Hermanos Gutiérrez Release New Song 'Los Chicos Tristes'
Their new album is set for release on October 28.
By: Michael Major Sep. 14, 2022
Zurich-based duo Hermanos Gutiérrez, comprised of brothers Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez, are excited to release their new song, "Los Chicos Tristes," into the world. "Los Chicos Tristes" follows acclaimed songs "Tres Hermanos," a track they recorded with The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, and "El Bueno Y El Malo," the title track from their forthcoming album, which is set for release on October 28th via Auerbach's label Easy Eye Sound.
About the song Hermanos Gutiérrez said, "'Los Chicos Tristes' is a reflection of us as musicians and trying to answer where our music comes from. Hearing the song now really made us acknowledge the sad part of ourselves, which we both share as brothers. Our grandfather always used to tell us that being sad doesn't mean something negative. He saw it as a powerful and inspiring emotion. And instead of turning down that side from our personalities we see now that this part has been so essential in our songwriting moments in the last few years. We wouldn't be able to create our music without it."
A video for the song has also been unveiled today. Opening with a Spanish proverb "sin la tristeza, la Felicidad perdería todo su significado," meaning "without sadness, happiness would lose all meaning," the video details the mundane everyday life of a street vendor concluding with the vendor's simple but content dinner with his family.
The music of Hermanos Gutierréz evokes expansive plains and rough wildernesses, saguaros and surfs, spaghetti westerns and Morricone soundtracks, Lynch and Jarmusch. With their guitars they travel through landscapes haunted by vaqueros, cancioneros, wanderers, fugitives, lovers, family-and whatever ghosts their listeners bring to the music.
El Bueno Y El Malo is their most epic journey yet: working with Dan Auerbach at his Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, they've crafted ten vivid compositions that highlight their intimate guitar playing, where one brother's rhythms and the other brother's melodies twine around each other so that they become inextricable. Together, they generate what Estevan calls a "deeper, darker energy" defined by complex arrangements, sophisticated playing, and most of all their very close relationship.
Started a few years earlier, Hermanos Gutiérrez began releasing music on their own, all of which gained traction in 2020. "My brother and I," says Estevan, "we did everything by ourselves- all the music, even the artwork. But during Covid, our music was streamed all over the world," especially their 2020 album, Hijos del Sol. Perhaps because people were looking for an escape from their worries or were traveling to new landscapes without leaving their homes, the music of Hermanos Gutiérrez spread by word of mouth, eventually finding its way to Auerbach. After a twenty-minute conversation, they signed with Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound record label and started writing songs for their forthcoming album.
Setting up shop a few months later at Easy Eye Sound studio, El Bueno Y El Malo was recorded quickly and organically, despite it being the first time they'd ever met Auerbach in-person. They worked on the fly, hewing closely to the songs they had brought over from Switzerland while remaining open to any and all new ideas. El Bueno Y El Malo gently expands their sound, retaining the foundation while adding drums, castanets, strings, and congas.
The additions are more than subtle; they're subliminal. They focus the attention on the two main figures and the intricate, almost telepathic interplay of their instruments. In perhaps the most significant addition to their two-guitar sound, their producer even played on one song. As the brothers struggled with an arrangement, Auerbach suggested an idea for a melody, even plugging in and playing it for them. They loved it so much they invited him to record it with them, even retitling that song, "Tres Hermanos."
The title of the album is, of course, a reference to Sergio Leone's legendary 1966 spaghetti western The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and especially its score by Ennio Morricone. But the phrase has a deeper meaning: "We think that everybody has a good side and a bad side," says Estevan. "It's every person, every moment, every situation. Everybody has these two faces." It's not a cynical idea, but one that celebrates the depths and dualities of humanity, and music-even music that does not include vocals or lyrics-is the perfect vehicle to explore such big ideas.
Listen to the new single here:
TOUR DATES
9/28 Munich, DE @ Werk7 Theater
9/30 Istanbul, TUR @ Blind
10/3 London, UK @ EartH (Evolutionary Arts Hackney)
10/5 Paris, FR @ Maroquinerie
10/6 Porto, PT @ Maus Hábitos - Porto, PT
10/7 Barcelona, ES @ Sala Apolo2
10/8 Madrid, ES @ Independance
10/11 Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
10/12 Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg
10/13 Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
10/15 Helsinki, FI @ Korjaamon Kulmasali
10/16 Stockholm, SE @ Hus7
10/18 Zürich, CH @ Kaufleuten
10/22 Nashville, TN @ The Ryman Auditorium *
10/29 Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Forever - Dia de los Muertos Fest
10/31 Washington, D.C. @ Miracle Theatre
11/2 Philadelphia, PA @ World Café Live
11/3 Boston, MA @ Arts at the Armory
11/4 New York, NY @ Opera House
11/5 Montreal, QC @ PHI Centre
11/6 Toronto, ON @ The Drake
11/8 Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club
11/9 Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village
11/10 Denver, CO @ Globe Hall
11/12 Seattle, WA @ Crocodile
11/13 Portland, OR @ Mission Theater
11/14 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
11/17 Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet's
11/18 Ventura, CA @ Ventura Music Hall
11/19 Phoenix, AZ @ Musical Instrument Museum
11/20 Santa Fe, NM @ St. Francis Auditorium
11/22 Austin, TX @ Antone's
* Supporting Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
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