Rudymentari: "Making music in Menorcan in Menorca can be a very powerful tool"

PalmGuillem Llorens (Ciutadella, 1993) says that when he started thinking about shaping his own musical project, he wanted the name to reflect his intentions: it was a humble and simple project, connected to his origins and to rural life in Menorca, but it also had to connect with the musical movements that influenced him aesthetically, especially reggae. “That's why I chose the adjective rudimental, which I found defined it perfectly, and I changed the first 'y' to an 'i', which connects me with the rude boys from Jamaica, a social movement that also has an important musical component,” he explains. The last thing he expected at that moment, however, was that the first track he would release as Rudymentari would suddenly become an anthem for thousands of people. The track, Som, has accumulated over 750,000 streams on Spotify and reflects, like the project's name, its author's intentions. “We are nonexistent, lost by the current, / pirates of the high seas, adrift and against the wind. [...] We are sailors, we are peasants, incandescent poetry. / We are a song without end, / an unfinished gloss / that speaks of a past, a future, and a present.”

Seven years later, Rudymentari has released three discographic works and has become one of the reference musicians from Menorca, on and off the island. It is, in fact, one of the most listened-to on the platforms. “We have an impressive musical richness in Menorca,” he shares, “and the Menorcan will to make music is admirable. This artistic vein has now re-emerged with great force, because from Ja t’ho diré we had seen many bands emerge but they didn't always manage to overcome the label of emerging. And now we see that there are many high-quality projects, and they should be admired and cared for. Making music in Menorcan in Menorca is a very powerful tool for the problems we have. It is very important to have music that reminds us of our real situation, whether with the style and themes that each one considers,” he adds.

And so he has done in all his works. The most recent is the album Mala hierba siempre crece, which he will present this Saturday, May 9, in Artà within the framework of the Cool Days festival. Published last February, it includes songs like Ca la Rata. “They have the sea at their fingertips, / but they will build a pool / they don't want to find drunks / nor any neighbor. / They don't want hungry people, / only full wallets, / they want to lick asses, / that are not dirty with sand”, says the singer, who is also the author of the lyrics. “All of us who collaborate on the project, which includes people like Quim Simó, who is the saxophonist and also the producer, agree on the message we want to convey, although I am the one who writes it and who provides the voice. The objective is to claim our roots and values, and to disseminate them through music”, explains Llorens, who does not hesitate to point out some of the main problems currently affecting the island where he was born and raised.

“We see how the Islands are transforming at a frantic pace that accelerates each year. And when we approach a limit, when it seems that we have reached the end, we overcome it, for one reason or another. From the housing crisis to the boom in tourist platforms, the situation has become unbearable. And in Menorca, we now have this phenomenon of buying farmhouses and converting them into rural hotels, which not only creates even more touristy spaces but also threatens the survival of the countryside. It is one thing to transform to avoid dying and another is to get used to the arrival of owners who do not buy one place, they buy 4 or 5 or 8. It is very strong that a person in Madrid accumulates 3% of the island's properties, it should not be allowed”. Faced with this, the singer and lyricist of Rudymentari wants to believe that music can be “a tool for social transformation”. “It sounds very nice to say it like that”, he reflects, “but the truth is that I cannot say that it serves to transform. I do know that it gives you tools to be able to reflect, which is already a lot. At least I experienced it that way during my adolescence, when my musical references helped me to think and form my own ideas”.

Of all these references, it is clear that the one that has left a more significant mark on his career, both personal and vital, has been Fermín Muguruza. “I liked many punk bands with critical, explicit, and vindictive messages, but Fermín Muguruza is the one who has influenced me the most. Because of the musical taste but also because of the way he transmits messages. He is the benchmark par excellence”. And among all the messages that Rudymentari's new album conveys, one of the most critical, explicit, and vindictive, as he says, is the one from the work's title itself: Bad weed always grows. “It has a double meaning, because we took a year-long break from the stage, and this title was a way of saying that we were coming back, that we were still here. But it also has a collective perspective, with the will to send a message of hope. At a time of the rise of the far-right, with such a tense political landscape also internationally, we must remember that there is hope. That in the worst moments weeds sprout again: this message of resistance I think is more necessary than ever”, he assures.