With a careful reissue of his first album, ‘La patera’ (1999), the “most important”, Marea celebrates its 25th anniversary converted for some into “the last great rock band in Spain”although they display with greater pride the vitola of being “the most honest group that ever existed on Earth”.
“We were neither the biggest nor the prettiest, but We will be remembered for this and for half a dozen songsto be honest with ourselves and not make albums as an excuse to go on tour or not tour for money”, says the voice and most visible face of the Navarrese group, Kutxi Romero, in an interview with EFE.
He assures that they took this position to the extreme by his career that they maintained it even during seasons when they were already supposed to be a big band and some of its members were forced to return to their original jobs.
“For us music is a consequence of our friendshipis not a goal; If for a ‘hobby’ that we have, we transform it into a mission…”, says Romero, about his relationship with his colleagues Eduardo Beaumont, alias Piñas (bass and vocals), César Ramallo (guitar), David Díaz , aka Kolibrí (electric guitar and acoustic guitar) and Alén Ayerdi (drums and backing vocals).
In 2023, they organized a tour of the major pavilions “thanks to a popular initiative,” underlines Romero.
Far from capitals and pressure, Marea has managed to contravene many maxims of the music industry.. “We are not known because we do not appear on television or do podcasts. When we have something new, if someone wants to listen to us, they are invited,” they say.
Actually, The group has experienced significant ruptures in its journeynotably between his album ‘En mi hunger mando yo’ (2011) and the following, ‘El azogue’ (2019). And ‘Los potros del tiempo’ (2022), the latest work in their discography, they decided to release on December 23.
“It was so that coincided with the 25th anniversary of the first trial because we are very close circles, very shamans. In Madrid we knew if it was a good or bad time to publish, but not in Berriozar,” says the singer.
This Friday they publish a limited “luxury edition” of “La Patera” which includes a 24-page booklet with previously unpublished photos from his personal archives, prints and other materials, all in a silver-stamped box.
“Looking back only gives you a stiff neck, but the occasion deserved it. because it’s the only one that was out of print and because it’s our most important album. All the others are reinterpretations of this one that we were putting together,” Romero says with his usual sincerity.
From this work entitled the name the group was originally going to have (and that they were unable to register) emphasizes that “there is everything you will never have again: youth, courage, unconsciousness and freshness”.
Don’t forget either that the most complicated thing was finding the budget to record it“around 300,000 pesetas”, at a time when “the cost of studies was double what it is today and when no one self-published because it was very expensive”.
To pay for it They participated in a musical competition in Navarre which had a financial allocation of 250,000 pesetas. “I told Kolibrí: ‘I’m entering and I’ll win.’ I can handle it,” he jokes.
“Immediately they called us from record companies and the rest is history,” he says with the simplicity of someone who has often had this type of certainty through his trust in the group, like when they filled their first pavilion. “I am the biggest Marea fan there is,” he emphasizes.
Although with “more leaks in the body than House on the Prairie”, its survival is notable in an era when, with many of its musical references retired, including Rosendo, it is increasingly difficult to find a rock band what scope in Spain this number of years in his musical state of form.
“There are few that are under 40 years old and it looks like traveling exhibitions of cave paintings. My son is currently recording his first album at the age of 18 and it rocks.which gives me hope, but it has become an anachronism,” he reflects after discussing his own unpredictable future: “We started rehearsing and writing songs. Maybe in six months we will have something or in five years we will have nothing.”
