Estopa: "The love of work is a virus. Getting up early is fucking shit and those of us who have woken up early know that."

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This is not an interview. It should be, but it's impossible. It is always with David and José Muñoz (Cornellà, 1976 and 1978). In 2024 they will celebrate 25 years of Estopa with a new album, Estopía, and a tour of large venues whose tickets flew out as soon as they left. That's why this should be an interview with one of the most successful bands in the history of Spain, but as soon as the pshhh of a few cans of beer sounds when you open you know that you will end up again immersed in a priceless and uncontrollable bar chat with two guys who refused to change and succeeded. Many say it, they fulfill it.

QUESTION. You are a legend for a whole generation because you are still living like you did when we were 20.

DAVID. Quality of life is just that, living exactly the same as when we worked in the factory. We have our tastes and those don't have to change because we're older or better known. We like this [shakes his beer], not even the cubatas and cocktails.

JOSEPH. Well...

D. It's true, some people fall in the village, but we don't like boats.

J. Well...

D. Okay, if we're invited. No private plane. Well... [laughs]. Come on, our life is normal and for me the quality of life is to be in your neighborhood and to be able to go to the supermarket, to be able to go to the bar, to be able to go for a walk and for the child to go out and have a pedestrian place.

J. Just because we had more we weren't going to be happier than we are now.

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"As a friend tells me: I'm not much of an asshole for how much of an asshole I could be."

Q. Traditionally, being a music star comes with a certain extravagance.

D. I like my neighbourhood [Sant Ildefons, in Cornellà] so much, although now I'm somewhere else because I got married and left my father's house, who when I was a child was afraid that I would win the lottery.

J. Well...

D. Yes! I was so happy at home that I was overwhelmed that if I won the lottery, we would move. I had that fear: "Fuck, if it's Dad's turn, I'm sure we'll leave, but if it's my turn, we'll stay." Although, of course, then I thought: "But they would rob me, of course that's why they all leave" [laughs]. Childish thoughts that seem silly, but what I liked and like is being with my friends. Whoever has friends has a treasure, look at what a shitty phrase and what truth.

J. To have the goal in life of owning a Ferrari or a Porsche is superficial and absurd. Then, when you get it, you say, "Now what?"

D. It doesn't fill you up. Also, what do you do with a Ferrari in Cornellà or Barcelona? If you can't run. Where are you going, ghost?

P. In spite of everything, in the advance single of the album, 'El día que tú te marches', you repeat: "Youth is escaping me". Are you starting to worry?

D. We're extending it as long as possible. Stretching the gum.

J. We're doing well, which is important.

D. But our youth escapes us through our pores, our innocence escapes us.

J. For example, when we get up from the couch we say, "Ouch."

D. And when you sit down: "Ouch."

J. And if you've been drinking too much at night, in the morning you're really.

D. I do miss that. To throw myself out all night and in the morning go to work,, because it's not what I want, but in good condition. You'd throw miles and the next night, again. You were indestructible and unconscious. That escapes and is now unfeasible. Today we are fragile and worry about anything.

P. In fact, you were worried if you didn't sell the tickets for the concerts at the Metropolitano and Montjuïc and then they sold out in two hours.

D. Fuck, it's just that the Olympic hasn't touched any Spaniard. I've always tied up. I'm still nervous.

J. With each album or tour, we get more problems before we start.

D. I think we used to be drunk all day and didn't know anything. That helps a lot to run a career. Now we're less drunk because it's ugly and it looks bad, so we think about everything. The responsibility has caught up with us.

J. I wouldn't say that much. We used to be irresponsible and now we are less irresponsible.

D. We'd play at the Palau Sant Jordi and we'd say, "Normal." They signed us to the record company: "We're already singers, normal." We sold a million records: "Normal."

J. We signed with EMG and the president told us, "Well, you already have a house." I thought it was a house to live in, that they had bought us an apartment. "No, no, record company." And I said, "Wow, what a shit."

D. Now we realize how difficult it has been even if we didn't know about it.

P. Success found you, you weren't looking for it.

J. Nothing, zero. That's why we didn't want to assimilate it. It was better that way.

D. I was much happier. Now you think about it and see all the edges, the fucking pandemic made us assimilate a lot of things [laughs]. We've been like Inspector Gadget, who had everything go right by chance, bent down to pick a flower just as he was shot and the bullet grazed his hat and his niece was the one who did a bit of Good Bye Lenin for him.

J. Guardian angel.

D. I fixed everything for him without him knowing and in the end everything worked out. We've had an invisible niece and we've been Inspector Gadget. We've dodged the problems, the controversies and the awkward things without even realizing it.

J. We have listened to our spider sense to make decisions.

D. We've never liked to decide, in fact. It's very boring and on top of that it's stressful.

P. One of the advantages of being a star is that you have people around you who save you from making those decisions.

D. Sure, but the best thing about Sony, our managers and family is that they let us do whatever we want. On a musical level we are super free. Now that artists are asked so much if they have been censored, well, never us. We can do whatever we want: a punk song, a super-garrula Catalan rumba... Creative freedom makes me happy, but it's also dizzying.

Q. Do you still have vertigo?

D. Yes, with a lot of things. For example, selling two tickets or stopping writing good songs. The other day a colleague said to me: "Man, even if you don't make any more songs, you already have a repertoire and a great career." Apart from that, no one knows the albums that the Rolling Stones have released in recent years, they listen to them once and that's it. They go back to the 60s and 70s, but I want to keep making records.

J. And to feel alive.

D. And to feel alive. That's why we're celebrating the 25th anniversary with a new album and not a compilation. We'll make a compilation when we're dry. We'll sell it as "we want to review our career and modernize our songs," but the fucking reality is that we haven't come up with anything new.

P. On this tour it's going to be inevitable that you play the classics from the first album, with which you have a certain love-hate relationship.

D. We know it and we're going to do it. It's going to be time to do a revival, it's inevitable to recover songs that we did a few tours that we didn't play. We'd love to play the whole new album, which we really like, but we won't. It's a, but it's a 25th anniversary and we owe people those songs that meant a lot to them in other times.

J. In the end, we dream of a lot of happy or not-so-happy moments of people. See? Other responsibility.

Q. You made the music video with artificial intelligence. You grew up with '80s sci-fi and you know that usually ends badly. Aren't you afraid of AI?

D. No, man, I like it. Have you asked AI what can go wrong? The bitch responds to you. "When I become conscious, I'll finish you all off" [laughs]. Seriously, it's a language model that, used responsibly, is cool.

P. Superheroes, video games, science fiction, and fantasy dominate popular culture. The geeks of the 80s have conquered the world.

D. Totally. We were the weird ones and now we all geeks are: "Come, come, you sons of bitches, but come bare-faced." My colleagues used to laugh at me because I read Captain America and now they all like the movies. Now I'm going to be cool: I don't like movies, I like comics. And the role, fuck. I read The Lord of the Rings every now and then and spent my afternoons playing Cobra Empire. It's comforting to see that all of this has become popular. Now you say you're playing Alan Wake or Spider-Man 2 on the console, which is gorgeous, and you're like god.

Q: Do you feel part of that freak revolution?

J. Yes, inevitably. Before, the word geek was derogatory and now there is a pride in geek. I'm sorry.

D. And I. I'm very proud that a generation has realized that adventure, imagination and science fiction are the best and that reality is fucking shit. That's what I thought when I was growing up: reality sucks. That's why I read comics and books about hobbits and elves who saved the world. I still love it. I have a bunch of unread comics ready for the next pandemic. I don't trust it and I've built a nuclear bunker.

The Estopas watching life go by. Javi Martinez

Q. What is it about Baix Llobregat? You, Rosalía, Alizzz...

D. In fact, we've done two songs on the new album with Alizzz.

J. Es una zona muy rica culturalmente porque ha venido gente de todos los lugares de España y se juntan culturas, gustos, estilos...

D. Antes de Andalucía, Galicia y Extremadura. Ahora paquistaníes, chinos, marroquíes, peruanos... Cornellà ahora es la polla. Es increíble lo que mola la mezcla y lo triste que es quien la critica y la rehuye. Un pueblo en el que todo el mundo es igual, es un pueblo de mierda. No tiene vida.

P. ¿Cómo habéis mantenido la conciencia de clase estando forrados?

J. Porque siempre hemos estado forrados [risas].

D. I don't like to say I'm lined, we're not that lined compared to Florentino Perez either.

P. I don't know if Florentino has a lot of class consciousness.

D. How could it not? Yours. He doesn't forget that one. In my case, maybe it's because I've always gone with the weak, with the poor, with the baddest team. I watched the NBA and always went with the one who lost.

J. Well, and with the Lakers.

D. Yes, that too. Anyway, class consciousness is something that serves you as well. It's not something that you have out of solidarity, it's that it helps you to be happier.

J. To give the right value to things, see that the basics are friendship, health and little else.

D. That, too, is belonging. There are people who have a feeling of belonging to a country, but I don't. Neither Catalonia nor Spain give me goosebumps. I get goosebumps from the people in my neighborhood, though. I feel part of a community of townspeople. I don't get the town itself, but to be part of it.

J. Exactly. Growing up in Cornellà has taught us not to live pretending to be things we are not.

D. Although in Cornellà there are a lot of ghosts too, eh. That they bought a stroller and put disco speakers on it.

J. Yes, but a posh person from Cornellà is not a posh person from La Moraleja or Pedralbes. That goes without saying.

Q. How have you raised your children in this dichotomy between success and humility?

J. Well, this is an issue that has concerned us, that they grow up as normal children and not as 'children of', because that is not good.

D. When you have children, you suddenly start thinking about the future. I was always up to date, I didn't care about polluting, why are we going to fool ourselves. The future was none of my business and I was selfish. Now I recycle like a madman, because you want to leave the child a better world and, above all, teach them that things cost a job, that many times they don't come and not give them everything that has fallen from the sky. It's the basics. That and that he does what he likes, that is the great luxury I can give my son. That's why I told him to study philosophy, which is his passion.

J. That's it. Those careers that other parents may say have no way out.

D. ESADE. Son, fuck you, don't study ESADE. Not giving up his vocation for theoretical professional opportunities is the luxury that I can give him. The money we have is for that, for my son to be happy. I don't educate him in the culture of work. The love of work is a strange virus that invades the West. "He's married my daughter and he's a hard worker." So what? Do you like to work? Well, it's silly.

J. " God helps those who get up early." It's just that what an stupid phrase. Getting up early is fucking shit and those of us who have gotten up early know that. There is no doubt that the best thing about having worked in music has been to stop doing it. That's the good life change.

D. I hate to say it, but not setting your alarm clock is the best feeling on the planet.

J. I wear it so I don't go too far because I have no limits.

D. What do you wear, at 12:30?

J. First thing in the morning. At one o'clock.

D. Work is something that has to be done for fuck sake, but don't let them tell us that it's cool and that it gives meaning to life because it's a lie unless you have a very sad life.

Q. How do you deal with the clichés about you?

D. Not bad. It's been 25 years and the same stories are still happening to us. We've been told everything: garrulos, quinquis, catetos... All the synonyms you can think of. They don't realize that this makes us so proud that, if they want to screw us, all they have to do is call us posh or sellouts. So we messed it up. Don't tell me posh that I'm blowing you up [laughs]. If you want to insult us, call us posh.

Q. How do you see all the controversy with the amnesty in Catalonia?

D. We are not independent, we are people who believe that we can all get along within the State and that there can be a fit. I don't dislike the independents per se or those who shout "Spain one and not 51", what I believe in both cases is that messages of great hatred are being launched. When I see people so about the issue of amnesty and not being able to put Puigdemont in jail, what surprises me is the degree of anger. I don't know if I like Puigdemont or not, but don't get so angry. You can be for or against amnesty and that's okay. We can live without agreeing, we just have to know how to respect.

J. I agree that we have to lower our pulses, but we are two ordinary citizens and this has to be solved by the politicians because the tension is getting out of hand.

D. The bad hatred and hatred generated by the amnesty is also partly the fault of the media. On the street there isn't that much, but there can end up if everything is magnified from the loudspeaker of a TV or a newspaper. There are four who shout that Spain is a fascist state, just as there are four who now believe that amnesty breaks up Spain. Neither one nor the other. I would slow down the message a little and let everyone have their opinion without wanting to kill the one who is against it.

P. With you, another positive message from David and Joseph. Come on, seriously, you're hiding something dirty.

D. One day the truth about us will be known.

J. You'll see when our dark side comes out.

D. What's up, no organ trafficking or express kidnappings.

J. We have trolls, like everyone else, but it's true that our number is quite low for what people we know normally have. Besides, what they tell us is the garrulous thing and such, so we even like it. Once there was a fuss that we put the gay pride flag logo a little crooked.

D. It turns out that we had put Estopa on the flag, it wasn't quite straight and the club was knocking, but then our crooked flag has become a gay icon. I've seen bags and a thousand things with her. It's amazing.

Q. Do you think about legacy and those intense things?

D. The imprint [laughs]. You know the worst? I do think about it and the truth is that I like it. How can you not be cool to know that there are some of your songs that will continue to be played long after you die?

J. Mostly because our children will charge for it.

D. That too, but I believe that leaving a good mark is the meaning of life. It has to make some sense and maybe it's enough that they don't say about you: "He was a son of a bitch, thank goodness he died".

J. That's why we talk about everyone with respect so we don't have enemies, but in petit Comité we cut some costumes that you love. Just kidding, kidding...

D. Or not.

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