Discover the essence

The musical freedom of Rufus T. Firefly

Artist singing and playing guitar with his band on stage.
The band Rufus T. Firefly in action on stage.
Photo:
28/7/2019
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"The second death was sweeter
We fell asleep to Bowie's voice
And the soft light of a firefly tucked us in."
Rufus T. Firefly

On the occasion of the performance of Rufus T. Firefly, which will be -along with Russian Red- the closing of Noches del Botánico, we have interviewed its leader and composer, Victor Cabezuelo, to talk about songs, future and the deep love we feel for music.

The group from Aranjuez is one of the great representatives of pop-rock made at español with psychedelic roots. Under the influence of deep lyrics, Rufus T. Firefly have not stopped playing and offering in their concerts a tremendously energetic show.

Here we go...


Could you define Rufus T. Firefly in 3 words (other than Rufus T. Firefly)?

It's always a difficult question... I would say Rock, Freedom and Experimentation. Very basic and very fundamental pillars of what we do. We are a Rock band that is open to a million different sounds and never settles for the basics.


After the success of Magnolia and the psychedelia of Loto, when will we have the next compositional flower? Can you give me some news in advance?

We are in the first phase which is the composition phase; in that initial process of brainstorming, listening to a lot of music and trying out new sounds. I can't really say where this will take us because I don't really know yet. The only thing we know for sure is that we're not going to repeat ourselves, we're not going to go back to psychedelia as we've been doing so far, I guess it will be in the songs, but in a very different way. Anything that sounds repetitive or familiar will be discarded. It's a very interesting process because it's like opening a new path and not knowing what you're going to find...


What do you mean, a clean slate, no link to your recent work?

What really happens is, when you start with a musical career, you get to one place and then you realise that behind it there is another, and so on and so forth. Let's say that with Magnolia and Loto we climbed the psychedelic mountain of the sixties, and now we have realised that behind that there is an incredible view and we want to get to that horizon that has nothing to do with it and we have to go down different paths.

We are not at all denying what we have done so far because it is what has brought us this far, but I believe that retracing the same steps would be a mistake, it would take us back to places we have already been. We have to keep moving forward along new paths with everything we have learned. It's not about throwing it all away and restarting; it's about knowing how far we've come and seeing how far we can go.


I would like to know your opinion about the new format of Festivals in which there are a lot of artists for performances, usually of short duration.

I have a love/hate relationship with festivals. For me, the ideal is for an artist to be able to develop his or her proposal in the best possible conditions, and this is generally not going to happen at festivals, unless you are the headliner. On the other hand, I like going to festivals and seeing my favourite bands. I also really like playing for people who have never heard of us, don't know us and somehow surprise them; it's all very nice. However, sometimes it seems to me that the overcrowding of bands and audiences goes against the music. At the same time, certain aspects that are very important are not taken care of. Hence my love/hate relationship.

You can't generalise about festivals because there's a bit of everything. There are festivals that take great care of what I'm talking about - I'm dead set against them - and others that don't take care of it at all. I'm a bit against festivals where bands play for half an hour and where it's more important to sell beer than music.


Could you tell me what difference do you feel when you open a concert for e.g. Leiva whose fans don't have to know Rufus, when you play a festival or when you play a 2 hour concert?

Obviously the feeling is very different because when the audience knows what they're going to see, they're predisposed to it and they're looking forward to it, they've paid a ticket and they're ready to see it, it creates a very special energy... you play the songs, someone is receiving them and they give them back to you in some way; it's all very nice. This happened to us at the Riviera at the end of the tour. We did a concert that was quite risky in terms of production and everything was very symbolic - risky in terms of concept because I didn't open my mouth. Everything was too conceptual and it created a very nice energy because the people who came to see us understood it perfectly... At a festival, you can do it, but it's going to be a failure. Even so, we tried not to make too many concessions.

The other day when we played with Leiva we did our show, we knew that nobody would understand it. We stood very close together on a giant stage and tried to create the atmosphere that we always create. Sometimes I don't think it's good to make it easy for the audience all the time. I don't think you have to underestimate the listener and I think you have to try to get them to different places on their own. It has happened to me as a listener, not understanding anything at a concert, but then listening to that band at home, starting to learn why they are doing certain things and the next time I saw them again, I enjoyed them to the full. There's a certain kind of work that you have to let the listener do. 


You've been touring for 3 years now, any anecdotes you'd like to share?

What has changed is the feeling of knowing that we can sustain ourselves making music. The band is self-sufficient. Before it was all expenses and all the time it was just throwing money down a well and hoping that something would come out of it. Suddenly something very nice and sustainable on its own has come out of it. That feeling is beautiful because it gives you a lot of freedom to create with a lot of guarantees and to be able to make music freely.
The leap to the general public has been the most significant thing. Now we can bet on scenographies, we can afford a lighting technician that we had always wanted... Everything is bigger and these details make the experience more complete. 


In your songs there are references to great artists and your passion for the psychedelic Beatles is undeniable, what do you think of the current pop rock scene? Often the great artists of the genre in which you move are artists from more than 20 years ago?

It's been a long time since there have been any world references in Rock. There is no current world reference like there could be: Oasis, Blur, Radiohead, Nirvana...


Rock is dead?

A friend of mine told me that when we talk about Rock being dead we are talking about the fact that it is not at its peak commercially, because there are millions of Rock bands. I really like the fact that people think that Rock is dead because the people who make Rock nowadays are going to do it without any commercial purpose, they are going to do it simply for romanticism and that is the most beautiful thing when it comes to making music. And people will go to see something that in a way will be in a minority.

Everything in the end is cyclical. In X number of years a 17 year old kid will come along and give a guitar and Rock will come back, in a different way, like when it came back with Kurt Cobain. And if it doesn't come back, nothing will happen, will Led Zeppelin come back? Now there's Greta Van Fleet, who are cool, but they're not the same. Led Zeppelin, like the Beatles, passed in the past and will never be the same again.

The sensation of listening to live instruments is inimitable and can only be felt that way... Everything is cyclical. Now followers, Instagram, released bases and the single artist are more important than bands. Everything will change at any moment.


Your songs are very photographic, what inspires you to write the lyrics? Are they always personal experiences?

They are always personal experiences on many subjects: political, social, personal relationships... Everything is very personal. What happens is that we often try to use references to contextualise things. For example, on the last album, Loto, we drew a bit on the imaginary of Stranger Things to tell our story. In the song Demogorgon I'm telling a personal relationship with a friend who unfortunately I don't see as much as I would like to, I try to play with that imaginary so that it's easier for people to enter into that story. If you know where you are moving, everything is much more intuitive and easier. We use referents that can create the imaginary you were talking about...


What does it mean to play in an idyllic place like the Botanical Gardens where Nature and Music come together? I think we should connect more with the countryside.

I really like that you ask me this question because for us the concerts we have seen at the Botanic have been very special. They have been concerts in which we have felt, precisely, what we were talking before about those festivals in which the groups can develop their proposals and we can appreciate what they want to do.

When they called us we thought that we didn't want to do a normal concert and play Magnolia and Loto again because right now we are in a process where we need to feel new things, but we don't have the new songs composed and we can't play them. So we decided that we were going to do a concert purely of covers, songs that have marked us a lot throughout our lives and that have brought us a little bit to where we are right now. We thought that the Botanic was a very nice place to do this because it is a way to give back to music everything it has done for us. We have chosen 10 songs and we are going to play them with our means.


So will it be a one-off concert or do you plan to replicate the formula? 

It is the first time we will do it and the last time we will do it. We are going to do it exclusively at the Botanical Gardens because we think it is a unique place and it is going to be a very special concert and, I repeat, absolutely unique. 


You are going to share the bill with Russian Red, do you know her personally, do you have any links with her? Also, Lourdes continues singing in English, will we hear you again in the English language?

First of all, we do know Lourdes, I have played with her, she is a friend. It's a pleasure to share a night with her and to see her again. She seems to me to be a person with a great talent and a great facility for making songs. For me, for example, it takes me months to compose a song, and I get the feeling that she has the ability to write a great song in 5 minutes; in that sense I admire her a lot.

As for English, we have already found a very cool way with Spanish, I feel very comfortable expressing myself in my language. Before I felt a bit of a phoney because I didn't say what I felt. Unfortunately, I'm not bilingual. If one day I get my flipante degree in English, maybe I'll go back to writing songs in English. 


What are your new challenges?

Our new challenges right now are in the next album. Making a new record is always a challenge because we always want to do new things. The challenge is there all the time because I want to make different melodies with new instruments. I have keyboards that I don't know how to use yet... and everyone in the band is a bit like that. We're starting to explore unknown territory and that's a big thrill. Our sights are set there; they don't go beyond what we're going to start doing in a few months time by developing new songs.


Finally, a record of 2019 that we can't miss?

There is a band from Madrid that I love, that I always recommend and this year they have released a new album. They are Atención Tsunami and the new album is called Ultra, they have incredible lyrics. For me it's a jewel that people still haven't discovered.              


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