Melenas

Tell me what songs you make covers of, and I’ll tell you who you are. In 2021, Melenas shared a great and updated version of the classic ‘Eisbär’, the cult post punk hit from the Swiss band Grauzone. It is in similar parameters that the group from Pamplona moves, an all-girls band that plays with the repetitive rhythms of German krautrock and doesn’t avoid pop melodies sung in Spanish, in a way quite similar to the most experimental Spanish indie of the 90s.

Formed by Oihana (guitar and voice), Leire (bass), María (keyboard) and Lauri (drums), the group emerged around the Nébula bar, a place of rock resistance in Navarre that agglutinates the Pamplona scene, home of groups such as Exnovios and Kokoshca. Since they debuted with the self-titled album ‘Melenas’ in 2017, they have been evolving towards a more experimental sound, as shown in ‘Osa polar’ -the Grauzone’s version- and the newest songs that announce the arrival of their third album in 2023: ‘Bang’, ‘Dos pasajeros’ and ‘K2’, all getting closer to Neu!’s motorik and Kraftwerk’s synthesizers than to the garage-shoegaze style of their beginnings.

Along the way, Melenas have toured internationally and brought their music to festivals such as Primavera Sound, SXSW, Eurosonic and even the New York Fashion Week (where they performed for Ulla Johnson’s show). In addition, in 2021 they won the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards, an honor previously received by renowned artists such as Dua Lipa, Rosalía, Hinds, Fontaines D.C. and Boy Pablo, all big and renowned artists that show us how high is aiming this amazing quartet from Pamplona.