Madrid's Baywaves debut lustrous psych-pop cut "Marsupilami"

"'Marsupilami' talks about how two lives connect, in an undetermined moment in time,” band members Fran Bassi and Marco Lobera tell me, “and how the bond helps them transcend the daily roles and masks that they wear."

Baywaves were formed by frontman David Alonso and drummer Lobera who came together with fellow Spaniard Carlos Sevilla (guitars/synths) and Argentina-born Bassi (bass) after encouraging feedback to their first demos. Based out of Madrid, they call their sound "hipnopop": "catchy pop with a dreamy, moody skin."

"Growing up in a decontextualized, internet-dominated, environment, where we could shift from one song to another without restrains or prejudices [means] our references are pretty wide," say Bassi and Lobera.

"We have been seeing really young and cool bands...emerging from the underground who don't share a common genre but do share values, influences and views on what having a band is."

How do they feel about the Madrid 'scene' we’re finding out so much about in the UK right now - with bands like Lois, The Parrots and Hinds breaking through? “There wasn’t a sense of scene until a couple of years ago: bands were typically older than us and were approaching music in a way that didn’t fit at all with our generational view," say Bassi and Lobera.

It’s this nascent scene that compelled the members of Baywaves to form the 'Suave' collective: "Lately, we have been seeing really young and cool bands with their members all born post-1990 emerging from the underground, who don't share a common genre but do share values, influences and views on what having a band is. You can see there’s a scene bubbling here and cool bands will start to break out soon, it’s exciting.”

“The collective has the goal to help these kinds of bands to emerge,” Bassi and Lobera say.

Working with King Gizzard man Joe Walker has been crucial to "Marsupilami", they tell me. "[He] really captured that dynamic vibe we wanted. It flows from one part to another, like you’re being driven ‘til the end, with layers appearing and vanishing."

The band are signed to Barcelona based Foehn for an upcoming EP (titled Only For Uz) and will follow it with a 15-date tour of Spain. An appearance at Primavera is also booked and they head to the UK for a 30 March show at London's Shacklewell Arms. They have fun playing live despite the social and linguistic challenges: “It’s a curious thing,” they tell me, "...we have to deal with our shyness while trying to build the right environment for the songs. We’ve always focused in live sets and tried to conceive them as a whole.

"We enjoy playing with dynamics, surprising ends, cool rhythms and using tricks like talking with public through the Google Translate voice to overcome the shyness!”