The diversity of Spanish music will be present in the next edition of South by Southwest in Sounds from Spain. For the first time this platform, created to export the Spanish music, will attend the famous festival which takes place in Austin (Texas) from 12th to 16th March.

Sounds from Spain will give a sample of alternative music from different parts of Spain in South by Southwest. Dorian, Love of Lesbian, Jet Lag, Mala Rodríguez, We Are Standard and Remate & Loco Band will perform at this important market on a world level.

Apart from all this, the Sounds from Spain pavilion will hold the presence of a great number of Spanish companies. This platform has become a fundamental tool for companies from cultural sectors that want to begin to export and become known around the world. The Spanish presence at South by Southwest is added to the participation in other international markets such as Midem at Cannes, Popkomm at Berlin, Musik Messe at Frankfurt and Womex, specialised in world music, with the aim of promoting the Spanish music.

On this occasion the stand will be set up by the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX), the Fundación Autor of the Spanish Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers (SGAE), and Promomadrid, the international economic promotion agency of the Madrid Region.

Sounds from Spain is also supported by the Spanish Association of Music Publishers (AEDEM), the Spanish Artist Managers, Artist Agents and Concert Promoters Association (ARTE), the Spanish Music Producers’ Association (PROMUSICAE) and the National Association of Independent Record Labels from Spain (UFI).

Venues and dates for the Spanish performers in ‘Sounds from Spain’

On Wednesday 12th March, the Spanish participants will be Mala Rodríguez, who will play at 02:30 pm on the Day Stage, Jet Lag, who will play at 08:00 pm in BD Riley’s and Dorian, who will play at 01:00 am in Copa. On Thursday 13th March, a Spanish Party will take place in Brush Square, where Dorian, Jet Lag, Love of Lesbian, Mala Rodríguez, Remate & Loco Band and We Are Standard will be performing from 02:00 pm to 06:00 pm. At 1:00 am, Mala Rodríguez will play again in the Flamingo Cantina.

On Friday 14th March, at 10:00 pm Remate & Loco Band will play in Habana Annex. And finally, on Saturday 15th March, We Are Standard (10:00 pm in Habana Annex) and Love of Lesbian (1:00 am in Fado Patio) will bring the first Spanish participation in South by Southwest to a close.

Whatsmore, there will also be other performances by Spanish bands: Cápsula in BD Riley’s on 12th March, Delorean, also on the 12th March in Maggie Mae’s and Num9 in the party organized by the Spanish record label Acuarela in Habana Annex on 14th March.

About South by Southwest

The festival South by Southwest (SXSW) has taken place in the town of Austin (Texas) since 1987. It’s a musical meeting where conferences, meetings, and concerts, lots of concerts are organised. The event was an initiative taken by a group of professional musicians. For five days all possible bars and venues in Austin are packed with music 24hours a day. Hundreds and hundreds of groups from all over the world –big and small, like REM, The BlackCrowes, Radio 4, Nada Surf, The Presidents of the United States will also perform during the festival. More information is available on http://www.sxsw.com

About the bands

DORIAN (Pias Records)
The way forward for this Catalan band who were desperate to make different, personal pop music, hasn’t been easy. They started off in 2002 with the common necessity of developing a sound which would combine traditional Spanish pop music with  contemporary electronic music and it didn’t take them long to find people echoing their style. In 2003, they won their first prize in the ‘concurso de maquetas’ at the Festival Zorrock where they shared the stage with the first people to make independent  music in Spain (Los Planetas and Sexy Sadie amongst others)
Later, they performed in O’Porto (Portugal), MIFOC in the Balkans, and through numerous performances throughout Spain, which gave the band a solid base. 10.000 Metrópolis (Bip Bip Records – K Industria – 2004), an extraordinary and very personal debut record showed the premature maturity of Dorian, who managed to win over critics and the songs like Solar or Te echamos de menos,  enormous hits which even today have been incorporated in at least twelve compilations and continue to thrill people everywhere.
In 2005, Bip Bip Records released a new edition of 10.000 Metrópolis – 10.000 Metrópolis Remixes – which included an album of remixes of their most popular songs. These were revised by some of the best DJs on the scene today, among them are DJ Undo (Razzmatazz / The Loft), Ferenc (Nitsa – Apolo) and DJ Coco (Nitsa – Apolo).
Two years after the record debut, Dorian are still involved in an extensive tour which has enabled them to perform in some of the best clubs and at some of the best festivals (Benicassim, Primavera Sound, Expresa Pamplona, Festival Do Norte, Festival Tendencias, Indirama, Low Club, Razzmataz, Apolo, Stereo, El Cau, Festival BAM...) while they’re still absorbed in the recording of their second work, which is being produced by Dive Divosso (7 Notas  7 Colores / La Mala Rodríguez / Tote King) and Ferenc.

LOVE OF LESBIAN (Naïve Records)
This band has been going for ten years since they were chosen by Robert Smith (The Cure) to accompany him on his tour. After a while, the group from Barcelona converted themselves into something more obvious and definitive in Cuentos Chinos para Niños del Japón; their fifth album and their second in Spanish.
Their latest work is a bit more serious than their first record in Spanish, Maniobras de Escapismo, very creative and original which situated them in the top few national bands in 2005.
The songs included in Maniobras de Escapismo (Naïve, 2005) succeeded in attracting a public who wanted spring songs (all of the records were edited in spring) they discovered overpowering lyrics about everyday situations expressed in an original way, by changing the language, they reached a bigger audience.
Having solved the skill of elegance and the trick of escapism in what they got involved in; Cuentos para Niños de Japón also became a portrait of everyday life with a language rich in nuances and free from stereotypes which invite us to ponder; to make the lesbian world something tangible and not far away. All of this mixed with delicate catchy melodies and a palette of colours which go through the whole spectrum from dull colours right through to bright landscapes.

JET LAG (Bittersweet Records)
We’re not going to bore you with stories of big bands who are obliged to change their singer and then go on to producing their best pieces of work (or even with those who gave up)... The thing is Jet Lag continued: Ramiro Nieto got up from his stool at the drums and went towards the front row of the audience, with the microphone in his hand. It wasn’t easy, but there are no traces in his voice of a responsibility which could have gripped anyone. That voice really did denote decision, fragile sweetness, conviction and love towards the new songs.
‘Collecting some more beautiful scars’, Hate will Make Us Free. This wink to their second album, Beautiful Scars, resumed the attitude of Jet Lag to perfection. Forever is their fourth work, but it’s also the first in a new stage, and that’s how it should be understood: not as a split, but as a change. Recorded by Paco Loco – the sixth member, in fact- in his studio in Cadiz, Forever proves that you don’t have to go to the other side of the world to record an album if you have the vocation to jump barriers and do whatever you have to do to get there, call yourself Wilco or Delco (the debut that Ramiro Nieto produced of the Madrid band). It’s topical, but not because of this, what is important at the end of the day is to have good songs which you can put under your belt and continue collecting ‘Beautiful scars’. And of these – be they acoustic, with violins, with an American wrapping... there’s a good number of them in Forever. Sweet and sour and hopeful, melancholic and playful. Forever is, above all, a pretty pop record, said Darío Manrique.

MALA RODRÏGUEZ (Universal Music Spain)
This girl from Jerez went to live in Madrid at 19. At this time she edited her first work, the maxi A Jierró. Her second work was a maxi single Yo marco el minuto / Tambalea in 1999. After this she had her first successful LP, Lujo iberico (2000) of which more than 50,000 copies were sold and so she achieved her first Gold Record. Three years later, she presented Alevosía (2003).
With this work, she managed to achieve another Gold Record. In 2006, she edited a maxi titled Por la Noche which included three versions of the same song. And the instrumental part was produced by Supernafamacho. With this maxi she became number one in the lists. Last year she recorded a song Mala Suerte con El 13, with the Puertorican MC Residente Calle 13. In the same year, she produced her record Malamarisimo with the collaboration of Julieta Venegas, Tego Calderón and Raimundo Amador.
After beating all records with her single Por la Noche, Mala Rodríguez presents her most complete product. Malamarisimo is the most complete work of hers, recorded between Puerto Rico, New York, Los Angeles and Spain. It’s not often that an adjective acquires the category of noun and then becomes a proper name.
It’s not often that a woman can represent a privileged place in society without anyone doubting her place. It’s not easy to combine art and sensitivity in the form of a song. And only this once does a woman rise and rightly so, to the top of the world with her rights and original point of view. María Rodríguez has closed the circle with her magic. Her words are left hanging in the air and take form after the inevitable silence to stay in the deepest parts of those who listen. Mala well knows how to adapt to new sensitivities.

WE ARE STANDARD (Mushroom Pillow)
For We Are Standard things started in the right place at the right time. They recorded a demo CD in their practice studio without any concrete expectations and the won the demonstration project at the Benicasin Festival. This meant that people noticed them and soon after they signed their first contract and published their first work 3.000v 40.000w.
The record gave off some fantastic vibrations and that helped them to play live on a continuous tour from day one. Their strange rhythms and their two drums and the energy they give off owned them the generalized comments of ‘the best Spanish live group’. The specialized press was delighted with them. We Are Standard could be our own Arctic Monkeys. MONDO SONORO, as if it was all hype, We Are Standard’s career has been like a meteorite. LA LUNA DE METROPOLI-EL MUNDO, We Are Standard has given that massive jump that has taken them up in the air, but they’ve never lost sight of the Earth. GO MAGAZINE: We Are Standard come from Getxo and they’ve turned into one of the new revelations of this season. With the mega hit On the floor, the first part of the album is simply amazing…’ ABC. They went to all possible festivals in Spain, Japan, France and other European countries. The result of this was that they were able to take part in the Eurosonic Festival in Holland.
In 2006 they received the Premio Ojo Crítico de Radio Nacional de España as best group of the year. Recently, they’ve edited The Mpossible Mixes with remixes, versions and group video. Meanwhile they are still taking the party wherever they are called, like the latest edition of Popkomm (2007) with Sounds from Spain.

REMATE & LOCO BAND (Acuarela Discos)
Remate is a musician who was educated in classical music since he was a small child. His first hero was a heroine, a skinny Bielorrusian piano teacher, who taught him to play the piano for hours without his wrists hurting. His second hero was a South African guitar teacher with a curly toupée who taught him the importance of posture if he wanted to be a famous guitarist.
After these pre-Olympics, he became a singer and songwriter without limits: from folk to blues, from rock to gospel, from country to pop, always with the ambition of the one who knows that you must deserve your own influences, and that having style means much more than quoting other stylists. His principal characteristics are, apart from playing the piano without his wrists or fingers or feet hurting, and having acquired a good posture with the guitar, to be a very good singer, sometimes high-pitched and keen.
After On junk, his third record, a cocktail of Kurt Wagner from Lampchop and Wagner without Kurt (without doubt, he’d have a voice as cavernous as his operas). The process, of course, has meant he’s been taken on by Acuarela for a brand new work created like a labour of love. Land Recordings, his new double album with 25 songs is jam-packed with clouds of latex, gigantic wings, toxic love, dinosaurs, enemies, falls, one-eyed  singers, songs that flee,  pain in vain, kittens and beautiful women, love at first sight, howls, fireflies, propeller beanies, TV shows, sports, calls, Superman, glowing colours, bankruptcy, tenderness, mends.
Split in two CDs baptized as Beetle and Bird one can see that it’s a work of art and a dazzling personality. Their morphology and dynamics go beyond these recordings, in which we find several collaborators such as Loco Band, that is Paco Loco, Muni Camón and Pablo Errea, also Carlos Toronado ad Kike Pierrot from Pal, and even Gary Louris and the Jayhawks.

Madrid, 03rd March 2008
Further information: SGAE
Phones: +34 91 349 9774/ 73/75. Email: prensa@sgae.es
Web: www.sgae.es    www.fundacionautor.org