Mourn’s Jazz Rodríguez Bueno and Carla Pérez Vas like to laugh. With a name like Mourn, this might be surprising—if you’ve heard the ferocity of their debut self-titled LP, even moreso. But throughout our call that bridges the Atlantic Ocean, the women laugh often, taking joy not only in discussing their musical craft, but in the simple task of being interviewed, and in their occasional struggle to adequately express themselves in English. Releasing your debut album only happens once, and it is refreshing to hear Mourn enjoying themselves.
Maybe it is the joy of youth or some similarly silly concept that makes them so giddy. Rodriguez Bueno and Pérez Vas are a mere 18 years of age, a fact that will be much talked about as more and more people hear their band (Captured Tracks’ release of their first record is occurring properly in February, though the whole thing is currently available on Spotify and iTunes). And the topic of age comes up often in conversation. “Here, if you are under 18, you have to go to shows with your parents,” Rodriguez Bueno says, speaking both about performing and simply being a music fan in their native country of Spain. “We think this is awful. For example, in Madrid, if you are under 18, you can’t enter any show without your parents. It’s not good. We’d love to have more of an audience at our shows that were closer to our age.”
The pair appropriately met in school, in El Maresme, Catalonia, Spain, a village outside of Barcelona. In discussing their decision to form a band, the women complete each other’s sentences, often saying the same things simultaneously. It is the type of synchronicity that only comes from spending a lot of time with someone else, and a connection that can be felt in the core of Mourn’s music, the pair’s driving guitars and vocal harmonies completing each other in the same way they tell their band’s story.
“It was in preparation for university here,” Rodriguez Bueno says of their high school, “and it was oriented to drawing and stuff like that. It was kind of boring. So we started thinking about making songs and writing lyrics in class. We were very bored, so we thought ‘let’s do something with our time.’ It was better than listening to these men talking about…”
“Shit,” says Pérez Vas, chiming in.
“Yeah, shit.” agrees Rodriguez Bueno.
With an attitude like this, and a song called “Boys Are Cunts” in their repertoire, it may come as a surprise that Mourn is not an all female act. However, their decision to add a male drummer doesn’t seem to be a particular statement, but simply an organic process.
“When Jazz and I first met, we started playing together with no idea of doing a band,” Pérez Vas says. “Soon we were writing songs that we thought would sound cool with a band, with a drummer.”
“I knew a guy in town called Antonio [Postius],” Rodriguez Bueno says. “I’d known him since I was 12 and he had always played drums like a boss. I’d always wanted to make a band with him, but I didn’t think I was at the same level. But once I started playing with Carla and improving, I thought ‘Antonio might like to make a band with us now,’ and I asked him, and he said yes.”