Forceful, brilliant and aggressive on the road of blues.

Blues & Decker is not the typical blues band that
tries to remain faithful to a classic or traditional sound, nor just cover old
and well known songs of the genre in their own way. The spirit that guides the
members of the band involves taking the blues away to mix it with many styles,
and that’s why they decided to name their first work Stealin’ the blues, title
that wants to underline their outsider role inside the genre.

 

Gustavo Perez (lead vocals and rhythmic guitar), Ludwig Molina (drums), Kike Cuetos (bass) and Guzman Lanza (lead guitar and vocals)
got together in 2009, and after a few rehearsals they found a lot of common
ground in the classic blues and all its derivative forms. Later they came out
in favor of a harder sound that could be defined as blues-rock, with all the
members feeling comfortable towards the chosen references. On May 2010 they
recorded a demo and then played a large amount of shows at bars (the best place
to enjoy their music) and festivals (Semana Negra, That’s All Folks Festival,
1st Gijon Blues Festival Route A66…) in Asturias with occasional trips to Galicia
and Leon.

 

After two years
greasing the live machinery and composing their own songs, in 2012 Spring the

band went into Magoo
Studio in Oviedo to record, with Juan Martinez as the sound technician,

nine
songs that shape their first record. All of them have the blues as background
but Blues & Decker embellish each one of the songs with little details,
different chords, melodic and stylistic ornaments that result in resounding
pieces which move them closer to 70’s  psychodelic
rock (Till dawn) or funk-metal (Tomorrow); they know how to play softly
too, in intimate and mellow blues-rock ballads (Blues is dead) or more sophisticated and elegant pieces (Stealin’ the soul). When they decide to
take a classic path (No worries) or
hit the electric blues of great intensity via Chicago mixed up with bits of
swing (Posology) they end up being
convincing in the same way. And it goes without saying that they do a good job
covering classic songs as Shame, shame, shame (Jimmy Reed) -featuring David
Garcia from The Blind Lemons playing the harp- and John the revelator, the song
that Son House used to sing a cappella. All of that enclosed with nice lyrics
that avoid blues clichés and supported by a forceful, brilliant and aggressive
sound, reflection of their live performances.

 

Stealin’
the blues, wrapped in a beautiful design by Diego Perez Gonzalez, is an
excellent presentation letter of a band that has a long way to go but can be
proud of the current accomplishments.