The Géra group has calmly produced its first homonymous record. Inevitably, to say everything: Since they offered their first performance at the Porrontxo festivities in the neighborhood of Egia de San Sebastián in 2018, they have experienced all kinds of vicissitudes: firstly, four group changes, to the point of thinking that the group was cursed, some of which have left music forever after passing through the group, and, secondly, the restrictions of mobility caused by the pandemic, which has made it difficult to record More than three years, therefore, since they began to meet for the first time until they published their first work.

At present they are part of the group Markel Alonso – guitar and voice –, Denis Sima – low –, Iñigo Estonba – drums – and Fermin Mendazona – guitar – and the four of them are clear: swings until they are part of the group have directly influenced the songs. “The songs were made, but they have changed a lot throughout this process,” Alonso explains. They did not settle for the first sketch of the songs, kept them long in the refrigerator and, after the passage, they were able to distinguish more clearly the straw and the wheat. From time to time they have given the songs a definitive form, taking into account what the pieces themselves asked for: sometimes – for example, in Pareta for you – it seemed that the clean and repetitive structures maintained the song well, and gave them a loop character, but in most cases they have resorted to the fragmentation of the songs from the excessive homogeneity of wanting to flee. Also, as Alonso points out, to something like compressed progressivity: “We wanted to flee from the classical structures and put in one song very varied fragments, but without lengthening many songs, although some of them have lengthened us.” In any case, if there is a feeling of collage on the disk, they assure that it is something searched: “We like to receive different echoes within one song. But at the same time, we haven't stopped until the songs are complete. Above all, we have sought circularity.” For the song to be round they have actually erased “very good parts”, according to Mendazona: “I remember that at first we heard a lot from the Pelax group. When we did the songs, we used to look for as much complexity as possible, and we came up with pieces that were very difficult to play, and at the same time they made us pass very well, because they were a great challenge. But then we listened and thought: it's garbage. They didn't convey the essentials." They have therefore often resorted to simplifying initial complexity, as Estonba points out: “I remember a transition, which, despite its complexity, did not convince us at all; we turned around and gave ourselves until we realized that with the three blows it was enough.” For Mendazone it is very important to distinguish two moments from the creative process: the moment when the group is creating something and a time after hearing from a distance. “When you’re playing, you can think that the song transmits something to you because of the effect that the realization itself produces. In subsequent hearing, on the contrary, it is much more clearly distinguished whether emotion is authentic or the simple effect of realization.”

Discuss up to boredom

All the decisions between the four have been taken throughout the process. “The majority word is not worth it as such, if it is not well argued,” they say. The only formula used is to argue until boredom. “We speak as much as we rehearse. In the local essay, in Astigarraga, we are known as ‘absent’. There are people who think we don't rehearse. And, well, we've ever gone to the local and we've stayed talking outside." The lyrics of the songs have also been created in this way. In most cases, the instrumental part has been performed first and then the letters have been formed according to what is suggested to them. In a couple of cases it has been a joint process. “Someone of us saw a film, or read a book or article, and it seemed to him since the blow that we had to make a letter about it,” they said of laughter. Alonso, for example, insisted on the ties between Euskera and Japanese, and after reading an article from Elhuyar, they created the words of two songs from the album, Kuroi tori (the black bird) and Shiroi tori (the white bird). The name of the group also has a similar origin: It means “small person who laughs” in Japanese. Mitik Berant has also pointed out, a more prosaically created letter, that pays tribute to all those who, although always late, always get everything right, naming the superhero trace.

The recording in Bera may seem casual, but the echoes that the album brings fall into the sound mold that has been made in the area in recent decades. Asked for by references, they have come out in a fast boat, in addition to Pelax, Borroka and Dut, and each of the team members contributes: For example, Sima has quoted Queens of the Stone Age and Kurt Vile Estonba, highlighting the contrast within the group. On the contrary, Mendazona considers that it is difficult to identify the album with concrete references and that, indirectly, it includes echoes from all classes of his musical career. “We’ve all been in the music world for years, and although it’s the group’s first work, the album has a mature point.” They say they didn't want to do anything disruptive. “We wanted to show a sample of what we hear, no more. If we wanted to get something, we wanted to stay comfortable with what we have done ourselves.” In this sense, they are comfortable in guitarr-low-battery format: “We didn’t want to enter by synthesizers and the like. We have tried to work the voices and, above all, we have put strength in the composition.”

As a fetish, they decide to take the album in physical format, designed by Jone Laspiur. In passing, it will help them to meet basic costs. The recording, for example, has gone a bit long in the end, even though they are “thrilled” with the process. The album has been recorded as a direct, as explained by Sima: “As we all made the creative process together on the premises, it didn’t make much sense to record the album by tracks.” They've been looking for the drive and the drive to be in the same tone, because they know that they're going to be able to defend the sound of the drive live. “It happens to all of us that we are going to see on the album a group that has a tremendous sound and deknow ourselves live. We don’t want to be that.” The recording leaves them unbeatable memories. “The process has lengthened a lot, but working with Maikel (Aitor García) is a pleasure: look at all the details, listen carefully and it is very easy to reach an agreement with him. He's an amazing artist."

The Community is becoming ever smaller.

Géracos feel part of a culture that includes music and collectivity, but they are aware that these values are becoming weaker: “There has been a scenic transition and ours is shrinking. More and more, a single person does everything in their house, cook oneself and eat oneself.” On the one hand, they consider it to be a consequence of new technologies, since today very dignified production is in anyone's hands, but, above all, it has been related to a broader social individualization process: “It’s not within anyone’s grasp of all the expenses a music group has: local, amplifiers, instrument arrangements… The first scene was much more youthful and you had the opportunity to give concerts with some ease, or by talking to the neighborhood community you got a local essay. But they've thrown a bunch of cheesemakers, and today, either you deserve it economically, or you don't deserve it: people want to produce by spending as little as possible, thinking about a possible success. We lose money with the group, but we understand that a sixteen-year-old may not be able to cope with that investment.” The change of scene is not a purely aesthetic issue, but they believe that it must be understood in a process of precariousness.

They also perceive that a format shift is taking place in the music industry: “It seems that just playing music in the music world is not enough. Besides being a musician, you have to be a video producer, because what is sold is not only a song, but an audiovisual in which the song has a special importance, but not only that”. This expansion has also moved on to the direct ones, although it does not seem to them to be a new issue. “A concert has always been more than music. Where is its limit? It’s hard to say, but it’s not a new phenomenon, it’s happening at least since the time of Video Killed the Radio Star.” They, however, just want to make music. “If we liked the camcorder we wouldn’t have trouble entering that world, but we don’t like it.”

The four members of the group have offered only a couple of concerts, one at the house of some friends and the other at the Gaztetxe de Alegia, three years ago. After the configuration of their works on social networks, the four are eager to offer new concerts and to make new songs. “Now everything is going to be different, because the four together we are going to make new songs from the beginning.” And they add by laughing: “We are sure that the second album will be very interesting to us.”