I'm recording a band from Madrid next month. Anyone here from Spain?

[chonchball]

The band Inbred from Madrid is coming here in less than a month to record with me, and judging from our language barrier in emails, I'm concerned about maintaining a workflow with them as I do not speak Spanish.

I've had plenty of bands come over from Canada to record w/ me, but this will be my first real fly-in from another continent project. Anyone here from Spain want to let me know anything cultural that I can do to make the guys feel welcome? Also anything I should know about like Spanish slang as it relates to metal? I can't see them saying "that's sick!" or "fuckin brutal!" cuz i just don't think it translates the same, but I want to make sure I'm communicating with them on their terms at all times.

 

[Erik Monsonis]

Hehe, i know them. Don't they speak english??

If they like what's coming out of the speakers you'll see it in their faces
If they don't like it... you'll see it too.

Some expressions:
"la polla", "la ostia", "de puta madre", "cojonudo"... > GOOD
"una mierda", "que asco", "de pena"... > BAD

 

[chonchball]

They speak broken English in emails, so I wasn't sure if they were fluent or if he was using a translator.

Thanks for much for the tips! They all seem like super nice guys and I'm really excited to have them State-side and record their record!

:Smokedev:

 

[Erik Monsonis]

I'd like to have recorded them myself here, as they're getting pretty big here.

Anyways, the only tip I can give you is to try to use basic language, and most important thing: speak slow!

 

[chonchball]

How big are they getting there?

 

[Erik Monsonis]

Well, when I say big, I mean "big". If you talk about USA industry, they're nobody. If you talk about the Spanish "industry", they're an upcoming band that's touring outboards, recording albums, releasing them with a label, gettin some nice promotion... Nothing awesome, but better than the average.

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

"me cago la ostia" , I'll never understand that slang

 

[sirscratch01]

Being from Miami and being cuban i'm pretty much fluent with cuban spanish only which im sure Dandelium will agree is a different beast all together. Just do your best to ignore the order in which words are arranged in sentences. For a lot of common phrases, the word order is reversed in spanish. So some one not too familiar with english will more times than not translate their sentence word for word in their head then say it and it can come out a bit odd. Other than that, slow and steady wins the race.

As for some slang terms, i seriously doubt they are as significant in spaniard spanish as they are in cuban but a favorite down here is to say something "esta de pinga (pronounced peen-gah)" which literally means "of the dick" lol. Depending on the way it's said it can either mean "that was terrible" or "that's fucking awesome" haha....fun with cubans...

 

[chonchball]

haha yeah, see that's what it's like with american slang too. Like, "dude that was fucking retarded" could mean both "wow that was unbelievable" or "please don't ever make me experience that again"

i guess it's all in the inflection. and i know spanish uses a different inflection too. Oh my, oh my!


That's good that they are making a name for themselves there. I'm pumped when I do records for bands that are actually working hard and people are gonna hear 'em. Nothing is more frustrating than recording bands that you know aren't going anywhere, yet you're still painstakingly trying to make everything perfect... even though no one's ever gonna hear it.
Those are the best times to push yourself to get better though really, which is a neverending process

 

[Erik Monsonis]

"Me cago en la ostia" is like "Holy fucking shit!"

And Spanish people don't use that cuban slangs. Good to know though.

Yep, I feel the same thing when I record a shitty band and spend ages editing their takes, quantizing even guitar DI's and vocals, and they get zero exposure... That sucks. At least I get the money, but if I record bands is for pleasure first, the green comes after that.

Good luck man! And If you need any specific help dealing with language, feel free to PM me
-Erik

 

[Charlie E.]

Hehe, i know them. Don't they speak english??

If they like what's coming out of the speakers you'll see it in their faces
If they don't like it... you'll see it too.

Some expressions:
"la polla", "la ostia", "de puta madre", "cojonudo"... > GOOD
"una mierda", "que asco", "de pena"... > BAD

Oye chaval, no jodas tio! hehehe I'm from Spain too
de puta brings back memories of max mix lol

 

[FF666]

The basics:

Ala Madrid
Forza Atleti
Tortilla de patata
Jamón Serrano
Puticlub
Botellón
Cerveza
Calimocho
Cubata
Siesta
Tigre/Water
San Fermín
Aupa Ahtletic
Muyayo donde se coge la guagua

 

[JBroll]

haha yeah, see that's what it's like with american slang too. Like, "dude that was fucking retarded" could mean both "wow that was unbelievable" or "please don't ever make me experience that again"

i guess it's all in the inflection. and i know spanish uses a different inflection too. Oh my, oh my!


That's good that they are making a name for themselves there. I'm pumped when I do records for bands that are actually working hard and people are gonna hear 'em. Nothing is more frustrating than recording bands that you know aren't going anywhere, yet you're still painstakingly trying to make everything perfect... even though no one's ever gonna hear it.
Those are the best times to push yourself to get better though really, which is a neverending process

If you think that's bad, consider the spoken sentence 'i fed my dog food yesterday' (capitalization and punctuation intentionally omitted) - if you can't find ten different interpretations of those six words, you're not trying hard enough.

Jeff

 

[chonchball]

that's gonna drive me nuts if i sit here and say that out loud that many times! haha

 

[The-Zeronaut]

The basics:

Muyayo donde se coge la guagua

que teneis los peninsulares CON MUYAYO??
soy canario y en mi vida he oido a nadie decir muyayo...
MUCHACHO.

buen rollo

Mark.

 

[digitaldeath]

I don't have much advice as I don't know Spanish, but my old band did record an album in the south of France, so I've experienced the language barrier in a studio environment.
As others have said, the most important thing is to speak slowly, trust me on that one. Simplify certain sentences and try not to use complicated English (but don't be a condescending prick either). Show the guys a good time (when not working hard) as this may be somewhat of a "career highlight" for them.
Looking forward to hearing the end result!

 

[DanLights]

I'm venezuelan and have spanish nationality because my father was born in spain, but the slang is definitely different, I do know many of the words. And by the way, the cuban "esta de pinga" slang is also VERY common here in Venezuela, actually I didn't know it was also said in Cuba, I thought it was originary from here.

So, Erik dandelium can surely help you enough, but for what it's worth I could help with any language issues if you ever ask. good luck with those guys!

 

[sirscratch01]

Muyayo? Never heard that one. Always heard it as Muchacho as well.

And that's funny I've know quite a few Venezuelans and I've never really heard them use "de pinga" much. It's definitely a staple in the Miami cuban community but i know a lot of puerto ricans use it too. It's crazy how we all are really speaking the same language but at the same time we're not haha. Esta de pinga, sabes?

 

[DanLights]

Muyayo? Never heard that one. Always heard it as Muchacho as well.

And that's funny I've know quite a few Venezuelans and I've never really heard them use "de pinga" much. It's definitely a staple in the Miami cuban community but i know a lot of puerto ricans use it too. It's crazy how we all are really speaking the same language but at the same time we're not haha. Esta de pinga, sabes?

Yeah it's wierd you say that, cause over here I get that "esta de pinga" everyday, extremely common, I say it all the time for one. "esta de pinga marico", marico is a way of saying "queer" but it can also be interpreted as more of a "dude" kind of thing

 

[Erik Monsonis]

The basics:

Ala Madrid = FOOTBALL (Real Madrid)
Forza Atleti = FOOTBALL (Atletic de Madrid)
Força Barça = FOOTBALL (FC Barcelona)
Tortilla de patata = Typical spanish dish.
Jamón Serrano = Ham
Puticlub = Red-light bar
Botellón = Street Drinking
Cerveza = Beer
Calimocho = Wine+Coca Cola
Cubata = cuba-libre
Siesta = Nap
Tigre/Water= WC
San Fermín =

Aupa Ahtletic = FOOTBALL (Athletic de Bilbao)
Muyayo donde se coge la guagua = LOL (this applies to the canary islands only)

Added translations.