Interview with Bernardo Llobregat (guitar), Patricia Tapia (lead vocals) and Francisco Rodriguez (keyboards).

Hi ! Let's talk about your fresh news first. You've just played at The Gods last month in England. It was the second time for you, I think. Does the the public's reaction has changed in comparison with 2001?
Bernardo: Hi! Yes, it was the second time and the audience reaction was as good as two years ago. It's amazing because in 2001 we only played covers and the public enjoyed it very much. But this year the show was based in our own material. We are very surprised again.

As far as I knew Nexx before you were signed by Now & Then, I thought that you were a very talented but soft AOR band. But the most part of the songs that features on the cd have strong guitar riffs. How would you describe your music ?
Bernardo: I’ll answer you with the name of our first album: Colours. The band is a mix of different influences and visions of what a rock band must be. The kind of music that each member of Nexx listens to is completely different than what the others do. There’s only a great coincidence: melodic & hard rock. We grew up with this music in our ears and that’s the kind of music we naturally play.

You started as a cover band and did numerous gigs before writing your first own songs, I think. Did you planned to write your own songs since the beginning or is it something that came to you by chance ?
Bernardo: It came to us by chance. We formed the band with two ideas: have fun playing the music we love and learn. But that chance came in one year. The audience required original material and the band seemed to sound well. So, why not? Let’s try it.

Colours is the first Nexx album, but did you have some previous studio experiences, individually ?
Bernardo: Only Oscar had played something previously as studio musician.

How did you met producer Pete Coleman ?
Bernardo: The producer was a decision of Now & Then. I remember how excited we were when we travelled to England to record the album and our faces when we saw the gold & platinum records on the walls… The Christians, AC/DC, The Charlatans, OMD… We were going to work with Pete… Perfect!

How long did it took to record the album ?
Bernardo: It took us 1 month. 1 month of hard work… 10+ hours per day without breaks. We really enjoyed it very much and learnt a lot with the experience.

Did you have written all the songs from Colours before signing with Now & Then ?
Bernardo: Good question. No, we didn’t have all the songs written by that time. After the signing we still wanted to do few more songs so we began a small fight against the clock, and I think we won. We already had written enough material but we wanted to choose the final songs for the album between more options. I think it’s a good way to write, create a lot in a short period of time. Indeed “Good time comes”, “Indifference” and “Wake up” came up in that final sprint.

Your music was highly shared through the internet in the past few months. Do you think this is the main reason of your current success?
Bernardo: In these days and in this kind of music is very important the exchange of information through internet. We are a lot of people but all living in different countries! So, the answer to your question is yes, definitively yes.

Female singers are pretty rare in AOR, these days. Is that that kind of configuration you wanted when you formed the band ?
Bernardo: No, because we were a covers band, and the 99% of the bands in melodic & hard rock aren’t/weren’t female fronted. Well, at the end we are just a rock band with our own music, so at this moment that’s not important for us at all. We don’t want be seen as a “female fronted” band. We just want to be seen as Nexx a rock band.

Patricia, I must say I was very impressed by your voice. Sometimes, you remind me a bit of Pat Benatar's voice, particularly in songs like '40 Days & 40 Nights'. Do you agree with that comparison ?
Patricia: I thank you for this comparison as Pat Benatar is a great singer with a very personal voice and I admire her, but I think I still need a lot to reach her level.

I also have to confess that I've listened to the intro of 'Good Time Comes' and the passage where you are laughing about 30 times successively. Do you think I need a doctor ?!? :op
Patricia: I think each Nexx member needs a doctor, especially after a gig.

More seriously, what did you do before singing in Nexx ?
Patricia: I sang in a covers band playing a little bit of everything, soul, funky, rock, and also in an orchestra, which is another type of covers band that goes in the Summer thru the little villages of Spain playing old & new tunes… Anyway, my first band was Fahrenheit, we made covers of Toto, Europe, Roxette, Queen, and there I knew Oscar and Jose who played in that band. So, Fahrenheit broke up, Jose and Oscar formed Nexx along with Bernardo and Fran and I went to that soul/funky/rock covers band and the orchestra. We rehearsed in the same building so I think it was a question of time that I entered in Nexx.

Could you tell us how you have been asked to sing on stage with Harem Scarem ?
Patricia: Well it was funny indeed, as it was the first time I saw Harem Scarem. It was in the Nemelrock festival in Madrid (April’01). We weren’t going to play there but in the last minute a band couldn’t play so we were asked to play instead of them in the first day of the festival. So when we were playing our set of covers Harem Scarem entered in the venue. Somebody told them that we had played “Distant memory” from their first album, so they asked the promoter if he could ask us to play it again. So we did it. When we went down the stage we saw them at the venue’s bar. Jose knew them as he’s a big fan of theirs and told me “look, those are Harem Scarem”, as I didn’t know them I replied him “are you sure”, “yes I am” Jose told me, so I went straight to one of them and I asked him “are you Harem Scarem”, he told me “well, I’m the drummer but I guess so” (laughs) so we began to talk and they told us that they liked our version of “Distant memory” and if I wanted to join them the next day on the stage to sing “Sentimental boulevard”. I had never heard that song before but I said “Yes!!!”. So that night Bernardo lent me the “Mood swings” album and next evening I was singing with them!

I think you still do covers of various bands in concert, from Whitesnake to Madonna's old classics. Your music is shining like it did in the 80's too, I think. What do you think about current bands ?
Bernardo: I think there are very talented bands nowadays. It’s very important that people understand this: What’s the difference between today’s bands and 80’s bands? In my opinion it’s just the market. A band needs a lot of activity and continuity to have the point of maturity and to develop all their potential. Today that’s impossible as this kind of music is not on fashion like it was in the 80’s and musicians need to have regular jobs to live, for example. Without that restriction today’s bands will be the same talented and good as old ones.

From France, it seems that Spain become step by step the new 'sanctuary' for AOR music. Is it as important as it seems, and how would you explain this interest for that kind of music in your country ?
Fran: Well it’s not gold all that glitters. There are very good bands in Spain at the moment and there are some kind of AOR scene around here. To name a few, 91 Suite, Golden Farm and Skyline are very good Spanish bands. I think that we’ve never had all this movement around AOR as we have today, but the truth is that this is completely “underground”. There are not big media or companies helping this to grow up and it’s all done thru the internet and thanks to some people as Jose Herrera, a Spanish promoter, or the record company Vinny Records. It’s very hard for the bands to get some radio airplay or promotion. But as we make some noise we are getting a little bit of space for this music. Definitively the thing is growing up here, but it’s not a boom.

Will you tour this summer ?
Bernardo: No, but we’ll do it in the autumn.

Have you started to work on the next album yet, and when could we expect this upcoming cd ?
Bernardo: Ufff, yes we have began to write, we need the composition to survive but our main work now is to show and promote our first album “Colours”. We are trying hard to reach the more and wider number of people. We are also trying to reach people out of the scene, cos our experience shows us that lot of people use to like this type of music whether they know who is Harem Scarem or not. So, I can’t tell you when we’ll be working full for the second album.

Is there something you'd like to add ?
Bernardo & Fran: Well, to the readers: let’s give a chance to this “Colours” album. If you like it… perfect!, if not, well, it’s a good present to give to a friend ;-)

To you: Thanks a lot for doing what you’re doing: making this music alive & kicking!

A last thing: We invite you to have a visit to our website: www.webnexx.com where we have lot of info, pics, mp3s, etc…

More informations about NEXX

Photos : from the top : Bernardo Llobregat, Nexx, Patricia Tapia, Fran Rodriguez.

© Rockmeeting.com - July 2003