M-Clan

M-Clan is a Spanish rock group. Its members are Carlos Tarque (voice) and Ricardo Ruipérez (guitar). On their last album they were accompanied by Iván González “Chapo” (bass), Coki Giménez (drums) and Prisco (guitar).

Former members of the group are: Santiago Campillo (guitar), who was part of M-Clan from its beginnings until the end of 2001, Juan Antonio Otero "Oti" (drums, original member, until 2010, died 2021), Pascual Saura (bass, original member, until 2010, died 2010) and Alejandro Climent "Boli" (keyboards, from Personal Defects until 2010), Carlos Raya (guitar) and Íñigo Uribe (original member, keyboards, two albums with the group), who was the first to leave the initial formation.

Some regular collaborators of the group are: Luis Prado (keyboards, leader of Señor Mostaza), Juan Carlos Armero (percussion), Mavi Díaz (backing vocals), Momo Cortés (backing vocals) and Prisco Priscus (guitar).

Biography

The group was created in Murcia (Spain) in March 1993, with Carlos Tarque, Santiago Campillo, Juan Antonio Otero, Pascual Saura and Íñigo Uribe as founding members. Later, Ricardo Ruipérez would be added. Both (Ricardo and Carlos) had met some time ago during mandatory military service and, later, together they formed Murciálagos, then Murciélagos Clan, which soon became M-Clan. They began offering concerts and recording some demos of which they released a mini vinyl released by Subterfuge, although they preferred to play live.

His style has evolved from the southern-influenced rock of his first two albums (Un bien momento and Coliseum) towards more commercial sounds., possibly since the release of the single "Llamando a la Tierra" (Spanish version of the song "Serenade" by Steve Miller Band) on his album Usar y Tira. The differences are notable throughout of his albums, coming closer to soul and blues in 2010 with Para no ver el fin through the use of metal wind.

In 1995 they signed a contract with the Dro record company, and as a result of this association they traveled to Memphis, USA, to record their first album, which would be titled A Good Moment and would go on sale that same year. However, this debut album did not achieve a high number of copies sold. Two years later their second work, Coliseum, would be published, which was not a success either. commercial, but on the other hand, and as had happened with its predecessor, it received very positive reviews. At this time they made two tours, in which they coincided with nationally and internationally recognized artists.

Later, Alejo Stivel became their producer for the next work, Usar y Tira, from 1999, and that led them to achieve greater popularity and a higher level of sales, as they exceeded 200,000 copies. Several songs from this third album, as well as from the previous two, and another eight unreleased songs appeared in their next publication, Sin Pluge, a live and acoustic recording. Among the new songs are "Carolina", one of the band's best known to the general public, and two versions of songs by Rod Stewart and The Rolling Stones (in particular, a version of what Los Salvajes did about the original by The Rolling Stones). The coexistence during the extensive tour derived from the success of this album caused, however, Santiago Campillo to be expelled from the band due to differences with his colleagues, according to the official version, but it has more edges, as stated by himself. Santiago.

His replacement was Carlos Raya, with whom they already recorded their fifth album, Personal Defects, which was not produced by Stivel but by Nigel Walker and which was published in 2002, two years before Cold Soup, album for which they recovered Stivel. In 2006 they released their first compilation, titled Retrovisión 1995-2006 and which includes two songs from Un Buen Moment, only one from Coliseum, three of Use and throw away, three of No plug, two of Personal defects, four of Cold soup i> and two unreleased songs, of which one became a single.

His eighth work, Memories of a Scarecrow, was published on February 19, 2008. The first single “Roto por interior” was extracted from it. In addition, they had already presented some of their songs, such as "Pasos de equilibrista", "Immigrante" or "The streets are burning", in the concerts of their last tour. It is the first album that Carlos Raya produces for M-Clan.

In 2010 they released a new album again, on September 21, titled Para no ver el final, produced by Carlos Raya, but this time with Carlos Tarque and Ricardo Ruipérez at the helm without the rest of the usual training. Pascual Saura had preferred to leave the group due to his health, prior to recording the album, and unfortunately died on December 16, 2010 of a heart attack. On this album, along with Tarque and Ruipérez are Coki Giménez as drummer and Iván González as bassist. His first single was "I'm going to let myself go", which was followed by "Para no ver el final", the title track of the album.

With a very similar formation they published their next work, Arenas Quickizas, on November 6, 2012, after a long tour that had taken them to South America and had ended in the spring of that same year. A few weeks after the release of this eighth studio album, they began a new tour to present the new songs - of which the first single was "Listen to my voice", released on October 9 -, whose style had a certain continuity with the sound of the predecessor album, being even somewhat more rocky.

In 2014 they announced a concert for June 7 of that same year that would be recorded on CD and DVD to mark their twentieth anniversary as a band. Due to the good reception from the fans, after selling out the tickets for the 7th, they announced a second date, on the 6th, which was also full. For both concerts, which took place at the Teatro Circo Price in Madrid, they had the collaboration of several guests of great importance in Spanish rock, as well as their friends: Fito Cabrales, Enrique Villarreal Armendariz "El Drogas", Miguel Ríos, Alejo Stivel, Ariel Rot, Guasones, Carlos Raya (producer and former member), Íñigo Uribe (first pianist of M Clan), Luis Prado (former member) and Enrique Bunbury. During the concert they played songs from almost all of their albums, including Coliseum (with "Maxi has returned" and "Where is the revolution") and excepting Arenas movizazas and Personal defects. Their record company later announced that the release of the album and DVD of said concerts would take place on September 30, 2014. They would later announce that a 20th Anniversary tour would take place in various cities. of Spain from the end of 2014 to 2015, with the special date being the concert at the Barclaycard Center in Madrid, for which all tickets were sold out. This concert would feature Price's live guests, in addition to Leiva (singer), Fructuoso "Fortu" Sánchez and Ovidi Tormo singer of Los Zigarros.

On July 22, 2016, they made it known through a new video clip, of the song 'La Esperanza', that their next work would be titled Delta and would go on sale on the 30th. September 2016. Likewise, they attached a list of concerts for a new tour of Spain starting in November 2016 to promote Delta, recorded in Nashville under the production of Brad Jones.. This album It was a change of direction in the Murcians' career as they immersed themselves in the roots of American music, highlighting country and folk rock in Delta.

Members

Carlos Tarque: voice (1992 - present)

Carlos González Tarque was born in Santiago de Chile (Chile), on September 16, 1969, known artistically as Carlos Tarque, is a singer and composer, leader and founding member of the group. He is considered the best voice in Spanish rock. In 2018 he made his first solo project called “Tarque” together with other musicians, releasing an album which entered the ranking of the best-selling albums in Spain.

Ricardo Ruipérez: guitars (1992 - present)

He was born on July 19, 1968 in Murcia (Spain). Musician, guitarist by profession and composer at heart. He has also taken advantage of M-Clan's break to stop being just the band's guitarist and embark on a solo adventure. Forging his own name with his own personal album, his vision of music is more as a composer than as an instrumentalist.

Former members

• Santi Campillo: solo guitar (1992 - 2001),
• Juan Antonio Otero, Oti (†2021): Battery (1992 - 2010),
• Pascual Saura (†2010): bass (1992 - 2010),
• Luis Prado: keyboards (1999 - 2004, 2014)
• Iñigo Uribe: keyboards (1992 - 1999),
• Alejandro Climent, Boli: keyboards (2004 - 2012),
• Carlos Raya: solo guitar (2001 - 2006).
• Coki Giménez: battery (2010 - 2016).

Collaborations in studio and live

• Prisco Priscus: solo guitar (2006 - present)
• Iván González: bass (2010 - present),
• Charly Bautista: piano, organ and percussion (2016 - present)
• Sergio Bernal: battery (2016 - present)

Discography

Study

• A good time. (1995)
• Coliseum (1997)
• Use and throw (1999)
• Personal defects (2002)
• Cold soup (2004)
• Memories of a scarecrow (2008)
• To not see the end (2010)
• Rapids (2012)
• Delta (2016)

Live

• No plug (2001)
• Two nights at the Price (2014)
• En Petit Committee (2022, acoustic)

Compilations

• Retrovision (2006, with two new topics).

Solo work

Carlos Tarque

Taking advantage of a break taken by the band, Carlos Tarque decides to start a hard rock solo project. With this solo project he published the album titled Tarque in 2018. For this album Carlos Tarque has counted on the guitarist and producer Carlos Raya (M-Clan, Fito & Fitipaldis, Quique González) on the composition of the 10 songs on the album. For the recording of this work he has also counted on the musicians Coki Gimenez on drums (M-Clan, Amaral) and Chapo González on bass (M-Clan, Deluxe, Amaral). With this new album Tarque enters the ranking of the best-selling albums in Spain during the week of October 5 to 11, 2018.

Ricardo Ruipérez

During the same break from M-Clan, Ricardo Ruipérez recorded a solo album produced by José Nortes and featuring the musicians Sergio Bernal (drums), Candy Caramelo (bass), José Nortes himself (guitar), Lluis Prado (keyboards), Txetxu Altube (vocals), Manu Clavijo (strings) and Miguel Malla (brass). Published in 2019, The Forest of Birds is an album composed entirely by Ricardo Ruipérez and influenced by American folk/rock.

Bibliography and references

• Lesende, Tito: Past imperfect: conversations with M-Clan