Interview with Rock Band Reme

MuzicNotez: First off, it’s an honor to be doing this interview with you, thanks for taking the time to sit down with us.

Introduce yourselves, what are your names and rolls in the band?

• Reme: We’re a London-based band formed by Daniel Ruiz (vocals, guitar, piano), Sam Barltrop (bass), Albert Cabot (keys) and Iñaki González (drums).

MuzicNotez: How did you meet and form up? How long have you been together?

• Reme: We’ve been together for about four years, with a two-year global pandemic in between.

  Dani had written some songs and was looking for a drummer to starts things up. It was a bit of a fluke, as Iñaki got in touch with him first, instead of the other way round. Albert then joined shortly after, as he was friends with Dani, and after a few months looking for a bass player, we met Sam at a pub in North London.

MuzicNotez: How did you come up with the name Reme?

• Reme: Reme is the name of Dani’s mother. It’s short for Spanish name Remedios.

  For a while we had it as a working title, but when we put our first single out, we stuck with it. The main reason being that it actually had a point. Dani’s mother moved to London for a couple of years in the 70s, when Elton John, Wings and Bowie were kings of music. These being big influences of ours and the story highlighting the Spain-UK connection of the band, we decided to go ahead, as there was a nice tale behind the name. It’s tricky to get people to pronounce it the same way, but at the end of the day, it’s the band who makes the name and not the name who makes the band.

MuzicNotez: Who were your musical influences, idols, or bands growing up that have helped mold you into the band you are today? Or helped mold the music that you create?

• Reme: Some of us grew up listening to The Beatles, The Small Faces, Pink Floyd, Bowie… but others were closer to Dylan, for instance. That said, purely for generational reasons, anything Britpop we love. But then again, they all drink from the same fountain, which is that point in time between 1965 and 1975 when some sort of creativity lighting stroke planet Earth (some call it acid) and we still cannot get even close to understand such period of great music.

  We can definitely say some of our influences are Beatles and their solo careers, Bowie, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Marc Bolan, ELO…

MuzicNotez: What’s the greatest concert you’ve ever been to or performed?

• Reme: Performed… probably our latest gig at El Sol in Madrid in September 2023, but also the support slot we got with our friends from Rufus T. Firefly, where we played to a sold out 2,500-cap La Riviera in Madrid.

  Been to… probably McCartney at the old Vicente Calderón Stadium. On a smaller scale, Tiss Vampiric at Moth Club in Hackney, London. Outstanding stuff.

MuzicNotez: What’s the ultimate goal you want your music to achieve, or for you to achieve in your career as a band? Any particular message you wish to send?

• Reme: We always say this isn’t a speed competition. We don’t mind taking the longer route if it means building solid ground, or at least, being confortable with what we do. At the end of the day, there is a lot of competition and thousands of new songs are released every day. There is only so much attention you can get from people, so the best way is to take it easy. This is a ever-evolving industry and there is no magic formula.

  We recently got added to two Spotify editorial playlists for the first time ever, and we genuinely didn’t do anything differently to what we were doing before. I guess it’s about working on your songs and developing your craft over time, but also having confidence in what you do and trying to stay focused.

MuzicNotez: Your latest release is the single ‘Egyptian Walls’, what inspired this track? The lyrics make me think it’s a specific event or story that inspired this. Are the likes of Tyler, Odette, Frank or Teddy real people?

• Reme: No, they’re not. This is a song about trying to keep your mind in the right place at times when you’re, say, not thinking clearly. These are all references to characters in films where the protagonists aren’t in the best mental state. Tyler is in Fight Club, Odette is in Black Swan, Frank is in Donnie Darko and Teddy is in Shutter Island.

MuzicNotez: You have such a classic rock kind of sound, but yet it has a new modern twist. How would you describe your music?

• Reme: We definitely look back to the 60s and 70s when searching for inspiration, but we cannot forget the time we live in, and also take advantage of it.

  What was made in the 70s, was made in the 70s. Trying to fully replicate it isn’t easy. You would be only trying to mimic such an iconic, organic sound that nothing done today will reach that level in comparison. That sound is also embedded in certain great songs and bands, which everyone always looks back to.

  That said, bands like The Lemon Twigs are almost reaching the point where you could believe such songs could have been recorded and written in the 70s. They are doing an amazing job. Sonically and musically, their latest album has songs which could have been all-time classics if they’d been released in the 70s.

  But I think what you suggested could be a good way of putting it. I guess we grab what we like from the 60s and 70s and bring it to 2023.

MuzicNotez: What else are you working on? What can we expect to see and hear from you in the future?

• Reme: We’re going to put out another single before the end of the year. After the Spanish tour this Summer, we’ve got a few dates in London coming up, and then we’ll start recording what will hopefully be our second album, which we expect to release later in 2024.

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