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Bio

Spacebarman, the name of the Barcelona-based band is, much like the music it creates, a riddle and a treat. Is it Space-bar-man or Space-barman? listeners often ask JP, the leader of the once one-man-band.

"It’s most probably Spacebar-man", JP answers with a wry smile, "as in the spacebar on your computer keyboard. Because that’s the essence of what we do", he jokes, modestly.

Spacebarman, composed of JP, Daniel and Mauricio, is an electronic rock band whose music is a balanced mix of organic and digital elements. Its sound is much like you’d imagine the musical manifestations of an intelligent, ambiguous, cybernetic organism. An organism that at the same time antagonizes and embraces its instincts--the hedonic search for pleasure, the pressure to assume a role in an strictly organized organic mega-system. The result of this inner battle? Spacebarman’s Music.

Spacebarman’s sound inherited the dark-electro-pop, post-punk sensibility of bands such as Depeche Mode and 17-seconds-era The Cure, the industrial rage and sonic exploration of Crystal Castles and Nine Inch Nails, and the shoegaze-y guitar textures found in recordings from Ride, Soda Stereo and The Jesus and Mary Chain. It feels equally dancefloor and moshpit friendly.

FOMO—Fear Of Missing Out—, the band’s latest release, is an ode to all we’d want to do, to all we’d want to be, but slips through the cracks of time.

A little bit of history

Spacebarman started as a one-man-band in 2010, when JP, who had co-founded and performed in his native Colombia with La Fábrica (the band that brought for the first time big-bellied, cream-coloured computers and keyboards along with rock instruments to Colombian stages) moved to Barcelona. La Fábrica had shared the stage with the likes of Björk, Superlitio, Koyi-K-Utho, Carajo, and Volován, and had played in venues all over the country, including South America’s largest free rock festival, Rock al Parque.

Spacebarman launched a series of EPs and singles starting in 2011 (Bad Boy, A veces me pierdo, Uno más) that culminated in the release of the LP Si algún día todo falla (“If one day all else fails”), in December 2012. The album brings to the table a new sound, if compared to La Fábrica, with heavier use of fuzzy electric guitars, but keeping hypno-electronic foundation that characterized the pioneering Colombian band.

In early 2018 the, still at this time, one-man-band launched Persona. The EP was stirred, but not shaken, by the sound and the experience of living and performing in the cradle of grunge, Seattle. Persona is the first exploration into the realm of the digital vs analog duality, not regarding the neverending which-media-sounds-better dilemma, but as an existential question framed by the emergence of social media addiction and artificial intelligence. This duality is best summarized in the EP’s second song, One with the machine: "I’m one with The Machine, that’s all I need. No need for medication, just let me be".

In summer 2018 JP returns to Barcelona and meets with Mauricio and long-time collaborator Pablo, crystallizing Spacebarman as a power trio. In 2021 Pablo leaves the band due to personal reasons, and Daniel joins as the new bassist. Mauricio is a multi-instrumentalist and music producer with a long standing career, having played guitar and bass with well-known Colombian and international acts such as Santa Sangre, Julio Nava, Ángel Negro, and Amos y los Santos. With Spacebarman, Mauricio reinvents himself as a drummer. Daniel is an talented bassist with experience in diverse genres like rock, metal, jazz, funk and latin, and with a passion for exploring the possibilities of the instrument. He has played in several influencial Colombian rock bands, including Krönös and Legend Maker.

Photos

Band photos: Jacobo Abreo, Prema
Live photos: Dom Santoro

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