fabricamusic

After the release of their first album and hearing the musical quality of this cali-based band, we decided to talk with three of the memembers of this group, which approaches to be the best in its genre, at national level.

La Fábrica arrived with all the bells and whistles. Their show features a dusion of electronic an barroque music and live video projections.

Diana Zuluga, lead vocalist; Pablo Monroy, bassist; Juan Carlos Fernandez, keyboardist; Javier Diaz; guitarist; and Juan Pablo Carrascal, programmer.

"Enjoy the umbra" is a record in a constant fight, the hope of a world destined to a dark future. A world of advaced technology but at the same time precarious in human being's questions.

It's the Umbra World (the darkest of the dark), where unplugged, and maybe evil beings wander around without doing anything else.

The band also has made part of advertising campaigns. In march of past year the video producer Juan Manuel Salamanca used a song in a one minute film made for a tobbacco company.

- How do you define the sound of La Fábrica?
Diana, Pablo and Juan Pablo: We haven't put a name on it, music is music and that's all. Our sound is electronic, pop and rock. We also fusion it with drum & bass, trip hop and sometimes jazz in some songs.

- Who composes?
Diana: I write most of the lyrics, but the truth is that we all add something to he songs. We don't have a logical order for writing, sometimes Juan Pablo begins with some sample or sequence end then we begin the writing and work it until we get the song out.

- How was your experience in Rock al Parque 2002?
Pablo: It was very special because it was our biggest live experience until that moment. We were very nervous because our show was programmed just after a hard core band and before a trash metal band, we were the only band without drums and Diana was the second woman in the festival, so it seemed pretty difficult.

Diana: We were expecting that people throw bottles or something at us. At the beginning people shouted at us, but as we played, people shut up and cheered us at the end. When we went backstage, journalists were waiting for us and critics were very nice with us. It was a great experience.

- How is a show of La Fábrica?
All three: Days before the show we rehearse a lot and we also work the visual details, so the show isn't just music. We like to add elements to make a stronger experience, like a dance group, strings or a guest singer. We like to make avery show different from the oters, so se can always surprise people.

- What are we going to find in "Enjoy the umbra"?
All three: We used to be a dark band, very depressive, but in this record we decided to make something more dance, somehow less trascendental, a mixture of our own sound but with some happy songs and with less emphasis in lyrics, however we keep some of the dark side in some songs.

So that it is, La Fábrica is a band which shows a lot of energy when performing live, and above all it shows a work made with quality and responsability. From Cali to the world.

Revista Ó
No. 001
Colombia
December 2003 - Revista Ó

A girl from Cali with a voice like an angel that goes up and down in abrupt tones is accompanied by four musicians with their keyboards, guitars, basses, sequencies an programmings, then building La Fábrica, one of the electronic rock bands which is being heard the most by these days in Colombia.

This is the first discographic work of the band, just after they were national guests to the last year's Rock al Parque festival. The wishes to work and their self-management are the main features of this band, which don't rest waiting for a label to sign them. The combination of electronic sounds with their singer resembles to Esthero a little bit, and sometimes to Björk, their guitars make riffs similar to those of New Order, and sequencies and programming tend to be a little depressive.

From fourteen thems, just one is written in spanish. At the end it's a good independent work, which has a good sound an international projection; the only con it has is that sometimes its atmospheres can be dense and repetitive.

- CD Review @ Rolling Stone Magazine LA

When La Fábrica performed in Rock al Parque 2003, I had the first approach to the band. They came from Cali, and to me it appeared rather strange that a band coming from the heat of "a Sultana del Valle" had such an electro sound. However, the proposal was interesting. Three years later, this is a casual meeting in the net, in which I talked with Juan Pablo Carrascal about the band, beginning from zero...

By: Tata Gonzalez

Who make part of the band?

Juan Pablo: "Diana in the lead vocals, Pablo plays the bass, Juan Carlos plays the keyboards and Juan Pablo does the guitars and sequences".

How the idea of making a band was born?
Juan Pablo: "Well, is a rather long story, but her ir goes an abstract.Initially, there were two electronic projects (in one of them played Diana, Pablo and Juan Pablo, and in the other Juan Carlos and Juan Pablo). One of these projects had a rather rock, industrial sound, while the other one had a more pop-oriented sound, but also with electronic components. One day, in 2000, an offer to make a show showed up, but none of the bands had a complete reptory nor enough musicians to make a whole show. So we decided to make one band out of the other two and the La Fábrica appeared".

Why in a so salsa-maniac song where everything is tropical, exists a project such as yours?

Juan Pablo: "In Cali one listens to salsa and other tropical rhythms, but many of us like to work with other genres. Maybe it's a bigger challenge".

How do you describe your music in words?
Juan Pablo: "It might be something like elctronic rock-pop. Or like a rocker electropop... or might it be a electro-rocker pop? Whatever... a fusion between rock-pop and electronica".

How was the production process of the LP Enjoy the umbra... where did you record it, how much did it last, what did you feel in the studio?
Juan Pablo: "Enjoy the umbra was recorded almost completely in a private recording studio we have, the same plece we rehearse in. However, some live drums were recorded at Audiomedios studio (with Juan Felipe Bastidas, drummer of the band Transporte, who played with us at that time). Those drum tracks ended up being modified, edited, processed and wildly mutilated in our studio. Recording was a gradual process, because we generally record at the same time we compose the songs, so sometimes all that's left is re-recording some tracks, and some others are already ready or almost ready. Because of this, the recording time limits were somehow fuzzy, from the initial conception until the final product. Anyway we had a great time doing it, we had complete control over the whole process, and we coul try whatever we wanted to with total creative freedom".

Did you discarded songs in the process? Did you make any new songs in the studio? How did you manage the composition process?
Juan Pablo: "All that was done. In 2001 we released a demo with five songs which was entitled "Approach to". From this demo we kept two songs ("Enjoy the Umbra" and "Infinitely Lonely to the Bone"). The other three ("Disco Volcano", "Joystick" and "Cling On") were discarded. We also discarded some songs from our old repertory, from our first shows (in case that somebody is interested, some of the are "Flightbulb" and "Travel Plug"). Some of the other songs included in the album are old ones (such as "Transient" and "Twisted Glass", which are some of the oldest songs), and some others were written between 2001 and 2003".

Who is responsible from the lyrics? What do they talk about?... what do they express?
Juan Pablo: "Almost all lyrics are written by Diana. The lyrics from <<Enjoy the umbra>> deal mostly about how technology can affect human beings in a negative way, but there's also another more happy lyrics, and other that are
more emotional. In general, it's a cocktail of feelings topped with lots of technology".

Why are the lyrics in english?
Juan Pablo: "Diana graduated from a bilingual school, and her english lyrics are pretty good!!! There are some lyrics in spanish, of course".

Let's talk about the visual complement the band has always had, your flawless photos, the record and demos cover art, live shows, videos...
Juan Pablo: "From the beginning we give that aspect a high priority, as high as the music. From the first show we designed T-shirts and logos. We know that even if we are dealing with music, everything enters through the eyes,
and we want that averything we produce, visualy and sonically, make part of a coherent whole".

And the little doll you has as main image?
Juan Pablo: "Yes, the little doll has been a grat success. We chose it amongst many designs that a great friend os us, Oscar Alejandro Tudela, made for us for the first show. She appeared in the first T-shirts that we gave to fans that day, and we all like it. She's a star!!!".

What sound schools do you all come from? What bads do you listen to?
Juan Pablo: "Diana listens to everything, she has an ear very aware ow what's ner, an she has a very eclectic taste. Pablo is a rocker, with influences from Pink Floyd and Red Hot Chili Peppers, and he loves No Doubt. Juan Carlos feels interest in avery genere, as long as it has a good escenic and visual proposal. He likes Depeche Mode an motion picture soundtracks. I feel inclined to british rock and averything that handles extreme emotions, such as the most depressive from The CUre or the aggresion of Nine Inch Nails, but I also have a heart. However, we also try to show each other new things, and to be attentive to as much music as possible, not just rock and electronica.

You have european influences. Where you inspire from?
Juan Pablo: "Well, rock, pop, electronica... everything, industrial rock, cheesy pop, dance music, trip-hop...".

How do you see rock scene in Cali?
Juan Pablo: "There's some really good projects in many genres. With time some of them have grown up and will continue doing it. But there's still a lack of rock culture, more spreading through media, more support from private or public institutions that can help to develope this culture, and specially more support from the people; they must buy the records and attend to the shows".

When ther willl be a new record?
Juan Pablo: "Is our intention to finish and release a new record this year. We are working on that, writing and recording new songs. We wish it a lot, so we trust we will do it".

So now, we talk about musica and plans again. A good evening that we spent on the net.

www.musicnpop.com
March 2005
Colombia - www.musicnpop.com

Interview for the Diario Occidente newspaper.
Published in October 13th of 2002

From silence thy make sounds
By Yesenia Andrea Hernández

La Fábrica in the colombian context is a innovating band which rehearses in silence, which is a feature of the English technological music production.

In between a "loud silence", with the rhythms of techno, pop, rap and electronica, mixed with guitars, keyboards and basses, all plugged to a mixer and from it to a headphone amplifier, they make sounds that arrive to the ears of Juan Pablo Carrascal, Pablo Monroy, Juan Carlos Fernández and Javier Díaz, which accompanied by the voice of Diana Zuluaga, La Fábrica builds their rehearsals.

La Fábrica is a factory that makes contrasts between tenderness, evil and darknessm genarating sensations, feelings of optimism and above all, music, its final product, built with hig doses of technology and used by the band to generate textures loaded with rock and pop.

Their song lyrics inmediately takes us to a gloomy world where there's no space for love, nor everyday events, but where modern stuff reigns, future technology, advantages and dangers of machines. A music made from the electronic and focused towards world's advance, wrapped in human feelings. "Lyrics written by me are the reflex of what people live at this moment", said Diana Zuluaga.

The nad was born in the year 2000 with the fusion of two different projects, related by style and similar interests. Some songs were selected and asjusted to combine the musical proposals of both projects, searching for a common style.

La Fábrica has the experience of its members, because each of them was once a member of some acknowleged rock band. Javier comes from Las Vacas and Secra; Juan Carlos was in Dakar, Juan Pablo and Pablo were members of Polaroid (Pablo was also part of Fuera de Quicio, from popayan); and Diana had a band back in school and a small rock band with many singers. "I'm the one with a shorter career, this is the first time I play in a serious band, but I studied two years of opera singing which helped me to be in equal conditions with the others", stated Diana Zuluaga.

Many latin singers and bands begin their artistic careers with music sung in spanish, they become aknowledged, and when famous, they intruduce songs in english achieving public acceptation. La Fábrica dared to do the same but in
everse order.


Computer, present

As its names implies, La Fábrica is an industry where everything must be produced using the higest technology, so the computer is another member of the band. Behind it is Juan Pablo with sequencies accompanied by the voice of Diana, Juan Carlos' keyboards, Pablo's bass, Javier's guitar so in that way... La Fábrica builds its music.

Many think that the computer might receive all the applauses. "I think that people would'n like to go to a show where there's just a computer. I you want that, just buy the CD and listen to it", said the vocalist.

Nobody imagines that in apartment number 402 of Multicentro, there's a factory with all its infrastructure, creating songs with a lot of technology, which defies the Colombian record industry with its lyrics loaded with english.


La Fábrica on the "Moon"

Moon was the song that took La Fábrica out of anonymity because this short an simple song began to spread for all over the city. People asked for it to radio stations to the point that it become, by the means of public vote, in
the second dance song of La Feria de Cali. "This song become alive and went out of our hands, it helped us a bit in having different listeners, not only friends who always go to the shows", said the singer and writer.

La Fábrica has been heard all around the country, it can be heard in radio stations such as La X, Prisma, Javeriana y Univale Stereo, they have had interviews in the XY section of Noti5, in a TV program called "Loop" from the Canal Universitario; they have made shows in pubs like El Diván, Zeti, Forum and local universities such as Autónoma and Del Valle. La Superestacion and La Rosca magazine, from the city of Bogotá, have published briefs of the band. The music of La Fábrica has also being played in the bar Barfly in this city. In the city Popayán the made a show celebrating the 50th annyversary of the Radio Universidad del Cauca broadcast station. "That is the coolest show we've been in", said Zuluaga.

Now, the challenge for La Fábrica is to successfuly release a LP which will include thirteen completly different songs in a mixture of genres, because in it one can hear from rock to trip hop and pop. "We had it all, is like a music collage", said Diana. To acomplish that goal the copies will be made, then it will be distributed and finally there will be release shows in Cali and Bogotá. - Diario Occidente newspaper