Sonora Depression, from Vallecas to Coachella: "Indie festivals have an elitist point and you don't see people from the neighborhood; I want to break with that"

Cristina Luis

Video: Reda Slafti

Photographs: Alberto Di Lolli

Updated Friday, March 8, 2024-08:24

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At the end of the 80s, a comic strip published in the magazine

El Jueves

conquered hundreds of readers.

In it,

Makinavaja

, a small-time criminal but with a righteous character, lives poorly in the slums of Barcelona while committing some misdeeds.

It is striking that

Marcos Crespo

(Madrid, 1997), the artist behind

Depresion Sonora

and born a few years after the end of the comic strip, has chosen the same title for his new EP.

"I spend a lot of time on the Internet and I'm very curious. I guess I would see it on some page or on TikTok. I liked the name and when I did a little research it caught my attention.

I'm not a criminal, but maybe in the most neighborhood part "

and I do identify with the picaresque

," he says.

But if that is striking, it is even more so to think that

he will be playing on one of the Coachella 2024 stages

.

Because if there is a festival in the world with the most brilli brilli, transparencies and influencers per square meter, it is this one.

Every spring, thousands of them gather in the California desert.

On their social media accounts they often do not even share a few seconds of any of the concerts.

The important thing is to be there and be seen.

And

the Madrid musician could not be more opposed to Californian glam performance.

He usually dresses dark, lowers his eyes when speaking and smiles only when he plays.

But she knows that it is a great opportunity to publicize her work.

Especially in Spain.

It's been making noise outside for a while.

"

It's quite strong, but I think it's going to be fun

. In just over three years of project I've already done two

sold out

tours in Latin America and one more in the USA. In the midst of these milestones it has ended up that they called us," he says proudly.

Their music, labeled as post-punk, has a lo-fi and dark edge.

His lyrics talk about the daily life of a twenty-something kid from the suburbs.

With a generational point and very accurate, they are far from the depression that the chosen stage name may a priori evoke.

"I put it as a play on words with the sound pressure of the speakers, but

I have been quite stigmatized for it

," he explains.

"I like it and I still think it's cool. Furthermore, I think that listening to me is the opposite of depression. People tend to evoke more the image of a hug or the sensation of something that accompanies you.

When you write, you vent, but always "I try to reach a positive point. Look for light within that darkness

," he adds.

"I have been stigmatized a lot by the name. But I always try to look for a positive point"

Although he has

more than 600,000 monthly listeners on Spotify

, he details that he has gotten here "quite by chance."

Explaining it, it seems more like a succession of them.

When he was a child, his father enrolled him in the Municipal Music School of Villa de Vallecas.

It didn't work because he wasn't good at it so he stopped going.

Later, an Italian cousin left a guitar in Madrid that he began to play sporadically.

And, as a teenager, he decided to go to classes to master her.

Until Covid arrived.

"

I have been writing songs since I was 16 but in the most absolute secrecy. At home and for myself

. But in the pandemic with the boredom I thought why not? I'm going to upload it to the Internet, I won't lose anything either," he says.

He published several songs, they were liked, and the wave began.

A snowball that grew little by little while he put aside his Telecommunications Engineering studies.

"Of course the neighborhood influences you

," he details the impact of everyday life in his lyrics.

"

But I think Vallecas is a little mythologized. Let's

see, it's crazy because suddenly you're from Vallecas and it's like: 'wow, you have my pass.' And if you're from San Blas, maybe you don't attract as much attention. But at the same time In the end, all the people of the southern suburbs have a lot in common," he adds.

And he details: "

In the end you live in Madrid but you are not a participant in that city that is supposed to be the center

. The economic resources that you see around you may not be the best or the highest and you have to always be moving around. transportation.

The opportunities are very different. You grow up differently

."

Where he doesn't see the impact of his streets so much is in the sounds he publishes.

And it is something that he recognizes bothers him.

"What is consumed massively and what is shown more on the periphery tends to be urban, reggaeton or mainstream things. I see it," he begins by explaining.

"I think Vallecas is mythologized. If you are from San Blas you don't attract as much attention"

Place some of the blame on what is displayed in certain environments.

"

You go to indie festivals and there are no people who are so neighborhood. I think it has an elitist point and I would like to break with that

. Music with instruments is seen as something elitist, but not at all. It has to be accessible to everyone the world," he points out bluntly.

In that sense, he points out:

"As artists, we have the job of telling the public what they have to hear

. "

For him, this involves creating a scene or creating collaborations between musicians so that listeners can grow progressively.

However, he acknowledges that it is difficult for him to feel "decontextualized within what Spain is."

"

I feel lost in a limbo. I don't know where to fit mine

. Because, of course, what perhaps has something more to do with it is aimed at an older or other type of audience. It's not that I'm not interested, but

I would like to reach those young people and make what I do more open

. I wonder a lot where I can fit in," he confesses.

He also tells a small anecdote that gives an example of the situation.

"In the end it ends up in you going to Galicia and making a room for 300 people, but then you travel to Los Angeles, very far from your home, and you make a

sold out

of 800. And it's because there is an audience there," he says.

Where he does feel widely supported is in Madrid.

On

Friday, March 22,

he will give a

concert at La Riviera as part of the

Bee Week

cycle

.

"I'm doing very well here. For me it's the most important show of the year. I'm going to go with a whole band of five musicians. It's my city and I want to spend the money and do it in a big way," he says excitedly.

And what about the rest of the cities?

"I take it as a challenge. In the end you're not going to get angry because who you do it with. You have to keep doing your thing and whatever has to come, will come," he says.