Amelie is an up and coming power-pop band from Barcelona, Spain. We recently got a chance to interview them. English isn’t their first language, so we did change a few words in the interview to make things flow better. Other than that this is the raw unedited interview.

These guys make some really great music and after getting a chance to talk with them we are thoroughly impressed. For being a young band they really have their act together. We can’t wait to hear their debut LP out later this year!

Let us know who each member in the band is and what instrument they play.

We are:

• Marcel Selva (18), drums.
• Marc Vilaró (19), guitar.
• Carles Ribes (19), vocals and bass.
• Albert Segú (19), guitar and vocals.
• Alex Pla (20), vocals and synth.

What’s the music scene like in Barcelona? Are there a lot of other Power-Pop bands?

In Barcelona there are a lot of bands that play different kinds of music, but it’s pretty difficult to rise to that top. Here there aren’t a lot of places to play, and most of them have an age restriction, which, depending on the type of audience your band has, can be an added difficulty. Furthermore, people here usually don’t go to concerts of rising bands, so it’s really difficult to get new followers.

As I said, there are a lot of bands in Barcelona and in Catalonia, but we don’t know any other band whose music could be identified with the Power-Pop style. This makes us lucky, but also we’ll have to work harder to open our music to Catalonia and Spain.

You are opening this fall for All Time Low when they come through Spain. How did you land that spot?

We are so proud to say that September 8th, we’ll be opening for All Time Low in Sala Apolo, Barcelona, and it has happened thanks to all the people who helped us unconditionally. There is an organization here in Spain, called Under18, which brings to Spain bands such as All Time Low, You me at six, McFly, Simple Plan, Panic! at the disco, and a lot more. This time, they prepared a national contest which was going to decide the two bands that would play with All Time Low in Spain, one for Madrid and another for Barcelona. It was an online voting contest, using facebook, and thanks to everyone that helped us, we ended up as the most voted band (from all the Spanish bands participating). Thanks to that, we are going to make one of our dreams come true, and we are so happy about the support that we received from our fans.

You once mentioned to me that the language you sing your lyrics in is rare for Spain. What language is it? What’s common there?

We sing in Catalan, which is our maternal language, and one of the both official languages in Catalonia, with Spanish. Here in Catalonia most of the people are bilingual, but in the rest of Spain, almost anyone knows Catalan. It’s hard for us, because we think that singing in Spanish could make it easier for us in some aspects but on the other hand, this fact makes us one of the few young bands on the Catalan scene.

Bands here almost always sing in Spanish or English, so it’s not common to see a Power-Pop band in Barcelona, Catalonia, and the rest of Spain, as I said before, I think you won’t find another Power-Pop band singing in Catalan, as we do. That makes us almost exclusive here, but also we have to introduce this movement to the people here, and see how they react.

What other bands influence your writing?

The main songwriters of the band are Albert and Carles, although afterwards we work all together with the songs and everyone adds his influence.

Our influences writing are All Time Low, Mayday Parade, Hey Monday, Stereo Skyline, The Maine, A Rocket to the Moon, The Friday Night Boys, We the Kings, and much more. Of course, everyone of us likes other bands, of other music styles. Sometimes we take influences from other songs. We want our music to have it’s own identity, but of course we want to get identified as Power-Pop, with the bands mentioned before, because all of them are bands that we love and hear every day, and we want to do music that we never get tired of listening to also.

Besides opening for All Time Low, does the band have any other big news coming up?

We are so excited about the show with All Time Low, but also we are working hard because we are about to enter the studio to record our first LP. It will be the first time with our new drummer, Marcel, and we are sure it will be, like the past recording, a nice experience that we’ll always remember. After finishing it, we are planing some shows, starting with the one of All Time Low, in Barcelona and surroundings. Playing live is like a drug for us, and after all this work on the LP we want to hit the stages to celebrate it and bring some new songs to our followers and to everyone who wants to listen to us.

How long have you guys been a band?

We are about to complete our first year as a band. We started in May 2009 with Carles, Xeskv (our first drummer) and Alex. Then we picked Marc and afterwards Albert joined to complete the first phase of Amelie in August 2009. In March 2010 Xeskv left us, so we had to search for a new drummer. Hopefully we found Marcel, who quickly has become a good band mate and friend too.

All questions have been answered by Alex and Albert.

Hit up their myspace here!