STAY HOMAS. THE BAND THAT SHOULDN’T EXIST

Oriol Gispert, Nick Bolger, Ramón Balagué | Spain | 2024 | 85’ | OmeU

The pandemic breaks out and the musician friends Rai, Guillem and Klaus are stuck in their flat in the Barcelona lockdown. In the fight against boredom, the three decide to write a new song every day on their terrace, record it on their mobile phones and share it on Instagram: short, funny unplugged songs, lovingly arranged, mixing several languages and musical genres, calling for solidarity in the lyrics – the »stay homas«, a corruption of the English »stay home«, casually affirms taking responsibility and eventually becomes the band name. Attention for the project quickly spread outside the bubble of family and friends – the campaign went viral. Stay Homas is offered a number of colabos by well-known and diverse Catalan, Spanish and international artists such as Macaco, Manu Chao, Sílvia Pérez Cruz, Sofia Ellar and Pablo Alborán. Numerous other musicians, including Michael Bublé, have covered their material, making them famous worldwide. So this is the story of Rai Benet, Guillem Boltó and Klaus Stroink with COVID 19. In this film, we accompany the three friends and follow them every step of the way as they try to free themselves from the label of »pandemic group« and »one-hit wonder« and explore their possibilities for lasting success – once again with lots of positive energy, unexpected ideas and plenty of support from hyperactive friends and illustrious musical personalities.