song is that we have him play the octave lower at the beginning and then the octave higher at the end, all in the same melody. Few people can do that.

— FP: He has a voice with a lot of personality.

— DA: It was also a challenge to get into the jazz universe of Alba Careta in Déjà vu without being out of tune, and I think we have also known how to put ourselves in.

By the way, Andrea Motis has been doing covers for a long time. Louisiana or the cotton fields, but on the disk it does The man who works as a dog.

— FP: It's just that we didn't choose the songs. When we called her, she was the one who said she wanted to do it. The man who works as a dog. Santi Balmes, for example, explained to us that it was his daughter who told him what he had to do His big hit. Or Fig Flawas, they wanted to make Carnival at any cost.

— DA: And we have had lovely surprises, like Sidonie telling you that they made a version of Jean-Luc in the rehearsal room. Or Artur from La Fúmiga, who asked us Thank goodness you're here., a song from the latest album.

— JEB: The nicest thing about Artur is that he told us he was already going to Amigos' gigs back in 2009, when four people attended the concerts in Valencia, even though it was in an industrial estate at late hours of the night...

Cala Vento made a version of Peace, from the Pets, which was more of a continuation of the same character's spoken word song, but twenty years later. There aren't such radical updates on his album, but there are details that change some songs, like in His big hit, in which the gender changes.

— FP: This is something we started doing at concerts because, in the end, we're just three guys singing, and it seems like the protagonists of the songs always have to be men. When people sing the songs, they imagine themselves, and there are also many women who sing our songs. And in this one, you can sing either "we've come to steal your women" or "we've come to steal your men," because it doesn't matter. Santi himself told us that he found it more fun to sing "we've come to steal your men."

It is also a song that Santi Balmes can feel very much his own, for everything haterism that she has had to manage with Love of Lesbian.

— DA: Yes, we chatted about that for a while.

Do you remember what music you listened to twenty years ago?

— FP: Coldplay...

— JEB: Coldplay, Pulp, Hefner, Pavement, Blur, Oasis...

— DA: The bad news is this: I think Dani listened to a lot of foreign music twenty years ago...

— FP: But also Mishima, Antònia Font...

— JEB: You know which is the most random of our history? At a concert in Sant Boi de Llobregat, at the Altaveu Festival, the lineup was: Txarango, Darren Hayman from Hefner, and us. Hefner albums like The Fidelity Wars (1999) and We love the city (2000) I used to listen to them a lot. I learned how to write a lot of lyrics by reading this kind of British song.

The story that explains his songs as Everyone separates It's very Hefner...

— JEB: Yes, how The anthem for cigarettes. Everyone separates It's an absolute drama because it's trying to sell a separation as something that brings many positive things, but I think the message is that ambivalence that you look for with pop music. Look, there's a phrase from Hefner [in the song The greedy ugly people] who says that music can't stop wars, nor can it stop cancer, but it can stop the heart." And that's what we try to do: stop people's hearts for a moment with some emotion.

And Tomeu Penya sings Everyone separates in a way that takes the edge off it all.

— FP: His character fits perfectly. When we were thinking about him, we did propose this song to him, and when he received it, he said, "I love it. It's so fun, I want to play." He has a character, but he's very professional. He called us to a studio in Manacor...

— JEB: And before eating I was done.

— DA: And everything he has done for the language in these forty years is impressive.

And what music does Spotify tell you you listen to the most today?

— JEB: It gets mixed up with my children's bills, so I share the bill with them.

— FP: If I take out my children's shows, this past year I think it was Tom Odell (who's coming to Apolo on June 11), Vampire Weekend, Bon Iver...

— JEB: I just opened it and it says: "Eladio Carrión and Mike Towers. Music for you!" I've never heard Eladio Carrión and Mike Towers in my life...

— DA: I have Valeria Castro, whom I recently discovered, and I went to her concert at the Fòrum and really liked her. I also have Ca7riel and Paco Amorosso, who I really liked. I mean, they have a band that sounds amazing. I don't quite understand a lot of things, but there's something that caught my attention. I've also been listening a lot to Blur's latest album, which is a really good one. And, of course, things like Frozen...

— JEB: In mine wrapped Sam Cooke always comes out on Spotify. He's a musician I listen to a lot.

— DA: The time is coming for me to set up separate accounts, because my oldest daughter consumes a lot of music, and the algorithm must be freaking out.