We’re doubling down this week with two single premieres back to back and today we’re putting our spotlight on Tú La Llevas. This trio is self proclaimed as “Mediterranean Indie trash from Hamburg, Germany”. Tú La Llevas Is Spanish for "you got it" and the single we’re premiering for them today is “Dulce y Azul” which means “sweet and blue”.

Not Just A Phase is always honored to be debuting new music and interviewing bands from all over the globe, but this debut is special to me personally because my Opa was born in Hamburg, and even though he never liked any of the music I listen to, I know he’d still get a kick out of the fact that I’m writing about a band that’s located where he was born.

Now the members of this band may be based in Hamburg currently but they all come from different areas of the Mediterranean, specifically Spain, Greece and Italy. The trio of Tú La Llevas started jamming together around 2017, they were heavily influenced by bands like the Broken Social Scene, Mascis, Wipers and Beach Slang. Despite their influences being much more on the softer side of the alternative spectrum, all of their members have been active in various other bands in the punk & DIY scenes. Their drummer Chris previously lived in Berlin and played for a band there with members from Milemarker &  Syn Error called Big Eater. Their bassist Nicola also used to play in a crust band called Nagasaki Nightmare and currently plays in a post punk band called Fun Total.

Through various interviews that were (mostly) conducted with their bassist Nicola through email and Instagram messaging, I was able to learn a little more about the band’s history and their upcoming plans for their first self titled LP that will be releasing on vinyl through My Ruin coming out this month on October 18th.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE WRITING PROCESS FOR THIS S/T LP?

“Some songs are improvisations which have been slightly modified to fit in a more standard song structure, others are already existing snippets which were then further developed in the rehearsal room. There are some songs that were completely written by our guitarist & vocalist Antonio before the rest of us added on to compliment the song with our instruments, then the lyrics come at the very end. Antonio is like Doug Martsch, he hates writing lyrics.”

HOW WAS THE ALBUM RECORDED?

“We booked a weekend with Yannig Malry at Off Ya Tree studio in Hamburg. Nicola had already previously recorded an album with Yannig in his other band Fun Total and had a great time. It was our first time recording together in a proper studio so we were pretty excited and in the end it was a ‘getting to know each other under some relative pressure experience’. We recorded our music by the three of us playing live in the same room recording on a multi track, the idea behind that was to have a more organic feeling while playing the songs. Then we added the vocal tracks and some overdubs here and there. Only one song was recorded recording each instrument separately, up to you to guess which one.”

“THE RECORDED SONGS SOUND AMAZING, IT DEFINITELY TOOK LONGER THAN WE MIGHT HAVE IMAGINED TO GET OURSELVES TOGETHER AND FINALLY BOOK SOME STUDIO TIME, BUT HAVING THEM NOW FINALLY PRINTED ON VINYL INDELIBLY IS A GREAT FEELING. IF PEOPLE THEN LISTEN TO THE SONGS ON THE ALBUM AND SING ALONG OR HAVE A SMILE BY THE END OF IT, THAT WOULD BE THE BEST OUTCOME EVER”.

- NICOLA @TÚ LA LLEVAS

The vinyl is already up for preorder either through their email here at tulallevas.music@gmail.com or you can get it from the great Rosi and his label My Ruin from Dortmund. Germany. “He’s been supporting us with this release and having a lot of patience answering our thousands of redundant questions. Check out his label cause all his releases are a banger!”

ANY SHOWS OR TOURS PLANNED FOR THIS RELEASE?

“We want to share our music with as many people as we can. We'll be playing a couple of weekends around Germany at the end of the year and are planning on organizing more weekends around Germany and doing some shows in Italy, Spain & Greece for 2025.  We want to play as much as possible while still being able to balance our day jobs and families.”

ANY CLOSING WORDS?

“No. Not really hahaha thanks to you Rob for giving us some space on your blog”.

While we all eagerly anticipate their upcoming self titled album of “Mediterranean Indie trash” and all the jams that will come with it, please go follow the band on their Instagram and bandcamp to keep up to date with what they’re up to and check out their second single off the album we’re debuting below titled “Dulce y Azul”.