The Obelisk Questionnaire: Mario “Pitu” Hospital of Grey Giant
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Mario “Pitu” Hospital of Grey Giant
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
It’s a fantasy I never dreamed of because even though I’ve been listening to rock and metal since I was five or six years old, I never had any intention of making songs or starting a band. When I had my first guitar, I was about 20 years old and until I was 30 I competed in soccer teams and the only musical intention was to play those riffs or little licks that I liked, not even whole songs, until by chance we got together every other day from a mutual friend the guitarists of my group and a couple of other friends to try to play something together, and little by little we were doing some versions until we began to create our own songs and after some line-up changes and without finding a vocalist who It didn’t fit us, I ended up performing that role myself so I could get in to record and play concerts, so if I never thought about playing in a band, being also the singer was something I thought was impossible to happen.
Describe your first musical memory.
I have two brothers who are five and 10 years older than me and they also listen to heavy music, so growing up surrounded by music and posters I remember listening secretly and being very careful not to spoil some recurring cassettes from bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Whitesnake and Spanish bands like Barón Rojo or Barricada, but the greatest memory that struck me as a child was the video clip on TV of Maiden’s Can I Play With Madness with those dark passageways in which Eddie himself appeared, hanging from the walls of my room and that it scared me because I had the feeling that he was watching me, but since then I knew that being heavy was much cooler than the rest of the music that was on TV.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
It was this summer when I shared a concert in my city and next to my neighborhood with Valley Of The Sun, which is one of the bands I like the most today. I still consider myself more of a fan than a musician, so it’s amazing to meet people you admire in this way, who see your concert, tell you they enjoyed it and stay for a few beers and shots with you, I don’t know, the big bands now they sell VIP tickets for a lot of money and they take a quick photo with each fan, and they let us play with them. As soon as I saw that they were coming to Rock Beer The New in Santander to play, I told the rest of the band that I was going to get Grey Giant to play at that concert. It was simple because they are very good people.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I love traveling and getting to know different places, cultures and people, but every time I come back home, I realize that Cantabria is the best place to live that I know. It’s a very small region, but they say it’s infinite, in the north of Spain, but we have everything very close, from the many paradisiacal beaches to the Picos De Europa National Park there is less than an hour by car, also old towns, great gastronomy, modern museums… (Yes, sorry for the spam, but if you visit Cantabria you will thank me).
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
It leads us to spend more time composing. The songs are always open until we enter the recording studio, but after releasing “Turn To Stone”, I think that this progression is translating into that as artists we want the next thing we release to have other compositional formulas even though we keep our style and stoner sound.
How do you define success?
Success is a word that is used to sell self-help books to people who, despite reading them, are not going to have the success they claim, but who are going to get the people who write them to finally have it (or not).
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Going by my school and seeing that the playground is empty outside of school hours. When I was a child that was impossible because we were always on the street, today children have their parents attached to them until they are teenagers. I think that all the freedom we had as children to interact and learn with each other, today has been transformed into fear, overprotection and extracurricular classes.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I would like to organize a small rock festival with bands from our area and some from another region. I just found out about a good place in the open air, with green meadows and a swimming pool to do it, and if possible, this summer it could come true.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
I think that creating emotions can encompass the many and different feelings that art can generate, and that would be its main essence, but I want to think that in addition to that, art makes people have a more formed and own opinion of things. Today we are too influenced by political propaganda, commercial advertising, the big media, social networks… that is why I consider it important to develop a personality and culture around art that is not influenced more and more by all those toxic agents.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
I want to get back in shape, but they say you have to take care of yourself for that, so I hope that one day beer will be good for weight loss.
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