El Petit de Cal Eril: "Music is not going to fill the Palau Sant Jordi"

Life is better with new songs from El Petit de Cal Eril. Even more so when they are like those ofEril Eril Eril (BankRobber, 2025), the album with which the group led by Joan Pons (Guissona, 1981) returns to activity. More than two and a half years have passed since they went into hiatus, a time to gain distance and recover the desire to be happy with the band Pons (vocals and guitar), Jordi Matas (bass), Ildefons Alonso (drums) and Dani Comas (guitar) go on tour to give concerts inside an igloo.

— Making music. It's what I love most. I've had a blast making music. I'm having fun making music again, and I thought I couldn't do it anymore. The only thing that reaffirms my belief in doing it is when we play again and I see that it's worth it.

Has this break, so to speak, that you've taken really helped you reconnect with music? For example, playing on the tour Gorka Urbizu?

— Yes, it wasn't a break, but rather a pause from Eril, but I don't feel like I've rested. The mission we set ourselves was: let's try to stop Eril's machine, let each of us flourish in other corners, let us search, let us experiment; and after a while, if I come up with songs, we'll see what happens, if we feel up to it and have the energy to continue. And that's how it has been. It might not have worked out, but it has. In September, we set a schedule: rehearsals until January, and then we recorded the album. And it was in a very organic way, like the album itself, supernatural, raw, recorded while playing live.

Stopping the project also meant stopping the musicians' income,...

— Yes, this was a bit of a blow, but everyone understood. We made the decision a year in advance. The previous album had been out for a couple of months, and I'd already been mulling it over for days. And one day in Madrid, I said, "Guys, I have to release a song. We have to decide how far we'll go and take a break for a while." It was very liberating to share it with them and for everyone to see it through. So, we had a whole year to let people I trusted know. Everyone could visualize that it would end on September 11, 2022. Everyone had made their plans. The next day, I started a project myself, a soundtrack.

Very sensible, all.

— Yes, but it's the only way to survive. It's true that at times I felt this pressure of saying, "Well, do we have to do these shows because if we don't play and people can't make money, how will we live?" That's why we had this system of making albums so close together, because I knew that if we stopped the machinery, restarting it would be difficult because people have to make a living and play with others, and then maybe the band wouldn't be someone's first choice anymore.

In the movie A complete unknown, the scene in which Bob Dylan's character is seen happiest is when he sits at a table and plays with a blues musician, because he is doing exactly what he wants to do: playing, without any obligation.

— Sometimes I've spent far more time on management than on the music itself, and that's a disservice caused by the current industry. These are very difficult times for musicians. It's very difficult to make a living from music, practically impossible. You have to do so many things that you can't dedicate that much time to music.

The other day The Newspaper published a report about Barcelona's new options for attracting more music audiences. Promoters were asking for even larger venues...

— This is a reflection of society. The richest will get richer, the poorest will get poorer, and the middle class will disappear. It's very similar with music. Music isn't going to fill the Palau Sant Jordi. Not all bands should move large crowds. We've never wanted large crowds. We're not a band that caters to large audiences, but we shouldn't stop being important to the people who listen to us. In fact, most of the artists I like don't move large crowds.

And the experience as a spectator shouldn't always be that of a macro-concert, right?

— No, it's just that mega-concerts are worse. No one in the world can say that a mega-concert is better. The mega-concert is a current trend and it's crap, because it's very difficult to concentrate with so many people. I've been to the Palau Sant Jordi to see gigs, or to Primavera or Cruïlla, and well, you see a show but not a concert. Then you go to Sidecar, Heliogàbal, or Apolo and that's a real music concert. That's happening right there. The other one, well, it's almost televised.

Someone who takes care of your sound, in certain environments it is almost impossible to play because you can't sound good.

— For example.

By the way, congratulations on the sound of the album, which is incredibly good.

— Thank you. In this case, you have to congratulate the individuals who made it possible, like Luke Temple, the producer. For the first time, we've worked with an outside producer, and it was fantastic to have Luke help us with this experiment. He's a very fresh and insightful guy, not too cerebral. And Paco Loco, who did more of the engineering, gave it a very raw yet lively sound.

Listening to the new album, I thought about Flight and duel (2010). In fact, you start Eril Eril Eril with I am no longer who I was, a song that reminds me of the cemetery verses you sang in Ashes: "You are what we were, you will be what we are."

— I hadn't thought about this detail. Yes, I feel that this album is much more connected with Flight and duel and The figure of emptiness [2013] that with its predecessors, both You won't know how the story will end. [2021] as Dark energy [2019]. It's partly because of the way I've written the songs, and also because of an effort to escape the system we've had for the last two or three albums. We wanted to avoid some hidden flaws... And outside help has helped us stretch further. Flight and duel, which is an album that's 100% emotional. When it comes to writing songs, I've let myself be guided more by the bottom [pointing to his stomach and heart] and not so much by the top [head]. On the last few albums, there was a lot of brainpower and notebooking, a bit more pop in my head, something that has aged poorly since then. I mean: I listen to them and they're fine, I like them, but they don't move me. Now I've reconnected with a way of experiencing music that moves me deeply.

You defend it very well.

— I reflect on all this now, when someone asks me, I didn't think about it before. But you're not the first person they tell me they've connected with. Flight and duel and The figure of emptinessIt's like going back to the beginning, but at the same time there's something from Eril's entire range.

We make connections because we love it... For example, Fear and oblivion It's a song that could be on a record right now. Xarim Aresté.

— Wow, I'd love to hear that. It's my favorite song on the album right now, since it's playing right now as we're playing it. Xarim has this thing about extreme dynamics, and this song has a lot of dynamics. Playing with the connections... Xarim, when we met, confessed to me that he was a huge fan of... Flight and duelHe told me that record had changed his life.

AND Dark water, despite many of the words that are repeated, is a lot of Ferran Palau.

— Me Dark water It connects me a lot with Like a lead, of The figure of emptinessThey're sister songs, because they're the kind that tell a long story, and I can't think of very many of them. Something very strange happened to me, and that's why it has that title. the books of Blackwater, who are super handsome." I read them, and when I finished them and played the song, I made myself believe that I was talking about the same thing. That's why I titled it Dark water, to also remember this connection, because it seems like he wrote the song after reading the books, and it was before. These coincidences happen often, so surprising you that it seems like you dreamed it.

Eril Eril Eril It sounds like the title of a record hardcore or metal.

— [Laughs] We'll be making metal T-shirts. We've made a 37-minute video for the entire album, starting with the first song and ending with the last. It's a music video made entirely of faces, with 300 faces looking at the camera, and it's called Just people. It was a possible album title, but that album didn't feel that conceptual. I had a whole list of names and ideas for a title, but nothing worked out. In the end, I looked at my computer and saw the folder where I started putting all the material for this album, and it said ERIL ERIL ERIL, in capital letters. I knew it had to be the title, because it's an album of 100% songs, and the folder seemed like a good cover for the songs. Besides, we always refer to the band as Eril, never as Petit, and it was a good idea to pay tribute to him.

Speaking of punk, All the laws of men It's the most punk on the album, right?

— Yes. And Neither king, nor god, nor country It has a certain quality the more Fugazi or Karate there are. These bands are there because I've listened to them a lot and because the songs are recorded live and are raw. There isn't much of a story: there are mics and you can turn one or the other up and make it sound this way or that way, but they're albums you can play. All the laws of men, When I brought it, they looked at me and said, "Wow, this has a tempo." And it's true that there are many songs that have much higher tempos. Now, for the live show, we're revisiting some songs from before, and the ones that fit us best are from Flight and duel and The figure of emptinessFor example, we're not getting any from the latest album.

It will be harder to fit them in.

— I don't know. Since there are no keyboards... We're playing songs we haven't played in maybe ten or twelve years, which is cool for us. And it's going to be great for the audience too.

What will you miss about this time that you haven't been on the front lines with Eril?

— I don't know. I'd like to think nothing, and that this break has helped me take Eril with a certain degree of relatability. I'd like to learn how to delegate more, learn to relax about certain things, and try to enjoy myself. It's a super-special album, I'm absolutely convinced, and we'll do a shorter tour. There are certain concerts we'll never do again. Each concert must be like a special event for me. And I want to learn to enjoy it and let other people, who are yet to do them, take care of certain aspects. Despite missing playing with Eril terribly, I've also been happy playing with Gorka, because playing is what connects me to music and to my artistic self.

What's your fondest music-related memory? And what's the one you'd like to forget?

— What a difficult question to ask on a scale. I'm a bit of a coward, and it's hard for me to choose these things. Perhaps one of the most mind-blowing things was the last concerts of the tour we did at the theater [the Teatro Ca l'Eril in Guissona]. They were very emotional. What was happening there between us, knowing it was the end for a while, and the crowd there, the heat, was incredibly tear-jerking, very moving. One of the most intense moments I've ever experienced on stage.

And what would you like to forget?

— The worst is a recurring dream I have: I dream that I arrive on stage and nothing's working. And it's happened to me many times. We're late, no one knows the songs, I don't remember the lyrics, the cables aren't working, the amps are down... This happens to me and it lasts a long time, and it's horrible. I've had it many times, and it's torture.

And is it related to having to give a concert the next day?

— Usually yes, but not always. I've talked to other musicians, and I'm not the only one who has that dream. I know it's not real, but it's something that bothers me and I'd like to forget.

I hope you never have it again from now on.

— I'm sure it will, I'm sure it will. Plus, with this tour we've put together, everything is so...

Is it all so complicated?

— Well, a little difficult because we're doing the tour inside an igloo and we'll have so many fronts open...

How many people will fit?

— 400 people. It's a gorgeous igloo. And everything will be fine. It'll be fantastic, but...

Marc Parrot put on some concerts in a yurt, which was smaller.

— I think it could fit 90 people, but the setup was more complicated. Our igloo is inflated with air; it has no frame. It's like a giant tent.

And the acoustics?

— It's fantastic. It sounds great. Plus, we brought our team from Igualada, which sounds amazing, and we've worked hard to make it a complete experience.

You're always associated with Guissona, because that's where you're from, but you've lived in Igualada for a long time. How do you think living in Igualada is reflected in your songs?

— Ah, a lot. There's the big issue of the accent, which is another of the issues that bothers me. It's diminished, and on each album it's more central. People don't know that the first album, which I made in Barcelona, ​​I recorded twice. On the first recording, I had a super Barcelona accent. I heard it and said, "What the hell is that?" And I re-recorded it, forcing the accent. The references I had were mainly from Barcelona, ​​like Mishima, or from more Eastern accents, like Antònia Font, but I don't know what happened to me. On the first albums, there's an effort to maintain the accent, and it's something I've been losing. I know there are a lot of people who dislike it, and I already know that, but it's something I do unconsciously. When I talk to my sisters and my mother, I do have a more pronounced accent, but usually people immediately say to me, "Are you from Guissona with that accent?" I've been losing it; it's diluted. I'm 43 years old, and I've only lived in Guissona for 17 years. I have a friend who's from Ponts, although he's never been there, and he has a stronger Lleida accent than I do. And I say to him, "But how can you do that?" And he doesn't know it, but it's stuck. Even his children speak more about Lleida than I do.

Xarim Aresté, who has lived in Flix again, would say that he has recovered his accent naturally.

— It's normal. I think if I lived in Guissona for twenty years now and made a record, it would definitely be noticeable again. Because I have the accent, cerebrally. The thing is, I don't practice it. It's something that really bothers me when I record and someone says, "Wow, this to". And I think: "It's just that I can't do anything." It would also be very false to record an album now with a very marked Lleida accent. Although I would like to. When I feel Renaldo and Clara I love it, I think it's beautiful. But I won't force it, because it wouldn't be me, either. I'm not who I was [laughs].

And who are you?

— Every second, a different person [laughs]. No, we're always the same, but doesn't that happen to you? Don't you have the feeling that you're changing, and that everything is changing, but at the same time, there's a feeling of stagnation, of being stuck in the same magma?