Under the leadership of Josep Montero, the Osona band have gone through the roof and
have become a referent in the Catalan music scene in a short period of time.
After nearly 250 concerts in three years, performing in the USA, Italy, France, England, Wales
and being an absolute success in “La Mercè” (Barcelona City Festival) they are recording their
new album, which will be released in May 2016.
“Fat Geese”/ Oques Grasses meteoric career was motivated by former drummer Josep
Montero, who decided to switch to guitar and started composing like a man possessed,
offering impromptu live performances together with Arnau Tordera ( Obeses stunning leader).
After Meeting Guillem Realp (current band bassist), they brought together the group of
musicians who make up the crazy reggae band, with a wind section that adds to the whole an
unstoppable energy.
By late summer-early autumn they were performing in the promotion of their second album
“Call it whatever you want”, as well as preparing their successful concert held during the
“Mercè” (Barcelona City Festival) at the Passeig Marítinm del Bogatell stage. However, they
simultaneously started recording the tracks for their new album between gigs. This new album
is meant to be recorded with no rush, without being pressed for time and it will be out in
spring 2016.
“Fat Geese”/ Oques Grasses musical career is just unusual. Five years ago Josep Montero was
the drummer of the band Nothimatis who later became a self-taught guitar player. Before
long, He started playing in bars with a bass drum and his guitar. He eventually met Arnau
Tordera (the Tona composer) in one of these performances, with whom he immediately got
along. They both spent a long time playing together around bars and their sessions could last
for three hours.
On his bus back to Girona, Montero (whose driving license had been suspended), met Guillem
Realp. They kept in touch and Montero asked him if he knew any musicians to join a band he
wanted to set up to play the musical pieces he had written. That’s the way “Fat Geese”/ Oques
Grasses were born in 2013. The original line-up featured these two musicians apart from Arnau
Tordera, Joan Borràs and Arnau Altimir. In a short period of time other musician gradually
joined the band, while Tordera decided to go his own way. Most of the band members are very
young, their ages ranging from 22 to 30.
The seven band members describe themselves as follow: “we’re guys, we could be girls, we are
from our town and we can be from yours whenever you want, in the same way you can be
from ours. We’re good people, we like peaches. We’re people who tell what we live and feel
through songs and without songs. We also listen when it is the others telling us. We sometimes
tell things which are alright, but we also tell things which aren’t worth it. To a certain extent
the same applies to what we listen to. We’re animals, but not birds. In case we were “Fat
Geese”, we would be a bird that can´t fly, but we´re not just a band named after this bird. We
are what we can and what we can´t, we are what we want and what we don´t want. There are
times we want and times we don’t want. From a realistic point of view we are what we can be,
since we are not always what we´d like to be. We love pork loins with chips. We are moments,
we are musicians, we are us and whoever you want us to be. We are our songs, we are the
people who listen to them and live them. We are what you think we are, we can mean a lot,
we can mean nothing. We love you”
In two consecutive years “Fat Geese” have released two albums: the self-released Un dia no sé
com / “Some day I don’t know how” 2013 and Digues-n’hi com vulguis/”Call it whatever you
want” 2014 edited by Chesapik. Each album included ten tracks and most of them stood out
for their reggae style as well as other musical influences. In both CDs instruments and
composition evolved as a result of the experience gained in previous recordings. Whereas the
more chilled, self-assured first album was edited in three years at Montero’s place, it only took
a year and a half to release the second one in a more professional way and not regardless of
the outside pressures.
For the promotion of both albums, they performed in 80 concerts in 2013, about 90 in 2014
and they will finish the year off with the same number of concerts as part of a tour called
“Living in the Hol·les”. Such a frenetic activity has led them to perform in six different places in
the same week on both big and small stages.
As they announced las summer “Fat Geese” are working on their third album, which title is yet
to be known and which includes more songs than the previous two. Some of the new songs
have already been included in their current playlist. The composer and the musicians are
putting all their creativeness and effort into this new album to be released in spring 2016.
Their idea is to go back to the original freshness along with the ac