Interview to Carla Gimeno Grauwinkel, artista known as “Grauwi”, who belongs to the band The Crab Apples
She is a singer and songwriter from the band The Crab Apples. After 10 years of being in the music industry, she continues to work with the same desire in new projects. The lingering charisma of the youthful band just got their new single out “I don’t care” in which she claims: “music is a long distance career.” Nowadays, the artist longs for the previous moments before going on stage with her band.
Do you remember which was the first song you wrote? How did the inspiration come to you?
I think that the very first song I wrote was when I was ten years old and I had guitar lessons. It probably had two chords and a simple melody, but I remember that I was very proud and my teacher encouraged me to keep writing. I believe the song was about my grandmother, then I spent some time without playing any song. It was in high school when we started shaping The Crab Apples when I started writing again next to Laia Alsina, our guitarist. I don’t remember the title of the first song we wrote, but I do remember that it said ‘I love you’ several times. By the time, I was inspired by what I see in films or read in books. The main theme used to be love. I was pretty cheesy at the time.
How did the project The Crab Apples was born? Why did you choose that name?
The crab Apples was actually born in the high school yard. I found out that in the town’s music school, Da Capo, there was the option of creating musical combos. It was then when I talked to Laia Alsina (because I knew she played the guitar) and a couple of girls and I proposed to them to form a band. Later on, Laia Martí and finally Mauro were added to it. The name came from an English book glossary. We knew that we had to name the band because we were getting our first gigs. So, we took the English class book and chose the name we liked the most. The Crab Apples sounded like The Cranberries so we thought it was perfect.
In 2014, you presented the album Right Here, how was the process? What did you feel the first time you got on stage to sing it?
Being able to get a first album out was an amazing experience. I remember those times dearly because we were overly excited and we couldn’t believe that we were going to get an album out. By that time, it seemed like it was from a movie. Besides, we were surrounded by supportive people who accompanied us since we first started playing. The truth is that the opportunity of putting out an album in that moment made us strong as a band and made us be serious and professional about the project. We also learnt a lot about the industry and music sector when the album got out. It wasn’t all good and pretty. The debut concert on the Apolo Hall I think I will never forget it. All of our friends, and families were there. It was very special.
Your new single “I don’t care” and its chorus vindicates “the things I can’t change right now do not scare me” what did you want to transmit to people with the creation of this song? (Bewilderment, experiences of the past, etc)
In summary, what we wanted to say with this song is that this, music, is a long distance career. We’ve been in The Crab Apples for ten years and is not easy, you find yourself in hard situations. There are times where it seems that no one wants you there, that you don’t fit in, but, despite all that, we’re still here because we believe and love music. Music is what makes us happy everything else is irrelevant.
Do you have any ritual or custom before going out to play?
We hug each other very tightly. To be honest, I miss those hugs a lot.
What sacrifices do you have to do in order to make music? In this time of crisis that we currently live, can you make a living from music alone?
In any moment, we haven’t been able to live from music alone. Before this crisis, this business was already a precarious sector. Now, evidently, that has worsened and we see many people that live from music alone that literally fights to survive. It is really sad that culture is this mistreated and belittled in our country. I hope that changes soon, because right now is creating a wound that will surely leave a scar for a long time. In our case, we have other jobs and we manage as we can, but of course, these are jobs that are also related with culture or events and we have been through lots of “ERTES”.
Do you prefer going solo or share the stage with the rest of the group?
I’ve been song writing, playing live and spending lots of hours with Mauro and the Laias the last ten years. In this moment, The Crab Apple is my life project and I love it, madly. Precisely thanks to this project, I have developed some restlessness in music that had led me to collaborate with other artist and even get solo songs as Grauwi. So far, in my project as Grauwi I haven’t done a lot of concerts, so I don’t know what do I prefer. I think both experiences are very different and, in any case, they can enrich each other. The more musical experiences I go through, the better my projects will be. At least, that’s how I see it.
Ultimately, tell me with whom would you like to collaborate in the future?
With The Crab Apples, we always say that we would love to work with HAIM and Bilderbuch. With Grauwi, my personal project I would love to collaborate with Maggie Rogers. She is my currently favourite.
