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Interview
6 October 2019 2.00 h

Helena Bagué

Singer of El Pot Petit band

’Family concert audiences keep on growing’

When she goes up the stage, the singer and actor, He­lena Bagué, be­comes Jana d’El Pot Petit, one of the most pop­u­lar bands of the new chil­dren’s cançó, or, bet­ter, fam­ily cançó in Cat­alo­nia and in Cata­lan. He­lena and Sid­dartha Var­gas, bet­ter known as Pau to both his small and big fol­low­ers, are the voices and founders of El Pot Petit, a band that cel­e­brates its 10th an­niver­sary this year. After three al­bums and hun­dreds of con­certs, which are in­creas­ingly crowded, El Pot Petit and their mu­si­cians, the Melme­lada Band, have re-recorded some of their hits with new arrange­ments for a record that U98 Music will re­lease this month, while their com­mem­o­ra­tive show for their 10th an­niver­sary con­tin­ues to fill the­atres and au­di­to­ri­ums every­where.

Let’s start with de­f­i­n­i­tions: sing for chil­dren or for the whole fam­ily?
We are strongly ad­vo­cat­ing for the con­cept of ’fam­ily’ be­cause we like our con­certs and shows to be an ex­pe­ri­ence to enjoy as a fam­ily and, there­fore, we are ad­dress­ing both chil­dren and adult au­di­ences. We al­ways try to offer some­thing extra, which can catch adults’ in­ter­est. And we do the same with the songs: the lyrics are suit­able for boys and girls, but in terms of music, com­po­si­tion, arrange­ments, we want to do some­thing of high qual­ity that can also please adults. That’s what makes it for fam­i­lies.
In Cat­alo­nia, there is a great tra­di­tion of chil­dren’s or fam­ily songs. How do you con­nect with this tra­di­tion?
I re­mem­ber going to see Àngel Daban as a lit­tle girl, we had their cas­settes in the car and we con­stantly lis­tened to their songs, and the same with many other singers, such as Jordi Toni­etti, Xesco Boix... We have grown up with this, we have al­ways lis­tened to a lot of music and we lived the phe­nom­e­non of chil­dren’s en­ter­tain­ment, and we have been left with many things from this legacy.
How did you meet Sid­dartha, with whom you share both the artis­tic and ed­u­ca­tional side?
In fact with Sid­dartha, we met on a course for free-time mon­i­tors. We have al­ways been very closely linked to the world of leisure and chil­dren, and we also stud­ied teach­ing. I have never done it be­cause I started study­ing to be­come an ac­tress and a singer, but Sid­dartha did work in some schools. And yes, I sup­pose that this pro­ject was born from the com­bi­na­tion of the ed­u­ca­tional and artis­tic parts.
In ad­di­tion, you are both from Em­pordà, your vil­lages are very close.
Yes, I am from Castelló d’Empúries and Sid­dartha is from Pau.
Some­times you adapt tra­di­tional songs, but most of your reper­toire is made up of your own songs.
We al­ways look for ways to con­nect with chil­dren, they can em­pathise with the sto­ries and the char­ac­ters in our songs. We found that a good way to do it is through an­i­mals, which al­ways catch their at­ten­tion, and even more, per­son­i­fy­ing these an­i­mals: if in­stead of Pere, it’s the lion who is shy, it’s more at­trac­tive for chil­dren, be­cause a lion is al­ready an an­i­mal that draws their at­ten­tion and even more so if that strong an­i­mal, who is the king of the jun­gle, is shy. We are work­ing with many things about emo­tions here. And we try to do this in all of our songs.
Many of your songs trans­mit val­ues, such as the love for grand­par­ents, in­ter­cul­tur­al­ity, and the im­por­tance of play­ing as a train­ing tool. The ed­u­ca­tional in­ten­tion is clear.
Yes, but we did not want to do it in a too spe­cific way, with slo­gans of the type: to play you have to do this or that. In our songs, the mes­sage is there, but it is not ex­plic­itly men­tioned, the whole story takes you there. That is why we be­lieve that our songs are ed­u­ca­tional and pro­vide val­ues, with­out telling peo­ple what to do.
With a grow­ing offer of shows for chil­dren, what do you think you bring as new or what makes you dif­fer­ent?
I think we make fresh music, and we like to play dif­fer­ent styles of music, be­cause chil­dren also be able to ed­u­cate their ears. Also, I think we make a dif­fer­ence through our stage set­ting, to which we give great im­por­tance: we have pup­pets and a whole se­ries of char­ac­ters, be­gin­ning with Pau and Jana, who live in this mag­i­cal pot called El Pot Petit. This al­lows us to play with many sto­ries and our con­certs are drama­tised and have a cen­tral theme. We even tackle hiphop; Pau is a great break dance dancer.
You work with var­i­ous for­mats. Tell us more about the Melme­lada Band.
The pro­ject has been grow­ing and we have also adapted a bit to what’s needed. We began with the two of us, Sid­dartha and I, with mostly pop­u­lar songs and in­tro­duc­ing our own songs in the reper­toire, and then we re­alised we could grow. Hence the Melme­lada Band came along and now has eight mu­si­cians per­form­ing for local an­nual fes­ti­vals and con­certs in gen­eral. But for our 10-year an­niver­sary show, we’ll have 13 mu­si­cians on stage.
What about your 10th an­niver­sary tour?
We have cho­sen 10 lo­ca­tions through­out Cat­alo­nia, so that every­one can see us some­where. It is a very unique show, be­cause for the first time you can see what’s in­side the lit­tle pot on the stage: one of the things that chil­dren have asked us over these past 10 years. We’ll show them a bit of this mag­i­cal world, be­cause dis­cov­er­ing this imag­i­nary world is com­pli­cated: what one can imag­ine is al­ways more beau­ti­ful than re­al­ity.
In the new album you are giv­ing life to al­ready-known songs from your reper­toire
We have re­newed them all, in a sur­pris­ing way. We are super pleased, be­cause it has a very spe­cial sound and the arrange­ments of Dani López are very elab­o­rate, but the songs will be eas­ily recog­nised and I be­lieve that our fans will like them.

in­ter­view

The pirates who conquered YouTube

An important part of the success of El Pot Petit are their music videos, with animated elements, which triumph on YouTube: El lleó vergonyós and Els pirates, together have 13 millions views. But it is live when the strength of the group can be seen better. After three fully-booked theatres at the Kursaal in Manresa, the 10th anniversary show arrives on October 6 at the Auditori de Girona as part of the Temporada Alta festival. In November, it will get to Vic, Sant Cugat and Lleida, and in December it will be in Figueres, Reus and Barcelona (Poliorama Theatre).

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