Interview with The Niftys: ‘We start with the riffs and the melodies, it’s about the feeling of the song’

Albacete grunge rock band The Niftys are working on their next as of yet untitled song, which has big echoes of Pearl Jam.

The Spanish band comprises Anita (vocals), Ángel Luis (drums), Fer (bass) and Toño (guitar). Toño and Anita have been a couple for the past 14 years and Fer is a long-time friend of hers. Ángel Luis and Toño are friends from their school days. Trying to come up with a band name was incredibly hard, according to Anita: ‘We were searching for a name but all the names we loved were taken,’ she said. ‘We found it and thought it’s a good word, we liked what it means in English, even though it doesn’t mean anything over here. There are no other Niftys on Facebook or Instagram, although now we have Nifty cryptos.’

‘La Trinchera’ (‘entrenchment’), their latest single, erupts with a massive, grungy, fuzzed up riff before Anita comes in on vocals. It’s the kind of track that would really get the crowd going live: ‘We’re talking about a relationship that you’re trapped in,’ Anita said. ‘You’ll feel bad if you stay but also if you leave. It’s toxic. All of us have been in something similar.’ Toño has a blisteringly energetic solo around two minutes in: ‘The solo represents the discussion between a couple, it is like the shouting that occurs in a fight in which no agreement is reached,’ he said. ‘It is aggressive and visceral.’

As the track kicks off: ‘Voy corriendo sin mirar atrás. Me persigue tu veneno y yo sé que ahora no quiero escapar, esperando que comience la batalla con solo oír tu voz.’ (‘I’m running without looking back. Your poison chases me and I know that now I don’t want to escape, waiting for the battle to begin just by hearing your voice.’)

‘The sound of the music dictates what the song is about’

Typically, they start composing songs on the guitar together. ‘Most ideas start with the guitar, we get carried by the sound. The lyrics are the last part, so the sound of the music dictates what the song is about,’ Anita said. Fer nods: ‘We start with the riffs and the melodies, it’s about the feeling of the song,’ Toño agrees: ‘Sometimes, we choose the beat to fit the voice.’

Another single from last year, ‘Sed’ (‘thirst’), kicks off with a bluesier riff and I ask Toño what pedal he’s using on it because it sounds amazing: ‘It’s a Whammy 2 Drive that Anita gave me and I’ve got a fuzz that was made in Albacete, it’s like a modern mix,’ he said. ‘I use it a lot, it’s on 4-5 songs, I like this kind of overdrive.’ ‘Sed’ is essentially a song about the dangers of gossip and criticising people, as evidenced by lines such as “Las palabras pesan más que ayer” (‘The words weigh on me more than yesterday’). ‘It’s about the ‘thirst’ of people to criticise others,’ Anita said. ‘It wears you out.’ Toño agrees: ‘People need to have something bad to say.’

However, while the meaning of ‘Sed’ is more apparent, they typically prefer their lyrics to be more opaque, according to Fer: ‘We don’t want our songs to have a fixed meaning most of the time because we want everyone to interpret them for themselves, to find their own meaning in them,’ he said. ‘Your interpretation will be influenced by your own experiences.’

As the track goes: ‘La tormenta ruge en su interior, cala tu condición, borra el horizonte. No hay orientación. Siento el odio, en este lugar tu no puedes entrar.’ (‘The storm rages inside you, it penetrates your condition, it erases the horizon. There is no orientation. I feel the hatred, in this place you cannot enter.’)

I tell them that I love their cover of The Beatles’ song ‘Come Together’, which is heavier, edgier and grungier than the original and they look genuinely delighted: ‘This came about via Radio 3 here,’ Toño said. ‘The guy in charge was a long-term Beatles fan and he asked if we could do an acoustic cover but we didn’t have time to prep it (laughs) but it gave us the idea to do that. Later on, we did an acoustic version of their song ‘Something’, it was very different for us.’ I say that it’s a shame it’s not on streaming platforms and they sweetly offer to play it for me live on our next Zoom.

‘The song is about addiction and whatever that means to you, whether it be love, drugs or partying’

In 2019, they released their debut album Sweet Bloody Trip, which includes the title track about a figurative trip. ‘The song is about addiction and whatever that means to you, whether it be love, drugs or partying,’ Toño said. ‘It’s about a pleasure that you can’t give up.’ Anita nods: ‘Both the title of the record and the design reference that duality,’ she said. Toño agrees and they show me the cover: ‘If you open it up (they show me the horse on the outside and inside the cover), it’s like opening yourself, it symbolises strength,’ he said.

The track ‘Sweet Bloody Trip’ allows them to pay homage to another era they love – the 70’s and glam rock: ‘I LOVE glam rock!,’ Toño said excitedly. ‘And I’m a big fan of people like ZZ Top, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. We didn’t set out to write a glam rock song, it just came out like that (laughs). Anita agrees: ‘It’s one of those songs that just builds and builds,’ she said.

Most of their tracks are in English, including the opening track to Sweet Bloody Trip, ‘Save Me’, which I tell them has echoes of Pearl Jam with its massive riffs and Fer gets very animated: ‘I am a huge fan of Pearl Jam! Actually, we’re working on a new song – it doesn’t have a title yet – that sounds more like Pearl Jam than this one does, it’s very atmospheric.’ Anita laughs: ‘It’s still cooking!, she said. ‘We’ve changed it a lot, it started out as something else and we basically mashed two songs together.’ Interestingly, they almost didn’t put ‘Save Me’ on the album at all: ‘We’d decided not to use it but then Ángel added his bit,’ Toño said. ‘The structure stayed more or less the same, no?,’ he asked the others.

If they could put together a dream line up, Anita picks Nirvana. Fer has other ideas: ‘I’ll say The Beatles, so that we can show them how to play their songs,’ he said mischeviously. ‘Oh, and Jack White, he’s so talented.’ Toño picks Queens of the Stone Age.

‘We really enjoyed that battle’

Even on the Zoom, it is evident that they are endearingly close-knit: ‘The funniest or happiest moment was when we competed in the battle of the bands at the Cazorla Blues Festival,’ Toño said. ‘When we received the call giving us the news, we screamed and jumped for joy. We really enjoyed that battle and the concert at the festival. Apart from that, we have many happy moments, almost all of them, and many others that we do not remember!’

Locally, Toño is a big fan of thrash metal band Angelus Apatrida. Fer cites his school friend, pop singer María Rozalén. They all praise local music school Modern School of Music: ‘It’s been really instrumental in getting kids to play instruments and to get them into music,’ Anita said. Fer agrees: ‘I think it’s fed through to our music scene here, we’ve got a lot of bands.’ Ángel, for his part, has been heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin: ‘I’m such a big fan, I started to play the drums when I was very young, perhaps 12 or 13, I love John Bonham (their drummer).’ Toño admires LA rock band Rage Against the Machine. ‘Tom Morello, their guitarist, is incredible, he’s the new Hendrix.’

(Photo from left to right: Ángel Luis, Fer, Toño and Anita.)