Scene Point Blank: Superioridad Moral was mastered by Frank Arkwright over at Abbey Road. Were you able to visit the studio during the session and if so, were you able to share ideas with each other? Were you able to learn any new methods or techniques from that experience to incorporate in your studio?
Jorge Explosion: Yes, I was there at Abbey Road with Frank. It was an amazing experience, we interacted with each other a bit but basically I let him do his job as he does it great and really fast. He told me he had a lot of fun doing it as it is not very common that kind of music is in Abbey Road. He is good at this kind of sounds as he started with the punk scene in the mid and late ‘70s, so he understands an angry guitar loud in the mix. Nowadays in Spain every time you go to a club to play, at the soundcheck every tech tells you the same: put your volume down…I play already with a deluxe reverb from the ‘60s and sometimes I feel I should go for a Princetone or a Champ, but honestly, it is very annoying as they don’t mind having the bass loud as fuck, but not the guitar: put it down, put it down…many people don’t understand…Frank understands. He also was using a mastering equalizer that I know very well, Manley Massive Passive. Since I have a couple of units and I put my attention on the way he was using the Q. We both laughed when I got my pair of headphones out of my tote bag as he had the same model, Focal Spirit -- that was funny.
While I was there I bought a bass guitar on eBay, an old Burns from 1963 and the guy said local pick-up only so I put his address on Google and it was the street beside Abbey Road, I couldn't believe it and I thought it was a mistake of the telephone as I had put the Abbey Road address a minute before, hahaha. So Frank had to do a quick break in the session to visit his doctor and when he came back to the studio I had my [new] bass. In the meantime I went to pick it up. He was flipping, where did you get that bass guitar? He couldn't believe it when I told him the story.
Scene Point Blank: I learned that you managed to finish Superioridad Moral before COVID came. How did the last two years affect you both professionally and personally? What insight did you gain from everything that was going on in the world during that time?
Jorge Explosion: It was a kind of comfortable apocalypse for me as COVID got me at my parent's flat, a big flat only for me. I was alone. I used to talk a lot with Maicol Portela and even practice with him on drums and me on guitar, I had my late ‘50s Elpico valve amp at home and my Strat. I used to play a lot, also with Jorge from Ilegales and other friends. Just before the pandemic, I paid for gear and records and other things like the mastering in Abbey Road using my credit card as I had a lot of incoming work. But since all work was cancelled and I got in some troubles. I could get some grants from the government of Spain and also from Author Society and AIE Society, plus helping myself by selling some vinyl from my collection that I didn’t want…cleaning my personal collection. And with all that, I balanced my finances again, but at some point, it was hard as I couldn’t work doing my normal stuff, you know? It was a big challenge. Also, I thought a lot about life, you know…
Scene Point Blank: Speaking of Austin, you’re in a band called The Ripe with Jake [Garcia] from The Black Angels. How did that connection form and is that band still active?
Jorge Explosion: Well, I met Jake Garcia for the first time during the period that I was playing bass with a band called The Cynics. We played in Leon in 2007 with The Ugly Beats. A few years later in 2010, Jake sent me an email, he had left The Ugly Beats to start this new band called The Ripe and he wanted to come over to Spain and record with me at Circo Perrotti. These three guys from Austin, Texas came over at the end of the summer. I booked them a show at El Savoy and we started the sessions at the studio. They were cool people and we became friends instantly. Somehow, I noticed the songs needed some extra guitars here and there so when I had an idea for specific songs I used to go into the playing room and tell them, “Hey guys what do you think about this arrangement for harmonica in this son?” They loved it, so little by little Jake and me had this connection through music and ideas and I came with guitar parts for many songs -- specially “Constant Waves,” I put something extra with many guitars tracks, capas y capas, doing like an atmosphere for the song, capas y capas of reverb guitars and things -- they seemed to like it and went crazy and further with more ideas…
The next year, 2011, they came on tour to Spain and I went on tour with them ‘cause I felt I had to support them live with my guitar parts to sound like in the recording. That´s how that magic started and we became even more friends like brothers, sharing more time together.
Scene Point Show: I read that you were close to opening another studio in Austin, TX. How did that door open for you and what happened that prevented you from going forward with the idea?
Jorge Explosion: When I landed in Austin for the first time to meet, again, my friends from The Ripe, I realized that town was the right place to continue with my studio, besides Gian Ortiz the bass player was living in a house that had been a recording studio so I thought it was perfect to invest some money in gear and start something there. The problem was the crazy and constant increase/rise of the value of properties in town and rents. I had to change the location a few times and, because of this, plus the distance and COVID…I surrendered. But at some point in 2018 it was great and I had a great studio in North Austin with my other friend Marcos Delgado.
Scene Point Blank: You seem to be well-lauded by your peers over in America (i.e., The Black Angels and The Fleshtones), but it’s been since 1998 since an American label took a chance on you before this Slovenly release. Has piercing the American market always been tough for you, and what do you think the barriers could be?
Jorge Explosion: The ocean! And a very competitive market, I don’t know…a hundred reasons more. We're doing good in Spain and sometimes it seems like a huge effort for a such small result, so in the end it is something you do to meet your friends and to have a good time, maybe to get some inspiration but not as a business.
Scene Point Blank: Do you have any desire to tour North America again and have you ever played in Canada before?
What do you know about Canada?
Jorge Explosion: I know Canada is an amazing country with amazing and wild landscapes, I know a few bands like The Smugglers, Sloan, and Gruesomes but, to be honest, I don’t know much about Canada. At this point to do something there it would have to be through a festival as the first step to plan anything else.
Scene Point Blank: Are you familiar with the following Canadian bands: Leather Uppers, Deadly Snakes, Ugly Ducklings, Teenage Head, Deja Voodoo?
Jorge Explosion: I know the Ugly Ducklings very well and the Gruesomes, actually I think one of them has his roots in Gijon my hometown where Perrotti is based. The Gruesomes (I think they play Spain a bit still.) I don’t know the other bands.
Scene Point Blank: For you, what makes or breaks a paella recipe? This is useful information for us over here.
Jorge Explosion: I have family in Valencia you know, and their paella is a serious thing. In many other parts of Spain, they call paella anything with yellow rice and whatever you throw on top of that, and that´s wrong. Paella, the real paella, has some special ingredients like rabbit and a certain type of beans. But, for instance, there is no seafood in paella as many people believe. If you do it with seafood the name is different, you can call it arroz, but not paella, at least in Valencia.
Scene Point Blank: How would you like to be remembered in time (aside from the statue)?
Jorge Explosion: As a crazy man who loved music.
Scene Point Blank: Can you share any future plans with us now that this new record is out?
Jorge Explosion: Well, now we are gonna release a new single with Discos Circo Perrotti and I want to release more cool 45s from my sessions in a collection, at least five records a year, maybe doing a single club that you can subscribe for a year and receive those five singles with limited editions. I have great fun doing. This first single, it is causing some impact here in Spain as it is an impossible crossfade between Julio Iglesias and Bo Diddley.
Scene Point Blank: What are your future plans or aspirations musically?
Jorge Explosion: I would like to go back soon to Austin and LA. My very good friend Jake Garcia from The Black Angels and The Ripe, offered to play bass with Doctor Explosion and we would find a drummer among the many friends in town. I would go with Cesar Crespo for this adventure, and it would also to do LA, maybe with the other lineup I was playing already last year with Bert from Hooveriii on bass and John Goodheart on drums. I hope we could do that at the end of this year or early 2024.
Scene Point Blank: Any advice for the kids starting out in a garage somewhere in the world?
Jorge Explosion: The same advice my father gave me to university: get a real job, cut your hair and change your life, hahaha…but overall make your dreams come true and work work work on it.
