Solex – Wallstreet Yuppie
label: Alehop!
year: 1995
side a: Wallstreet Yuppie
side b1: The House of Hulk
side b2: La Cosa Esa
www.myspace.com/lassolex
Solex – Solex
label: Alehop!
year: 1998
side a1: La Triste
side a2: Sans Issue
side b1: Expresso
side b2: Bond
I was in a band for a couple of minutes. Solex (to avoid confusion with the Dutch band of the same name we added “Las” to the name even though we were obviously not an all-girl group) were already a band, then I came along and they asked me to join them, even though they had never heard me “sing”. We did a few gigs but after the second or third one the drummer, the bassist and I got into an argument that ended with me leaving before we recorded the single we were going to.
Then one night I stumbled into the El Sol venue where I met the bassist at the bar. A month had passed and we had both forgotten about the whole thing, because it had been a stupid argument to begin with. That, and the fact that I was high on LSD and Olaf was very drunk led to him asking me to join them, and me accepting, for the recording of the single, which would take place the next morning in a studio in Villaviciosa with a guy named Tele as the engineer. Tele used to be the drummer of Triana, a band from the seventies that was famous for mixing progressive rock with flamenco.
So the next day, or actually a few hours after that meeting I found myself still half tripping in this tiny studio with a member of a once pretty famous band telling me there was no way we could record the vocals and the band all at once. I felt very uncomfortable singing on my own over the already recorded track. Hearing my voice on the headphones while realising it was pretty mediocre, the hangover kicking in, it was all a bit much.
But we did the recording and a couple of weeks after that Alehop! released the 7-inch. We were going to do the presentation at the Siroco, but again I had fallen out with Olaf (I think) so they did it as a trio. There was no reconciliation this time, or at least I didn’t rejoin the group, so the “Wallstreet Yuppie” (the lyrics are about Patrick Bateman – I was a bit obsessed with American Psycho at the time) 45 is my 5 minutes of fame. It got a nice review in Flipside I was pretty proud of, and that was that.
Solex continued to play and record. Guitarist Balma took over vocal duties and they became a fourpiece again when Juan the trumpeter (Guiller Momonje‘s brother – see here, here and here) joined them. They split up earlier this year. Drummer Eva (who became the second guitarist after they decided they no longer needed drums) and bassist Olaf still play together in Los Caballos de Düsseldorf and Balma is now in Ponyplay. As for me, well, I don’t think the world needs my singing anymore so I won’t, except for when I’m in the shower.