I would like to introduce to you one of my favourite bands, Free City. They have over 5000 likes on Facebook, more than 1100 followers on Twitter, almost 100K views on their YouTube channel and most importantly incredible amounts of talent and passion.
I could not even tell you how old I was when I met the Free City boys (Pablo Marinas, Sam Blossom, Miles Blossom and Alex Bocos) for the first time, and having gone to school and grown up with them I can’t help but feel incredibly proud of all they’re achieving through their music in just nine years.
When I went to Spain a few weeks back we met up for a bit to catch up and talk about their music and their recent month-and-a-half long, self-organised European tour.
Question: How did you all meet and form the band?
Answer: We all met in school and shared our love for skateboarding and music. We started messing around with instruments and it kind of just happened, teaching each other how to play.
Q: What musical influences affected your sound as a band?
A: We listen to different styles of music but are specifically influenced by American and Spanish punk rock bands and other styles like metal or grunge, but we don’t particularly like to label music.
Q: What inspires your political lyrics?
A: They are mostly inspired by social problems that affect us and the people that surround us. As well as injustice and what we could do to change the world and make it a better place, fight repression really.
Q: You’ve just been on your first European tour, how was that?
A: It was somewhere in between work and vacation. A lot of work but it’s what we love doing: travelling and finding new places to play.
Q: How was the process when deciding that you were indeed going on a European tour?
A: It was new for us, we didn’t really know what to expect. We improvised gigs and played in the streets visiting countries that we didn’t plan playing in, like Holland. It was also a lot of work getting everything ready, but totally worth it.
Q: Any funny stories or any specific moment you will always remember?
A: Touring gives you lots of funny memories, on the second day we thought we wouldn’t survive. Peib (Pablo) hit Sam in the head during our first show and blood was dripping down his (Sam’s) face while we kept on playing. On the second Day, the cops made Maus (Miles) fall from a second floor while he was climbing. Lots of partying, singing and a 17h drive that won’t be forgotten either!
Q: What’s your favourite thing of being in Free City? (writing/recording/gigging)
A: It’s all part of being in a band really, they all have their good things. I think the best part is seeing the reaction when people sing something you’ve been working on and they get to feel what you do when we play it live.
Q: Do you see yourselves doing something other than music in the future?
A: I (Pablo) don’t think we could do anything else, and we had to, we couldn’t live without it.
