Qva Libre: «We had to sell a show»

«Jump, dance, enjoy and romp because the world ends in 2012». Thus sounded the theme that catapulted Cuban group Qva Libre a few years ago. Fortunately, the world did not end and scholars concluded that Mayans’ predictions had been misinterpreted. But even though, the boom achieved by the band did not end in 2012, but grew more and today they are among those that move youngsters the most.

Dates aren’t the most important thing for the kids of Qva Libre, therefore all the production they’re having is not due to formalisms for their 15th anniversary, but to their needs for creation and huge desires to entertain the public.

Of course, this does not mean there isn’t something special before the end of the year. The band, also known as La Sicodélica Estelar, has already launched several singles that will make up their upcoming new album “Rock Duro” (Hard Rock).

That volume will include themes “La cosquillita” and “Tú eres la razón”, sung by Alexander Abreu and Descemer Bueno, respectively. The band will also include one they shared with El Chacal. So, this will be an album featuring several musicians.

CubaSí talked to Carlos Díaz, leader of Qva Libre, about these new plans and more.

J: The theme with Alexander is to lose good sense; Descemer’s participation is fifty-fifty, from him and from you, and I imagine that the song with El Chacal will have reggaeton. There’s a tremendous variety on this album. Then why calling it hard rock?

«Hard Rock deals with that, it suggests one thing from its title, but it is another. Hard Rock is an attitude; it is the way we have to express ourselves. What we mean by that phrase is that this album will be very loaded».

J: Qva Libre makes fusion music, but you have a rock ’n’ roll spirit…

«Our group comes from rock ‘n’ roll world. This album will have a little bit of everything: a pinch of rock, funky, Cuban rhythms, in short, a bit of everything, it is a mixture. It will be a different album that will make people smile».

J: If you had to make a balance about how things have gone for the group in fifteen years, what moments would you highlight that have marked your existence?

«The first important moment took place when we won the Cubadisco Award in Fusion Music with album “Viva Qva Libre”, which included theme “2012”, it was our first hit.

«La Tremendonga featuring Los Desiguales came later, and that gave us a massive character, we reached an audience that we did not dominate until then.

«Cuando tú dices que me amas is the highest point of Qva Libre. And now another important moment is emerging with Tú eres la razón featuring Descemer. I’m visualizing that this song will open us to the world, because Descemer is a musician with a good international career. I know that this theme, which is a hit, will bring us good things».

J: When we talk about Qva Libre we can not only refer to the music, because your style involves the image a lot, those big hats you wear, the colors on stage, in brief. Did you always conceive Qva Libre project that way?

«That began as an idea and developed. Unquestionably, we had to sell a show, to convey an idea. Qva Libre is a concept, and we had to stress it. The hats, which are an icon of us, emerged from it. Now people identify us as the group of the big hats».
 
J: Have you thought about what would happen if that image is broken at some point?

«Inevitably, that will have to happen. We must reinvent ourselves constantly. Should we remain the same, we stop being attractive».

J: And as regards as your sound, will it change too?

«Qva Libre’s sound is changing constantly. The public will realize it as long as they listen to the new numbers».

J: That involves risks.

«There has been a change of sound in every album we have made. From album Resistencia y Reciclaje till the present day. There are always people who say “I liked it better when you played such a thing before” or “I prefer what you are doing now”…, that’s normal, you always win and lose. In our case, change has always been for the better. It’s important that the public is recycled too. For us it’s important to be in search of something new».

J: Is the joy you project on stage with so many colors part of the reality of the band? Do you consider yourselves happy and cheerful people?

«That is our dynamics. The feeling of the band is like that. I did not choose the musicians of the group; I think they chose to be in Qva Libre. It’s important to have that energy and joy, if not, we could not function the way we do».

J: Might it be for that reason that great part of your fans are young people?

«Precisely, the public finds that in us: to channel a good energy. People go to see us to have fun, to release energy, without tensions».

J: The circles of Qva Libre at Café Cantante fill up weekly. When you are so popular, in a way, you become an opinion leader. In that level, what do you feel Cuban youth want today? You yourself, as a young musician, what do you expect?

«I think that Cuban youth wants many things. Young people want to go to the pace of the world. Our band advocates a style that leads to fun. Because of the training that we have, our spirituality is always present in the music we make. But the proposal of Qva Libre lies in being part of the codes that youth people handle today, and at the same time to give them something more, with a good aesthetic level.

«That’s our responsibility as musicians. It’s our turn as a generation».

J: So, you do not scorn the commercial thing; you rather appropriate it, in the best sense of the word.

«Exactly. What would happen to a project if it does not have a public? When I conceived this project, I knew that although we were very alternative, very underground, this would be worthless, if we do not reach the people. The idea is that everybody consumes us, as much those who prefer rock as salsa, pop lovers, in short».

J: And now that you have captivated that great public, have you thought to return to your origins in rock?

«One never knows what will happen tomorrow. There are times throughout one’s career in which one needs to look back, not just to come back to his old self, but to reinvent himself, to travel the same road, but better, with more experience».

J: How were your experiences with Habana D’ Primera and Descemer Bueno?

«Alexander Abreu is a tremendous musician; one day I told him that I was mad keen to do a theme with him, and it happened in a matter of days.

«La cosquillita is mine, but each of us put his own stuff. At the end, it was between the two, because Alexander wrote the text and made the arrangement of the metals. That was a great experience for me.

«Long ago we wanted to do something together with Descemer and the chance came now. The theme is his, but I made the musical production and we wrote our part. I learned a lot.

«This song with Descemer has provided the band with a new sonority, a bit more of electronic sound. In fact, the new album has something of it. I am very happy».

J: Many groups labeled themselves as fusion music; this term has already become something ordinary and not all of them meet it. What has been the formula of Qva Libre?

«When we were still a rock band with tendency to mix Cuban rhythms, a Spanish businessman who wanted to sell our music on the Internet told us that what we were doing was called mix, not fusion. For him fusion was to interweave musical rhythms, to distribute them among the instruments.

«The rhythmic basis may be doing Cuban music, the guitar provides a rock ’n’ roll tune, metals a funky, in short…, that’s what we’ve done. We have put musical layers and textures, one above the other, and that creates a unique sound. We are school musicians; if electronic merengue becomes fashionable, we are able to make it, and this will result in a merengue in the style of Qva Libre. It’s something that flows alone, and carries our personal hallmark».

J: Some time ago, during an interview Vanito, we talked about the phenomenon that Habana Abierta had generated fifteen years or more ago, and when I asked him whether he saw something similar in Cuba’s current panorama, he replied with Qva Libre’s name. Do you really feel heir to a movement like Habana Abierta?

«We have a good relationship with Vanito and have invited people from Habana Abierta to play with us at the Café. We are on friendly footing with David Torrens, listen to Habana Abierta from the pre-university. It’s very good for us to know they see us that way.

«But we have lived different times. In the time of Habana Abierta there were more rockers on the streets, we were naive, although they were difficult times, but people were simpler, there were street parties every Saturday, friends used to go to Coppelia together, there were bike marathons to the beach… Now this is seen otherwise, there was more movement before.

«It’s nice to have inherited that. Today, alternative music is played at the Bertolt Brecht, El Sauce, Café Cantante. We have faced another world. We have other ambitions. When I release a new number, I care that everyone consumes it, from the one who plays dominoes in Central Havana with a bottle of alcohol to that who studies at the university and listens to Buena Fe. And that makes that people from all ages consume our music».

Cubasi Translation Staff