punk.cat: BIZNAGA

Tuesday, 12 September 2023

BIZNAGA

"bremen no existe"

Year: 2022

Country: Spain

City: Madrid

Label: Montgri

Format: LP

Tracks: 10

Time: 30 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk Pop

Members, probably unintentionally, of a generation of groups from the independent scene such as Juventud Juché, Futuro Terror or El Pardo that have taken their musical proposal to the regions bordering punk, Biznaga have been growing steadily with each album. Based in Madrid, but marked by their deep Malaga roots, their career extends from the first models in a learning period to conceptual works once they have gained the respect of the public and the specialized media.

The original nucleus of the band was formed by Álvaro García (vocals and guitar) and Jorge Navarro (bass), both from Malaga who, however, met in Madrid through a mutual friend, Pablo, also from Malaga. The first arrived in the capital from Barcelona, where he worked as a nurse, while Jorge tried to look for work after finishing his Audiovisual degree in the Andalusian city. Once the affinity between them and their common tastes were proven, they decided to start a band back in early 2011. While Jorge had not played in any group, Álvaro brought the experience of having first participated at the age of 15 in Malaga in a hardcore group. punk (Walltrape Center), and then, already in Barcelona, having played drums in Destroyed Room. As the former would later tell He Reunido a la Banda, they soon reach an agreement: “Jorge was cool with it and although he didn't know how to play, he picked up the bass until he learned. I taught him how to play and told him to be in charge of the lyrics, because I liked the way he wrote. We were locked in a room for almost a year, and over time “Toilets” came out, etc..”

In this early stage of the band there is, above all, a lot of rock work by both of them with borrowed bass and guitar: “In the beginning, in our rooms, everything was very precarious and elementary. We met to release acoustic proto-songs, while we became familiar with some instruments that we had never played before,” they tell us.

In what can be interpreted as a nod to their place of origin, they decide to name the new project with the name given there to the bouquet of jasmines attached to a small frame: biznaga. “He never really made up his mind,” Jorge says with a certain air of disappointment. “As the project arose completely by chance and without any kind of pretension, so did the name.” For this reason, “provisionally and in the absence of a better alternative we decided to take it from Pablo,” recalls the bassist, who concludes by telling how in the end there was no turning back: “Then the months went by, the joke continued and began to take shape.” , there was already a minimum repertoire, they called us to play etc. When we seriously thought about 'better' names or names that we liked more, it was too late and we were functioning as Biznaga."

To record their first demo, they asked Pali (Wild Animals, Secret Society) for help on drums: “Pali is a friend and offered to record the songs for the demo, so she was rehearsing with us for a while, but it was never an option.” "That she became part of the group, more for her than for us." With their support, “Demo” (2012) was recorded and mixed in the basement of Perico Font in Malaga in early 2012. It contained four songs, the first of which was the aforementioned “Váteres” which used a wedge taken from Pink Flamingos (1972) by John Waters, with a high-sounding statement by Divine under the pseudonym Babs Johnson in which she was decidedly in favor of eating shit, killing everyone and advocating cannibalism among other niceties. Probably the best possible intro for a sufficiently eschatological theme: “Toilets instead of icons / like the bear and the strawberry tree / toilets for what I eat / toilets are what we are.”

It is precisely the launch of the demo, in the month of May 2012, and the subsequent passage “from the catacombs to the internet” that they agree on indicating as the official date of the group's public appearance (to continue reading the bio HERE ).

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