Javier Herrero
Madrid, March 4. Thirteen years after the end of La Quinta Estación, which at the beginning of the new century triumphed with pop-rock songs with Mexican airs like “El mundo se equivoca” or “Tu peor error”, the nostalgic wave inherited from the pandemic seems the having encouraged to revive his sound and, with him, also the controversy that marked his career.
The trigger this time was the appearance of a new formation under the name of Cinco Estaciones which has the Argentinian Karito Volpe as singer and two of the former members of the original group, Pablo Domínguez and Sven Martin, eager to rediscover “the spirit of those days”.
“We believe there is a void that has not been filled in recent years and that it was time to return to it”, they explained to EFE after the recent release of a first single, “Why I insist on loving you,” with plans to release her debut album in the fall and offer “a few gigs” this year.
THE ORIGIN OF THE CONFLICT
Born in 2000 in Madrid as a sextet, only Martin (guitar) and Domínguez (bass) remained at La Quinta Estación before signing Natalia Jiménez (vocals) and Ángel Reyero (guitar) and obtaining a contract with a multinational in Mexico which made possible their first recording, “Primera toma” (2002), which included the song which gives its name to the new formation, “Cinco estaciones”.
Only a year later, the first ceased to belong to the group and the musical direction changed with their second album, the most successful “Flores de alquiler” (2004). “I did not leave the group, they invited me to leave”, he specifies between two laughs, before exonerating his former teammates from this decision: “We were very young and we were managed.”
Domínguez confirms this, sitting next to him: “We didn’t know how to handle things. His departure, of which I was a part, was very unfair and should never have happened.”
The bassist also did not reach the last days of La Quinta Estación. He left in 2008, when the group experienced commercial success and collected awards such as the Latin Grammy for best vocal album for their third album, “El mundo equivoca” (2006).
With Jiménez and Reyero alone in front, a final studio album was released, “Sin frenos” (2010), with which they won a Grammy for Best Latin Album, after which the band’s future was put on hold.
Shortly before, Martin had filed a lawsuit against the two for use of the La Quinta Estación trademark, which he had registered in his name, but lost the suit.
WILL WE REVIEW?
“Will we meet again?” With these simple words, a few years ago, Martin and Domínguez decided to resume the relationship and the reason that originally united them.
“I was missing something vitally, the poison of music, and over the years it got worse,” says the guitarist. “I’m not here for the money, but for the passion, to get back on stage, which I love,” he says.
It needed someone who could fill the stage with their voice and presence. After a search that took them through Spain and Mexico, they found in Argentina Karito Volpe, hardened to rock and the “underground” of his country.
“There was absolute chemistry. On my birthday they wrote to me to offer me this and it saved me, because rowing against the tide is hard and I wanted to stop the music. I say that the train passed and I got on it,” says the artist. .
After about a year together, they claim to have songs for two albums thanks to a compositional dynamic in which Domínguez leads the baton, but to which everyone contributes. “Being a family,” they emphasize, is the premise.
NEW MEETING
Before promoting Cinco Estaciones, says the bassist who has contacted his former colleagues several times to ask them about the return of La Quinta Estación, the last in the midst of a pandemic, “but the answers have always been negative”.
To pave the way for his new musical adventure, he wrote a letter to Natalia Jiménez: “I basically told her that I was doing this with Sven with all the love in the world and that I would love it if we didn’t fight anyway, that we just wanted to bring people the music that once made us so happy.”
There was no personal response, but there was a public one from the singer on her networks, in which she showed a document from the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office which she says , proves that Martin and Domínguez had recently requested the expiration of the ownership of the name The Fifth Station in a new attempt to seize him. ECE
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