Juanma Medina (The Tragic Company)

Dec 23rd, 2009 | By The Arcade | Category: Musicians Profiles

Name: Juanma Medina

Country: Spain

Age: 29

Education: Communication/Journalism/Tourism

Occupation: Singer/Producer

When did you initially start playing/producing?

I got my college degree in communication and journalism in february 2009. Before that I was living and working in South Hampton for the summer of 2001, where I got a minor tourism degree and recorded a couple of albums with my former band, Naufragos del Tiempo. I’m working as a producer at the moment. I have done several jobs for rappers, metal, pop and rock bands. Just starting, but will get better, hopefully. I also have my own project: The Tragic Company. I try my best at singing, playing and writing tunes. We will have our debut album released shortly.
I started playing my guitar back in 95 or so… when an album called (What’s the story) Morning glory? by Oasis opened my mind. Before that, my father always played good music at home: The Beatles, Led Zep, John Lennon, Alan Parson Project, Mike Oldfield and many other great oldies.
When I finished high school, I started my first band: Náufragos del Tiempo, which lasted 9 years. I met my good friend Guillermo there, now member of the Trikelians. Recorded two albums and toured all along Spain for some time. Things didn’t turn out very well, but I met many people from the music world and gained good experience playing live. I left the band in october 2008 and formed The Tragic Company. Initially and during the last couple of years in Náufragos I had already written some new stuff in English. Rockier, heavier… nothing to do with the music we used to play, so it was the moment for it. Frasco joined me and pretty soon came Andrés and Kero. This year has been great. I probably have achieved more in this short time than with my previous band in much longer.

Where do you draw your inspiration from?

My inspiration comes mainly from bands of the UK, but I also have been listening to a lot of american stuff, even hard rock and country lately. I love a lot of classic pop and rock. Bands such as The Beatles, Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Stones, The Who, Deep Purple… and more modern artists like Paul Weller or Bryan Adams. I also listen to The Black Crowes, Stereophonics, Oasis, Travis, the early Coldplay… anyway, I feel I’m very open-minded and would be able to recognize quality in any kind of music although it’s not what I usually listen to.
I like the way Pete Townshend writes music for The Who and the way he plays the guitar. He took the rythmn guitar to another level. He’s been a great influence to me when I wrote the mini-rock opera for TTC new album. When I started writing music for TTC and recorded all the instruments myself, I tried to be some kind of Mike Oldfield… only tried. Those demos are still somewhere and made me climb to the TOP10 of demos in Mondosonoro when I still hadn’t put the band together.

What are you future ambitions?

When I started my first band, I always wanted to play at Madison Square Garden, record my own MTV UNplugged and things like that. But when you’re young, you feel you have no limits and everything is fine. Now, at almost 29, I have my feet on the ground and hope the band just brings enough money to get by. We do some gigs, sell some albums and have a good time. You don’t know what could happen in the future, but big expectations are far behind now. We won the 40 Principales Costa Pop contest, which was totally unexpected and we will be recording an EP anytime soon, with some good radio and media promo, but I’m focusing too in developing myself as a good producer / recording artist and try to make a career of this. Keep on working with more and more artists and bands who have already established a good reputation.