The Daily Swarm

The first in The Daily Swarm’s new series of Q&As with the curators of the world’s best music festivals.

Fra Soler is a booker for Primavera Sound, a summer festival in Barcelona that has been quickly become one of the great music festivals in the world. The lineup this year is a testament to their diverse tastes and hard work: Neil Young, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus Lizard, Shellac, Ghostface Killah, Fucked Up, The Bad Plus, and dozens more. Fra is also the resident DJ and booker for Nitsa Club, one of the oldest electronic clubs in Barcelona, and widely regarded as one of the best in Europe.

Andrew Flanagan for The Daily Swarm: Were turntables your first instrument?

Fra Soler: I started to DJ 15 years ago and yes, turntables were my first instrument. Even if I produce music I still regard myself mainly as a DJ.

How did you transition from DJ to promoter and booker?

I’ve been always involved in music. I started working in distribution and DJ’ing, soon after I got involved in bookings. It was quite a natural process. I worked in a distribution company called So Dens. It was the first company to distribute the main electronic music labels in Spain.

What ties, if any, does the management of Primavera have to Nitsa, the club and label?

Some of the people involved in Primavera are also behind Nitsa Club and we share the same office so it’s kind of the same family. Nitsa as a label disappeared years ago. We did not have enough time to handle everything at that time. Maybe we’ll re-launch it some day.

When did Primavera start? How did it come about?

Primavera Sound started as a festival in 2000. We had used the name on a series of local band’s concerts we previously promoted and we thought it was a good idea to use it for the festival. At that time I was already working in bookings for Nitsa as we had been involved with Benicassim Festival, doing the Nitsa Stage there for some years. We just thought it was time to organize a diverse big music event in our city. We really liked the idea of picking all the bands on the lineup to create something we believe is special.

What’s your capacity as a booker for Primavera?

I mainly book the non-Spanish artists, as I have been dealing with foreign agencies for ages. The booking team is pretty democratic and we all suggest bands, discuss about the possible acts and get involved in the negotiations. The booking team consists basically of three people. Generally I deal with foreign agents. Abel Suarez deals more with Spanish agents and Gabi Ruiz, one of the directors, coordinates everything.

I started booking artists for Nitsa Club in Barcelona and the Nitsa Stage at Benicassim Festival [in the Costa del Azahar region in Spain, about 300km from Barcelona] at the same time. The boss thought I could do it since I could speak English and French and I had knowledge of the music scene. As I had never done it before I learnt to do the job just by doing it.

What was the Primavera stage at Benicassim like? Who played?

It was a huge dance tent. We booked artists like Fatboy Slim, Basement Jaxx, Moloko, Saint Etienne, Pizzicato Five, Goldie. Also dozens of DJ’s like Carl Craig, Dave Clarke, Andy Weatherall, Green Velvet…

When you launched Primavera, did you feel competition with Benicassim? Is there enough of a desire for events like this to share?

I don’t think so. Of course there are some bands that are suitable for both events, and we might “fight” to book them, but in general we have quite a different crowd. In several cases we both have agreed to share artists in both events.

Since you guys evolved from having a stage at Benicassim to running a “competing” festival, you probably know a lot of the people involved in Beni. There must be a little big brother/little brother dynamic going on there to some extent.

Not really. We have both managed to create our own space and I don’t think any of us is really too worried about what the other does. I believe we both respect each other.

Is there still an All Tomorrow’s Parties stage? Is there still a Vice stage? Pitchfork?

Yes to both. We have an excellent relationship with ATP and we share the same view on music and festivals so we see each other as brothers not competitors.

Does the festival operate in the red?

Primavera is financially healthy. I can’t talk for other European festivals, but we are definitely facing our best year. Ticket sales are the best ever so far.

Did you know you could get the financing from the beginning, or was that a major struggle?

We’ve always relied on private money. Of course it is not always easy, but we’ve managed to survive so far. Our main sponsor is Estrella Damm, the most popular beer in Catalonia. We have some other sponsors as well, and they all help us, but Primavera’s budget comes mainly from private money.

What’s the worst last-minute headache you’ve had to deal with?

In 2007 Smashing Pumpkins were cancelled 24h prior to their headline show. The problem had to do with the playing time and what they thought it was better for them compared to other headliners’ playing times. Finally we managed to solve it after endless phone conversations with their manager during the whole night. It was really exhausting.

Paul McCartney?

We haven’t really approached him to play Primavera. And I think there would be riots if he plays the auditorium, with such a small capacity… The bands we usually have there are acts with a very intimate sound, or which can work much better indoors. Only when a big act is already playing outdoors, on a bigger stage, we’ve occasionally offered them to do a second show at the auditorium. This was the case of Portishead last year or My Bloody Valentine this year.

What’s the next step? Any plans to branch out with another festival? I’m sure you have your hands full as it is.

We do not close any door. At this point we are focused on consolidating our event, but if the chance comes we’ll be more than happy to consider joint ventures. I think we want the same thing any other festival would want, which is to have a solid loyal crowd that believes in us and want to come to Primavera every year regardless of the line-up. We want the people to believe in us.