ENGLISH UPDATE.

Since there have been visits to our blog from England and other countries where Spanish is hardly found as a spoken or reading language, I thought it might be cool if I just published something in English as well. I am aware that translating all the recording diaries into English might be interesting as well, and If I find the time I will do so too, but for now, here's the preface.

Picture by Thomas Eagle (www.thomaseagle.com | www.yeswework.com)

The band has existed since 2006, when we played a festival I had been booked for when The Baltic Sea was only a solo project. I needed a band, found three musicians for the event, and it went so well that The Baltic Sea stopped being a solo act.

Three years on, we've played a lot of gigs, won band contests, changed drummer, released an EP (‘Too Late to Start Again’) and a debut album (‘Forthcoming Science Theory’ on PuPilo Records/PopStock, 2007, in Spain only) and now we're recording our second album due for release later this year.

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Brief Biography:

Slotting in neatly alongside such bands as Doves, Snow Patrol, Morning Runner, Athlete, Sigur Ros, Thomas Dybdhal or The Long Winters, The Baltic Sea, from Sevilla, Spain, have seen their embryonic project take shape and form, and resulted in one of the Spanish independent scene’s strongest releases of 2007.

Their impeccable live show has seen them win such prestigious competitions as the Heineken Greenspace and the Spanish leg of Global Battle of the Bands (the world final took place in London in December 2007), while their perfectionist approach to recording in the studio is clearly reflected in the intensity and emotion of the songs chosen to make up their debut LP, “Forthcoming Science Theory”; soon to be followed by their second album, issued to be relased in late fall 2009.

Drama, contentment, childhood fears, the countless times that a young Esteban Ruiz (voice & guitar) would listen to his father’s Neil Young and Beatles records, emotional crises, the need to forget the pain and yet also be inspired by it to write songs of anguish and heartache, the polar circle, all those places that one visits but once, all these are constants in the love and hate, loneliness and nostalgia that form The Baltic Sea’s debut LP.

Influenced by the continent-hopping trips to the American north and the Scandinavian polar regions of singer and principal songwriter Esteban (ex leader of Renochild), the songs began to take shape in 2006 with the formation of the band: Javier Vecino joining on drums, Kiko Ramos on guitar and Raúl Pérez on bass. “Too Late to Start Again” was the result, a four-track demo with a unique sound. An act of self-affirmation, the raw emotion mixed with heart wrenching melody lines present on all four songs lead directly to The Baltic Sea being signed by PuPilo Records.

Two years and a half later, Javier gave up his career as a musician and left The Baltic Sea on the eve of recording sessions for the second album. Two and a half months of uncertainty followed before Mariano Torres ably replaced him on drums.

The band has grown up, and with a hundred gigs already performed all over Spain, their second album and tour are among the most eagerly anticipated of the year. Currently recording and self-producing a great rock album in their own studios, the band is readying itself for the leap across to European stages in 2010.

When change is the only constant, at times it’s necessary to search for that certain something which helps you make sense of the world and keep going, turning near-disaster into an opening for new experience. The Baltic Sea's heart-felt response to life may well be that certain something.

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Seems like we're going to be very busy over the next few months: we hope to be touring heavily - as much and far as we can - and above all, we hope you'll love our new songs…

Pictures by Thomas Eagle (www.thomaseagle.com | www.yeswework.com)

Thanks for coming from such far-away places.

I’ll keep the beat with the English posts.

Have a nice day!.

e.