Dos Gajos: A Spanish Gainsbourg and Birkin for the 21st Century
Dos Gajos is a band for those who have a sense of humor. Who believe things could be more simple if it wasn’t for us – and our talent for complicating stuff. For those who enjoy the renewal of antique formulas. Dos Gajos is for those who (not unlike us) have understood how useless it is to waste one’s precious time looking for a soul mate – in Spanish folklore, one’s media naranja or “other half of the orange” – when we can have Dos Gajos – two segments – and squeeze them with a smile.
Like many other cocktails, this one, composed of Juan Carlos Fernández (formerly from Penélope Trip) and the experimental cinema specialist Esperanza Collado, emerged from coincidence. “We met during the summer of 2010, when I went to a friend’s house to record some songs in his studio, and met his girl,” explains Fernández. The girl in question was of course Collado.
While Spain is their country of origin, they could easily be French if only their names were Gainsbourg and Birkin, or American, if they were called Hazlewood and Sinatra (Nancy, that is).
With her talent for percussion, it came naturally for Collado to take the rhythmical reins of their eventual collaboration, which often works with contrasts, pairing folk melodies and stubborn drums, pinched guitars and childish rhythms. While Spain is their country of origin, they could easily be French if only their names were Gainsbourg and Birkin, or American, if they were called Hazlewood and Sinatra (Nancy, that is). The way they alternate their voices is as important to the rhythm of the band as the tapping of the drums. “The secret is simply that there is good understanding between us,” says Fernández. His guitar, her boxes and both of their voices are more than they need to create small universes.
These Iberian Moldy Peaches sound, on their new record Dos, “more relaxed and clean” than on their homonymous 2011 debut. And the tension that permeated 2012’s Dos Gajos y Seis Canciones is gone. The idea is to “not to repeat schemes in every record. To try new approaches when it comes to recording the songs,” explains Fernández. Dos is packed with refrains that bring us back to our childhood, its mocking lyrics designed with the same acidity balance as the citrus fruits of their name.
While Fernández says his influences stem from “rhythmical music like blues, jazz or older Caribbean rhythms,” they still seem somewhat touched by Hispanic folklore, as if by acquired heritage, through the senses. But for us at Panamérika they simply sound local and universal, intimate and popular, ironic and nostalgic. One segment is sweet; the other one is bitter, and their resounding juice is best distilled in slow motion.
Translation: Claudia Itzkowich
