Our person of the month, Joan Roig “Barbé”, was born in Ibiza in 1984 and started out in the world of music at the age of six, joining the Escuela del Patronato Municipal de Música de Ibiza, where he took courses in music theory and harmony. From the age of 9 he participated as a percussionist with the Ciutat d’Eivissa Symphony Band, the Ciutat d’Eivissa Symphony Orchestra and the chamber group conducted by Adolfo Villalonga, Eivissa Ensemble 2000. A track record that has earned him the title of “the child prodigy of Ibizan music”. The now producer, composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist, since he plays guitar, bass and drums, began to play these instruments in a self-taught way with several local artists, becoming a familiar face in various bands on the island or abroad from the age of 13. His guitars have accompanied numerous local artists, but also well-known names such as Kim Mazelle, Eddie C., Amar Sundy (BB King), Ángel Rubio (Black Market), Gaby Jogeix, Los Reyes del KO, Nalaya Brown, Mico Weavers (Prince), Norberto Rodríguez (Juan Perro) and Jordi Clua (Serrat), among others.
“If people call me the child prodigy of Ibizan music it’s either because they like me a lot or don’t know much about music,” says a musician who is also the son, nephew and grandson of true music lovers. Nevertheless, Joan tells us that his love for music “is inexplicable”. There was always music in his house, “my grandparents played the accordion, my father has played the keyboard all his life and my uncle, Toniet Barbé, played several instruments and had a small recording studio, but they all did it as a hobby”. “In my case it is a real passion, otherwise I wouldn’t have done half the things I’ve done,” he says.
“My uncle Toniet Barbé had a recording studio and had a lot of contact with the great musicians of his time. I used to love going to his house and spending an entire weekend playing in that studio. He let me do whatever I wanted and for me it was like an amusement park: I spent hours playing and having fun on drums, guitars, keyboards, microphones and mixing boards. It was there where I realized that I wanted to make music”, he sums up half shyly and half passionately. Barbé talks fervently about his family, to which he is very grateful because, he affirms, “they are the ones who are really responsible for the fact that this six-year-old discovered the artist he had inside and woke him up; in fact, my parents were the ones who told me: go for it and do it the best you can”.
Joan Barbé describes himself as a simple, home-loving, humble boy and speaks of talent as something we all have inside us, “I believe that talent emerges from all of us, we all have it, the difficult thing is to channel it and discover how to focus it. There are many people who have a special talent in many things and are not fortunate enough to work on it; I’ve had the great luck to devote myself to what I love most and I’m well aware that this makes me very privileged,” he says.
Drummer, guitarist, vocalist, producer, composer… when we talk about the many facets he hides, he answers us with the saying “a jack of all trades and master of none, that’s me”; a statement that is not really applicable to an artist who at the age of 12 already had his own music group, with whom he played in orchestras and who played in jazz festivals at the age of 15.
A self-taught musician, who has “had the good fortune” to devote himself professionally to many instruments such as drums, bass, keyboard and guitar, but who has also been “compelled and delighted” to learn from other instruments such as the “ukulele, accordion and mandolin”. If he had to choose, he would say that he is “equally in love with his guitar and his faithful drums with which he began to play”.
Over time, and without detaching himself from his art as a musician, he has also discovered a new facet of the world of music with which he feels very comfortable, “I’ve realised that I love to see music from the outside and in a global way”. Thus, he acknowledges, “I feel passionate about music production as it is the most comprehensive task and brings together everything I like about music”. “Being able to take an album, an artist or a song and see it from the widest perspective of music is what most fulfils me,” he continues.
When we ask him about his favourite song, he answers immediately and with great emotion that it is Ànim, “a song David Serra and I composed for Projecte Mut, especially for the Festi Bosc festival, which we organised with the help of many people”. The song was dedicated to the wildfires in Morna in 2011, “and just one day before the festival, my uncle Toniet died”. “I remember that moment perfectly; playing that song at the festival was the hardest and most moving thing I’ve ever done on stage,” he recalls.
Joan Barbé is also a lover of Ibizan lyrics and traditions, something that surprises his audience when he goes on tour outside the island: “people ask me if I play electronic or house and it’s difficult to fight against such deep-rooted stereotypes”. “Perhaps we should be the ones to show that there is other music on the island of increasingly high quality, beyond the nightclub and disco scene, and that it is also part of the island’s culture,” he says.
Joan Barbé has been and continues to be a member of Ibiza’s most iconic bands such as Statuas de Sal, Ressonadors, Projecte Mut, Canallas del Guateke and Joven Dolores. “All the bands I’ve belonged to in the past or belong to now contain a small part of me and my band mates and, in the same way, I contain a small part of each of them”, he sums up. “Statuas de Sal was the first serious group I had the chance to join, which was a great pride to me, because I was a fan myself, and I played with them for many years,” he recalls. In Statuas de Sal Joan Barbé met Omar Gisbert, with whom he set up his own production company, Magrana Estudios, and with whom he formed Ressonnadors. “I also met David Serra there, who proposed setting up Projecte Mut and with whom I am now touring and playing with Joven Dolores, so my present trajectory started with them when I was just 18 years old,” he says. “There are many well-known names, such as Iván Doménech, who backed me from the beginning, and with whom I continue to play with Canallas del Guateke, a group of friends who get together to play and have fun without any other aspirations, which I think is very healthy,” he says.
When we ask him about Ibiza, he talks about it with pride and points out that “our island has a tremendous and worldwide influence. We are proud to travel the world bearing the name of Ibiza, but we also feel the responsibility of Ibiza being able to say that it bears our name. I believe all of us -musicians, politicians or businessmen- must strive every day to keep up the good name of Ibiza and preserve it at all costs”, he concludes.
We say goodbye with a tip from his people: “the best gig is always yet to come”, and with this song, with which we illustrate this video: “Tocarte”, from his latest venture, Joven Dolores.