Anyone who has ever been to a music festival in Spain knows or is at least familiar with the name Crystal fighters. Their live performances are a big treat where electronics, folklore and world rhythms mix, giving birth to a special party hippie fun, dancing and good video this has characterized the group since its inception. They are British, but much of their reputation is earned in this country, and it’s not just that one of their members has Basque ancestors (Laura Stockley), Gilbert Wirichmulti-instrumentalist and band founder, says he has his own theory.

Crystal Fighters are actively promoting the release of their latest album, “Light+”, which the band says is “a return to their roots with more love, life and energy.” Sebastian Pringleleader and soloist, and Gilbert Wirich serve Independent at the Crazy Mary bookstore in Barrio de Las Letras, where their tribal and psychedelic outfits add color to Madrid’s gray autumn skies.

Surrounded by books, Gilbert shamelessly admits that he has only read a couple of books in his life. Sebastian really declares himself as a lover of reading, the last thing that passed through his hands was About water and spirit (Malidoma Some), which tells the story of an African boy who, at the age of four, is kidnapped by Christian settlers and ends up running away from a monastery to return to his tribe and become a shaman.

Somewhat more reserved and brooding in appearance, Sebastian reflects a certain degree of shyness in his elusive blue eyes. When speaking, he takes the lead, although he hesitates before each answer, carefully considering what he wants to say. Gilbert is more spontaneous, his energetic personality matched by the hardness of his face, and his height and physical strength are intimidating, although his wide smile softens any sense of threat. With more determination and assertiveness than his partner, he only responds when he feels he is being addressed, but his Spanish is somewhat more limited, and in most questions he limits himself to listening and nodding.

Ask.- What do we find in Light+?

Gilbert: More love, more life, more energy – everything that the Crystal Fighters do, but in an enhanced form.

Sebastian: Yes, it was the idea to go back to the roots of the band, mixing all our influences, from antiquity and mythical music to modern contemporary genres. That’s all.

IN.- How did this return to roots go?

Sebastian: It was quite a journey from songwriting to producing. For this album we wanted to work with a small team, but at the same time with many musicians, because we are a big family. To create this piece, we wanted to work with close friends and producers that we knew well, as a way to feel the community and energy of the studio to express ourselves freely. At Light+ we are all part of everything.

IN.- One of the things that attracts the most attention about your style is your lack of preconceptions when it comes to mixing and merging genres, instruments, cultures… What does this freedom of expression give you?

Sebastian: We are fascinated by the music that is being created all over the world, it is something inherent to humanity. Every culture has its own way of making music, and we love to travel, find different instruments, styles, record musicians on the street, we learn from all sounds, even the sounds of nature, and try to use it all in our music. We just take what we hear and try to do something special and unique with it.

IN.- What do they all have in common and what helps you the most?

Sebastian: I think rhythm is one of the most important things. As James Brown said in this movie (Get up, 2014), everything in music is rhythm (drums). Life itself has its own rhythm: days, nights, moon, sun. We focus on that first and foremost: the rhythm, no matter what it is, the drums, the choruses, the lyrics – that’s what gives us energy.

IN.- In electronic music, especially in the indie scene, she has found another vein in more minimalist electronic music. How does your way of understanding music coexist with this trend?

Sebastian: We pay attention to everything we do, in fact I think this album is more minimum than usual for us (Gilbert laughs). We usually add a lot of layers, but we try to be more. minimumbut sometimes with so many different ideas, genres, styles, traditions that we bring, it’s hard to be like that minimum. It’s also a rich sound that has a lot to dwell on and is worth listening to many times, listening to different interpretations of this album.

AI will never replace everything we love about music

IN.- How does this album feel to you on your journey?

Sebastian: We’re really excited, it’s our favorite of the five and people are responding really well.

IN.- It is important that each new album is loved.

Sebastian: This usually happens, but not always (laughs).

IN.- On the other hand, there is the problem of artificial intelligence. I don’t know if you’ve seen the hype that has happened with what happened with Bad Bunny, what do you think about that phenomenon?

Sebastian: The same thing happened with Drake or The Weekend.

Gilbert: I think it’s great, music has become something very cheap and easy to do, now anyone can make music. In fact, I think not everyone should produce. What we love about music, real talent, real artistry, doesn’t come from someone recording a bunch of audio clips and putting them together to make a techno beat. I hope AI will take care of this general music and eventually supplant all these pseudo-producers. So all this generic music that the major labels put out to play on the radio will continue to exist, but it will be created by machines. This could serve as a filter to clear the way for real artists, because AI will never replace everything we love about music. I think that’s a good thing and we should use technology to help us create music because not everyone in the industry needs to be a producer and if AI makes the job less interesting for them, I think that could be a good thing. thing for music., or so I hope.

Sebastian: Controversial…

question.- This is an optimistic way of looking at it.

Sebastian: What is your point of view?

IN.- I think this debate invites us to rethink what the true talent of creators is, and therefore it can challenge us to become better people.

Gilbert: All basic tasks can be done using machines. Perhaps not too many people need to be journalists or music producers. I think the best thing for society is that there are more people who devote their time to discovering, thinking and researching instead of doing basic tasks. If a machine can do it, you can use that time to do more productive things for the world. Let’s see…

Sebastian: These are interesting times, but life has always been interesting, there is always something new that threatens creativity: cell phones, computers… People adapt and develop with the help of technology. Who knows what worries await us in five years.

IN.- We talked about music, now let’s talk about lyrics, where is the place for light, hope and love in a world where there seems to be no future?

Sebastian: I think the main thing is to see the beauty of life, there has always been darkness, yin and yang. It’s important to know what you want to focus on. We enjoy being in nature and living positively to express and experience life.

IN.- Everyone has an idea of ​​what Crystal Fighters are, your concerts are synonymous with good atmosphere, fun and dancing, do you identify with this reputation?

A.- This is something very cool, when we started the band in 2007, we had no money, we lived as best we could, unheated, in a warehouse building in London, wrote songs and just wanted to be in a good place with sun, singing, in front of lots of people and joy of life. We imagined ourselves being there in the future, and eventually it happened. I think this is an example of how we were able to realize what we wanted to achieve and what the Universe gave us. People think of us the way we would like to be thought of, and that’s wonderful.

IN.- You come here often, what is your relationship with Spain?

Sebastian: This is great, we love this peninsula. We like diversity, people are very open and have very good taste in music. We always feel very loved and very grateful to be able to call this country our second home, the place where we enjoy playing the most.

IN.- It is in Spain that your name is made, first of all, at festivals. What do festivals mean to you?

Sebastian: We love them. Festivals are magical places where people come from different parts of the world, there is a lot of energy, connection and synchronicity. We’re really excited to be a part of it, to be a part of the soundtrack and the atmosphere that creates a good festival atmosphere.

The Spanish are a very sociable community in which dancing is very important, no one is shy.

IN.- What do you like most about Spain?

Sebastian: The Southern Pyrenees are very beautiful.

Gilbert: Arenal Sound, Benicassim (FIB), La Mercé in Barcelona, ​​Heineken Jazzaldía in San Sebastian, there are many. Next year we will be performing at Les Arts de Valencia, Granada Sound. The name or location doesn’t really matter much, what matters is the audience, the poster, energy and energy, maybe one year the festival will be very good, and the next year it won’t be so good. For us, the next festival is always the best.

IN.- What allows Crystal Fighters to connect so well with the Spanish public?

Gilbert: I have two theories: the first is the incredible spirit of freedom that is enjoyed throughout the Iberian Peninsula, the Spanish are a very sociable community in which dancing is very important, no one is shy, they have an open and free expression. , and it goes very well with our music. On the other hand, we like to mix old music with more modern music, and Spain has a very important tradition of folk music from which we draw a lot. Besides the good atmosphere, I think they also like the references to tradition and folk music.

IN.- You just released an album, we were already able to listen to it, and now the tour is approaching, what can the public expect from the next live shows?

Gilbert: In all of our show We try to put in a lot of energy and passion, we establish a kind of sacred marriage between the audience and the band, we give the energy to them, they give it back to us, and suddenly we create a storm of energy together in which for a moment we all forget about our feelings and worries. Although he ShowHe tune or other musicians, we always try to achieve this connection with the public, at least until we turn 60 and take up acoustics.

Sebastian: No, we will continue to stand, dance and sing.