Interview with Airbag: ‘We wanted to write a song that would inspire people to dance precisely at this time when you can’t go out dancing’

Estepona, Malaga-based punk rock surf band Airbag brought out their latest EP, Discotecas, in December, offering us a musical homage to when we could actually go out dancing and budding relationships, all subtly underpinned by chilled surfer vibes of the 70’s.

Discotecas marks the thirteenth album for the band, who have been together since 1998, comprising Adolfo (vocals and guitar), Pepe (bass and backing vocals) and José Andrés (drums). José Andrés and Pepe are cousins and their parents are long-time friends of Adolfo’s parents.

The title track, ‘Discotecas’, will make anyone feeling the strain of lockdown yearn for a night of dancing, which is just what the band intended. ‘It’s different to what we normally do, it’s definitely more of a dancey song, even if you have to dance to it at home. We wanted to write a song that would inspire people to dance precisely at this time when you can’t go out dancing,’ Pepe explained. ‘Sometimes, something magical happens and we all like different things. I think this EP sounds like us, albeit with a slightly different flavour.’

They recorded the EP last summer when it was still possible to get into a recording studio and it was then mixed off-site. Some tracks on it underwent a sizeable reworking before making it onto the album, namely the punkier ‘Selfie antes de morir’ (‘A selfie before I die’). ‘The title’s very good,’ Pepe laughed. ‘I had this song for a while but with quite different lyrics and I wasn’t really convinced by them, so I asked Adolfo to take a look at them. Musically, it’s the same but we reworked the lyrics.’ The song itself refers to a model called Winnie Cooper, a ‘dusty toy’ who says she’ll change her ways but can’t.

‘It’s a song about how you think it’s impossible to fall in love with someone’

The third track is the very catchy and 90’s-tinged ‘Disco Azul’ (‘Blue Record’), which is about someone realising how attractive one one of their colleagues is outside of work: ‘Fuera de la oficina me di cuenta de que brillas.’ (‘Outside the office, I realised that you shine.’): ‘It’s a song about how you think it’s impossible to fall in love with someone and that someone can be very different to who you think they are,’ Pepe said.

Of their songs, Pepe says that ‘Crystal Lake’ is probably his favourite: ‘It’s short, it feels like a film, it’s perfect. It’s a song about summer,’ he said.

They are now starting to work on new songs, although Pepe admits that it’s a slow process in lockdown when inspiration is hard to come by. ‘We’re very selective about what we put out,’ he said. ‘It takes courage to only release interesting songs and no fillers. It’s important that we’re all on board.’

Locally, he is a big fan of bands such as la Trinidad, who he describes as ‘very nice, original indie pop’. He’s also been greatly influenced by the former Spanish radio show about music, Flor de Pasión, or ‘Flower of Passion’, which I joke sounds like a telenovela and he laughingly agrees. ‘That influenced us a lot, as did bands like The Ramones, Weezer and music from the 70’s in general. It really comes through in our songs like ‘Big Aquarium’ (on their 2003 album, Ensamble Cohetes), which has a melody taken from the 70’s.’

Other songs on the recent EP are rooted more firmly in their own lives, such as ‘Novias de los Ramones’ (‘Girlfriends of The Ramones)’, a largely instrumental track that’s gloriously 70’s and very reminiscent of The Beach Boys. I ask Pepe if it’s actually based on the real life girlfriends of the American 70’s punk rock band and he laughs and says it’s based on one of their girlfriends. ‘Actually, it’s an internal joke, but to disguise that it was about her, we called it ‘Novias de los Ramones’!’

The Beach Boys loom large in his affections: ”Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ is my favourite song of all time, I wish I’d written it,’ he said. ‘It makes me feel euphoric when I listen to it, it doesn’t matter whether I’m in a good mood or not. It makes me feel hopeful.’

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