Dear readers, we are pleased to offer you in this article an interview with a trio from Honduras that offers Prog sounds with Jazzy features, whose album “El Primer Androide” was released on March 20, 2022. Welcome Talos.
Hi, how are you?
Hello! Thanks for having us! We are doing just fine, thank God! We hope you are
doing great too!
You are originally from Honduras, where the Latin tradition is marked, where does your passion for Prog sounds come from?
You are absolutely right! Latin rhythms are prevalent not only in Honduras, but throughout the Central American region. However, since music is the universal language and good things tend to be spread widely and quickly, progressive rock found its way into our largest cities. Many of us had relatives or friends who traveled outside our countries, got exposed to great prog bands, brought the music home and the rest, as they say, is history! We got to experience it and were almost immediately hooked. It has got to be said that, being fans of the “Fab Four” was quite an incentive to develop a thirst for good rock.
You are a trio that offers Prog sounds with references to Canterbury and German electronics, how would you describe your sound?
It is not an easy task trying to describe what we sound like. Many people recognize elements of the Canterbury scene in our composing and way of playing. It may be true, yet when you get to listen to the previous material we have released as “Aurora Boreal Producciones” you will also be able to pinpoint Spanish or even South American influences in what we do. It is not that we are trying to emulate those
sounds. It is just that, having listened to that kind of music for such a long time (practically since our secondary school years) one basically transpires it when composing and performing.
Your album “El Primer Androide” was released on March 20, 2022 and is entirely instrumental, how would you present this album?
To be totally honest, this is José Luis’s creation. Many (if not all) of the themes in this album were written by him years, or even decades, ago. It is amazing how the level of maturity achieved as the years have rolled past us, allowed him to rearrange the compositions, and permitted Roberto and René to enrich them with their own style of playing. Their “musical fingerprint”, so to speak. So It could be said that this is “all José Luis” with Roberto’s and René’s collaboration.
Great musical textures and references to different genres in a unique blend, how does the creative process of the songs happen?
As stated before, the creative process for this album was already laid out (for José Luis had previously written all of the themes.) The really fun part was working the arrangements. It was awesome that José Luis gave a “green light” for René and Roberto to provide their ideas and textures. We need to emphasize the fact that all of this was actually done in a remote manner. While Roberto and René reside in
Tegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras) José Luis lives in San Pedro Sula (the country’s second largest city also deemed “the industrial capital”.) This, essentially made it impossible for the three of us to really work together. Ideas flowed and were recorded. Then listened to, and considered by all three members. In the vast majority of times, such ideas were immediately “okayed”.
Many of your fans and our readers are wondering if there will be the possibility to listen to your music live, do you have any plans for that?
Nothing would please us more than to be able to head out countries where our music is appreciated and perform it to live audiences. Let us not forget we live in Honduras. The performing arts are, unfortunately, not a top priority for our government and /or entrepreneurs here. The only thing that gets people’s attention is basically football (“soccer”.) Tons of money are put into that (and we really have
nothing to show for it.) A very distant second place is occupied by either tropical or “regional” music outfits wrongly considered as our “identity”. It would take a drastic turn of events, a huge change of heart of the people with resources and authority to help us embark on a tour of our Central American region (where we have serious doubts our material would be valued) let alone…Europe or the USA, where it probably would, but which are definitely out of our reach.
Even though your album has recently come out, are you working on new material?
As explained before, this is material that José Luis was able to salvage form years before. The original intention, when we set out in this musical adventure, was to preserve his earlier compositions. Nothing fancy, just record the tracks so future generations would be able to listen to them and say: “oh! So this is what these guys were up to!” We would have to trust that he has some fuel left in his tank to write more stuff like this. However, Aurora Boreal Producciones is constantly releasing new albums and songs under various projects (many of which include Roberto, José Luis and René, as well as many more music renegades who, here in Honduras, intend to expand our musical horizon and show other nations that “it is not all tropical and Latin sounds” out here. (Not that there is anything wrong with Latin and tropical,
but they are not the only thing written and played here.)
In a country where Latin sounds are predominant, how widespread is Progressive music?
Prog (blues, and rock in general) do have a niche within the Honduran musical scene. It is not a huge one. We can safely say that, since we started getting exposed to it until now…it has definitely grown. It may sound like a delusion, but deep down inside each of us (who dare to write and play stuff that most people do not want to hear out here) we aspire to help this genre get disseminated. It may not happen soon. Heck! It may not even happen in our lifetimes, but if we lay the foundation for the spreading, quite a few will follow, and that would be awesome!
Music is constantly evolving, Prog above all, how do you see the future of the genre and of your band?
In general, and speaking in relation to the whole wide world, the future for Prog is a bright one. You can get the feeling that people (even the youngsters) are looking for a deeper significance in what artists have to offer. That is why Led Zeppelin, Yes, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, etc., never go away. Record companies and TV and radio stations need to understand that they cannot keep feeding junk to our future generations. That is where streaming has come to play a crucial role when it comes to helping distribute the work of “underground Prog”. People (specially youngsters) are enthusiastic about finding new sounds from all over the world. That is what guarantees that Prog is very much alive and kicking today.
Even if your album has a sophisticated theme, do you have other passions or projects outside of music?
It is safe to say the music is our passion. However, and this cannot be stressed enough, we live in Honduras. Do not get us wrong. It is a beautiful country, with kind and warm people who are just trying to get through life being able to feed their kids and have the occasional fun. Sadly, for us, in very few cases, that “fun” includes buying albums or tickets to a Prog gig. That makes it more than impossible for us to make a living out of music alone. So we do have “real” jobs and careers as IT Programmers, engineers, Aviators, etc.
I leave the last question free to be able to talk about any topic I have not dealt with before.
A few people have asked about individual projects. Well, before this album…that is all we had! José Luis’s solo work, Roberto’s solo work, René jumping in anyone’s project to bang on the drums and/or percussion (and even writing his own songs or cooperating with Roberto in quite a few). You can easily find all of this stuff in YouTube, Soundcloud or other platforms. It is out there. We would love nothing more than people checking it out and letting us know what they think of it (whether they like it or not.) It all helps. We would like to keep putting stuff out there. We want to make sure that what we do gets better every time. That will only happen if people try it out and tell us what they think we could improve.
I thank Talos for the pleasant interview and I thank Viajero Inmóvil Records, always careful to enhance the South American Prog scene.
Oh, no! Thank you so much. This was not only fun, but enlightening! Much too kind of you! Have a great day!
Read our review of their album here: https://progrockjournal.com/review-talos-el-primer-androide/