In 20 years, Queer It still sounds weird.
20 years after Queer, The Quartet of Us returns to one of the albums that marked a before and after in its history. In an interview, we spoke with Roberto Mussovocalist of the band, on the live session anniversary special that recreates the universe of the album and the presentation on November 21 at the Sports PalaceMexico City.
Indie Rocks! Magazine: Let’s talk about 20 years of Queer. So, one of our obligatory questions is, How do you relisten to the album? Queer after all this time?
Roberto Musso: You know the story is very strange Queerbecause we are actually doing this, in quotes, celebration. But from now on, because we have an album with many of the songs, I would tell you that we have been playing them since 2006 without stopping until now. And they are part of the set lead of the band’s songs that are untouchable.
Let’s say, “I don’t know what to do with myself anymore”, “Going to Damián’s house”, “Winter of ’92”. They are songs that are still very, very current. In other words, it is not a revisiting of the album after 20 years, but rather it is like seeing it from the band’s present day to what the quartet’s career was like 20 years ago.
Because it was above all an album that marked a before and after for the band historically. A band that until that moment was totally regional here in Uruguay and a little bit in Buenos Aires. But from Queer It was that it opened the door for us to go outside the borders, let’s say.
But it is an album that has always remained valid. That’s why it doesn’t bring me nostalgia, because we have never lost it.
GO!: It is a record that is always present in the setlistare the hymns that have accompanied many generations. But, other than that, how much does Cuarteto de Nos listen to Cuarteto de Nos’s music?
RM: Look, you know what? Little, actually. Because it happens to us that I spend so much time with the songs, especially from the compositional phase, that I am making them and I spend months and months with the song, making the demos.
Then there are several weeks of rehearsing the songs, then there are several weeks in the studio and then playing them. I don’t feel like listening to any part of that. But it does surprise me a lot when I go to an interview on a radio or when I happen to be, I don’t know, to tell you something, in a supermarket, I love listening there.
But I’m not one to play the songs themselves. The Quartetlet’s say. Above all because it is a very current work, that seems to me.
GO!: Fully entering the live session that you just launched, how did you decide to celebrate these 20 years in this way?
RM: I don’t know if you know a community more beautiful than the one in Quartetfrom fans. I feel proud to have it. The creativity of fans QuartetI wish they wrote the songs for me, surely better songs will come out than the ones I make.
It’s impressive. And everything that is the world that we have created together with them and with the lyrics, especially the reference quartets, was a bit of the starting point for the script that we had in mind. We wanted to get out of the common place, from the typical live session, type Tiny Deskthat vibe that is very popular, which is the band playing at a show, but in a more restricted environment.
We wanted to make it a little more different. We came up with the idea of it taking place in the apartment of the character of Queerbecause you saw that inside the vinyl, when originally viewed, there are some photos of Queerof the character. We call him Queer to the character, let’s say.
Which is in the kitchen, which is in his bedroom. So we kind of recreated that apartment and thought it would be a birthday for him, who probably doesn’t have many friends because he’s a pretty strange person. It must not have been a fun party at all, the way he likes it and the way we like it.
Look, there are few people, there is a piece of cake, there is a sandwich, something. And that he was there Quartet there playing, in his living roomhalf listless, you saw that we were as if it were a rehearsal, half oblivious to what was happening, but being close to him, let’s say. And with a lot of those quartet-references that are often surreal, like what happens in the corridor outside the apartment, you saw the goat passing by, the delivery man comes dressed as a stubborn man, the characters come.
Surreal things happen there that we also loved the idea of.
GO!: You can see this intention behind it being something different, even from the positioning of the camera, of also taking risks in things like how the story is constructed, it seems that now artists are required to have something more to tell, as if music were not already enough of a work to pay attention to.
RB: What you say is very good, yes. But you know what comes naturally to us, right? Because I think that with the quartet we already feel self-demanding at all, but it is true that the people in the quartet expect a song that is catchy, that has a good rhythm, that is rocking, that has a connection with the people, that has good lyrics, a lot of things, that there the quartet combo is put together, let’s say, right?
But when these types of actions are a little different, it motivates us a lot to be able to put a little thought and our own thinking into it, because the public is also very grateful for getting out of that, from the commonplace, let’s say, knowing that the quartet gives them something that they appreciate a lot, it seems to me. And I tell you more, the sound, the audio, was recorded directly, and we didn’t touch anything. It was also an idea that at one point we thought about leaving it, we left it somewhat untidy, as if it were a rehearsal, and we said yes, why not?
Why aren’t we with The Quartet out there, let’s say? I think people understood that very well, right?
GO!: Within the comments of this release there was one that I loved, which said, “I experienced the premiere as just another concert, which was like, this premiere was so exciting, this session was so exciting, as if they were going to see them live”, how do you achieve all this?
RM: Look, I also found it interesting that, precisely, we have always been on the edge of risk with the quartet, which is something that we have always liked, because sometimes it goes well and sometimes it goes wrong. But if you don’t take risks, you don’t surprise, and if you don’t surprise, you bore. The equation is a bit like this.
And it occurred to us that being, that you have already touched a live session with us, to tell you something, with the clothes of a show, with the posture of a rock show, but in that environment, or in any other environment, it was much nicer to offer the fan an intimate place like that, who never sees us, never sees me singing sitting down, there had never been, see the quartet in a room living roomplaying like when we rehearsed.
So we thought it would be interesting to give it that visual chance that is totally different from when we go to see a show.
GO!: Tell us about the role of the producer in Queernot only from the album but in this live session.
RM: Yes, yes, yes, on one hand there was the record producer, the music producer, let’s say, of the album Queerwhen we recorded it in 2006, which was Juan Campodónicowho appears, you saw that he appears at one point, we invite him, he shoots the dart well. I think there are two characters who deserve a Oscar for the performance, which are alvinwhen she calls Grandma, where she leaves the sugar on top of the closet, and then Juan Campodónicoare the ones who act best, it seems to me, in the live session.
But I tell you, at the level of when the recording was, Juan It had a predominant role, I would tell you, right? Because he was the one who had a bit of the idea in his head of the sound of a rock band, but singing hip hop songs, and with a sound that to this day, you try to listen to it, it sounds as if it had been recorded last week, it has an incredible freshness, right? On the other hand, that was on the musical side.
In this live sessionactually the musical production was how we are playing the songs live. There was no extra hand, let’s say, on the consoles or anything, because it was played by us. And at the level of the more visual part itself, yes, the people of Lion Pairwhich is a producer here from Uruguay who works very well, and with her it was all the back and forth of the video script, which was quite a challenge, you see?
Because it was a pov of point of view, throughout the entire session, which for them was something super risky, because they had never done it before, but I think they solved it phenomenally.
GO!: Five very special dates are coming up, one of them Mexico City, what can you tell us about this presentation?
RM: Mexico City could not be left out, it is obviously one of the most popular cities in the world. Quartetwhere we feel most loved in all of Latin America, see? So when, actually when we define the five shows, these unique ones, which I want to emphasize that they really are unique, because it is going to be an event that coincides with the launch of Doors about the end, but also with these 20 years of Queerwhich will have a special capsule, and a totally different staging from that of Doorswe are doing something that is only for these shows in Mexico, Bogotá, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires and Montevideo, right? So we’re really excited about that idea of, what’s it called? A kind of happening, you see?
Those issues that exist and dissolve and no longer exist, and that he saw it, he saw it, and that he didn’t see it, bad luck, let’s say, right? So, very excited about taking the show to Mexico City, which apart from that I have the most beautiful memories, right? From the shows in the national culture, then the last sports space, they are emblematic and iconic places for He Quartet.
GO!: It happens that El Cuarteto de Nos embraces a lot of generations. Have you experienced, for example, the change of generational direction in your concerts?
RM: Yes, and it seems that something much crazier is happening, that it is the children who lead their parents. Which is the other way around, that is, because many generations, especially here in the State of Uruguay and Argentina, already knew us a little better, but the generation, perhaps, of the parents did not know us as the Quartet. So it’s the teenage boy or teenage girl who meets the Quartetshows the father or mother, and they say, what these people sing is not so bad.
So they accompany them. Look, this is the most common thing that has happened when we contact them, see? It happens to be the father or mother who knows the Quartet through their children, which is the opposite of what generally happens with rock bands.
GO!: Thank you for this time, with what message do you invite all the people of Mexico to see this live session and attend the next concert?
RM: Well, inviting you to the show we are going to have That’s how I ama unique show, which we will only be performing in five cities in Latin America with a special staging, with a lot of focus on the 20 years of Queerbut also singing the usual songs of the Quartet. So well, we’ll wait for everyone at the Sports Palace.
Dale play to He Quartet Of Us presenting “Raro (Live Session) 20th Anniversary”
