I was born in Elgoibar, Basque Country, in 1978. I started playing the drums when I was fourteen and I sing since the childhood. I always used to sing songs by The Beatles. My old brother had a lot of cassettes of the band from Liverpool and I loved their vocal creatitivity. I studied music language in my home town and at the age of fourteen I started my classic percussion studies. When I was 20 I formed my first band with Aitor Badiola (guitar) called Arima Beltza ("Black Soul" in english). We used to play blues&rock and we used to sing in our own language, the basque language. I played drums and lead vocals in the band. In the second album I decided not to play the drums in the concerts in order to focus on the voice and reach a bigger feedback with the audience. Elur Arrieta took the sticks live, but I kept on recording the drums on the studio. With Arima Beltza we shared stage with bands and blues artists like Larry McCray, Tonky Blues Band, Raimundo Amador, Ñaco Goñi, Los Reyes del KO, Aurora Beltran...
Before the band split up in november of 2007 I was proud to join Keu Agirretxea and Mikel Arakistain to form the trio UEK, a project that was created as the solo career of Keu (Psychophony, Etsaiak, Fjord) years before.
DISCOGRAPHY
Arima Beltza:
"Arima Beltza" (2000, Gaztelupeko Hotsak)--- Lead vocals and drums
"Blues sustraia" (2002, Gaztelupeko Hotsak)--- Lead vocals and drums
"Mundurako ateak" (2005, Gaztelupeko Hotsak)--- Lead vocals and drums
UEK:
"Heltzear diren egunak" (2005, Gaztelupeko Hotsak)--- Drums and chorus
"Uhinak" (2007, Gaztelupeko Hotsak)--- Drums
THE BOOK
Rory Gallagher's biography written in euskara, the basque language. (Paper Hotsak, 2006)