Interview with Bombai: “The song we presented at Benidorm Fest will go on the album”

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This 2024, Mumbai has started it with a song to freedom. The group published in early January I am freea song with a clear reference to Free by Nino Bravo and that talks about “turning the page, getting out of an emotional rut by singing and dancing.” A positive mantra that Javi, Vicen and Ramoneti have us more than accustomed to.

The band, which began in 2015 with the release of Only if it’s with you, has been in this music business for almost a decade. Far from changing strategy, they continue using the same formula that catapulted them to fame: a beach pop’good rollero’ and full of hope. Aren’t you tired of being this kind of Mr. Wonderful in each and every one of their songs (when they surely also have gray days like everyone else)? Bombay has answered this and many more questions about the rest of the plans they have for this year, Benidorm Festival or OT 2023. And they have also generated a lively debate about hypothetical collaborations in an era where many musical genres have abandoned their pure nature to merge with other sounds.

In I am free You wink at Nino Bravo, but I would like to know what other great artists of our music inspire you daily.

Vicen: Always, a reference group, with which both I and someone else must identify, are the Estopa. They are two brothers, two companions, two neighborhood uncles who had a dream. They sang and never considered dedicating themselves to music, but they tried and they succeeded. And they are still just as natural, just as gypsy, just as normal as us, so he is an artist with whom we identify.

And how do you continue to infuse your songs with good vibes, which is your hallmark.

Javi: In the end it is a style. What we are realizing is that with the movements that we sometimes have at home or on a daily basis, the fact that we have a concert is quite medicinal, where yes or yes you have to put on a good face, make positive songs and everything you have been working on for years. And that is super good for our mental health. So, the ukulele vibe, the songs and the positive messages is something that we imposed on ourselves the first day we formed the group. It is also something that we wave a little and make other types of songs, other types of styles, but always with that essence.

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If, for example, you have a day that’s a little rough, how do you encourage yourself so that the songs sound so positive? Because you can’t have an attitude happy always.

Javi: Because it’s what we like. Maybe what you like to listen to is not the same as what you like to play, but we like to play positive songs, above all, that people have a good time at concerts and I think that is the sign of identity of the group and they are like our duties: we have to do that no matter what.

Where did you record the video clip? There are some very cool views.

Ramoneti: That’s all in a mountain range in Valencia. We recorded it at the end of summer. He prepared himself to be able to leave when we had a little space when this industry lets you, because there are times when it is not when you want to make material, but when you can. And we, for a long time now, have recorded (and tried to record) everything in Valencia, in our land, which has beautiful things to bore.

Vicen: And we recorded it all in one day. All the video clips you can see happen in one day. We started recording in the morning and finished at night.

Ramoneti: And we have simplified the video clip method. It is true that we do not make large film productions—at the moment. What we do is prioritize music especially, but we always have a nice video to accompany it.

When the music—or the song—and the artists are good, it doesn’t matter (the genre), because today there is a fusion of absolutely everything. Then, by proxy, we could merge with everyone…

On the other hand, with Nya de la Rubia in Paradise You managed to make his flamenco voice merge with your style. Therefore, which artist, who you consider to be the opposite of what you do, would you invite to collaborate?

Javi: On the album we are working on, we have included a song where it is different from what we have done, which is a little more flamenco. It has those flamenco airs and melodies, and there are many artists that we would like to see get on those types of songs. We are polling a lot of people… and we love Miguel Campello and Chambao. Those types of people who are half hippies and make that music… more Spanish, we love it. We already did it with Bebe, who is a very Spanish aunt and who helped us a lot. And Nya, we loved meeting her and she told us all about her. Plus, she just released an album, we’ve heard it and she’s amazing. So, I think she would be with those two names.

Vicen: Answering the question of a voice or vocal projection different from Bombay would be someone from rap. I would put a mainstream and happy pop song from Mumbai with a hip hop artist. A Kase.O would be cool, for example. Or Beret, who started rapping and was cool at it. People who really know about rap in Spanish fused with our Latin pop…

Ramoneti: I think that, in the end, when the music—or the song—and the artists are good, it doesn’t matter, because today there is a fusion of absolutely everything. So, by proxy, we could merge with everyone… One of Kase.O has told you, another Miguel Campello and I say with Imagine Dragons; We make a quintet like the Backstreet Boys and a good song would come out for sure.

You say that you are working on a future album. Is I am free the first preview?

Javi: Well, let’s take out first Tell me what you seewith Funambulista, and Suena en la weddings, which will also be included on the album.

Ramoneti: And this (I am free) is the other single from a project that is about to be released. What we are doing is working single by single so, when we have enough collected, we can release the album.

Vicen: And we will continue releasing more brushstrokes…

When do you plan for that album to come out?

Javi: We don’t know for sure, but in 2024. That’s for sure.

As for concerts, you finished the 2023 tour thinking about this year’s… Do you already have any cities closed?

Javi: We have quite a few things, but we can’t say much yet either.

Vicen: There are reservations. There are things on the calendar. And there are things far away.

Javi: We’ll say it soon, they won’t leave us yet.

Ramoneti: This year we are going to repeat last year’s situation of doing a tour of about 60 concerts throughout Spain…

Vicen: And if there can be more, the better.

I would also like to ask you about the Benidorm Fest, which you applied for and were left at the gates, right?

Javi: In the end we were not chosen.

Vicen: They previously said many things, but then it turned out that they didn’t… Since you opened the drawer…

Ramoneti: Yes, yes. There is the black hand there… (laughs)

Javi: But we are delighted with life with the people who have gone… And to continue our path.

Vicen: In fact, the song we presented to Benidorm Fest is going to go on the album.

Ramoneti: It’s a single and it won’t take long to come out.

The musical career does not have much to do with everything that is experienced within the Operación Triunfo academy (and the contestants) must be careful from our point of view, because being there and in the media spotlight, (the perception) deceives

Would you introduce yourselves again?

Javi: In the end it is music and why not. It is music and it is stage. And we love that.

Vicen: And it’s promo too.

What were your favorites?

Ramoneti: I really like Marlena’s. She rocks me. And I don’t know if it is the style that would be taken to Eurovision, but I think that the Benidorm Fest does not always have to be focused on Eurovision, because I think it gives other things, but I like Mantra’s.

Javi: The Mantra one is cool. I personally like María Pelae’s. I really like that vibe.

You worked, precisely, with Dellacruz in the remix of Thousand tequilas remix… As was?

Ramoneti: We didn’t meet him when we made the remix, but we have met him and we have met him at several concerts playing in the Canary Islands.

Javi: The kid is very nice and has real talent. He composes very well and we wish him the best. Theirs is a cool song too.

To finish: we went from Benidorm Fest to Operación Triunfo, because you released a collaboration with Denna in 2022, which is one of the OT 2023 contestants…

Javi: Yes, we helped him make a song. Well, we made a song together and it was very good, very good. We are delighted. We met his family, his parents, his friends…

Vicen: The truth is that they are wonderful people.

Ramoneti: When we met her, she was just starting out in music and what happened there is that we had companies in common. They introduced us to her and we wanted to give her a hand.

Vicen: (At that time) I was with the urban vibe that I wanted to give it a spin to reach more to the mainstream, to the radios… To what our circuit is, so we made a song accordingly. We shared what their songs were like and what ours were like and we started to see what we could do together. We helped him with that and we released a song. And she looks, then the girl has had a very, very heavy public exposure.

Javi: We wish him the best, really. The thing is that it must be said that the hard part comes now, after the academy. (All) are in the media spotlight for having been, in quotes, in a Big Brother, because they have a lot of talent, but they are stuck there, where that is deceiving. So, they have to be careful from our point of view. Because, a musical career does not have much to do with everything that is experienced inside. Yes, surely all the artists who have come out of Triumph operation and they have managed to function in the world of music, they will know it and say it, right? Like Aitana, Lola Índigo… You have to do a lot of work and you have to be in the studio and in the dance hall or wherever and try to succeed in music and that’s what’s difficult.

And are you following the contest…?

Ramoneti: Zero.

Vicen: I don’t like Operación Triunfo and I don’t follow it, but good for the kids. They are artist projects. Very good for them. I hope everyone reaches where Aitana has arrived, who entered as (so to speak) Denna; She was an artist who had something and in the end she is one of the greatest artists that Spain has now. I hope someone gets it too.