Jerry: “It's good to pigeonhole yourself, but sometimes that makes you uncreative.”

behind It is the pseudonym of singer and producer of Les Planes d'Hostoles Gerard Garriga. Since 2019 behind He experiments with music, mixing styles and genres to create his own sound, which he has demonstrated in various songs and recordings. Friday releases new EP, What's in front of me when I wake up? (Metz Records, 2024), and now, ahead of the full album's release, he gives us a preview of second single “Afortunat.”

“Avortonat” is a very short song, less than two minutes, and has very few words. How was this topic born?

This song puts a relationship in perspective and says that you should appreciate everything you've been through because you're lucky to be able to explain it…to be able to experience it, to be able to live it, to have that person by your side and whatever you're living through, you're lucky. Because you're okay, because you're happy, and that should be appreciated. “Avortunes” was not supposed to be a single, but simply I had the opportunity to record a video for a little money and with a very good camera that some of my colleagues had at the time, and we decided to record this song which was the only one that had an ending.

This song has nothing to do with the previous song from the album, “Desfit”.
“Undo” was simple before the EP had a name and concept. I took it out because it was the right song for summer, with a festive techno beat. He had kept it for about a year, so it was his turn to come out.

Why did you choose two different songs from the album?

It's a very clear way to show where things are headed. “Desvet” has a playful tempo, a hotter entry, and “Avortunate”, on the other hand, invites you to see everything in perspective. It's a song that takes shape and meaning within the EP.

The title is “What's in front of me when I wake up.” What do you mean by that?
What's in front of me when I wake up? It's inspired by the life I live with my partner. When you see the title and start listening to the EP, it doesn't make much sense, but when you finish listening to it, that's when you get the hang of it and understand what I'm talking about. You understand what is in front of me when I wake up.

What's the story behind it?
I begin by telling my story in “Aimless,” explaining that feeling of not knowing where you're going and being, as the song title says, without a purpose in life. It is followed by “I Don't Know How to Do It”, a track about trying to connect, connect or get close to that special someone to have a relationship whatever it may be. The third song is called “I Want to Give You a Gift,” and in this song we start having more fun, because the other person feels something too. This brings you fully into the game “Undone”, the most powerful feature on the disc. The entire intro, the first three tracks of the album, ends on this ecstatic moment of “undoing.” This emotion suddenly decreases into “fortunes” that enter another dimension. For me, for it to end like this is quite annoying, because you don't expect absolute silence after the techno theme, just synthesizer and sound. With this last theme, you understand the whole story, so putting it at the end makes it fully representative.

You play with many different types of music. Were you afraid you would lose your identity or voice at some point?
My identity is being an artist. For me, this means being creative and inventive, and to be an artist capable of that, you have to reach all angles. It's good to pigeonhole yourself into a certain genre, but doing the same thing over and over again makes you uncreative sometimes. What I like most about making music is the ability to explore different styles.

Let's go back to your beginnings. You start your project in 2019, and you edit different songs yourself. How did the idea of ​​getting into music come about?

I started making electronic music in 2017, but I didn't have a more solid project until 2019. At first I made music in Spanish, because I wanted to reach everywhere, but in the end I tried making music in Catalan and saw that it wasn't that difficult. From that moment on, I did some collaborations with Paul Bordas Or tablet with Sangaku, It's okay to be wrong (self-published, 2021), and I continued to create my own tracks and EPs. Now, when they ask me if I will write songs in Spanish, I tell them no, that I can only write music in Catalan.

It is difficult to find your place in the music industry, especially singing in Catalan, and even more so without recording support. Has it ever occurred to you to resign?
No, because although initially I started with the idea of ​​going somewhere with this project or trying to spin it as much as possible, now I do it because the music comes from within me and I enjoy it. If you can do it professionally, that's okay, but if not, nothing will happen. if Vega Flawas They already have it complicated, and I'm even more so. It's hard, but now that I'm studying, I take it easy and go at my own pace, if I feel like making a record, I make it and that's it.