Sam, Willy, Picu. Los Dedos
If you thought that talking about music in Bristol is limited to Sarah Records or trip hop, Los Dedos have come to change your mind. What this British trio does is unbridled surfing, perfect for scoring a film noir inspired by a story by Bukowski while enjoying a good mezcal. Of course, all this recommendation from Sam, Willy and Picu, with whom we chatted even though we were thousands of miles apart but sharing the same moment between day and night. This Wednesday they present their EP and you should listen to it now.
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The world stopped and Bristol gave birth to the surf trio Los Dedos. Fate made Picu Moreno leave his native Spain to settle in the British city for twelve years and where in 2020 he would meet Willy Malo with whom he began the project of a three-piece instrumental band that would haunt genres such as surfing and music. garage.
Piece three is Sam. The two Englishmen met years ago, when Willy was preparing to play with The Carny Villains, his other band. “It was at a gig where the drummer didn’t show up, Sam was there and he saved the day. A year later we were playing at Stadford and the drummer forgot part of the drum, Sam finally joined the group ”the story is told by the guitarist and Sam Bigland adds that they have been playing together for five years. Today the three subjects make up Los Dedos, a band that respects the classical line-up: guitar (Willy), bass (Picu) and drums (Sam).
In all history there is a beginning and this has its origin in the days when the pandemic began to get stronger and the earthlings had to lock themselves up.
Picu Moreno: Willy and I met in February (2020), we got together once, just one day to play, to do a little jamming, and then came the confinement, the lockdown, and we didn’t see each other again until summer, So it was very interesting creatively because from a distance we were composing songs on WhatsApp, sending us demos, he would send a demo to me, I would put a bass on him, he would put a chorus on me, I would finish the song for him and so hand in hand we did Like 20 or 25 demos in a period like four or five months.
Los Dedos is not a common name for a UK band. “We wanted a name in Spanish, a bit for me and we thought of Los Dedos, being an instrumental group, without a voice, as it was also a very interesting element and it describes very well how music is made right? So that’s the story behind the name”, clarifies Picu.
Yes, we are fans of Los Dedos.
-If you weren’t part of Los Dedos, would you like this band?
Of course! –Picu Moreno responds forcefully. After a burst of laughter, Willy Malo, who in addition to the guitar in his previous group was also in charge of the voice, determines that he had wanted to do a project like the one they now have for a long time, he wanted to put together a three-piece band, make noise, touch. Willy and Picu maintain a creative dynamic already with a good number of songs written, but if something is out of what they are looking for and they do not like, with a definitive “that’s shit and something else” they continue to collaborate on more material or on finishing more songs for the group they are fans of: Los Dedos.
On the part of Picu who is in charge of the bass and the Spanish guitar, Los Dedos is the only project in which he keeps his attention. Sam and Willy, who are the ones that complement the trio, already have another band in their pockets, they usually go on tour with that other project but due to problems with the pandemic the group stopped.
The sonic waves of surfing in Bristol. Each band responds to the call of the music, to the sound to which they belong, in the case of Los Dedos, surfing summoned them. Since adolescence, Picu has been a fan of the music of the 50s and 60s, with the garage always at the forefront, so when Willy suggested the idea of starting a surf band, he did not hesitate to enlist. Before the surfing experience, Willy had experimented with other genres, Iron Maiden and Nirvana as references of that harder rock in which he was related, but like many people, he discovered surfing through films like Pulp Fiction and there he meets Dick Dale, also with his previous band they did some covers of this music. On his part, Sam Bigland didn’t have a particularly deep understanding of the genre, but he was very excited about the ideas that were presented to him. He knew Willy was thinking of starting a band and when they started sending him demos he loved it, so he volunteered to play on that project and came in with total openness about playing in a surf band.
Giants like Dick Dale or Los Sonics were a direct influence on the sound that defines Los Dedos. “I liked bands like Langhorns, Los Straitjackets and obviously all the classics as well as The Lively Ones, Dick Dale. We are very inspired by series B movies, soundtracks, spaghetti western and all this cinematographic universe”.
In addition to the precursors already mentioned, Picu says that among the bands that represent the genre on this side of the world, he listened a lot to Los Esquizitos and Lost Acapulco, which were successful in Mexico in the 90s, and Los Saicos from Peru who recorded ‘Demolición’ in the 65 and today the song continues to sound in sets and parties. Moreno confesses that they were disconnected from the current scene, “we have been surprised because we look back when making the project, but currently there is a brutal scene. Our EP has not come out yet but we are already in contact and we know many other groups, radios, and it is cool, it is a very small community also with the vinyl issue. We didn’t know the scene, we liked the genre, but the scene is surprising us” he says.
About the influence of the cinema and its soundtracks on the sound of this trio, the bassist mentions “I have always imagined Los Dedos as a soundtrack for a movie from a Bukowski novel. When you listen to songs like ‘Midnight Hustle’ I imagine that thing: Criminal stuff, dark streets and such, that’s my vision ”
For his part Willy mentions Ry Cooder among his influences, whose music we can appreciate in films like Paris, Texas (1984) directed by Wim Wenders.
Every movie requires a soundtrack and Los Dedos could well put the scores into horror, suspense or mystery label films. Although their plans are not aimed at soundtracks but at being totally a rock group, playing live, they do not rule out the idea of taking the opportunity to score a creepy story on the big screen.
The Shadows. Although for the trio The Shadows it is a band that is everywhere in England and does not appear as a direct influence, they accept that they would not be doing Los Dedos if they had not existed. “Obviously they are a secondary influence, we can say that they have touched us and it has an undeniable relevance in what happened afterwards,” says Picu.
Before the world came to a complete stop due to the pandemic, the music scene in Bristol was brutal, filled with live shows. This brought a question to our mind, is there a surf and instrumental scene in Bristol? “We don’t know how many surfers there are around here. Sure there is more than what we know, but now we are in a box and we have not yet had the opportunity to meet other groups so it is still something to discover”.
“Bristol has mythical bands in its history, that are not necessarily surfer or garage, like the trip hop of the 90s that was huge. At the moment Idles is the most famous band in the country and they are incredibles” says Willy.
Due to the circumstances in which the entire planet has found itself in the last year, Los Dedos had few opportunities to meet before recording their debut EP, but as detailed by them, they managed to enter the Island studios to record it: “We recorded the EP In three days, there was a period during August and September that there was no confinement, so we went into the rehearsal room”, says Picu. “We chose the five songs, we polished them and when we entered the studio we knew what we wanted to play and record, it was pretty straightforward,” Willy explained.
Los Dedos EP (2021)
Los Dedos has an important connection with film, the art of the EP seems to have been rescued from a police horror film: “A friend worked on the design for us, we also wanted to make it a bit retro with the song titles on the front, like the fifties and sixties albums have it. We haven’t talked about it yet, but we’d like him to continue working with us later” adds Sam who is a friend of Deco, the graphic designer they worked with for this cover.
‘Crime Wave’. Her first single was presented on January 19, 2021, but it did not come alone, it is accompanied by a video directed, filmed and edited by Clare Frances, Picu’s partner. The band did not have a budget and was not allowed to go out to record a video due to the confinement but once in the studio they called Clare, who is a camera operator and producer, and registered a work that allows us to have an idea of what it will be see Los Dedos live. The clip, made with a few takes in 20 minutes, shows the group “without fireworks”, it is the trio performing in the studio, captured in black and white.
Clare Frances is Picu’s girlfriend, she made the first video of the band, “Crime Wave” and will also be in charge of creating a story for the next video that will include ‘The Bat’, “later we would like to record a live show, at the moment you have to be ingenious there are few resources and few means, it is an idea that we have since I wrote the song and it will also capture the entire cinematographic roll of the band ”, says Picu.
For the production, which they have made themselves, they wanted to capture the sounds of the three instruments live, “there is not much post-production, we wanted to capture the sound of the group live, capture the three instruments and the strength of the band. In some songs we have dubbed a guitar or we have integrated a keyboard, there is a song out there that has a Spanish guitar, but in reality we wanted it to be a group of three pieces and whoever listens to the EP listens to what we are. And I think we have transmitted that very well”.
Spanish guitar, organ and trumpet. ‘The Bat’ and ‘High & Dry’ are two songs that conquer, one for its mystery, the other for its spaghetti western soundtrack sound. In the first, which is shaping up to be his next single, we find Picu’s idea of including a gloomy, vampiric organ, part that was finally left in the hands of Clod Adams, a French musician, friend of the band. In ‘High & Dry’ there are two elements that pass through the memories of what Ennio Morricone created: trumpet and Spanish guitar. Willy, apart from playing guitar and singing in his other band, also put a trumpet between his lips, just as he did in this piece that called for that very spaghuetti western epic moment. As for the Spanish guitar, Picu shares that his background on the strings is much of that instrument and that for this song he was inspired by a song, which was like a rumba, that he wrote a little more than a decade ago, when they formed the group. He shared the idea with Willy, with the intention of doing something like a spaghetti western, he loved it, took up the idea and finished the song.
Will this ep be released in physical format? “Right now, due to the pandemic, everything is complicated, so as for looking for a physical format at the moment it is not in our plans,” Willy mentioned and adds that if possible vinyl is the ideal, anyone except the CD.
The group warns that they have too much material, beyond that registered on the EP, between 30 and 35 demos of songs almost finished but that require rehearsal, arrangements and polishing.
“Yes, we chose the five songs because it was very democratic, they were the five that we all wanted, I think they also represented many styles of the group,” says Picu in reference to the selection of songs from the first album by Los Dedos.
Willy Malo says that it is “an introduction to the group, it was like choosing five songs with different styles to show a bit what we can do”. He anticipates that in the future they would like to make another EP with four or six songs that have more specific mathematics. Finally, Sam Bigland adds that when they arrived at the rehearsal room, it was those five songs that they most wanted to play and it was a little that began to float the most to the surface to choose them.
The plans for Los Dedos after the pandemic depend on the sanitary measures that are dictated in Bristol, as well as everyone in the world, “we would like if it is possible to be able to record something by the end of this year like having another EP, getting Los Dedos out, says Picu. “We live in times with so much hatred and so much distancing that getting creative, sharing it and creating attention to the other side of the world is a luxury”, concludes the surf trio.
Time to listen to the EP:
