From Vallecas to Coachella: the sad dances of Depression Sonora expand with 'Makinavaja'

“I want to leave home, I want to be an artist.” When Marcos Crespo (26) wrote the chorus of As everyoneAbout two years ago, I was experiencing a period of transition between dream and reality. This song, quite representative of his artistic career, is part of The Art of Dying Very Slowly – like this, in capital letters, in the Anglo-Saxon way -, an album that is a form of passage between his first EP, published in 2020 with the name of the project, Depresi³n Sonora, and machine machine, available from this Friday, February 23. This work is made up of four honest, clean and slow-cooked songs: bad, I live on air, nothing matters and narcotics -note, in lower case, which does not make them any less small-.

That scruffy and haggard young man, perhaps a little overwhelmed, who stars on the album cover – signature of classizover – based on watercolor and charcoal is the image of a melancholic EP clinging to the present, two contradictory ingredients that, However, they are key in the imaginary of Depression Sonora. machine machineOf course, it would not make sense without the exploration of different paths, because although the essence of the project is the same, the professionalization in sound, message and genre is evident. “This EP has been a leap of faith. It's more lo-fi, there are drum machines. Conceptually, I like there to be a specific sound, that has personality. I wanted it to stand out from the rest. I have done it with more affection and calmness. And it's better recorded, of course,” the musician tells us.

Honesty, pain and self-love

He speaks the same as he sings: slow, linear, apparently calm. And from that genuine calm he confirms that “he is the same as always, a little older,” as he intones in mala. “Just as I grow, I want my music to do so. Depression Sonora is a reflection of what is happening in my life and how I am maturing. Now I am more aware of what I say and what I don't. I go a little deeper things,” says Crespo, who wrote the songs a year and a half ago. At that time he did not know that they would come to light after a difficult personal moment that would force him to put his own needs at the center. “Everything you feel matters, you are important and you can express yourself,” he stressed when announcing the second preview, narcotics“a song that longs for that liberation to be able to express oneself and be oneself in a world where one always has to ask for forgiveness and bow one's head.”

“In the lyrics I try to fight against myself a little. I have the usual melancholic touch. But, despite those darker parts, I want to include phrases that give a little light and contain learning about what is happening to me. I reflect it in nothing matters, For example. “Everything I am will matter again.” My goal is to tell what I feel and not always sound negative or toxic. I also want to convey positive points. And everything I sing are things I sing to myself, because I try to be better,” admits the musician, whose growth also involves putting aside hermeticism: “The most difficult thing for me is, now that I have a lot of exposure, opening up and telling personal things. “The musician has to show himself with sincerity, because only then can he truly reach people.”.

From Vallecas to Coachella

It should be said that his music is taking him to places that he never imagined when he decided to share it on YouTube during the pandemic, when he lived at his parents' house in the Madrid neighborhood where he grew up, Vallecas, and that now he sees him succeed more It's beyond the puddle. Specifically, at Coachella, a festival in which he shares the bill with another Spaniard, Bb trickz. That first concert that he gave at Independence with an audience limited by the restrictions brought by the covid is far away. “Coachella is a very cool showcase. It is assumed that it is niche, but it opens up a lot. We were touring there in November and it was an adventure,” he says, grateful for the good reception that his music had from the first minute in Latin America and the United States. “What I do is more contextualizable to the music scene what's there,” he says. His music, framed in the post punk, drinks in this last stage of groups like Deftones, binki, Alvvays o TV Girl.

In Spain, Depresión Sonora is one of the names that resonate in a music scene that has been very alive for a few years in Madrid, the birthplace of bands that are no longer so emerging, such as Carolina Durante or Los Punsetes, great veterans. . He worked with them last year to release some versions, among them, Camino, a song that is “very special” for him and in which he sings “I do what I can, which is quite little.” Be that as it may, her proposal triumphs along with that of other young musicians who fill halls and bring freshness to the festivals, among them, Rojuu, Javiera Mena o VVV Trippin' You, each one with its own seal. “For example me I have nothing to do with Carolina Durante, but I understand that something is brewing in Madrid. A movement is recovering, just as it is happening with the rap that was played in 2010. We will see how this is remembered in the future.”

Depressión Sonora will give a single concert in Spain, on March 22. “I will only perform at La Riviera. There will be musicians, lights… I have never worked so hard, I am at the top,” he says. He will be accompanied on stage, once again, by guitarist Gonzalo López and bassist René Sharrocks, vocalist of Dharmacide. As Crespo says, machine machine (Sound Boy) “it is a small step in what is and will be Sound Depression, but it is loaded with meaning.” “This is all quite special to me,” she thanks. February ends and something new begins. Like in Until Death Comes, all those sad dances for criminals remain.