SECONDBEST is an emotional indie rock band from Barcelona that formed late in 2018. The band play short, catchy and upbeat alt-rock songs with melancholic and heartbreak lyrics, serving a perfect treat for fans of Weezer, Joyce Manor, or Basement.
The tones and tempos on “Eternal Summer” vary from track by track, but nearly all provide an upbeat delivery and emotive, nostalgic, yet melodic feel that grabs the listener straight out of the gate with nothing less than an instant impression. Its punk rock spine sounds smoother and with a confidence born from a mature sounding band. Lean and propulsive, SECONDBEST come with hooks that get under the skin.
Though the band’s lyricist, vocalist and guitarist Luis Benavides doesn’t like to share his lyrics as “sometimes they are too personal, and sometimes just silly”, we managed to convice him to sit down with us and dive into each and every song from the record below.
Dream in blue
It’s funny cause this song was created some weeks before the recording, so it’s the newest but also open the new EP. In those days, when I found the melodies for guitar and voice, I was listening ‘Van Weezer’ A LOT. And the rest of the band too, cause we’re huge fans of Cuomo and company.
The chords were weezeresque, in my opinion, so I decided to write something similar to a homage, a tribute to the big W. The ‘blue’ of the title is related to the blue album, of course, and the lyrics are about a toxic relationship where one part is giving a lot, probably too much, and that part realise that it’s time to break-up. Don’t stay with people don’t care about you, love yourself first. It’s emo but in a positive way, I think.
Eternal Summer
I remember perfectly when I begin to write the lyrics on holidays in Jerez, in the south of Spain. We have the song, the chords and the structure, but we need words. So the summer of the song is a metaphore of love. I want it forever, I want to live an eternal summer. “Plans could be better if we are together for life”, I sing. That’s the idea. ¿Our catchiest song ever? Maybe and that’s why we choose that song as title of our third EP. The three of us are really proud of that song, the good vibes, how it flows.
Curiosity: we also call that song ‘the Bullit song’ cause we think inmediatly in that lovely band from Girona when we started to play in the rehearsals. So please, listen also the entire discography of our friends Bullitt, the kings of Costa Brava punk rock.
Zeta
In the previous EPS there are references to past situations and persons, explained from the sadness or the melancholy. Here is radically different, this song is happier, hopeful. Love kill the emocore, said a friend. So Zeta is for Zulema, my partner in love. She love bands like Oso oso and Joyce Manor (me too!), so I think the music of the song fits perfect in my love song.
We work hard with that short song, everything from tempo to structure, because we see potential but we have doubts in the beginning, cause it was a puzzle of ideas… It was difficult, more than other songs more direct like ‘Eternal Summer’. Luckily we keep working on that crazy idea and the result –with the help of our friend Txosse (Wheel Sound Studios), our Butch Vig!– is fantastic. So yes, shout out to great Txosse, a massive producer, also brilliant guitarist and singer in bands we highly recommend like Zimt and Mount Analogue.
High Fidelity
Musically, we admit it sounds a little like a mid-tempo Foo Fighters song; but our intention was different (haha). During the rehearsals, preparing the song, we try to accelerate a little and sound crunchier and wilder, like Bob Mould! That’s why we know that song like ‘Hüsker Foo’ (haha). The work on drums of Kilian is amazing, love it! Alfred (bassist) really likes the song. In his opinion, this is one of our best songs to date… And he doesn’t like Grohl’s band!
¿The lyrics? I found inspiration in the book (and movie) with the same name. Thanks a lot, Nick Hornby!
Closer
The oldest one. The grungiest one too. We played that song, sort of, in our second gig, when we only have one EP. That song with lyrics inspired in grunge days was created when we were a duo. With Alfred in the band the song grew and now we enjoy a lot playing it during the rehearsals. It’s the favourite of Kilian, our drummer, and I understand perfectly. It’s raw and powerful, dark and full of distortion, but also has a pop heart, four chords pointing to the soul.
