The Camellos gang returns to the stage after having to start "from scratch" with the pandemic



A cloudy sky devastated Madrid this Saturday, marking the beginning of the winter season. However, inside the MEEU building, an urban space for culture in Chamartín, there was a shower of numerous colored lights, vintage fabrics and chocolates. The place has hosted a Slow Edition-themed design market, in which rock groups Camellos, Judeline and Mueveloreina have performed.

Camellos is not a rock band to use. Its character and its lyrics exude a “softened” punk from the 80s that is dressed with touches of music. rock garage, pop and even indie. As Fernando Naval, one of his vocalists and guitar, explained to elDiario, the simile that links them with punk music comes directly from his admiration for this genre.

The words madness, chaos and "absurd", according to Naval, characterize the way of being of this band garage emerging, which has not only managed to fill the event's capacity Slow Edition of this Saturday, but has managed to make his fans vibrate again. "During the pandemic we have delayed many concerts or we have returned to half gas, with the audience seated. It is what he played, but the frustration of the people was noticeable from the stage, who wanted to dance and could not."

The lively, but critical, lyrics of Camellos have danced this Saturday with their followers, who according to Naval, are the ones who truly "generate the party" of their concerts. "We really enjoy the live shows and it's thanks to the audience, the lyrics reach them, motivate them and that makes for such a fun atmosphere. People live it," explained the young artist.

His shameless songs are full of social criticism with a "dark and difficult" world that, for Naval, is not being fair to young people. "They have placed on us a responsibility that does not correspond to us. They have given us the idea that he who makes an effort triumphs and it is not true." This music lover criticizes the culture of meritocracy and assures: "We are facing a situation in which some few are lucky, but most of us are not, and that generates a lot of frustration. "

For Camellos the pandemic has been "a jug of cold water", since the paralysis of all actions came just as they began to take off. "We were in a very sweet moment in which we were going to give around 45 concerts between January and September, and instead there were six or seven." Naval laments: "With the pandemic, we went from touching professionalism with our fingers to make it all zero. "

Naval remembers with laughter that time a song of his came to be played on the television program La roulette de la fortuna. "It was my grandmother who tipped me off and I thought it was incredible. I felt like I was reaching a larger audience."

This Saturday Camels have once again made their Rice with things, one of the songs most valued and known by the public, according to the artist. "We like all our songs, but it is true that my favorites, for example, are not always the ones that people who follow us prefer. For me Temptations it is untouchable, and yet sometimes I notice that the public doesn't particularly know it ”.

For Naval creating a song "has some magic" and it is a process that they normally live collectively. "Someone proposes an idea they want to talk about and we go from there to spinning." The vocalist remembers with special affection how it was the arrival to the world of Temptations, a song from the album "Calle para siempre", which was born to Naval from an impulse. "I composed it with the piano and suddenly I saw that it was already there, so round and complete in a moment. When a song comes out quickly it is something very special," he explains.

The artist has been on stage since he was six years old, when he began to study music at the conservatory, however, a performance with Camellos in Cerdanyola del Vallés, in Catalonia, marked a before and after in his life. “For me it was a dream to play a concert and for people to know the lyrics. When I experienced it for the first time, it was such a strange sensation, I was attacked and I was like in shock, but with happiness ”, the artist narrates.

Camels, has premiered at the concert this Saturday, SSounds good the second song on the album that they will present in March of next year and with which they intend to once again gain a foothold in the music scene. "Sometimes they compare us with Carolina Durante, but that is still a long way from us. They filled the Palacio de los Deportes and hopefully we will have that level of public," says Naval.

Nadal, although he does not want to be negative with the current situation that Camellos is going through, confesses that he does not foresee that for another year they will be "at the level they were before". "I think that since almost all the artists have been without performing for practically two years, now that we can there is a mass of beastly concert offerings. In Granada, for example, there are practically two festivals a week" and he adds: "There are not so many people for all the concerts that are having ".

The pandemic slowed the growth of a gang that uses its "controlled chaos" to excite audiences. However, now, finishing their last tour, even if it is "at half throttle", its members do not foresee a future for them that is not related to the group. "The album we're going to release is the best we've done so far."

For Camels, living from music is still a dream to achieve and that they hope to achieve. "Right now each one of us has a job, but we can't afford to live off music, especially after COVID. In cultural jobs like music, if you don't act, you don't get paid, and we've been unemployed for a long time."

The band, formed by Frankie Ríos and Fernando Naval, as guitarists and vocalists, bassist Tommy Dewolfe and drummer Jorge Betrán, is based in Madrid, despite the fact that none of its members were born in the capital. "Only Frankie considers himself a 'madraca' because he grew up here, but they would have to validate his Madrid nationality now," Naval explains with a laugh.

The vocalist defines the capital as the "most welcoming" city he has ever known and explains why they dedicated the song 'Mazo' to him: "In Madrid you don't know anyone, but you go to a nightclub and they welcome you, in other places you they look like a freak. 'Mazo' is not a dedication to use because we talk about what we like and what we don't, but we wanted to pay our little tribute to it ". For the singer. "Madrid has the good, but it also has an impressive traffic jam to go to work, and these two facets cannot be separated."

.



Source link