Lori Meyers

The Spanish indie music scene wouldn’t be the same without a band like Lori Meyers. Proof of this was the event held at Espacio Iberia, where they played some of their greatest hits. With their catchy choruses, Antonio López, a.k.a. Noni (singer), Alejandro Méndez (guitar) and Alfredo Núñez (drums) got the audience on their feet singing along to songs like Luces de neón, Alta fidelidad, Rumba en atmósfera cero, Siempre brilla el sol, Hacerte volar or Emborracharme. This was the day before their first summer performance at Noches del Botánico —an event in collaboration with Iberia—, where they will return on the 25^th of July alongside the band Vera Fauna. The host of this event, journalist Ángel Carmona, started by asking the audience who had tickets for those concerts, and the answer was a resounding yes. Because, despite their almost 30-year career, Lori Meyers still causes a sensation among fans who have grown up and matured to the rhythm of their songs.

As if it were a friends reunion, Lori Meyers and Carmona —who also accompanied them on the guitar— unravelled some of the secrets to the creative process behind their songs. The talk started with Paul McCartney, whose birthday it was that day —on the 18^th of June— and Alejandro started playing the first chords of Blackbird. Carmona joined in and Noni had to intervene, making the audience laugh: “The world of guitarists… What an obsession! They could spend 40 minutes like this.” He also took the chance to point out that he’s more of a Zombies fan. A few years ago, the former Beatle admitted that he was inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach’s Bourrée in E minor when writing Blackbird. Noni, however, did not remember anything similar in Lori Meyers’ history. The lead singer of this band did confess that many of their most famous songs were initially write-offs: “Many of our hits were the last songs to be added to the album. It’s funny how songs that you didn’t believe in as much end up becoming fan favourites.”

From left to right: Alejandro Méndez (guitar), Alfredo Núñez (percussion), Antonio López, a.k.a. Noni (singer) and Ángel Carmona (journalist).

“Let’s play; we’re better at it than talking,” Noni reminded us, and that’s how the first hit of the afternoon started: Luces de neón. When they finished playing it, Carmona asked Noni about the meaning behind the song, which he answered half in jest: “We’ve given thousands of different meanings to confuse people (laughs). This song, like most of them, is about unrequited love. Also, at the time, we used to go to a lot of clubs, like La Copera [an iconic club in Granada] and I loved neon lights.” Cronolánea (2008) was the third album by Lori Meyers, which made them rise to fame with songs like Luces de neón or Alta fidelidad, the next song they played at Espacio Iberia. In that moment, Carmona pulled up the opinion of the Internet on this song: “A reflection on the importance of seeking connection and authenticity in a world that often seems superficial.” An interpretation Noni accepted, admitting how his bandmates became his personal refuge: “ChatGPT is right! (laughs). That’s the story, indeed, and what happened to me with Alejandro and Alfredo. When crazy people get together, we seem less crazy.”

“We’re Andalusian and at home we’ve always had a Spanish guitar, so it’s important for us to be able to play our songs on that instrument alone”

Lori Meyers’ influences go from Spanish pop of the 1980s to American grunge of the 1990s, but throughout their career they have also looked to the flamenco of their homeland or Brazilian bossa nova. “My father loved Brazilian music, bossa nova specifically, and that led me to try different chords. I don’t think it’s at the core of how I play guitar, but it is a resource that’s always there,” Alejandro admitted. They’ve even played with rumba, like in the next song they performed: Rumba en atmósfera cero. A song that Noni owes to Sean Connery, who starred in Outland (whose Spanish title Atmósfera cero, inspired the name of this song) in 1981, a cult space Western. All the songs Lori Meyers went over at Espacio Iberia were in acoustic format, giving them a different sound: “When we play an acoustic set, we change the songs. We’re Andalusian and at home we’ve always had a Spanish guitar, so it’s important for us to be able to play our songs on that instrument alone. These are our roots and that’s how our songs are written, without computers or equipment. If you’re able to play a song on just a Spanish guitar, you’re a real musician.”

The audience at Espacio Iberia sang along to some of the greatest hits by Lori Meyers.

The next song to cheer up the audience was Siempre brilla el sol, something this song already did during the pandemic, as Alejandro reminds us: “It became a kind of source of optimism and grew a lot. I think it helped a lot of people.” The funny thing is, Noni remembers, it’s one of those hits that was almost left out: “It was going to be one of the songs that didn’t make the album because En la espiral (2017) is quite dark and it didn’t really fit. Some people don’t get that album because it has a more classic sound and not so many hits, but it was really necessary for us, we needed to get clear and turn over a new leaf. We write some albums more for ourselves than for the audience.” The emocore plucking at the beginning of Siempre brilla el sol, another influence admitted by Lori Meyers, was one of the defining moments of the afternoon, and the audience joined in clapping along to its luminous chorus.

At the end of the event, Lori Meyers thanked Iberia for the treatment received during their flight to Madrid, as well as congratulating them for initiatives like Espacio Iberia. “The best song we can play now is Hacerte volar,” announced Noni. The party came to an end with Lori Meyers’s classic hit, a song with 74 million streams on Spotify. Yes, we mean Emborracharme. “When we were recording Impronta (2013) —Noni reminisces—, we already knew that people would like it because we’re not secretive about our songs, we share them with mates to get their opinion. We knew it was a good song, but we musicians always have doubts because we don’t really choose the song, the audience does.” Proof of this doubt is the fact that it wasn’t even launched as the first single, Alejandro reminds us: “People put it in its place.” And Alfredo revealed the key: “It’s a song that invites you to get together and have a good time.” This is how Lori Meyers said goodbye to Espacio Iberia, with love and in good company.