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CARLES BENAVENT An interview with Carles Benavent 11/11/2002: "Theme by theme" Biografia Carles Benavent The talk takes place in my workshop in a quiet evening of November 2002, with a couple of beers and the thoughtful and sometimes sleepy watch of my cat Gibson. Carles, a Pisces, was born in 1954 in Poble Sec, a most popular quarter of Barcelona, in a little street located at the heart of el Paralelo , a kind of local "Broadway" known by its music halls. 1. The origins How did the whole story begin? All did really start when I met, as a young boy, Emili Baleriola. We were attending the same high school, and I was trying to get out something of a guitar someone had given to me. I already knew some chords a cousin has taught me. But it wasn't until I knew Emili, when I was 14, that I really got the playing fever. He owned an electric guitar, something not very common those days. It was a Homady, a beautiful sparkling toy, in mother-of-pearl finish, with a terrific sound. We started to rehearse in his grandma's home. Because Emili too played guitar, I chose bass guitar, for I thought "Well, having only four strings, it sure will be easier to master". So I said to Emili: "OK, I'll play the bass". That's how it all begun. |
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And then you formed a group together… Yes, and just a few months later Salvador Font joined in with his drums. So was born Crack, a trio where we played mainly blues. Salvador's uncle lent us a small warehouse at Grases St, near my home, and there we could play and rehearse as in the best studio. and did some gigs then with Crack… Oh yes, and very successful. We were lucky to appear at the Iris Theatre rock festival as teloneros (side group) to Los Brincos [then Spain's leading pop group] and we got very stimulating words at local newspapers. I was only about 15 then… so it happened about 32 years ago, oh no, 33! -Christ's age, he, he. 2. The learning years. Who was your first music teacher? I studied only two years of double bass at the Conservatorio, with maestro Sala. Because I've been playing bass for a couple of years, I thought it was time to learn the technique of classic bassists. Had you also some teacher in electric bass? No, never. Did you start then to play fretless? No, that was much later, when I started listening to Jaco Pastorius. Those were the days of Musica Urbana , where I played the bass. But I guess it is a well-known story, isn't it? |
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3. Musica Urbana What came after Crack? I did some gigs with Brazilian musicians, and then I met Joan Albert Amargos. That was a crucial encounter for my career. We started to play and explore together new paths for rock music in Barcelona. We decided to set up Musica Urbana, one of the most innovative experiments of those exciting years. Why a hollow body bass? It just fell down upon your hands? I think it was mainly an aesthetic drive. I loved B.B King's guitar -Lucille, and soon became crazy about playing a bass like it. I got myself a nice Guild, but it was unfortunately stolen. Then I went to Ibermusical store and bought a Coronado, a semi-hollow body by Fender. Because I didn't like the colour -a too much yellowish brilliant sunburst -horrible!, I took a jet-sprayer and got the bass white painted - a kind of naïve graffiti painting. But the final result was good enough. |
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So Musica Urbana was the serious move… Yes indeed. But before that I was for a while with Maquina, in his second run. When Enric, one of its members, quit the band, we [the Crack team] joined in, together with Enric Herrera. Maquina was actually a machine with two "engines": Claris, Luigi and Tapi, on one side, and Enric Herrera, the Crack ones and a saxophonist on the other. We made a single and a double LP recorded live. And then MU. How long did the project last? I met J.A Amargos in 1973-74 so MU kept five long years going, till 1979. We played quite a lot during that years, but only made two records. The second one, Liberia, has recently been re-issued in CD by Nuevos Medios. It was then that you got the bass unfretted? Yes, then it was. I brought my old semi-hollow Gibson to a luthier in Mallorca, named Repiso. He pulled the frets out, fixed the fingerboard, changed the bridge and put a new pick-up in. I had only this bass then, so it was a real jeopardy. But Repiso did a fine job, and the Gibson worked pretty well until its retirement in 1995, when you made me the new 5-string semi-acoustic one. Then comes the shift to flamenco… No, no, that was about ten years later.
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