Doctor Explosion first "exploded" (yes that was intentional) onto the scene in 1989 from a picturesque city along the coastal area of Northern Spain. Perhaps, not a household name in North America yet but these things take time much, like when you sip a fine Scotch and let it slowly wash over your palette and enter your bloodstream. I had the opportunity to chat with garage legend Jorge Explosion about his music, his influences and paella!
Pull up a seat and come join us...
Scene Point Blank: For all the readers who aren’t aware, can you tell us how you came up with the name Doctor Explosion? I understand you used to work at the Red Cross for a period of time, and customers were calling your office asking if Doctor Explosion was in the office.
Jorge Explosion: It was at the end of the ‘80s when there was a TV series called Hill Street Blues. We were big fans of that show and in the summer of 1988 when the actor Daniel Travanti, who portrays Captain Furillo, hit the town for the Gijón´s Film festival we got all crazy! We were wild teen gamberros and we used to do all kinds of crazy things in the name of Furilo, stupid kid things like throwing a frisbee in the middle of the projection at the movies -- if you didn’t dare to do it then you were not “Furilo,” and our teen gang club was named Club Furilo. In one of the episodes of Hill Street Blues, there was a character, a man who named himself Professor Explosion and he had dynamite all around his body and he was vindicating the rights of homeless people and he finally explodes himself in the middle of the street -- that was impacting! Besides if you crossfade Doctor Feelgood with Music Explosion, two of the bands I liked at the time, you had Doctor Explosion, so that’s a bit why. It also sounded good to us
in 1995 or at the end of ’94.
I had to do social service in the Red Cross of the Sea, I was in charge of the radio station four hours a day, and at the end of the dock of the bay of Gijón, I was there a few hours every day, there was not much to do. So that period was when we put out our second LP, El Loco Mundo de los Jóvenes and I started to organize shows from that Red Cross telephone as it was a year before the first cell phones and I had no other way to do it as I had to be there. I organized our first European tour from that office, that's why years later some people kept calling to that telephone number of Cruz Roja del Mar to try to reach Doctor Explosion.
Scene Point Blank: Did you ever want to become a doctor at one point?
Jorge Explosion: No, never, hahaha. It is just always been funny to me the sound of Doctor as a title to introduce somebody. Anyway, my academy curriculum would be a problem as my university has been my own wit, the road and rock and roll!
Scene Point Blank: Is there anyone you credit for getting you into music and what groups influenced and resonated when you first picked up an instrument to learn to play?
Jorge Explosion” Well, first of all my family. My mum used to play piano and my older brother Juan is very talented at playing piano, and the rest of my brothers all play Spanish guitar, not professionally but at the time they were at university. They are 17 and 20 years older than me, so at the house, there was always a guitar around and a record player with a lot of mysterious and colourful record sleeves that created the need in me to discover the sound of those pieces of vinyl. I used to have fun playing those records. Years later my brother Juan became a very good musician playing piano in a jazz band and he started a recording studio in the mid ‘80s…Through him, I became friends with Jorge Martinez from the popular rock band Ilegales, which was in 1980 even before they put our their first record. I was 10 years old and [he was] 24 but we had a lot in common. We liked to make tin soldiers with rubber moulds, we were very much into it and we used to meet often to make them in Jorge´s kitchen at their parent's house.
Scene Point Blank: What Spanish bands have inspired you in the past and what current Spanish bands are on your radar?
Jorge Explosion: in the past, when I was 13 years old I started to buy my own 45s and later some LPs I remembered I bought Aviador Dro – Selector de Frecuencias, also the maxi of “Blue Monday,” also Las Vulpess – Me Gusta Ser una Zorra, and I had a cassette of the first LP of Siniestro Total, then I bought the second LP when I was 14, and I was into comics like Makoki and El Vivora, also I bought the LP of Los Pistones, and of course, Ilegales were a big influence on me. They were amazing and Jorge was my friend, now they are presenting a documentary about that year, 1982, when I was 13 and they put out their first LP and I am in the film talking about those days and about their first LP.
Nowadays I like many Spanish bands. I like Los Punsetes, Airbag, Wau y Los Arrrgggs, Cesar Crespo's solo career, also Bobkat 65, Los Ignorantes, Pelazo, Fogbound, Los Altragos and many others. I also liked, in the mid ‘80s, Alaska y los Pegamoides and Paralysis Permanente and still like some songs from Fangoria nowadays -- they do great lyrics and songs
Scene Point Blank: You’ve kept the band active for nearly 30 years now, and I say this since you’re the sole remaining member of the original band. It’s safe to say you’re a rock ‘n’ roll lifer. What about Doctor Explosion has kept you moving and challenged your work? Was there a time when different priorities changed, bad experiences occurred, or overall frustrations reached a point where you thought about ending the group? If so, how did you overcome that urge and who can you credit for playing such a big part in keeping Doctor Explosion alive for this long?
Jorge Explosion: Yes, you could say I am a rock ‘n’ roll lifer but for many years my main interest was more focused only on how to get the sounds in recording and mixing, and although I always played a certain amount of shows a year, I was spending more time in the studio. At some point life made me take some distance from the actual band members and to try and play in other projects such as The Legs or The Ripe. At some point, I went to South America and there I found new fans who discovered Doctor Explosion as a new thing and that interest reflected on me as a mirror, plus the challenge of telling stories with my lyrics and trying new sounds in the studio, you put it all together and then you have the new Doctor Explosion album.
Scene Point Blank: You’ve still kept the original lineup of Doctor Explosion together as Las Munjitas Del Fuzz. Can you tell us how that group formed and what you’ve been able to do with this band?
Jorge Explosion: I love to play with Felix and Varo always ‘cause they are my friends and because there is some magic among the three of us that I cannot explain, but over time we all made it happen again, and I love it! ‘Til now we've released four singles on vinyl with different labels and we've played some shows in Spain, California and Puerto Rico. We've recorded songs for an album but, as of now, I am focused on Doctor Explosion. I don’t have much time for other projects and for Las Munjitas, but I want to find the time and do more singles…We also did a show with Las Munjitas del Fuzz and The Count Zaremba where we played some Fleshtones and Munjitas in the same set with Peter.
Scene Point Blank: The collapse of the Franco regime in 1978 is often seen as the entry point for punk: 1978. I realize you were quite young at the time (or you are a vampire that keeps up his youthful exuberance). Anyways how did punk, in general, resonate with you initially -- both globally and locally?
Jorge Explosion: Punk was very important to me at 13 years of age when I discovered the first Siniestro Total album and other Spanish punk bands like Las Vulpess or Larsen. It was important for the sounds and the lyrics and because it was in Spanish. The challenge for me is to tell stories through the music, it is what keeps me moving ahead in music -- also to get more musical and to be able to sound better.
Scene Point Blank: The film Arrebato seems to play a part in the initial punk movement and/or the newfound freedom of expression. Are you aware of the importance of the film on Spanish punk culture?
Jorge Explosion: I remember seeing the film years ago when I was 22 or so but years later than when it came out, but to be honest (and as a 13 teen-year-old kid when all that happened) I didn’t care about that. That's a bit more intellectual and when you are 13 it is more the impact of music, and those days it was difficult to watch all those cult movies. For a kid like me, there was no distribution or we were focused on other teen kid things. I remember watching God save The Queen when I was 14 and that was an impact for me, as was Life of Brian, Jabberwocky when I was 11, and A Hard Days Night when I was 5 years old.
Scene Point Blank: Were you a fan of the first-wave Spanish bands like Almen TNT and La Banda Trapera del Río? I understand that much not is known about Alemen TNT beyond them being the first band to release a 7” single independently.
Jorge Explosion To be honest, I never listened to those bands -- as I said I was into other kinds of bands and music.
Scene Point Blank: Has the nation recognized you for your contributions? At least, has Gijón?
Jorge Explosion: Nobody is a prophet in his own land. Talking about Gijon, for instance, we put out our best album in our career and we did’t play this summer for the city council. Here when the city council programs, they seem to not care about the local scene, even the people who do the bookings belong to that local scene, but they are a bit elitist and do their jobs with certain arrogance by ignoring the local scene of Gijon. It seems they don’t give a shit. We have some recognition in the country of Spain and we play in lots of festivals this summer, and we're lucky, but many other local artists who don’t have that have to suffer this attitude from the cultural agents of their own town. I guess punk and rock ‘n’ roll are like a little rock inside their shoes, it is just bothering. They do all these cultural actions without counting MCC with lots of local musicians doing interesting things, but even doing these things was not interesting enough. They should support it anyway, only because it is their obligation as public workers and because it is their own people. Their offer is to have lots of stages spread out in town in the middle of the street where the bands can play for random people at 8 o´clock on a Tuesday for instance…It does not seem to be the perfect frame to make any artist look interesting…It is shitty help in my opinion. You’re bringing cultural awareness of the city to other countries as you tour though, along with contributing to Spain’s economy with the business you do through Estudios Circo Perroti.
Scene Point Blank: Do you think you should be sainted at some point though? I mean, at least get a statue in your honour erected somewhere in Gijón?
Jorge Explosion: They only help you to strangle your balls with more and more taxes, then you put your best record out and they don’t even call you to play. They don’t know how to support the local scene, they never did it and actually rock ‘n’ roll does not need the help of those fuckers. They never booked Ilegales, for instance. They are a band very well-known and famous all around the world. They never gave them the medal of the city, and they fill stadiums in South America. They gave that medal to another local band, Australian Blonde, ‘cause they had a hit in the early ‘90s, “Chup Chup.” My question is why they gave them that medal 25 years later when the band is almost inactive? I think that's stupid, they should have given them that medal a long time ago in 1995, not now. They are all over the place, very random in their supporting actions I think, with no idea of how to support a local scene. Maybe that’s the reason why we had the best music scene in the country 25 years ago and now there is no scene.
In Gijon they don’t support much. You know, they didn’t even give me a grand I asked for the studio for new business in town for a new computer years ago, hahahaha! Fuckers!
Scene Point Blank: Let’s talk more about the studio. You’ve worked with all kinds of bands over the years but is there a dream project you’d love to work on at the studio?
Jorge Explosion: I like to work at the studio with all kinds of bands and projects as I like to work with people. I've worked already with The Masonics, Billy Childish, and Thee Wildebeests, which is like working with all Thee Milkshakes band members separately and I also worked with Holly Golightly, also with young indie rock bands like Boogarins from Brazil, also real legends like Sonny Burgess, also with The Fleshtones. But the best is when you discover surprises like new, young people full of talent like Felix Holt, a young singer from London, or Boogarins, or any artist that takes you by surprise with good and talented music skills, like a local tango band called Loca Bohemia.
My dream project now is to start with my own record label, pressing at least five cool singles every year on vinyl with special songs and bands that I've worked with at the studio: great songs from the past history of Perrotti, good stuff from all of my recording sessions all over the years, but also from present, to support new musicians of projects who deserve it.
Scene Point Blank: How did you build up Circo Perrotti over the years with the different gear you’re using and what piece of equipment do you hope to incorporate in the studio at one point?
Jorge Explosion: I had been looking for a couple of PYE compressors since the beginning of the studio but they are rare to see, but recently I could get a pair, a cool couple of PYE 4060 from Pye Studios, they are amazing, great sounding pieces of gear, amazing on acoustic and electric guitars and many other recording and mixing moments, also cool on drums.
It was crazy at the beginning of my studio adventure since I went to the middle of Germany to pick up my Telefunken console. I contacted a cool German dude who had a mullet haircut and mustache and he was a big train collector, but real trains. This guy had a train from the ‘30s with a diesel engine and he used to rent the railroads on Sunday, in Germany it is possible, and paying 3 or 4 euros per kilometre he was happy driving his train through the country, Crazy, huh?
