HUECCO

New York Debut
http://www.huecco.es/video/video.asp

New Voices from Spain series
Saturday October 11, 2008 at 8:00pm
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11217
Tickets $20 and $25
www.bam.org

BAM Next Wave Festival is sponsored by Altria Group
Leadership support for the Next Wave Festival is provided by The Ford Foundation
Instituto Cervantes New York is the Presenting Sponsor for New Voices from Spain

Free post-concert performance by Rosalía in the BAM Café at 10pm

With a hit song that ignited a ringtone craze across his country, Spain’s genre-bashing sensation Huecco lands in NYC on October 11 for his American debut. As part of BAM’s New Voices from Spain series, kicked off last year with the New York debut of Afro-Spanish singer Buika, Huecco and his seven band members will unleash a full-throttle sound that drag races American rock and hip hop across all of Latin America.

True to the title of his latest album Assalto (Assault), available digitally in the U.S. through Warner Music Latina, the Madrid-based artist has launched a full-on sonic offensive, a musical maelstrom that absorbs some of the world’s most influential music. Rock, flamenco, hip-hop, Cuban son, samba carioca, Mexican ranchera, and French chanson are just some of the genres in the mix, launched with the kind of rapid-fire vocal fury that’s become Huecco’s trademark. In his BAM debut, the double platinum-selling artist delivers his unique confluence of American rock influences (Green Day, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Latin American and Spanish styles.

“There were a lot of challenges,” Huecco reveals about recording his latest CD. “There’s a lot of music from around the world that I wanted to pay homage to. But in the end I put everything through my own filter and I distort it and convert it into something personal. There’s always a rock essence and a flamenco touch that comes from my roots.” The singer/songwriter has wide-ranging interests beyond music that add to the mix. He speaks French, German, English and Portuguese and is a former competitive ice skater who also plays tennis and recently organized his own soccer team.

A former vocalist of 90’s hip-hop/metal fusion outfit Sugarless, Huecco (real name Ivahn Sevillano) branched out and embarked on a solo career with a new band just as he began to experiment with a boundless array of musical styles. Calling his unique blend of rock and Latin influences “rumbaton”, he came to tha attention of LA producer KC Porter (Ricky Martin, Santana) and found support from Warner Music Spain for the release of his self-titled debut in 2006. The record went Gold in Spain (40,000) and became a sensation when more than 250,000 ringtones of his hit single, the rumbaton "Pa' mi guerrera" (For My Woman Warrior), were downloaded.

For Assalto, he teamed up with producer Thom Russo (Juanes, Maná, System of a Down, Audioslave, Alejandro Sanz) to carry out his thoroughly elaborated vision: music bristling with sonic motion that defies the limits of saturation

Since the BAM concert comes on the heels of Huecco’s new album, concert-goers can expect to hear a kaleidoscopic range of songs from the new album. From “Reina de los angelotes” (Queen of the Angels), a fiery mix of rumba catalana and cumbia that Huecco calls “rumbia” to “Se me olvidó olvidarte” (I Forgot to Forget You), a Mexican ranchera spun on its head with punk bravado, Huecco will no doubt showcase his unrestrained eclecticism onstage. And there won’t be a shortage of powerful messages given his outspoken views on songs like “Se acabaron las lagrimas” (No More Tears) and “Creo (I Believe).” The latter is a hip-hop song written for his newborn daughter on which he raps with irony about all the things in the world he doesn’t believe in; the former a flamenco that folds into an alt- country-punk hybrid condemning violence against women. “It’s unacceptable that every year 80 women in my country should die at the hands of their partners, husbands, or ex-boyfriends,” Huecco says.

Whatever else Huecco decides to throw at the audience, one thing is certain: it will be unlike anything they’ve ever heard. Says the artist: “I’m always adding new colors.” www.huecco.es