NEXX (Chris Green)

Spanish band Nexx have just released their debut album via Now & Then and if you hanker after another Heart album try this band! One of the best female fronted melodic rock bands to come along in years. They return to the UK for the Gods at the end of May. Over to bass player Jose...

1. What are you currently up to?

At the present time we are prepairing the release of our first and new album "Colours", so that means promotion, advertisement (poster & t-shirts design), interviews, etc... quite busy. At the same time we are spending a lot of time closed in our rehearsals room, rehearsing the shows of this new album presentation: May 25th in England (at the Gods of AOR festival) and June 21st in Madrid. We are going to try to keep all the things in the right way to leave people happy after the shows and with a wish of listening our songs at home too.

2. Who were your influences?

My biggest influence, without any doubt, thou maybe you can't appreciate in the album, is The Beatles, and more specific, Paul McCartney. I have been following his career since a lot of time ago. I think he is not a virtuous bass player but I like a lot his way of writting music and the sensibility of his interpretations. That is not an easy thing to have. In a rock context, there's a band that I've been following too and is a great influence to me when conceiving my own songs. They are Harem Scarem. I think they are a very original band. Another things that have a lot of influence in my career are: beer (sometimes too much), Pamela Anderson, Carmen Elektra, Austin Powers films...

3. Brief history of the band plus the style of music you play.

Nexx started as a band in Madrid in the Summer of 1999. It was an original project of Bernardo and me, who already had in mind who the other members of the band should be. They were: Oscar, who worked with me in other projects and Fran, a childhood friend of Bernardo, who at the first moment only entered in the band to help us for a little time. The original idea was searching for a male singer, but after we got tired in the search of the perfect male vocalist we decided to try female singers. We had a couple of ones until we recruited Patricia (who had recorded before our first demo only as a special guest, to do us a favour). Then we started to play in small clubs, and after having great fun and enjoying a lot our time clubbing in Madrid, some fans requested us to record our first demo with own songs.So we did, and since that moment everything has been shows and composition work, until Now & Then offered us a contract and we started to record our first album "Colours" The style of the band is a mixture of the all members' influences. At the beginning we only agreeded in one thing: we all wanted to do something melodic. So, it was difficult to put in common our personal influences as each one of as has its own musical taste and this has caused some fights in the rehearsal room!!! (laughs). In my opinion I find in Nexx a very personal melodic rock. I can't define exactly our style so I would only like to say that we're not a band behind a female vocalist, something that happens often with some of the female fronted stars.

4. What has been the highlight(s) and lowpoint(s) of your career to date?

We haven't had enough time as a band to have got lot of ups and downs. Maybe, in my opinion, one of the highest point of our career has been playing at the Gods of AOR 2001 show. Just because it was the moment when Mark Ashton put an eye on us and decided to make us an offer later. Also because it was the first time we played out of our country, Spain, and the English audience reaction to our show was very important for us. We still haven't got low points, just some stress point when we had to write and record a second own songs demo, with 9 more songs, in three months for the company. A lot of work in those months always wondering if we were going in the right direction. Apart from all that, definitively, the most important point of our career was the recording of Colours. It was a big experience for us. By the way I wrote some kind of diary of the recording sessions in our web site (www.webnexx.com). We met there Pete Coleman (our producer), Graham and Andy (studio owners) and working with them each day in a whole month was a unforgetable experience.

5. Have you toured yet & if so what has been the highlight so far?

Well, we haven't toured yet although we have played a lot in the Madrid area.We're thinking now of going to other big Spanish cities to show the album to different public. Of course we'll love to go out of Spain for a tour too, being guest stars of Now & Then big names, but it's not an easy thing. Definitively we're open to do a tour... let's see what happens...

6. If you could create a fantasy band - what would be the line-up and why?

Choosing an imaginary band to play with is very hard cos there are lots of very good musicians around there. So imaginating and ideal band to play with: Lead vocals.- Harry Hess. Guitar player.- Paul Gilbert Keys player.- David Bryan Drummer.- Mike Portnoy Girl jumping at the stage: Pamela Anderson

7. What state do you think rock music and live gigs are in at the moment?

In my opinion these are not very good times for rock. It is not a crowd's music as it was in the 80's. Today you can't find big bands selling out arenas, and the some of the ones left has sold quality for commerciality. But I can only see how's rock in Spain, and to me, it seems that it has disappear from the media. In the TV musical programs you only see boy or girl bands, all pretty, all dancing, all manufacturated... oh yeah, and latin music too. But, there are still people that likes good music and don't go with the fashion trends so easily. In our case, since we started playing covers in clubs we have always had a faithfull public and sometimes we have had nearly 300 people to see a Nexx show, so we couldn't rave about the scene, cos they go to our shows! Sometimes we think that these are strange times for the music and could be the perfect time to build a new scene, cos people that don't know other bands of these style that come to our shows always like it! One thing I miss in this shows are the girls... but those girls at the Kiss and Motley Crue videos... (laughs)... definitively this is not what it was in the past... it's just a different time.

8. What sort of set can fans expect at the Gods?

The show will be a presentation of "Colours". We'll play our favourite songs of the album and we also have a couple of surprises. We had liked to play the whole album, as we'll do on June 21st in Madrid, but in a festival like the Gods the time is very restricted. I think we have chosen a killer set list and I'm sure we all (band and crowd) will have a very good time. Some of the songs we'll play are: A good time comes, Remember, If you could read my mind...

9. Your debut CD 'Colours' is doe out soon. What are your personal highlights on the album and why?

Well, to be honest, from the 17 songs we had for the album, chosing the final ones was a voting process. We tested the opinion of a lot of people (includying the fans! we did a show with all the songs and gave them the set list and they had to score or comment all the songs! it was fun!). So finally we've got the album with the songs that people (and we) like most. But all the songs, for me, are strong. Anyway, if I have to choose my favourite ones: - A good time comes.- One of the "happy" songs of the album. I like a lot the verse riff, some Van Halen likewise, and the lyrics tell what we're living right now. - Indifference.- I wrote the lyrics of this one, and it's based on a personal experience so, it's quite.... personal for me. - Wake up.- I like a lot the contrast between the verse (quite heavy) and the chorus (melodic and actual). In the verse I play the lowest note of my 5 string bass and I'm looking forward listening this song live, with many watts of sound!!!

10. How did you hook-up with Now & tTen in the UK?

Well, it's a long story (laughs). I'll try to be concise. When we played at the Nemelrock I festival in Madrid, there were a couple of Fireworks magazine writers: Phil Ashcroft and Kieran Dargan. This guys were very enthusiastic about our performance there and they were saying that we had to be at Maximes playing at the Gods of AOR pre- party... we thought they were drunk (laughs!!!)... but they were not enough cos some months after that we were playing at the Gods!!!! Also Jose Herrera our manager, was the promotor of the Spanish tours of Ten and Bob Catley so he had a good relationship with Mark Ashton.

11. What CD's do you currently have available and where can they be purchased from?

Well, "Colours" is released on May 12th in Europe thru Now & Then, which is distributed by Cargo in the UK, so it has not to be difficult to find. In Spain it will be out a week later thru OX records (Mastertrax distribution) and in Japan it will be released on June 1st, thru MellowMusic. You could also find the album in the typical mail order store in the web... so you don't really have a good excuse for not buying it! (laughs). Also the album has a very big and nice booklet with lots of photographs, so it's worthy!

12. Message for your fans...

I only could tell them "THANKS!". Many thanks because you, the fans, are the ones that make that we keep on doing this, playing our music, telling our stories and feelings. We hope you have fun at the Gods this year and also that you like our album which it's done with all our heart. We'll be writing new songs and doing things with more wills if we have your suport. THANKS! Also we'd like to thank you for this interview. THANKS! See you soon! Get some "Colours"!!! Jose A. de la Banda NEXX Bass player

Interview © 2003 Jason Ritchie/
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