Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

"This disc contains an implicit message of deceleration, starting from the surface"

  • Urbizu tells us the good news. Berri Txarrak leaves lethargy and four years later publishes her first solo job: A beginning. Ten naked songs to ask ourselves what we've spent our lives on, how in this world we live too fast and obsessed with vision or how we've become accustomed to seeing a red spot on the sea. “Things are not like that, things are like that and it’s not the same, my friend.” And we've been opened by a Janela (the window) to tell us how my mother has asked her to put two dishes in the room today or how sometimes we write I love you, because we are scared by one of my loved ones.
Argazkia: Dani Blanco / ARGIA CC BY-SA
Argazkia: Dani Blanco / ARGIA CC BY-SA
Gorka Urbizu Ruiz. Lekunberri, 1977

He learned to play piano and hand sound at Larraun Aralar Music School. In the church of the town he played the organ and along with his sister presented their own songs in various editions of the Navarro Children's Singing Championship. At the age of 14, he started as a keynote in the Nahita group and in 1994 he created the Berri Txarrak group. 25 years, nine albums and more than a thousand concerts that culminated Berri’s journey “to the eye”, three months before the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown. It has been part of the Peiremans and Katamalo projects and has made many contributions. He has recently been a producer of La M.O.D.A. And in Ventótica with groups.

Many say that his album has been a nice surprise to illuminate the black moon…
Yes, it is having very good reception. I wanted to keep it secret until the last moment, and once it was published, I wanted the entire album available to all people.

Now the opposite is common and great expectations arise about new songs. What is sold is illusion?
That's the key. Now many times, more than having pulled the record out, many people highlight how it has been made and published. This gives a lot to think about. I believe that with that hype or with that expectation that is created is sending the song to the rear lines, somehow. It seems that what matters is the strategy and the way to sell, and that is what the emphasis is on. Sometimes algorithms and social media demand it from us, create content and build visions, but in the end, the theme is singing. I am very heavy, but it seems that is something we have to remember every time.

Are these songs the result of a long process of distillation?
Yes, it is. It's been four years since Berri's last concert and almost seven of my last recording, but I feel that this record hasn't been the result of the last few years, but the whole journey has been necessary to get here and be able to take this raw, naked album. In the years after Berri's 25-year-old whirlwind I've seen a lot of concerts, I've read a lot, I've traveled and I've received all those inputs so that these songs can now be done. The search has been exhaustive and everything is here. That is why I have signed my own name. I also had doubts, because it is a great pressure to leave with my own name, but then I saw that it was consistent with the proposal.

"This album is a speaker to listen to music with another rhythm. I ask for quality time. If you don't have 34 minutes to offer this album, maybe it's not your album"

Why naked, raw songs?
What I don't want is the typical acoustic disc of a singer coming from a rock group. I wanted to turn around, offer something different and put these songs or undress in another way. Behind this simplicity are many things. Getting dressed is difficult, but it's harder to undress. The recording has also been very simple, with eight tracks, very few elements and always with the objective of removing and removing them and reaching the spinal cord.

You've come to El Petit de Cal Eril to make this album. Why?
Because its sound seems terrible to me. I followed Jordi Matas, a member of this group, and he proposed to record me at the Teatre de Ca l’Eril. In addition, Big Thief sent me, recording there a photo of the group I love a lot and made the decision. The place has a special charm. It is the old theater of the village of Gissona in Lleida in 1904, and not a cold study, which is seen on the album.

Photo: Dani Blanco / ARGIA CC BY-SA

He said many times that he suffered a lot in the recording. Why? The production has been made by
Jordi Matas and he insisted that the songs should be built in the study itself. We entered recording with very few essays and had our discussions at the expense of it. For me, this was a very important record, and when Jordi told me he didn't want to do tests, what had to happen to keep the freshness going and it happened in the studio -- I didn't know if I was working with a genius or an empty glass. This state of alert arouses creativity. “I have this and I have no eraser. See what happens,” he thinks.

In the end everything has been favorable to the disc and has given it a great aesthetic unity. In the basic idea we have always agreed: we have always chosen to delete it and to cut songs. You could put violins or crowns or the keyboard and it would have been very nice -- but we've always been with the hand brake so we don't put things on top of each other.

Was the idea, as in sculpture, to remove what was left over?
And like in literature. I admire Raymond Carver and do the same. Pello Lizarralde also bets on the economy of the word. That's the style I like. What is there is for something.

At Berri Txarrak's latest concert he asked the amateurs for books. Have you been able to read all the books?
No! Maybe I got 300 books. A complete library. It was very nice. I do it again, perhaps on this tour.

During these four years he has collaborated with Anne Lukin, Monte del Oso, La M.O.D.A. o With Ventotikanas. What has this section been like?
I've been in a kind of nebula. The rest I needed, I confirm, but when we left Berri on the lotion I was afraid that after a few months, the inner worm would have asked me to go back to the stage. Applause engages a lot and sometimes the ego is also there. Managing that is not easy, but I have been comfortable and quiet. I've also done production work at M.O.D.A. And with groups in the ventotics, especially as a musician trying to help, as a producer. I've learned a lot. In general, the search has been a long process and I am very happy with the result.


“I am concerned about language. We need a minimum of accession and I think we are going back on that. When normality is so far away, putting naturalness above all other criteria is a self-help"

Album It is a beginning and on behalf of most songs a: A train, a site, a house… Why?
I was clear on the general name, but I wasn't very happy with the names of the songs. When I was to deliver the album, at the last moment I had an epiphany, so I changed all the names. I thought it was a way to drive songs and take away transcendence: this is a record, but there are a thousand others. You might like it or not.

What does it look like?
This is a record made calmly and perhaps calmly. This disc contains an implicit message of deceleration, starting from the surface. There appears a woman as resting and one thing that people have thanked has been that quiet point that da.Los discs that interest
me are those that connect me to the world and to the current reality or produce the opposite effect: they are a kind of bubble to escape the world. I think this album has both. My critical view appears in some songs, but other times I've been told they're a kind of hug. This hostel or sonic protection is like what you feel at various concerts, if you're not recording everything with your mobile, of course.

Photo: Dani Blanco / ARGIA CC BY-SA

How are you going to ban mobiles at concerts?
If it was so easy! I do not ban it, but I invite people to keep it, no doubt. I'd like people to live there the concerts.

How do you see the musical scene in Euskal Herria?
I see it as very interesting from the groups. Diversity has always existed, but the difference is that now the focus is not on that hard rock with a claim letter. There are groups that are largely unknown because of algorithms. That's a shame, but at the same time there's a very interesting humus underneath. There are very interesting projects and in the region of Pamplona, let us not say. Flowering. From there we become obsessed with doing what is done globally here and in Basque. It is a constant concern. Our cultural ecosystem is very weak and we have a lot to improve. However, we must feel that we are doing things today and with the highest possible quality. Looking at the world, feeling part of the world.

I am concerned about language. We need a minimum of accession and I think we are going back on that. When normality is so far away, I think putting naturalness above all the other criteria is cheating. I am not happy with this argument. Let everyone do whatever they want, but I believe that Basques and Vascophiles have a responsibility to create quality content so that this Basque scene and this Basque corpus grow. If we do not feed, nobody will. I know that this backpack or concern can be very tired, as Ruper said "nobody told us how difficult it is to be Basque". We know that we have to do twice or triple the work in the hegemonic language to get half the echo, but that's it. We will always be against the current and work hard to improve things.

As I say a theory in singing, “things are not like that, things are like that,” and we can push things to change. This is one of our main struggles, but it is clear that this fast life also has its consequences on the subject of language.

"I don't ban mobile, but I invite people to keep it, no doubt. I'd like people to live there the concerts."

How do songs contribute to this struggle?
This can be very naive, but when I was about to pull out the album I had some heads. When Gaza happened, I thought, “What am I here with my album, while such horrors are taking place? What can the album made by this privileged white man provide? Does this make sense? Or is it just entertainment? I believe that art can transform or drive the world. I believe that art is an instrument for raising awareness and offering a small dose of beauty in the face of barbarism.

Through beauty you can already get the reaction that the
media can hardly obtain…
"The view is blinded" says Tren bat. Everything goes through our eyes and we have an overdose of images. It seems that we also hear music through our eyes. We get used to atrocities like Gaza. A creepy piece of news is disturbing us for three minutes, and the next one may see a meme and laugh ...

In this world [Javier] Milei is with a chainsaw, but this album also exists and this is my contribution. Creators have to make people think.

Photo: Dani Blanco / ARGIA CC BY-SA

You said here in ARGIA that the words of the songs are like the stones that were put to pass a stream, ten
years ago… Yes, I focus on an idea, but then each in its own way. I don't want to make pamphlets. I've done it, that's also learned, but now I'm clear you have to leave a margin to the listener to live the song, without giving orders or advice. On this album, for example, there's a very personal song, Etxe bat. I teach a very intimate part of my life and I thought, "Who cares about that?" My dog, my parents, my nephew, how fast the time goes, especially from a certain age... Well, now I'm seeing that a lot of people love that song. We had a debate about whether or not to include this song in the studio, because it was a little out of style, but my experience told me I had to go in. Something similar happened to me with the song A Cathedral and then it was the experts of the album. You never know what's going to happen. It's joyful to see how people join that and how singing jumps from your intimacy to others.

"I think art is a way to raise awareness and offer a small dose of beauty in the face of barbaries."

Aren't they good times for rock now?
It's cyclical. Now the focus is not on rock music, and that's fine. I want to think he's taking strength to come back later. The existing mix is also very interesting. I've always been against purity. Everything was born thanks to mixing. The important thing is to listen to music. Because you have to read to write, to make music you have to listen to a lot of music. If you have to make a pop album, you should listen to the Beatles. You have to think that before people have done good things too and that there is a great heritage there. The tendency now, just to listen to new music, seems quite Nazi. When you're young, you probably don't realize it, but with age you do.

You will start the tour at the end of February. How will you organize the leads from a 34-minute drive? The
head breaker will be to complete the list of songs. With the Peiremans group, something similar happened to me, after taking a record of five songs, what to do live? I don't know. I'm sure we'll make some version, but I don't want to play too many songs from the past...


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