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Well, first of all, good evening, everyone.
Hi, what's up?
We have to... Let's introduce yourselves, right?
We've met you, but they don't know you out there.
I'm Joaquín and I play bass.
I'm Juan and I play guitar.
I'm Enrique and I sing.
And I'm Pedro.
We would like everybody could enjoy listening to
Héroes del Silencio.
We would hate to become a teenage band or a band for folks in their forties,
for the underground or avant-garde culture, or whatever.
We would love to reach all kind of audiences.
We would definitely hate to be a stereotype.
Which genre best describes your music?
We haven't decided which style we're playing yet.
Anyway, it's kind of soon, right?
When we release six or seven albums, we'll know our style...
Maybe we don't have a clear idea of what we are, right?
What kind of band we are.
Maybe there's a lack of national awareness about us.
How were Héroes del Silencio formed?
Just like many other bands,
we joined and started recording our own demos, sending videos to...
record labels, hoping to secure a contract in Madrid,
as Zaragoza is a little difficult.
Do you think...
do you think you are "Héroes"?
ZARAGOZA 1984 SPRING
Dust or fog, wind and sun,
a city surrounded by a desert,
unaware of the cultural explosion in the main cities of Spain.
In principle, not the best place to be a rock star,
but something is changing in Zaragoza,
where more than 50 local Aragon bands have registered
for an unprecedented event in the city.
The first Pop, Rock and other styles Fair of Zaragoza is finally open.
Over 25 000 youngsters have enjoyed, for three days,
of the so-called "zaragoza's movida".
A real cultural catharsis in a hostile land for rock,
where young dreamers seek...
One of the highlights of the Fair was the demos and independent
records sales.
Young companies challenge multinational labels...
Of course I remember. In the 1984 Fair I presented
Proceso Entrópico.
There were posters all over the city and we read "Zumo de Vidrio".
Each of us was performing in different bands.
For a couple of days, I played with Edición Fría
and Tres de ellos.
And Pedro, with Los Modos.
No, I wasn't there, I was too young.
This can help to create quite an interesting scene
here in Zaragoza, not just in Madrid and Barcelona.
Time will tell who are the best,
but there is will and enthusiasm, there's something for everyone.
For the first time, Zaragoza shows that something powerful is happening.
Everybody thinks that the Fair has been a positive experience,
definitely.
MUSIC CRITIC
Matías Uribe writes in his newspaper that Zumo de Vidrio were good.
Well, that was...
ZUMO DE VIDRIO, IN OUR VIEW, WERE THE BEST
That's amazing.
He said "good", but we were shit.
I was first introduced to Juan
in a bar in Zaragoza which was called Los Navarros.
Someone in there told me:
Juan plays in a band called Zumo de Vidrio.
They were looking for a bassist, and I said I'd go to a rehearsal.
So there I was, with my amp and my bass.
After a few days,
the band's singer, who was Juan's cousin, didn't show up.
So... while we were waiting,
I started playing a song by David Bowie.
I stared at him and thought "this guy can sing."
I saw it so clearly.
Then I told him,
we have to start a real band, seriously.
We were so young and had so many projects,
as we thought we had to shoot at many targets, right?
To get both the musicians and the music.
One day, we got this cassette player,
a radio cassette player, we put a tape in, and directly...
HÉROE DE LEYENDA FIRST DEMO 1984
We gave the tape to Cachi, from Radio Zaragoza.
"We are a band from Zaragoza," and he gave me that look and goes...
As if to say "Maybe I'll listen."
But one or two days later,
I tune in to El Selector at 3 o'clock and there he goes...
With this song by Héroes del Silencio we come to the end of the show.
Greetings from Cachi. Hugs and kisses, goodbye!
And that's the happiest day of my life.
When we had to speak on the radio for the first time
we decided we would be named after the song.
So Héroe de Leyenda,
you were saying it's kind of a hymn for the band, isn't it?
Do you talk about what you really are?
FIRST INTERVIEW, RADIO ZARAGOZA BUNBURY'S VOICE
Yes, Héroe de Leyenda was first called Héroes del Silencio,
and that's our name.
The song talks about what our name really means.
Singing was a bit by chance, but...
with this change, from bassist to singer,
I started enjoying writing the lyrics of the songs.
I discovered what being the front man was like,
but that was gradually. At first I was just a bassist-singer
and was kind of tied to the mike stand.
Eventually, we decided
to look for a bass player so I could be freer in the stage.
We rehearsed in the studio next door.
We saw each other after rehearsal or in the bar,
having a coffee or whatever.
They already had some work, a repertoire.
Their songs sounded better than what we did...
Edición Fría played many covers of The Cure and...
we had some good songs, but I was the singer.
Nothing special...
I realised I could make it, recording an album,
touring and giving bigger concerts.
Pedro, Juan's brother, was focused on his studies
of Medicine and wanted to fully commit to it,
so we needed a drummer.
I started listening to them on Cachi's radio show, El Selector.
And soon after that, they needed a drummer.
I was around, amazed at how they practiced,
while I played with Modos.
"So you play the drums? Come, sit and play."
I sat and thought: "Oh my goodness! My God!"
So I played, I played.
They were really committed, and soon they dropped school to focus
solely on their music. They worked hard.
RADIOCADENA FESTIVAL SALAMANCA 1986
Salamanca is currently the capital of pop.
The 26th edition of Radiocadena takes now place.
This year, it is dedicated to pop music for the first time.
There was a band contest at a national level in Spain.
We got there, we got a hotel, TV journalists all around us...
And when we were about to play, I told Cachi:
"Hey, man, give me your clothes, you look like an alien."
So I went out dressed as... Who knows.
It's been a highly competitive Festival,
with 429 participants.
Then, there was a vote from people from every city.
We got to the semi-final, and we finished in second place.
According to Matías, the contest was rigged.
Matías wrote an article for El Heraldo sounding off
about us not winning.
Man, I was pissed off...
It's been fixed! It's been fixed!
They were not watching the bands, they were eating and drinking.
MUSIC JOURNALIST
They were at a restaurant, in a balcony facing the stage,
far away, on the opposite side.
That's where the judges were.
They couldn't care less.
At that moment, we saw it as a defeat,
but we were second best!
That was better than most of Spanish artists at Eurovision.
As we didn't win, we came back home and said "let's win the next edition."
That didn't happen, either, but we made every effort...
to be there.
We were stronger cause we wanted more.
1.- ENRIQUE BUNBURY (SINGER, BASS, CHORUS)
JUAN VALDIVIA (GUITARS, SYNTHS) PEDRO VALDIVIA (DRUMS)
Was it hard to get this far? Was it difficult?
For a band like yours, coming from Aragon, right?
Yes, it's kind of difficult, as we are not from Madrid.
It's hard because there are no talent scouts
or spotters, right?
No one looks for new demos in other cities,
no one wants to look for new bands outside Madrid.
Spanish pop was very soft, the lyrics...
MUSIC PRODUCER
I was part of it. I was in Olé Olé...
I wanted to diversify my career,
so I suggested collaborating with Roberto.
MUSIC PRODUCER
"Let's produce something together."
"I've never been a producer." "Me neither, but I'm a lucky guy."
"I found this band from Zaragoza that you will probably like."
I listened to a record with four or five songs at home.
But I wasn't impressed.
"They must have something, I don't know."
"Let's listen to them again."
So we listened again, cause they told us
that this band from Zaragoza was real good.
I got many calls from Enrique and Juan.
They invited me to a concert in Zaragoza, at Sala en Bruto.
So we went to Zaragoza.
And I was first impressed...
ZARAGOZA, 1987 SALA EN BRUTO
...seeing people fighting over a ticket.
A Zaragoza band? How's this possible?
Roberto and I liked them very much.
We went to the dressing rooms...
...to talk to them and tell them a huge whopper.
"I'll try to get you a contract," he told us this and that.
He made us drool.
I had quite an experience as an artist so I knew
the steps you must follow to become an artist.
They wanted to be there.
It took us so long.
Different record labels than mine wouldn't care about us.
They said: "What's this? This is not..."
At that time, the trend was techno-pop.
They told me that guitar bands were outdated.
Poligram said at that time: "They're too soft, too weird."
Warner: "They're just like La Unión."
The CBS wouldn't care about us, other companies...
Not even small companies.
Actually, no one cared about us. No one.
Finally, a year later, I went to EMI, to the president of my company.
And said: "Rafa, help me out, you have to record this."
"You first record a single, a maxi. Record a maxi-single if you want."
"If you sell over 5000 copies, I'll give you a decent contract."
The budget I got was way too low. Just imagine!
We were allowed to record for one or two evenings
after that band working for Hispavox at the time.
"OK, go to the studio." And there I found Cantores de Híspalis.
Once that band finished recording... Los Marismeños.
We had to rush into the studio, get the equipment ready,
record at full speed...
Fortunately, I hired...
I was lucky to hire an English engineer
called Steve Taylor, who came from London.
He worked there.
The first thing Steve said was...
And I said...
I told him: "Steve, do your job and shut up."
But what if it didn't work...
If we didn't reach that amount, they would send us back home.
We actually went on a long support tour.
We played in clubs in Valencia...
We toured all over Spain visiting radio studios,
local and regional TVs...
Héroes del Silencio is one of the most promising bands of Zaragoza's pop.
They participated in several regional contests
and finally they had their own album with their songs.
We went to TV studios, to some shit shows,
and some decent shows, but we were there.
They are fresh and young.
They are Héroes del Silencio!
We played here and there. In some shit venues, but we were there.
This new band has an English pop-rock style...
Héroe de Leyenda sounded in every station in Spain.
The company said:
"Change the cover photo immediately,
it's too dark, they need to look handsome."
On one side, that raised the sales even more
and on the other side, the critics...
were more protected.
They said we were a hoax, that we would fade away,
that we were a summer hit.
Thinking about what would happen later
was a gradual process.
We were dealing with what we faced at the time.
I think that fate determined that things went well.
Of course we sold over 5000 copies.
We sold 30 000 copies or so.
The record label believed in us
because we sold five times what they demanded.
And then, they looked at me in a different way at EMI.
They said: "Hey, they were not so bad."
Montesanos and all of us,
Cachi, too, of course,
we knew that they had an enormous talent
to leave Zaragoza as a band.
It was our bet, a bet on rock & roll.
MADRID 1988 SPRING
How are we doing this morning?
Perfect.
-You? -Hell yeah.
You?
The record label said:
"Let's offer these guys a real contract."
They asked if we were willing to move to Madrid,
and we said no.
They had strong roots in Zaragoza. They wouldn't move.
Maybe it was our natural pigheadedness. We wanted to do things our way.
Zaragoza.
Next station: Calatayud.
"Let's find them a manager. We can't deal with this."
So I took them to Pito.
-Pito. -Pito.
-Pito... -Pito.
-Pito...
Some call me Pito Planes and others call me Pito Dreams.
I remember I was in Gijón listening to "Autosuficiencia"
in a car, at a beach, on a mountain...
Drinking cider, probably.
While listening to that song, I said: "What are we doing here?"
I established an office with Alaska y los Pegamoides.
Thanks to them, I got to know what would be later called,
don't know why, movida madrileña.
Pito was the best at the time.
He ran an agency called 10/Diez, and it was the most important
pop-rock artists management agency at the time.
Pito had Alaska...
Gabinete...
Loquillo...
-Los Coyotes... -Golpes Bajos...
Lions in Love...
Established artists.
MUSIC JOURNALIST
And he wanted to help the band grow with the label,
with all the media around them.
Did Pito have a good eye when he signed Héroes?
I don't know.
I don't know why me, why people love me.
I think I come across things, really.
Pito knew how to move in the rock and pop underground,
and he was respected.
I don't know why, really.
Maybe I look silly.
Sometimes I think I'm very smart and sometimes I think I'm stupid.
Hope!
MADRID JANUARY 1989 SALA YA'STA
PRESENTATION TO EMI BOARD AND MEDIA SOUND CHECK
My first clear memory of Héroes
was a performance at 2 or 2.30 pm
on a Tuesday...
There was a lunch for the media, and we played after dessert.
Obviously, at that time you don't get the best sound.
Everybody's eating prawns and drinking champagne...
I guess this is not the typical concert,
but we'd like to introduce you to a band...
Olvido and Loquillo came with me,
and they weren't sure if they liked them or not, so they said:
"I don't quite know the band, I'd need to listen to them again,
but I'm pretty sure there is a rock star on that stage."
So Pito called me and said: "All right, I'll manage them."
The next step was to record an album, clearly.
We had the same problem we had with the first maxi-single.
We recorded between Cantores de Híspalis, Luz Casal, Mari Trini...
We have a gap tonight, can you come?
Yes, right away!
You're super nervous in your first LP.
Juan's hands were shaking.
"Hey, Gustavo, wait a little longer."
What Héroes think of their work is
"We could have done way better."
We had mixed emotions about the album.
The sound was too soft for my liking.
It didn't do justice to the way we sounded live.
There was a moment when we woke up in the morning,
we went to the studio and checked the arrangements they made that night.
Some trumpets in a song...
Metal sounds by a synth.
It was...
very tacky, no one in the group really liked that.
It was kind of offensive.
I can't remember. Trumpets...
I went to the director's office and said:
I'm off to Zaragoza,
my recording career ends here.
I'm not interested in this if the trumpets don't go away.
He looked like a sea lion.
So they went away.
You need to sound pop. A pop sound for radio format.
That was the pressure I was under: selling.
I think that production, so criticized back then,
helped Héroes fit in the national musical scene.
We might say it was appropriate
because it got us on the radio and helped us become known in Spain.
You're a band with just one LP but you have toured a lot.
You've made some money! Are you making a living with this?
FIRST NATIONAL INTERVIEW
Scrape by...
Not yet, cause we are buying the equipment
for our tour next year.
Now we release the LP, we'll give four times more concerts...
-Easy! -The equipment...
Easy, boy!
Four times more is 130.
There are just two bands in Spain that can do that, and that's crazy.
There's more than money. There's your own life.
Giving 130 concerts...
-Héroes del Silencio. -That's this one.
-Sure. -This is...
-That one. -Cool.
This one here is him.
-This is Pedro. -And who's he?
That's the singer, right? You are the singer.
Can we get an autograph?
You had worked quite a lot before being voted best new band of the year,
that's strange, right?
We had worked in Zaragoza, in Aragon, mostly,
for four or five years.
So I think this has helped us reach a national scale.
Ladies and gentlemen, here they are: Héroes del Silencio.
Yes, of course it's lip sync on TV.
All the shows were lip sync.
We had no choice.
Our constant fight was
not to have yellow drums...
YOUNG BAND
...not to have dancers on the stage,
we had these fights every time.
We wanted to make clear that our thing
was darkness and rock.
So you go to some TV shows and bang!
We were on the covers, we started to be famous.
Well, our band quickly became famous.
Fame came all at once.
Even the company was surprised.
Sure! The company was amazed. They asked: "How?"
They hit hard in Los 40, and that changed everything.
Attention, please! This week's number 1 goes to
these guys from Zaragoza.
Here you have Héroes del Silencio and their "Flor Venenosa".
The clean sound of the album and the live concerts we gave
showed two faces of the band that worked really well.
No one can tell whether something will success or not.
There's no formula, right?
People listened to it, liked it and bought it.
And bought it, and bought it...
Word of mouth is very difficult to stop.
They made something completely different.
In Spain, there wasn't... anyone to compare them with, right?
In Spain, when someone is doing well,
draws attention and is in the spotlight,
there are people who don't like it.
They faced a big disadvantage:
people said that Enrique was handsome.
It seemed wrong that we were a serious band with 15-year-old fans.
So this was kind of...
There was this kind of trust from Madrid,
and if they didn't like it,
namely Diego Manrique...
MUSIC JOURNALIST
...and I don't care if he listens to this,
if they didn't give you their blessing,
you had nothing to do.
Let's see...
MUSIC JOURNALIST
Critics, and that's part of their job,
are like those hermits in the desert saying:
"you are all burning," and so on...
So critics have the feeling,
which is somehow real, that they speak and no one listens.
So the fact that Héroes del Silencio countered my criticisms
was a way to justify what they did, right?
You've just played at a venue, you travel 600 km,
and then you read the comments that this guy had written.
So you can't come back and respond to him. How can I respond?
Saying it on the record.
The thing with Héroes del Silencio, when you first listen to them,
the feeling,
the first thing you think is that they were a farce
or at least a band manipulated by the record label.
Also, Gustavo from Olé Olé was behind, etc.
If you came out from a multinational, you were crap.
MUSIC PRODUCER
Just for coming from... Just for that, we were criticized.
And then, their image in the first albums
gave the idea of what we'd call a hairdresser's band, right?
It was all very staged, a trick.
On top of that, the handsome singer for teenage girls.
They didn't even listen to them.
This is the question:
Over which side of the face does the blonde hair of the singer
of Héroes del Silencio fall?
Some people were upset at Enrique having blonde long hair...
Well, what can I say?
If he had three legs, I'd understand.
Bunbury was like a long-haired angel, right?
He had the charisma and the power to transform himself
when he was on stage, arousing girls' passion.
Enrique's attitude on stage was the target.
"We would love to flambé the hair of Héroes singer with rum."
Some people crossed a line with us.
Yes, it annoyed us. And it keeps annoying us.
We were giving our lives.
They were sick of being called soft, cheesy guys...
At a certain point,
I remember Enrique told me he wanted to quit.
Facing the second album was a little scary,
so we worked hard to overcome it.
We were super ready for the second album.
We're so excited at the possibilities we had after meeting Phil Manzanera.
I had always been a Roxy Music fan, so when he showed up
at one of our concerts, it was like meeting a king.
Pito talked to me about Héroes and asked me to go see them
to Calatayud.
ZARAGOZA CALATAYUD 1988
So I went to see them.
I thought "these guys are rock stars."
MUSIC PRODUCER
They were all dressed in black, even the audience dressed in black.
I looked at them, looked at the audience,
and I felt they sounded amazing,
So I knew they had a chance.
At the concert, we talked and he said the magic words:
"I want to make you sound like you do in a live show."
It was the night the First Gulf War started.
So I remember it.
And also...
It was an important night for me. When I got back to the hotel,
I got a call saying that my mother was dying.
So they asked me if I could quickly come back.
So I went to Barajas Airport
and it was closed because of the war,
as the Americans had their planes there.
So I arrived late and she died when I got back to London.
So that night...
was an important one.
Unfortunately, you will never forget
the night you met Héroes.
Héroes.
So it is a memory...
We were so happy, because the studio...
The studio had a console from Abbey Road, an old one.
There were only six of those in the world.
Fantastic.
If they played together,
just as things were done at the time, we could capture
their energy in the studio.
They were able to give us a sound that really represented us.
The album was the real Héroes.
Basically, from my point of view, cause there were little production,
which is the best thing a producer or a manager can do,
don't do anything, I mean,
let the band do their stuff and make them sound good,
but not writing the songs for the band.
When we were recording,
they stopped for lunch and dinner.
Here in England, if you can have a sandwich
during the 12 hours you're in the studio, you're lucky.
But they were like: "Let's have dinner, or lunch."
And I thought: "We're wasting so much time..."
"This is very sociable, though."
It was completely different to what I had done before.
And I liked it.
There was magic in there.
Sometimes everything goes right. Sometimes.
Everything was right with that album, then it didn't happen again...
Basically...
It had something so simple, which is this...
Then, this.
It's very simple, but I used an echo...
I played this and it echoed. So I let it sound...
Wow.
Starting with the guitar, with the echo...
I said: "Why didn't I think of that before?"
It was so good.
We were making a song...
that got us fired up and... was fucking great!
"Entre dos Tierras" is the first single by Héroes del Silencio!
In the first week after the release of "Senderos de Traición",
Héroes del Silencio have sold over 100 000 records.
This is the biggest rise up by Héroes del Silencio with "Senderos de Traición".
The best-selling music band in the national pop rock scene.
Their LP "Senderos de Traición" has beaten records in Spain.
"Senderos de Traición" is now a platinum album
thanks to its unprecedented sales.
Maybe they are Héroes del Silencio, but they do sound great!
Best 1990 song, "Entre dos Tierras".
I knew, for sure, that this song would open every door.
What's up?
I've slept until 7.30
I woke up and I've been rushing all morning.
I haven't even opened my suitcase.
You do look sleepy, mister!
We didn't live like the celebrities.
We lived in Zaragoza and went to the same bars
we went two years ago.
I told my mom: "I will buy you a fur coat
when I'm famous."
-Did you buy it? -Sure!
I also bought a Toledo steel sword that I brought with me on the tours.
Let's see your sword.
I don't know how many concerts we gave in Spain.
I don't know, 130 concerts.
When we reached 80, we started thinking:
"Maybe we should tour outside Spain."
That sounded crazy to our manager
and the record company.
But we didn't care.
CENTRAL EUROPE 1991
They had a wider view than I had and a greater ambition than I had.
And I'm very thankful.
I remember the first time we toured over Europe.
Switzerland for a couple of gigs, Belgium for some other gigs...
You get in the van and show up in Belgium, play and then come back.
If you go to Cádiz, why not Brussels?
It was a little bar.
It had a small stage on a corner for singer-songwriters
with a chair and a guitar, but we had lots of stuff...
When they saw our Marshall and the equipment,
they thought we were crazy, right?
The stage was barely off the ground.
We got the drums set and said: "OK, what about the rest?"
They were wonderful shows,
cause people enjoyed so much in such tiny venues.
Héroes del Silencio, from Zaragoza!
Being huge stars in Spain,
you can go to Germany to play in a shitty pub
or in a small bar...
We were little prepared,
we slept in hostels, we did many kilometers, it was fun.
We were all together and we enjoyed writing.
Good old times.
We spent six or seven hours in the van, every day.
We were together all day.
It was like a marriage of four.
We were a pack and spent all day together.
We were happy and excited about our common project.
We always toured with the same people,
the same staff, both in sound and lighting.
People who perfectly understood the way we wanted to show our music
and what we wanted to do.
We made a good team, right? Supporting us.
You are fired.
Martín was the road manager, the guy traveling with us in the van,
managing day-to-day affairs, arranging hotels and so on.
He called us saying: "Come on, there's a sound check."
He was like a father while we toured.
Martín, I wanna live... Won't you let me live, Martín!
He really knew what he was doing,
he had been the road manager to other Spanish stars.
I got him for Héroes, I thought he was the right person
and I always liked him.
He was like a brother for all of us.
He always was a support to us.
Martín was a very important person for the band,
because, in a way,
he was one of those people who help you find balance.
If you had taken the turn right!
It was a straight line, you fucker!
One year later, we toured over Germany again.
We were invited to play abroad, in Berlin.
And that absolutely changed things.
FESTIVAL AGAINST RACISM FALL
BERLIN 1991 I’M AN OUTSIDER
We played...
Thanks!
...and when we got to the backstage, we couldn't get in.
It was like the Marx Brothers in A Night at the Opera.
A lot of people came out of nowhere.
All of them offered us contracts to sign.
That festival made a huge difference.
It was broadcasted and seen all over Germany.
So then it was...
Héroes del Silencio.
Good evening, Frankfurt!
Héroes del Silencio.
"Entre dos Tierras" was the trigger of the Spanish hit, in the first place.
Then, it became a hit in Europe.
In Berlin, I was at a concert with Enrique,
naked from the waist up, and 3000 Germans singing "Entre dos Tierras".
It gave me goosebumps!
Seeing people...
Entre dos Tierras
They didn't even know what it meant.
It was something nobody understood.
The record label didn't understand.
Pito didn't understand, and maybe they didn't understand.
But something magical happened.
One of the most amazing things of being in the music world is that
there are bands that think outside the box
and go beyond the expectations.
How did the critics treat you back in Spain?
It was the same, they just cared about fucking Hombres G.
What could we do, anyway?
When the tour was over, we decided to stop for a while...
for a short period.
It was the normal holidays for working people, right?
Joaquín, Copi and I went to India and Nepal.
And we got into the culture and some books,
into the music...
We started reading books about spirituality,
Buddhism, Hinduism...
We found about the spiritual world in India and Nepal.
In a way, it was an initiatory journey.
And all of this reflected in the songs lyrics,
at an instrumental level.
They are clear in "El Espíritu del Vino",
which is a more complex, intricate album.
When they told us that...
we had to record a new album, we had very little material.
They came back a day after Christmas
and we had rented a huge house for them.
CHRISTMAS LONDON 1992
It was in the outskirts of London.
That's our house!
They had toured for so long
so I didn't know if they had written many songs.
They told me, "Oh, it's gonna be a double album."
MUSIC PRODUCER
And I said: "No, it can't be. Are you sure?"
Well, it was the way we saw things:
So we don't have enough songs? Let's do a double album.
At that time, Phil had infinite patience with us.
We stayed there for New Year's Eve.
Phil was having Christmas with his family.
We kept going to the studio on our own,
recording songs.
I said: "Well, there's the studio."
It was in a separate building from my home, you know.
I told them: "It's December 26th. We'll start recording on January 7th."
"There's the studio, you can practice, compose..."
"I don't want to see you."
"Nor hear you!"
So, many years later, I found out that...
I don't know... They had so many drugs...
They were day and night... I don't know what happened,
but they had no songs.
Juan told me:
"I play guitar at my best at 3 am."
And I said: "Well, that's fantastic, but I won't be here."
Apple juice to start the day with some energy.
Sometimes they went out in London while we were mixing.
And I often received a call:
"We were stopped by the police."
"Yes, send someone to get us out of here."
What I remember from that time is working all-out 24 hours a day.
I can't play it now.
We did spend New Year's Eve in the studio,
celebrating with our instruments.
And we wrote some songs.
What's true about the myth of you writing "Sirena Varada"
while you were high?
That's no myth. That's real.
NEW YEAR'S EVE 1992 FIRST RECORDING: "SIRENA VARADA"
-It's recording. -When we're ready...
-Is it recording? -Yes.
-Now? -No!
-What? -Can you see me?
-Can you see him? -No, no, no, no.
THEY LEFT THE LENS COVER ON
What's going on, Joaquín?
Well, we may have taken something one of those nights.
...THE LENS COVER IS STILL ON
-We were fucking nailing it. -Let's do it right.
This is dead.
Should we repeat it?
I mean, this is great! There are so many mistakes...
Is it recording?
-We need to turn this off. -No, don't do it.
And how was it?
It was beautiful.
What seems beautiful and fantastic at night,
then tends to fade away, leaving...
In the field of creation,
everybody is curious about knowing where are the limits,
and you raise them as much as you can.
That's what we did
and I think it's absolutely logical and reasonable.
It's the drugs that made me more stupid,
that damaged my relationships
with almost every person I know,
Drugs are to blame for... lots of things.
Hangover means bad humor, less tolerance towards others,
less patience, more stress.
You fear that the album is not as good as you expected.
What drugs did to Héroes...
Rather than helping with some things, drugs ruined everything.
I'm gonna change what we have.
OK.
We changed our sound.
The demands were greater,
and so the tension was higher.
Maybe we punched above our weight.
Having many targets and being musically more ambitious
made us face our first clashes;
different opinions within the band on where we should head to.
We didn't want to, or we didn't know how to agree
how to make things clear between us.
That album, somehow, had all the ideas
but without the final touch.
Phil Manzanera did his best there.
And his best was... spectacular, right?
He recorded an album out of chaos.
PRESENTATION OF THE EXCESS TOUR SUMMER 1992
They are Héroes del Silencio and this is how they presented, in Berlin,
their new album: "El Espíritu del Vino".
The band earned a gold record in Germany for selling their album
"Entre Dos Tierras".
The company decided to make clear what was going on in Europa.
But still, everything that happened to us was viewed
with much skepticism, as if we were making things up.
Despite the controversy caused
by Héroes del Silencio comments against the King,
the band's rock made its way into the Zarzuela royal palace.
Yes, there was controversy because...
Spanish press loves controversy like a fat kid loves cake.
So if you are rock & roll, punk, anarchist stars,
why didn't you spit on the King's face?
And we're kind of fucking tired of that.
There was a reason to criticize Héroes del Silencio.
Shit!
We had a very aggressive attitude towards the press.
Throw your television out the window.
They didn't make any effort to please the national press.
There are some dickheads who think we are old-fashioned.
Maybe I was wrong when I thought
that giving bad answers to the journalists
was supported by our audience.
I'll show you some real 70's rock & roll.
Let me talk, please.
He was known for being, let's say, a bit unbearable.
I defended him by saying he was just as unbearable
as the first day I met him.
It wasn't because he was a star.
He was very self-confident.
They have always said we are arrogant and whiny.
Maybe it's because we have always had clear ideas
about what our career should be.
Besides, they were very shy.
Under the guise of rock stars they could cope with their shyness.
Do you think that the rage you show helps you sell more?
I do understand the need for promotion.
But what do you want me to say? I'd rather not do it.
Let's see.
You're miles away, young man.
What are Héroes del Silencio's fears?
Fears?
Juan didn't want to, I didn't want to.
Things got weird with the media, as they looked for the singer.
Enrique has always taken a role he really didn't want.
If you answer all the questions,
it's normal that you're more famous than the guitarist, who never speaks.
I don't teach anything to anyone. Everyone is to do what they want.
-That's all. -Alright.
Juan was a rock star in his own way.
An artist who expresses himself instrumentally, and not verbally.
There was jealousy...
Maybe one got more attention than the other...
Juan probably needed greater recognition from...
Not from the band, as he always got it, but externally,
which he deserved as an important part, even more than Enrique,
in terms of how Héroes del Silencio sounded.
I thought that song was very punk.
"What are these guys doing?"
"Now they want to play punk?"
MUSIC PRODUCER
They told me: Wait until they play "La herida".
OK, let's see what they got.
So they play "La herida".
Siempre
I thought: "This is a beautiful ballad."
And then, at the end, boom! They go crazy as hell.
I thought it was kind of weird...
We are a difficult band to classify, I know,
cause we were soft at the beginning.
What we've done, be it right or wrong,
it's an evolutionary step in our career.
We were talking about how to bring that to live shows,
I thought it would be nice to have an extra guitarist
during the new tour.
I met Alan Boguslavsky at a party hosted by Pito.
And he came to take a guitarist test with Juan.
We got wasted after some shots, and I thought: "This is the best one."
GUITARIST OF HÉROES DEL SILENCIO
No, no, don't say that!
I chose him because he got drunk, not because he played well...
They told me "You passed these tests, so now...
let's see if you can play the guitar."
He had some influences, a different way to see things,
which connected with me immediately.
I totally understood my role at Héroes del Silencio.
I've always liked the rhythm elements of guitar.
So I realized that the role I was about to take when I joined
Héroes del Silencio was to bring a new energy.
What for? For good and for what's not so good.
Act as an exhaust valve for some stuff, right?
He was a self-help recruit, rather than a musical one.
At that time, I was homeless,
so I had a suitcase with clothes in the trunk of my car.
I slept at a friend's for some days, then a few days with another friend...
So imagine you're living in your car or at a friend's,
and suddenly you're in Spain going to your first concert
in a private airplane from the Zaragoza airport...
That totally changes your life, right?
Any musician who plays rock & roll... wants to live that experience.
Live life in a tour, playing from one place to another...
And you do want the attention and, somehow, the fame.
LIVE AT ROCK AM RING 1993
Everything was new to me, the fun things,
the generated tension...
After three shows you get a free day, which you spend traveling.
Then you do three or four more shows,
and then again, again and again...
MEXICO 1993
A great band that came from Spain last week.
They are considered the leaders of the Spanish-speaking rock in Europe.
America was way more difficult.
We did an important tour in Mexico,
in modest stages, trying to do our project.
The band was working hard, trying to win over the audience.
Congratulations from Mexico to Spain and to you.
We're so happy to have this super band with us.
Straight from Spain, Héroes del Silencio!
Baja California border! That proves where we are.
We're on a tour in which today you play before 100 people
and tomorrow for 100 000.
So we were playing at the Sports Palace in Madrid
and then in a pub in Vienna,
and we played at a festival in Germany,
and then we went to Argentina.
We were flying and touring in a chaotic, hectic way.
Hello, good morning. We are in Germany.
Our journey over the mountains continues.
Those tours we did were ginormous, eternal,
very, very long.
That was taking a terrible toll.
It weakened coexistence every day.
Certain parts of our personality were more and more accentuated
every day, every week, every kilometer.
So we got to the hotel and everyone...
Everyone starts to think of themselves rather than the band,
amps are bigger every time,
everyone wants their volume to be higher,
and maybe we stopped listening to each other as we did before.
I think we should have stopped there for a year, at least.
I read some German critics saying that we looked tired
and we weren't fresh anymore.
Deep inside of me, I knew it was true.
We were nervous, in the end.
Enrique had forced his voice so, so much,
it was damaged, and then we played in Paris, at Elysee Montmartre.
Sellout show, 2000 people.
After the third or fourth song, Enrique says he can't keep singing,
he left the microphone on the floor and left the stage.
We went to the backstage and Enrique said: "I can't go on."
We were all shocked, we thought our singer was indefatigable,
TWO THOUSAND PARISIAN FANS COULD NOT TASTE THE BAND'S WINE
that he was atomic and his voice would never fail him.
So he suddenly says: "I can't go on."
So Héroes del Silencio...
became many hours of silence. That was fucked up.
Trips were so long, eight or nine hours with no communication.
Dangerous.
Héroes del Silencio tour manager, Martín Druille,
has died in a car crash.
Also in the accident, the stage manager was seriously injured,
but fortunately he is out of danger.
Can you remember the night of the accident?
Well...
We were back from... Well, it was New Year's Eve...
You were on a tour, but it was about to finish, right?
We're coming home for Christmas.
For New Year's Eve.
Were you with Martín that night?
We were together,
they came back later, they went to buy seafood for the family.
He always played with fire, he used to drive at full speed.
And he burned.
It's fucking hard.
Martín hurt us.
He was just a road manager,
I mean, he wasn't the most important member.
But sometimes, the most important people are not those
who hold the top position.
When Martín was gone,
we lost a parental figure to the band,
who also contributed to have a good relationship.
It was a very painful loss,
he was so close to us, both professionally and personally.
It was painful because I created a beautiful bond with Martín.
I felt cared for by him.
I do remember him
with all my gratitude and all my affection.
And if I think of him, of course it brings me sadness.
He left quite a mark on the band.
The first concert we gave, in Zaragoza,
after Martín's death,
was a very emotional show, very hard for us to give.
We would like the show to be a sort of tribute...
to our road manager and beloved friend, Martín.
In his memory, we really appreciated him...
This one is for you, Martín.
BENASQUE HOSPITAL WINTER 1994
Benasque...
We needed powerful places to stimulate the band, I think.
Practicing in Zaragoza would have been worse, as we were fed up.
Coming back to that basement...
We wanted to be far from the madding crowd.
We were somehow looking for ourselves.
Should we go on and climb it? Where?
There.
-There. -We need to come closer...
Well, we liked the concept of a personal relationship between us,
similar to the beginning, right?
Being together.
The thing of being isolated brought calm to the band.
It was about coexisting,
but not coexisting in a small rehearsal room,
but in this majestic landscape, where you can do you want,
be it going out for a walk or not.
The mountain-type guys woke up early and went for a walk.
Those who were not climbers woke up for lunch and practice.
This is Juan trying to fish...
some fish in the lake, cause maybe we will never leave this place.
As you can see, we are under a cloud.
Enrique is smoking the last pipe.
A self-manufactured pipe.
At that time, our manager was a little confused.
He showed up sometimes in a poor condition,
and he kind of had forgotten about his job as a manager
and about managing the band's affairs.
Well, the thing with Pito was the escalation of drugs
in which...
in which all of Spain was involved...
some of us did better and could work...
and a certain point, Pito didn't work as a manager.
Yes, at that time, I didn't really know what happened.
Now I know what was going on, back then I didn't.
I mean, I was totally way over the limit.
Then we went to a house in England.
We're angry.
We're angry in London
because Quique phoned Madrid's office and he wouldn't answer.
I remember we were practicing in that cottage in London suburbs,
trying to find Pito for some days.
There was no way to find him.
Eventually, I found out he was at a hotel,
with the guys from Suede, who also were drugged to the hills.
As he didn't pick up the phone, I went to the hotel,
I got into his room and tried to talk to him.
And... within the chaos and haze of those conversations,
I managed to tell him that he needed to take some time
to recover, and that, in the meantime,
we had to record an album and continue the tour,
so when he felt better, he could give us a call.
The funny thing is that he called me two days later,
saying he was OK.
He needed to stop that and then we had no manager.
There was a shift in focus.
We also wanted to try a new producer.
I guess the figure of Bob Ezrin is impressive,
the fact that he recorded Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, being with Aerosmith,
going to Los Angeles to record...
Well, that's a new level, right?
I had a hard time recording Avalancha
cause working with Pink Floyd's producer
is such a great standard...
you even think you don't deserve these people, right?
That pressure made me freeze.
Juan started to have a serious problem with his hands.
At the beginning, it was not discussed enough,
the problem was not seriously handled.
My left hand was totally fucked up, so I was in pain when I played the guitar.
I was so afraid, because the guitar plucking I had in Avalancha
was very difficult to perform and I wanted to play well.
I gave around 60 concerts without being able to...
I put my finger here and it went there.
They didn't understand what happened to me,
plus I was drinking a huge amount
of alcohol at parties and so on...
I think it was at the beginning of the last American tour.
There's a discrepancy regarding...
Enrique wanted to innovate, and try new things.
He wanted to take a new musical direction and use new instruments,
to change Juan's sound,
and then we started to disagree.
Why "Avalancha", an avalanche of what?
An avalanche of motivation.
There's a moment in which the four or five band members
need to talk and restore...
our friendship and our music, which is what really united us.
That's why we are here.
I realized that, musically,
the gap between Enrique and Juan was getting bigger, it was a rift.
One pulled in one direction, the other pulled in the opposite.
And, caught in the crossfire, Joaquín, Pedro and myself.
At some point, Pedro got sick and he had an operation.
Pedro had a heart surgery and he stayed here in Zaragoza
recovering while we go to Mexico with a new drummer.
It was all chaos.
And the conversation came up, we said: "well, we need to stop."
When you have a problem,
if someone puts his finger in the wound
by saying: "this is the problem," your first reaction is to turn on.
He gathered us and said that he didn't like Héroes music anymore,
that the band was over, he wanted to stop and he was done.
When I recovered, I went to Mexico and told Anye Bao:
"Take a plane and get out of here, this is my place."
When he arrives, the first thing we say is we want to break up.
I wrote some proposals,
what I thought we could do to improve the situation
and how we could save the band.
One: "rock & roll is dead."
"Rolling Stones are out of style, and so are AC/DC. No more rock."
"Gibson and Marshall are a thing of the past. Forget them."
Maybe he didn't explain well, but these ten rules were...
"No Marshall." What does that mean? No voice?
I remember that my proposal was not welcomed.
I said: "Someone is going crazy here,"
I left the room and went to mine.
One didn't know how to say "Why don't we try this?"
And the other took everything personally, so...
It was like: "I'm leaving the band!" "Me too!", "And me!"
I mean, in 15 minutes...
all of us said we'd leave the band except Pedro.
I had been gifted a new heart.
So I was like: "Come on, you're joking."
I'd send you three months to hospital so you know what it is like.
Did you publicly announce that the group was breaking up?
No.
During that time, we didn't tell anybody.
But still we stayed the course,
thinking that we didn't have to fight anymore,
because the situation was clear, somehow.
These are our last shows. Let's do them right.
LOS ANGELES AUTUMN 1996
It was the last Héroes concert in Los Angeles,
and Bob Ezrin came to see us.
He was in the backstage, with his cigars and everything.
And he goes: "Well, what are you playing in the show?"
I knew we were going to cancel it, and told him:
"Good luck," that's what I said.
Cause I thought: "He won't see any concert."
That particular day, which I'll always remember,
they came from Japan to sign us for a tour there.
It was a shitty concert, maybe 20 minutes or half an hour.
At that time, shows in the U.S.
were kind of violent, people threw things at the stage.
Some people who got tickets out of nowhere
started throwing coins at Enrique.
They started throwing things at the stage so I decided to leave.
Juan told me... He looked at me as if saying:
"If he leaves, I'm off, too. Fuck it!" So they all left.
The Japanese delegation was in the backstage.
They came to see the concert.
I would have loved to be a star in Japan.
So when the Japanese delegation
came to see us and offered a release there, we broke up.
In their fucking faces.
We said goodbye and came back separately to Zaragoza,
And... it was over.
After the most ambitious tour ever made by a Spanish rock band,
Héroes del Silencio are breaking up...
They leave after 12 years and more than 1000 concerts...
They have sold over six million records in 40 countries.
Héroes del Silencio members will start their solo careers,
Enrique Bunbury...
What seemed a break in October 1996...
Years after the band breakup, the legend goes on...
When Héroes are asked about coming back to the stage,
the members of the band keep completely silent.
TEN YEARS LATER
ZARAGOZA FEBRUARY 2007
Whenever you want.
Hi, we are Héroes del Silencio.
After ten years away from the stages,
we are so excited to announce that,
this year, after the 20th anniversary of the release of our first recordings,
we will do a reunion tour of just ten concerts.
This is the non-silent return of one of the most iconic bands in Spain.
They will play together in a historic tour
over the U.S., Latin America and Spain.
Héroes del Silencio are back 11 years after they split up.
Three, two, one...!
At 12 o'clock tonight
the gates opened to start selling tickets
for the Héroes del Silencio concert.
I think it was necessary.
In a selfish way,
I think we needed to come back to the stage,
to play these songs,
to be united, as we were at the band's origins.
In public, in front of everybody, we're recovering the good vibes
we have for one another.
Héroes, Héroes, Héroes!
Jota!
Héroes, Héroes, Héroes!
Ready?
Héroes, Héroes, Héroes!
Hell yeah!
The time's come. Well, the time's come.
When you go up the stairs of the stage,
you need to forget everything but music.
The only place where Héroes fully understand each other
is on a stage, playing their songs.
Actually, the band's life was very short,
the band could have gone so much further.
We could have done more things.
I wish we were still together and had 15 records.
Then, we would really have made history.
I guess no one played their role,
and we must consider them one of those big anomalies.
During the 10 years they stopped,
they grew even more than when they were together.
That's not normal in the world of rock.
Songs... Music survives everything.
I had long dreamt of being in a stadium, in a show,
like the Rolling Stones.
All our dreams came true, sure they did.
It's emotional to reach the end of something.
To properly complete a work is better than extending it forever.
Thank you so much! Goodbye!
Thank you so much!
Goodbye forever! That's it!
THE LAST CONCERT BY HÉROES DEL SILENCIO WAS HELD IN VALENCIA
ON THE 27th OF OCTOBER, 2007
MORE THAN 80,000 PEOPLE ATTENDED THE SHOW.
THEY HAVE NEVER PLAYED TOGETHER AGAIN
Héroes, Héroes, Héroes!