✒️ |Litanies to a song [English Transcription]
Before the stories were told, we wrote them. Margarita Siempre Viva, tells us in this interview the creative process of her song Detrás de la Fachada Está El Jardín
Translated by José Miguel Barinas
Mail:mikeybf1996@gmail.com
Detrás de la Fachada sounds in the background
Mateo [Presenter]: Margarita Siempre Viva is a band from Bello, Antioquia created in 2016. On certain occasions, they refer themselves as the main band of a new sound of Colombian rock or the nostalgia of a generation. And between EPs and long durations, they have published five albums that has led Bicho (Bug), Bichito (Little Bug), Cristian, Mora and Márgaro to appear in various venues throughout Colombia including the Estéreo Picnic Festival and the opening act for Interpol and Franz Ferdinand.
On the February 27 of 2020, the band published Letanías del Jardín (Litanies of the Garden), the second LP done with the dynamics of DIY or Do It Yourself, which represents a more professional, fresh sound and a profound approach to the necessity of a professionalism with sounds thru exploration and toying with an identity that has been defined.
producer: Miguel Laverde, we discussed about the creation of the song Detrás de La Fachada (Behind the Façade) that is in the Garden [album].
Márgaro [guitarist]: Well, my name is Mateo. I am Margaro and I play the guitar in Margarita Siempre Viva.
Miguel Laverde [Producer]: My name is Miguel Laverde and I’m a musical producer, sound engineer and musician from the city of Medellin and had the opportunity to record, mix and produce the latest record of Margarita Siempre Viva that is titled as Letanías del Jardín (Litanies of the Garden).
Mora [Songwriter]: Hi. I’m Mora from Margarita Siempre Viva, I’m the keyboardist and second guitarist of the band.
Mora: Parce[1], that song…Detrás de la Fachada (Behind the Façade), well I wrote it rather when I was finishing school, since I was finishing eleventh grade [2], around that time, so since I don’t know…I finished school and wanted to pursue classical music studies at the University of Antioquia[3] and wasn’t accepted, I was like: “Damn…what I am going to do with my life? What should I do?” I started working at an upholstery and worked for a while in that area and blah, blah, blah…The point is that my life was turning out as I expected when I was going to graduate from school…What happens to everyone, once you finish school, [life] it is like BUFF. It is just like the song, which I had in mind like missing also that safety that life gives of not being an adult, so to speak, like missing that, like “ahh, parce…what happened”, like how people say, school is done and gone. Forget it, that won’t come back, right? It’s like: “ahh, gonorrea[4], everything that belonged to that stage of my life, so to speak, it’s already gone. That’s another level, so, we’re here and we must face what is here.
My way of writing songs before was during school, when I wrote songs at school. It was always like if a chorus came in my mind and I would write down the chorus and tin[5]. But at school I didn’t have, so to speak, that much confidence to arrive and sing, it was more like I would write it [chorus] in my cell phone or in a notebook, write down the chords and have them there for me, but since songs were started to accumulate, cool, with this I have to do something.
[1] Parce: it is the Colombian equivalent of dude, bro, fam…
[2] Colombian studies go up to eleventh grade, there isn’t a twelfth grade like in US.
[3] One of Medellin’s public universities.
[4] Gonorrhea in Spanish. However, in Colombia, as it is used in this context, it is a bad word similar to damn, shit, fuck or asshole (when directed to someone).
[5] A Colombian onomatopoeia.
I like always would hang out with them [members of Margarita Siempre Vive] before the band’s creation and with that, well, we have that strong friendship bond, and once, parce, with Cristian and Mate, we went to hang out and smoke in a forest near my house and we took out our guitars. In that moment, we were talking about “ah parce, look at this riff I’ve got”, “ah parce, look at this lyrics I’ve got”, do you understand me? Like if we were showing each other what we’ve got and for example, what was Gracias mi amigo (Thanks, my friend), A la orilla de la realidad (On the shore of Reality), those were tunes thar came out of that gathering that I had with Cristian; it was like taking the acoustic [guitar] and hanging out to drink for a while, and that song came out. And Cristian was like: “Ah, parce, I’ve got a lyric for that guitar” and I was like “Let’s do it, tin”, he showed me the lyrics and we did it like that.
Márgaro: This guy (Mora) came one day. He was sort of new in the band. Well, he was here for six months, I think a year. I’m not sure. He came with a song: “Parce, I’ve got a song”, the newbie there doing his debut. “Parce, no, I;ve got a Song. Tin, I don’t know what…it’s ready”. Parce, when he showed to me, I was like… “Parce, it’s ready”.
Mora: This comes way before that, parce, way back. First of all, parce, in fact when we played at Estéreo Picnic, the composition of this record in terms of production, we were going to do it in a completely, different way from what we usually would do. What happened? After Estéreo Picnic, we said: “Ok, we’re going to stay two weeks in bogotá, one week and we’re going to record the CD”. We are going to confine ourselves. In other words, what we need is to confine ourselves, in a studio, whatever.
The point is that there wasn’t no studio and we joined a music label from Bogota which is Incorrecto. It’s from a friend, a friend named Santiago and…for no reason we went to that label and recorded in a theater, the Libélula Dorada theater (The Golden Dragonfly), which is located in Bogota. Parce, at that moment we felt so much that “live sound” but we wanted something that sounds like it was done in a studio, do you understand me? We wanted something more enclosed, cleaner in my ignorant way so to speak, but yeah. We heard the demos, we called them demos because at the end they were not more than demos, we heard how the captures sounded during that week. Parce, we worked hard because it was an arduous work, with this guy, Santiago Navas that was…well, he was the one that recorded those first captures.
Márgaro: Well, then the sessions came out. That day of recorded ended and we went to the area near the theater. We left the theater, which is near Galerías[6], tin, Galerías, tin and there came the following question: “Parce, what name are we going to baptize this record?
And parce, none of us had the name at that moment. It was like, parce, no no. It was a complicated question; and even more for an uncompleted record, that was still in process of finishing and all of that.
And then we started saying stupid stuff related to the word garden. Well, we tried to come up with a word that sounded harmoniously with garden and this guy, Santiago from the In-Correcto collective told us we were near El Campín[7]. He lives in the Pablo Sexto neighborhood, so it was a long ride and we were, parce, talking to him, the producer of those sessions, talking about those sessions with the band.
Parce and no one, no one, nobody came out with a name. We were like: “No”. Then later this man [Santiago] says: “No, parce, qué chimba[8] Letanías del Jardín (Litanies of the Garden). And we were like: “Litanies? What is that, nea[9]? We were like: it sounds hard [chimba] but we don’t know what that means. And then and there, the guy explained it to us: “No…litanies are like prayers, chants. It is linked to religion, in a certain way”.
[7] Bogota’s stadium where the city’s soccer teams play in. It is also used a concert venue for both international and local artists perform in.
[8] Chimba is slang for vagina or in this case used as astonishment, approval similar to bitchin’ or “hard” or “lit”.
[9] Nea is a regional slang in Medellin to denote a hoodlum, coming from the root of gonorrhea (see note one to understand). It is also used, like in this case, as the word “fam”.
Well, we never had clarity [about the name], so you can say those words were the litanies at that moment. But then we said: well, these songs deserve to have more time to develop. To have a different process, that we can record each song separately and have the patience and the everything would come out as polished as possible.
At that moment, we met with Miguel in Bogota. A couple of months later, we went back to Bogota to play and to meet up with him. We showed him, well, those demos we had done at the theater like: “Parce, listen to this”. And to us, these demos didn’t convince us a lot because they were full band and…
Mora: Of course, Miguel came and, parce, in that studio it was like uff…like for us it was arriving at paradise, huevón[10], because that was…imagine.
Miguel Laverde: Let’s say that was so ephemeral, like that they had a day of recording and all of them recorded together and at the same time, and since time was limited and the pressure and all of that, therefore we did takes. They showed me those takes, well that was going to be the record, because in reality, they recorded everything there and they said like: “Ok, let’s fix something here and there, and that is going to be the disco”.
[10] Spanish curse word for dumbass or as it is used in this case, similar to bro. The word huevón comes from huevas o huevos, which is testicles or balls but in a vulgar way.
I’m just going to say one thing, Mario Bros [laughs], Mario Kart. I liked it but I felt that the dramatic power of the song was missing. That song reminds me, it’s funny, all those things that come to mind. It reminded me a lot of Snow White too, you know? Well, like that song where all the animals march with you, and thtat, that takes me to all those dramatic movies of Disnet, where Snow White would come with her magic and with all the animals there with her or in Bambi or I don’t know, like Fantasia 2000 where all the animals would run where a fire would break out or bad stuff happened.
Then, at that moment, I said like, guys, I feel like that the moment where you guys are going to reach, I feel like we can work on it even more. So to speak, this isn’t bad, but I feel like this has more potential if we dedicate the appropriate time, or, to not put a deadline with this record.
My approach with this record wasn’t like the superproduction of one by one, but we did use a metronome which was a new experience for them, and they usually don’t jam with a metronome. There isn’t a problem by jamming with a metronome, obviously, but if you put a song of the Rolling Stones against a metronome, those people [Rolling Stones] go up and down but all together, you feel me?
Mora: When we started to record like that with metronome, well, it was like something that should have a present because in a studio, one wants that everything ends up nicely. For example, Bicho (Bug), the bass guitarist, that marica[11]is very technical, because the videos that he uploads of himself playing vallenato[12] with an electric guitar, I say that he cheats because he was fan of metal and I was like: in that way, anyone can; because that marica comes and where in a rehearsal, Mateo and I are like [imitating a guitar] and the Bicho (Bug) [electric guitar]. That marica is like that. He has a lot of musical fundamentals to play and he’s very good.
Miguel Laverde: And that is incredible, so to speak, the diversity of influences that these kids have. Cristian which is the singer, he is like that most poetic face of the band, I would say that he is the most profound. He is more existentialist, he also has a life that isn’t considered ordinarily, do you feel me? The guy hasn’t had it easy, but that also gives a lot to the melancholy feeling and that person [who listens] feels it. He likes a lot, from what I know, something weird, protest music like the Chilean music or songwriters/singers that are very political.
With Camilo that plays the drums, better known as Bichito (Little Bug). He is more punk, his lifestyle is more punkish, it is something like very chaotic, but he also gives that sound at drums because the drums in Margarita are not metrically perfect like rule. He has that natural feeling, that aggressiveness and in the end, one wants to feel the drums like that, no To hit hard and to let off steam.
[11] Homophobic epithet, similar to pussy or fag. It is also used, like in this case, as friend, fam, bro, guy…
[12] Colombian music, mostly written in the Colombian coast region (it is also a representation of the regional culture and pride).
The bass guitarist, which is Bicho (Bug), Bichito’s (Little Bug’s) brother, I think that is where the band’s magic lies in, and don’t know if you guys have seen, but it most of the famous bands, they have brothers in their lineups and that’s something crazy. Therefore, I see that connection, and the Bicho (Bug) is crazy because the guy didn’t start out with bass, he’s a guitar player, and a guitarist that has gone through a lot of genres, from black metal bands to neo-punk, from everything, so there is a lot to explore.
That guy listens, it’s crazy, from…playing vallenatos in guitar and idolizing Diomedes Díaz[13] but some days he is the most Norwegian person [due to listening metal] and the most black metal person that could ever exist. Therefore, he has a lot of interesting façades.
…
We were very methodical when had to choose everything, from the drumsticks, the thickness of the drumsticks, drum plates, what material or metal alloy we wanted to use as our sound…the drum patches we are also super important.
I think my role was more like trying to nurture that energy, like, make sure that everything was vibing and to capture when they were vibing in their highest note, I would say.
Márgaro: So then I, parce, since the beginning, I got the grasp. Well, just like how that marica explained to me so much in that intro. And I left a lot of space in order to do a solo, jam for a while. Only then I could play a very beautiful solo, parce. I think that is one of the most beautiful solos we have. One of the solos that I feel most proud of…
[13] One of the maximum exponents of vallenato.
Because the execution of the record was chimba but when we played it live, it had a different intention and one that we like a lot. At least for me, I like it more when we play it live.
It’s like half a birthday song at times, güevón. It is like the meaning when something ends. So it is fun when the fast part of the song follows which is…
Mora: But it was then where I was doing the song. First, I came up the chord on piano. Therefore, I want to do it [the song] from starting with sharp notes to low notes, that is why in piano it is simply to play like that.
Like with the pinky to the thumb. So then, me in guitar, I…oh ok, I chose the guitar chord I did and I ehhh…did this like, tin. And I was, ahh, this sounds prettier, sounds prettier than in piano, sounds fuller and more rockerish and I came with the inspiration of that song there, I found it better.
Miguel Laverde: So, nothing, that tune felt more promising to me in that sense, the demo they showed me had all the vocals together and I believe that in this final production, I wanted to give that limelight to Mora because he seems to me as a breath of fresh air in the record, right? Cristian and Mateo’s vocals together are very magical, and they have that “how”, in other words, those two complement each other very well. But Mora’s vocals is super soft and it seemed to me like a great breath of air in the record.
Márgaro: I feel that Margarita Siempre Vive is like a youthful sound. All of us have that burning heart with a lot of energy, a lot of vitality.
Miguel Laverde: Detrás de la Fachada (Behind the Façade) is, what I mentioned before, what I like the most is poetry, like how everything you don’t see with color when a persona you love leaves or isn’t there, like when animals don’t come near you, I don’t see the color, I don’t see…it touches every fiber in my body because obviously, that has happened to me before. I believe that feeling has happened to all of us in a certain moment in life.
I feel that the thing you can fall in love the most with Margarita [the band] is that melancholy, right? The melancholy of feeling good in the mist of your sadness. It is like a bit of acceptance…yes, being there in a depression, but at the same time no, I don’t know, the songs of Margarita are very real, because in reality it is what they [band members] live through, what they feel and, I think that most people are feeling the same way, all of us feeling sad in a certain way.
Mora: No, I believe that song always will create the same memory and all, and that same feeling. It is because songs are like that…captured emotions. Because one has listened to songs that make you cry and one is like, one is like: “Parce, that sucks, that song made me cry”, right? There are songs that make you dance, and there are songs that make you want to ride a bike like in sync. That is like enclosed there. That is why, one is enclosed there, the peace of a younger me that came out of eleventh grade that wrote that missing a bunch of things that won’t be there again, but the memory remains, independent from what will happen, that’s where that is going to be.
…
It is cold…if you’re not here,
I can’t see you since a while back
Look I can’t avoid to look…
If you’re not there.
Lorena: If you would like to listen to the song or the whole album, visit some of music platforms of Margarita Siempre Viva. Support them through their Bandcamp or with the purchase of the merch via their social media. This podcast is recorded in Medellin, Colombia. Produced, narrated and edited by Mateo Mejía and Lorena Tamayo. Our team wouldn’t be the same without Verónica Rodríguez and Mariana Uribe.
We invite you to visit our blog in Medium where you can listen to all our episodes and learn more about us in our social media profiles: Facebook, Twitter e Instagram as @lounicomejor because we believe that the only thing better than music is to talk about music.
