MECANO: the perfect gear
Known by some for having synth-pop and neo romantic influences, Mecano was one of the most successful Spanish bands of all times as it is still the best-selling one, with over 25 million records worldwide.
The band was composed by Jose María Cano, Nacho Cano and Ana Torroja. Jose María and Nacho were brothers and met Ana accidentally in Madrid. It all started when Ana, the lead singer of the group, was walking through Paseo de la Habana with her friends and saw a building in which basement was being ran a gay scene party so they decided to gatecrash. Once inside, there was this boy playing the guitar and singing as a flirting technique whose name was Jose. For one of the songs he was playing, Jose asked Ana, verily, to be her second vocalist. So, after that, Jose and Ana started singing together whilst Nacho played the guitar alongside and usually went to Ana’s house to do some rehearsing. Shortly after, the three started making some occasional performances in TV programs such as Gente Joven, famous TV show known for offering a chance to young ambitious artists to come forward.
The beginning
The real thing came up when Miguel Ángel Arenas aka ‘Capi’ (music producer), heard something about Jose María, “a boy who wrote song lyrics and played the guitar”. At first, Capi thought his songs were too sleepy and old fashioned, but even so he gave him the opportunity to record one of them. The surprise came when the band played the song all along and Capi then thought he was listening to heavenly music. Ana’s voice stood out and made her become the lead singer. She later acknowledged she said yes just to make her friends’ dream to make music come true.
Mecano’s first marketing strategy was to pretend as if they were in great demand and had no time for anyone else. Mecano first signed with CBS Records in 1982 when Aurelio González was the lead manager. The band named itself Mecano because of the actual functionality of the real game called that way: they were able to build things and those things were built out of three elements that fitted in perfectly. Furthermore, the surname of the brothers was Cano.
The first hit
“Hoy no me puedo levantar” was their first absolute hit. It was one of the few songs the brothers wrote together, as they after realized their ways to visualize songwriting was completely different. Music masters such as Fernandisco, define this song as an astonishing and shocking impact for a first listener.
The esthetic of Mecano was stunning at first due to their similarity with British rock bands of that moment. They didn’t just sing, they also performed, and because of that, they risked it all. Mecano was composed by three hugely different kinds of personalities but three great working ones and that is actually what made them succeed. Their music was adored by people because society had just got out from an era where songs talked about politics the whole time. People wanted to have fun now. People wanted to say goodbye to all that sadness Spain was heading out from, so, Spanish youth got so distant from that recent darkness that started running for themselves.
If we divide the band in terms of time, we could designate the first and the second era (musically speaking). The first era was leaded by Nacho and the second, by Jose. Nacho Cano had a virtue with tunes and Jose with lyrics. Songs written by Nacho are dynamic, pop and talk about autobiographical stuff. Songs written by Jose María are delicate masterpieces made out of meanings and imaginary worlds.
The time Mecano became famous in South America involved the start of the international success of the group. It meant pop could be sang in Spanish and it could sound great too. South Americans welcomed the band with the same fascination as Spaniards but with less prejudices. Spain was not the country where Mecano was succeeding the most anymore. Otherwise, with a huge difference, the country where Mecano was top leader was France. They even versioned one of their songs to French: “Une femme avec une femme”.
The band started in 1981 and went on tour for the first time in 1984. They stopped giving concerts temporarily by 1992 in order to take a rest .In 1993, the band announced a temporary hiatus but ended up being their final farewell. Years went by and Mecano got together again in 1998, the same year Jose announced on live his official separation from the band. Every person standing there that night felt the ceiling was falling apart. Some think it would’ve been nice to have said a proper goodbye, some think it was better not to so their songs would be alive forever.
The logo
Mecano original logo represents the fusion of the old and the modern way to see music. The classic form of the font plus the laurel wreath which stands for victory and freedom makes the logo the graphic icon of their tunes.
My interpretation of the logo has more to do with the idea of the passing of time and how the songs from Mecano will be inmortal forever. So that’s why there is no clockwise. Time does not pass for their tunes.
