The Upset is one of Barcelona’s latest Oi! outfits, but with its members deeply rooted in the Catalonian scene already they already earned their stripes and gained their experience. Something that definitely shows on the band’s debut album “Giving Up Is Not An Option”! Time for a little chat with vocalist and front man Ramon!

 

Hi Ramon, thanks on taking your time to do this interview! How was your weekend?

 

Hi Mano, thanks to you for taking your time to interview The Upset! My weekend was actually quiet. I'm gathering up my strength for the Beach Beer Chaos Fest, which is in less than 3 weeks.

 

No problem! Let's start off with a bit of history for those who think The Upset 'came out of nowhere'. How were you, and other members, involved in music prior to The Upset?

 

Well, we all have been involved in a few bands in the past and present. Alex and I were former members of Bulldozer. An Oi!/streetpunk band that lasted 10 years, we recorded a few 7"s and one LP called "On the blacklist" released by United Kids Records. We played many local gigs and a couple in France and Germany. It was more a bunch of friends playing music that a band actually. Great times! Alex is playing bass with Secret Army now too.

 

Guillem who plays guitar with us is also the mastermind of Reconquesta. If you like tough 90's Oi! with hard as nails lyrics (in Catalan) and strong guitars, you're gonna love it. Jordi is also the drummer for Dröpools, they are a brilliant punk rock/street rock'n'roll band, somewhere between the epic guitars of Angel City Outcasts and the party feeling of bands like Die Lokalmatadore. The newest member is Iñaki on guitar, he's the former bass player of Secret Army.

 

The scene over here is quite small, so almost all bands of similar genres share members eventually!

 

Everyone was, and still is quite busy then! Was one of the reasons you formed The Upset that you missed playing in a band?

 

Totally! I missed making music and I wanted to go for something simple and straight, back to basics Oi!. Alex was practicing with bass and he told me he wanted to play, he didn't care what. So I just asked Guillem and Jordi, who love to make music and are good at it. So we started The Upset, and I've gotta say I'm really happy with how things are going so far.

 

Besides getting older and gaining more experience, what do you think is the main difference between your old band Bulldozer BCN and The Upset?

 

Well, basically the only similarity is that I'm singing. Alex used to play drums with Bulldozer and he's the bassist in The Upset. Musically I think there's more rock'n'roll in the guitars and maybe less melody. Also the influences are a bit different. Guillem is composing all the songs and he is mainly into 80's and 90's Oi!, the hardest side of it. Also with The Upset we want to keep everything simple and straight to the point.

 

Simple, but very effective I would say! Because nearly 18 months after you guys formed your debut album "Giving Up Is Not An Option" is out on the shelves! Are you happy with the result?

 

I am really happy! Making music with this guys is really easy, they make it easy! Of course there's always things you would change in the mixing or stuff like that. But honestly, we are quite proud of the final result. We recorded it at the studio where we practice, in less than a week, so everything was fresh in our heads. Also we had a quite clear idea of the sound we wanted, so the guys in the studio got the idea quickly. We know it's a short album, but I think people doesn't have time for long records anymore, especially when they can switch the song in one click, so we didn't want people to get bored, we'd like them to listen through the whole thing if possible. And if possible, to get a couple of songs stuck in people's brains, so they singalong when we play live. That's where the fun is in the end!

 

Definitely, I hardly believe people will get bored by the album, to me there is also a fast-paced hardcore influence to it! You already spoke about styles that influenced your sound, could you be more specific on what bands influenced The Upset's sound?

 

You're right. Some of us are really into American Oi! like The Bruisers, Anti Heros, Forced Reality, Oxblood, Patriot, The Trouble, Stars and Stripes... and it's quite obvious that many of those bands are hardcore influenced. Alex and I really like Boston hardcore, and "You're a bore" was our tribute to bands like Last Rights, Slapshot and Gang Green.

 

Also we think there's a strong and noticeable influence by 90's Brit bands, especially those in Hammer Records, like late Close Shave and early Crashed Out. And of course you can hear a lot of Combat 84 and Blitz.

 

Pretty much all the good stuff into one mix I'd say! Although your past band experience and connections might have helped as well, it's something that didn't get unnoticed by Contra Records who released your album. How has the response on "Giving Up Is Not An Option" have been so far?

Indeed. In the days of internet you just don't even need to search for bands anymore, they just pop up in your face all day long, so there's many chances you stop paying attention, maybe you'll remember the name, but won't spend 10 minutes listening to the music. We're all a bit overwhelmed by information nowadays. So yes, the fact that I know people in real life helps to get some attention on the band. We travel a lot to attend gigs and fests, and for the last few years I'm constantly working with bands and labels on artwork. So when we started The Upset some of the hard work was almost already done and once people listened to our demo or saw us playing live we started getting gigs at fests like the Streetpunk Winter Riot in Bratislava, Contra Summer Bash and Pogorausch.

 

The Contra guys are really nice people, we work together regularly and they loved the music since the very beginning, so it was kinda natural to me to release the album with them. We don't know if its selling fast or what, but we feel the response is really positive in general.

 

Indeed! I am curious if your connections and friendships within the scene can perhaps lead to interesting split releases in the future, like the Bulldozer BCN split with The Revilers?

Sure, I already have talked many times with my good pal Scotty of Broken Heroes to release a split with them. That'd be rad. Personally other bands I'd like to share a slice of vinyl with would be No Resistance, Projekt 9, Black Ball, 45 Adapters, Lions Law... just to name a few!

 

With any of those bands would be great! Like you said in your previous answer you do artwork for bands and these are some of the bands you worked for delivering some amazing covers etc... My personal favorite is still the 45 Adapters sleeve of their "Patriots Not Fools" 12"! When did you discover this talent, how did this evolve into doing artwork for bands (covers, flyers etc...) and what is your personal favorite?

 

Well, I've been drawing and reading comic books since I remember. And my parents always supported that, so when I was 13 years old I started class at Joso school, that's basically where you to when you live here and you want to learn how to draw comic books, illustrations, animation, etc... I started doing artwork for bands and labels really soon, some Bronco Bullfrog compilation, the Bakers Dozen/Retaliator split, Ultimo Asalto's side of their split with Volxsturm, Suspenders's first album... but it wasn't until I lost my regular job 4 years ago as a printer when I decided to try to get a living out of it. So thanks to my wife's ever ending support and many people who have trusted me like Danny Toughskins, Runnin Riot Mailorder, Contra Records, Oi! Oi! The Shop,Brass city boss Sounds and Rebellion Records and many others I can say it's starting to pay off. I also work on portraits and caricatures, and concept art for advertisement agencies. I just love illustration and graphic design, so everything's welcome.

 

45 Adapters is also one of my favs, Booze and Glory's "As Bold as brass", Black Ball's debut 7", On the Job "White Collar Thugs"...

 

I also love the series of flyers I did for some reggae clubs, like Pressure Drop, with many versions of the Treasure Isle pirate, or the tourposters for RazorCut and 45 Adapters.

 

Awesome! Besides The Upset and doing artwork you are also DJ'ing and involved in the organization of the Beach, Beer & Chaos festival you were referring to earlier. Do you have more ambition when it comes to the 'music industry' in general?

 

Haha I think I have enough now. I LOVE music, and I love everything I do related to it, but playing in a band, dj'ing, doing artwork for records and merch, and promoting our own Stomp! Club, and the BBC fest is more than enough for me! I like to spend the day on my couch too!

Fair enough! Earlier you said the scene was rather small, with that did you refer to Catalonia or Spain? How is the tendency between bands and the scene of Barcelona compared to other parts of Spain? Is there a (healthy) rivalry or isn't there anything like that?

I think it's a small scene worldwide! Especially since we all have Facebook and spend too much time on it. But focusing on your question. We all know each other in Barcelona, not just inside the skinhead/Oi! scene, but across other underground scenes. It's also true for Catalonia, we all know each other. Of course some are closer friends with ones and less friends with other but in general, with The Upset we have played with many bands from the whole spectrum. About the rest of Spain, there's good friendship and ties with the Basque Country, Galicia and Pais Valencià.
 

Do you think Catalonia should seperate from Spain in general?

 

In the end, we all want our rights, language and culture to be respected and our people to have food on the table. 3 of us think the only way to get that is Catalonia being a state. The other two are less up to it.

 

True. Okay, I'm about to round it up. What other bands, besides The Upset, should people check out from your region?

 

Well, of course the three bands the other members are involved with: Secret Army, Reconquesta and Dröpools. Also everyone knows Ultimo Asalto. Others would be Crim, Gundown, Von Danikens, The Meet Up, Ruben Lopez and the Diatones, The Bite, Urgent Kicks, Appraise, and I'm probably forgetting a few!

 

Alright, that's it! Thanks for your time! If there is anything you'd like to add, feel free to do so!

Thanks again for your interest and support Mano, keep up the good work with American Oi!