Gemma Bastida I Málaga, (EFE).- More than two decades of music career and nine studio albums have made the Argentines Miranda! one of the reference bands in Latin America, with a prolific and successful career that has drawn from Spanish groups such as Fangoria or La Casa Azul.
“Spanish music has been an influence on our career,” says Alejandro Sergi in an interview with EFE, who together with Juliana Gattas leads a group that has sold more than half a million records and has won numerous awards, such as seven awards. MTV, two Silver Gulls, four torches at the Viña del Mar Festival and two Latin Grammy nominations.
The duo will visit Spain next June, with concerts in Lleida, Madrid, Mallorca, Málaga, Zaragoza, Valencia and Barcelona, to present their latest album, “Hotel Miranda!”, in which the music reviews their main hits with new productions and different guest singers, such as Emilia, Lali Espósito, María Becerra or Cristian Castro.
“For us, this album is a kind of celebration to crown our twenties and a good opportunity to bring the sounds of our most iconic songs to modern times,” explains the singer of this electro-pop band, which remakes in the new album ‘hits’ such as “Yo te dire”, “Uno los dos”, “Prisionero”, “I already knew”, “Mentía” or “Don”.
Spanish influence
The singer-songwriter acknowledges that he “loves” Spanish music and recalls that they have collaborated with groups like Carlos Sadness, Sidonie and, especially, Fangoria, with whom they have “a super special relationship.”
And it is that Fangoria was an influence for the band from its beginnings, since they always listened to Alaska and Nacho Canut and dreamed of forming a group of that style.
For this reason, Sergi points out, “it was a very big surprise” when they released the album “Sin resistrictos” (2004) and they found out that Fangoria had “liked it a lot”. So much so that they were invited to act as opening acts on their tour in Spain.
“We adore them, they were very generous with us”, emphasizes the co-founder of Miranda!, who has subsequently done “a lot” of more collaborations with Fangoria.
Alejandro Sergi confesses that they are also fascinated by groups like Love of Lesbian and La Casa Azul and that they would love to work with them sometime. “At the moment it is our dream,” says the Argentine.
Although in countries like Argentina, Chile or Mexico Miranda! is a consolidated band, with millions of followers, in Spain it still has “a long way to go”.
“For this reason, after our twenty-something years of career, we are still excited to continue fighting to win more audiences in a territory far from ours but with which we are united by a lot of passion and a lot of musical affinity,” the artist emphasizes.
Twenty-two years of career and friendship
Alejandro Sergi and Juliana Gattas founded Miranda! in 2001 with no other intention than to meet up with friends and play the music they liked in the bars they frequented. “We never imagined having so much significance or lasting for so long,” admits the singer.
It’s been 22 years, but Miranda! he continues “with the same enthusiasm and emotion of the first day”, and even more. With experience, they have lost their “fear of failure” and what others will say, but they retain their desire to improve and make “each album better than the last”.
One of the keys to the success of Miranda!, points out Sergi, is that they never stop working, composing, going to the studio every day, doing concerts, touring and interviewing, or preparing shows.
“I don’t know the formula for success, but if we work hard, surely something of that will be recognized,” says Sergi, who is in charge of the composition, the studio work and “putting together the musical part” of the show, while Gattas carries the more visual part, such as the staging of concerts or video clips.
“The work was distributed in a fairly tacit way, we never talked about it, but we complement each other and I can’t find a more ideal situation to make my music than the one I’m in,” says the Argentine singer.
Miranda!, hit music of the everyday
Sergi always starts from music, melodies and bases, when composing, and is inspired by “everyday things”, personal stories, friendship, love or family that happen every day. However, he doesn’t count so much what he sees, but what he feels with what he sees.
“Instead of telling stories, I tell the feeling that this story provokes in me”, points out Sergi, who has always opted for new sounds and has resorted to new technologies to try to do different things musically, while, “lyrically, repeating or not” does not matter to him.
“I actually feel like from the first record I always wrote the same song. I don’t feel that they are many songs, but rather a great giant text to which each song contributes a little more”.
Miranda’s first ten years! They were “pure ingenuity”, since the project took on a dimension that no one in the group had imagined, while this last decade, Sergi explains, has served them to “become aware” of everything they have achieved and continue working “with the same desire or more”.
The stage that opens now, with the release of “Hotel Miranda!”, is going to be “pure celebration”, asserts Alejandro Sergi, who is confident that the new album will allow the band to continue adding new audiences, thanks to the collaborations with artists of new generations, and conquering new territories. EFE