This past Friday, we headed to the Blues Habana Tavern to share a vermouth with Diego Meléndez Gómez, a Málaga-born artist who has called Zaragoza home for the past decade. This young musical talent left Málaga at just eighteen years old. A devoted fan of Aragonese bands like Héroes Del
This past Friday, we headed to the Blues Habana Tavern to share a vermouth with Diego Meléndez Gómez, a Málaga-born artist who has called Zaragoza home for the past decade. This young musical talent left Málaga at just eighteen years old. A devoted fan of Aragonese bands like Héroes Del Silencio, Las Novias, Los Niños Del Brasil, Distrito 14, and Más Birras — and with street performances becoming increasingly restricted in Málaga at the time, with “not many venues where I could play either” — our Andalusian singer-songwriter decided to try his luck in the Aragonese capital, where he says he “felt welcomed from the very first moment.”
One of Diego’s goals was to organise open-mic events in Zaragoza, where both up-and-coming and more experienced musicians could take the stage, perform their songs and share them with the audience. “The beautiful thing is watching people improve. Someone who shows up nervous on their first night, knocking back a shot at the bar before going on, and then a few years later you see them totally at ease up there.”
Things went well — “we had up to seven open-mic nights a week at one point” — but the pandemic took its toll on the music industry, especially for an event where microphones and instruments are shared. “At the beginning, when things were still pretty tense, we’d put a sort of cap — like a condom — over the microphone.” “Luckily,” he says, “I had registered as self-employed before the pandemic started, and that’s what kept me going. I had to reinvent myself. During the pandemic I landed a job doing online beer tastings, where I’d play live through a webcam.” They even managed to host an online open-mic, with more than fifty participants joining in from Japan, Ireland, Germany, the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
After the storm, the sun seems to be coming out. Just a few months ago, Diego Meléndez released his debut album, La Revancha Del Insomnio, with the band Diario Fantasma — made up of Ángel Herrera on drums, David Colás on guitar, Jaime Zuasti on bass, Daniel Martínez on guitar, and Diego himself on vocals and guitar. The album revisits songs written more than a decade ago, with lyrics penned by his brother Guillermo Meléndez. “These days everyone releases singles, but this project needed to be done this way.”
The band is already working on their second album, El Abanico Mágico. “This time,” he says, “I’ve leaned towards more rootsy sounds — flamenco, tango… I want to do things differently, something more conceptual.” What’s clear is that if the first album already sounds spectacular, we can only expect great things from this one. And if you’re still on the fence, mark your calendar — on the 24th of June, at Sala Lopez in Zaragoza, Diario Fantasma will be giving the official launch performance of La Revancha del Insomnio. Don’t miss it.
