Everything indicates that the time has finally come to reevaluate the group’s three-decade career. ANIMALthan on his brand new album extreme underwear It has the participation of a genuine selection of personalities who have declared themselves fans and have agreed to participate in the returns of their most famous songs.
For example figures like Lali Esposito, León Gieco, Andrés Calamaro, Abel Pintos, Ca7riel, Juanes, Enrique Búnbury, Draco Rosa, Los Auténticos Decadentes, Chizzo Napoli, Neo Pistea, Alejandro Lerner, Agarrate Catalina, Lula Bertoldi and the Mexicans Rubén Albarrán and Alex Loraamong others.
The key behind such a call is Andrés Giménezthe charismatic leader of the hardcore band that conquered Latin America in the 90s and became a rock classic.
According to Giménez, “30 years of ANIMAL is something historic and unthinkable at the same time. we spent difficult times and moments of glory, separations and reunions, but the group has always remained alive in their fans. This made us want to celebrate this anniversary in a different way.”
The ANIMAL lineup for this project was: Andrés (vocals and guitar), Marcelo Castro (drums and percussion), Cristian Lapolla (bass and vocals) and Osko Cariola (programming and keyboards).
“They all said yes”
“In one way or another -Andrés says- I have always had contact with all these great musicians whom I have now invited to record. I used to see them at a festival or even write to them to say hello. And now, at the end of the pandemic, they I called one by one to tell them about the project and I was lucky that everyone said yes.”
-No one can imagine that you have Lali’s number in your diary.
-The story is that I met his mother, who is a makeup artist, when she was shooting a video for De La Tierra. She asked me to greet her daughter Lali with her phone, because she liked her ANIMAL a lot. The next day I discovered that it was Lali Esposito, who would have come to visit us at Cemento with her older sister! From there, a beautiful friendship began. And when she finished recording this song she said to me, “Nigger, another dream come true in my life, I recorded it with ANIMAL, thank you.”
How did you get the idea to undertake such a project?
-I’m in a phase of my life where I try to be happy, not only musically but as a philosophy of life. The pandemic has shown us all that life can change at any moment, from black to white. -Everything started there, because I realized that it had been 30 years since we made ANIMAL. I had many new songs and thought to record them as soon as possible, but on the other hand I thought that coming out with new songs was not the best thing to celebrate 30 years after a pandemic and not play for two years.
-And how did the guest list come about?
-First I started listening to ANIMAL songs again, and I thought about making a reversions album and working on the electronic part inside ANIMAL, which hadn’t gone that deep. I like Nine Inch Nails and also Paul Oakenfold, so I decided to play it without fear, I looked for Osko, from 202 and Santos Inocentes, as a partner, who is a friend, we understand each other a lot and we already worked together on the previous album ANIMAL ,. It sounded like a very crazy idea, but he liked it.
Later I told him that I imagined guests in every song and he imagined metal people, but I mentioned Draco, Juanes, Lali, El Tri, Chizzo, León, Calamaro, Búnbury, Ca7riel and Neo. “And how do we do it?”, he asked me, because everyone is in different record companies. “Without the companies”, I replied, and started calling them one by one, because I have telephones.
-Maybe it was easy because during the pandemic everyone was at home, bored.
-But it was done when they opened the pandemic and they were all on tour! With some we recorded together, others preferred to record in their studio and send their part. Communication with phones was deadly, because we constantly talked to each other on WhatsApp and video calls. Lali, for example, was in Spain. And when I realized I finished the album, with all these monsters.
There was just one person who told me she couldn’t do it because she was giving birth, and I left the song out. It was Mon Laferte e Away from home.
“Every version has something special”
-What do you think is the furthest theme from the original version?
–crazy professionalthat of the Decadents, I think it’s brilliant because it sounds like funk music from old series like the streets of san francisco or Baretta.
The truth is that all versions have something special. My district, with Neo Pistea and Ca7riel, has much of the original but is carried elsewhere, to the generation of Public Enemy and House of Pain. version of Revolution with Lali it is supreme.
Listening to Calamaro or Chizzo and Alex Lora is brilliant. Enter Draco’s voice slave of illusion It is a beauty because it has left a beautiful imprint on it. I dubbed Juanes’ voice to make him sound more like Ozzy! Y Combative of Bunbury has all the histrionics of his voice.
It seems to me that there are little strawberries, but each song has a beautiful aura of interpretation and genius from the artists. For example inside Miraclesung by Roco di Maldita and Rubén di Café Tacvba, where it is something very strong to have those two lifelong friends who, unusually, had never done anything together.
-The result is like a celebration of ANIMAL history, isn’t it?
-Yup. Now I really want to play live again and tour with this record, because I haven’t played for a year. With this record I understood what ANIMAL means, because everyone explained to me why he accepted, and told me how important ANIMAL was to them.
Juanes told me that he first saw the group in 1998 and admired us! I told him how big it was and how small we were in comparison, and he asked me never to say it again because he was so embarrassed. “That you don’t realize it,” he said, “is another thing.”
-You hadn’t taken size.
-Exactly. And when I called Agarrate Catalina, several members sent me pictures of themselves at one of our shows. Those things are deadly!
I think this ANIMAL album may or may not like it, but I’m sure it will last in history. It is an album that closes 30 years of career in a very representative way, beyond the comings and goings and separations of the components. Many people will rediscover, value and understand what ANIMAL was and what it is.
“I don’t believe in coincidences”
-ANIMAL, has always been an important group for a specific audience and rock connoisseurs. Do you think these guests will give you more recognition?
-I never finished realizing it, but I started realizing it from this record. I’d hang up the phone and start crying! And if I was with someone they asked me why I was crying, if they had accepted, and I explained that I was moved that such rude people said yes. Impossible not to get excited when something like this happens.
In life, things happen for a reason. I don’t believe in chance or luck, but in chance and work. From then on, I always went to a person who, if he had an idea, would set about making it happen.
-How would you define ANIMAL?
-Besides being my life, ANIMAL, has always been a pioneering band to open doors. It is reality, whether or not those who like it like it. We were always born pattern breakers. We have never been a bunch of repeating formulas.
It was the band that allowed the brain to open up to metal on a Latin American level. We have been criticized many times, but it didn’t bother me because it is the cause and effect of being the spearhead, in fact.
The list of songs and guests
- 1) Aura – ANIMAL & Lula Bertoldi (Eruca Sativa)
- 2) Crazy pro – feat ANIMAL. The authentic decadents
- 3) Combative – ANIMAL feat. bunbury
- 4) Slave of illusion – ANIMAL feat. pink dragon
- 5) Revolution – ANIMAL feat. lali
- 6) Sun – ANIMAL feat. Gustavo “Chizzo” Napoli (La Renga) & Alex Lora (El Tri)
- 7) Trying to reach the sun – ANIMAL feat. Abel Pintos
- 8) The new path of man – ANIMAL feat. Andres Calamaro & Leon Gieco
- 9) Miracle – ANIMAL feat. Rubén Albarrán (Café Tacvba) and Roco Pachukote (Maldita Vecindad)
- 10) My Neighborhood – ANIMAL feat. Neo Pistea, Ca7riel and Alejandro Taranto
- 11) Prisoners of oblivion – ANIMAL & Santiago Cruz
- 12) Horror – ANIMAL, Matamba and Lucybell
- 13) A reason to keep going – ANIMAL feat. Alexander Lerner
- 14) Real – feat ANIMAL. wait Catalina
Source: Clarin
