For fans and curious people...

The pAst..

I was born in Tenerife, Canary Islands on the 21st. October 1967. It took them six months to find out that my unstoppable crying was due to a pain in my ears. Listening to classical music would be the only relief my mother and I had during that time.

I remember when I was little teachers humiliated a class mate by putting him naked in the middle of the recreation area and showering him with a hose just because he took a shit in his pants. It gives you a good idea of the 70's educational aroma in Spain.

It must have been around that time that my father started doing it with his secretary on top of his desk. Apparently they enjoyed it so much that soon afterwards they began practicing anytime anywhere. Eventually they ran away together. A year later or so he called my mother, begged for forgiveness and swore he was ashamed and wouldn't do it again. He also asked her to sell the few things we owned and join him in Barcelona, with all the money... Three months after our arrival he left for good leaving us in a haunted flat with a varied palette of debts he never bothered to pay. That explains why I grew up in Barcelona.

I started playing guitar at 10 and by the time I was 13 some of my compositions were 25 minutes long!! As long as I was spending my time on that harmless occupation my sisters could play at peace. I loved music! I mostly listened to the radio since we lived on very little income. My first LPs -which I played every day! – were: Sergio Mendes & Brazil '76, "Pais Tropical" and War "Live", The Beatles, "Live at the Hollywood Bowl". Those albums still have an influence on my music today.

In order to get a decent job and become a regular citizen I studied electronics -like my grandfather- at the age of 15 and 16. Although I tried pretty hard, mathematics made me so dizzy I lost interest and spent more and more time reading books by the beach. One morning they dragged a corpse out of the sea. Soon after that I joined a music school mainly focused on Jazz music.

During the following years my life became completely committed to an all day music routine. I discovered and loved Jazz and Jazz Rock music, improvisation and other music stuff and I learned how to cook.

By the time I left that school four years later -mainly because it was too expensive- I was playing Jazz all over Barcelona. I had the amazing opportunity to play with Horacio Fumero (Tete montoliu Trio). He taught me things I’ve never forgotten about how to play and feel music and get the most of it. I also had the opportunity to work with sound engineer Esteban Dionis (who would later work for some very popular Spanish singers) making arrangements and as a studio musician as well as co-producing some Catalan gospel artists. I was doing alright.

I started smoking pot and one day I went to a Jimi Hendrix tribute concert. I remembered Hendrix from when I was a kid but for some reason in the middle of a purple haze that night I decided I wanted to do Hendrix. Some months later we opened up for legendary band Ten Years After and guess whose music were we playing?

The more I enjoyed drugs, the deeper I went into Rock'n'Roll. (Or was it the other way around?..) I put together a new trio. We played new compositions along with a lot of 60's cover and became the supporting band for Dutch Rock'n'Roll icon Hermann Brood in the summer of '91. He thought I was a weird guy!

My time messing around with drugs would come to an abrupt end the morning they let me out of a police station after being under arrest for 24 hours. I slept under a small blanket a junkie was using before being taken away. It strongly smelled like pee and I didn't even care. That was in 1993.

A messy tour with a messy Rock'n'Roll band that same year led me to a girl in France. I played lots of blues during my first years in that peculiar country, but my interests in music progressively evolved towards world music, hip-hop, classical music and other newer styles. I collaborated with different bands in completely disconnected situations going to and from whatever was appealing at the moment. It was a very enriching period.

It was back then -in 1997- that I recorded and produced my first album "Mas de lo mismo" with the Susu band. Our concerts included performances with actors, dancers, painters and story tellers. It was a lot of fun!

In 1999 I went to San Francisco and really got into acoustic guitar. I was playing gigs around the Bay Area and opening up for Omar Sosa when I developed the guitarcusión technique. (Guitarcusión consists of simultaneously playing guitar while using its body as a percussion instrument).
Shortly after that I was offered a job in Europe to compose the music for a contemporary dance piece called 'October 13th'. We toured Europe for more than a year and I performed my music live during every show. I simply adore composing and playing for contemporary dance! It even makes me wanna dance! But in order to keep my job I don’t.

I had a customized guitar for the Guitarcusion technique. A few years later I was travelling on a train when a little boy playing with an evil machine sat beside me. He recorded all kinds of shrieks in it and reproduced them till you wanted to throw them both out the window! I changed cars but forgot my guitar on the luggage rack. When I came back to rescue her she was gone. A shoe repairer gave me a comforting explanation some days later: "A thief has to steal something every day because that's how he or she earns a living".

In 2002 I made another album called Lola Dice. It was a new band, a good band too. Although we had some good concerts and made a nice CD it never really took off.

I've been here and there ever since, living in different places, working and performing with different artists and bands as well as composing for dance and films projects.
 
In 2006, along with other activities, I played with French song writers Jean Racine and Orly Chap and became one of the supporting musicians for celebrity Enrico Macias at l'Olympia in Paris in the winter of 2006.

..ThE prEseNt

About a year before my 40th birthday I thought I had to mark the spot by making a new album. After giving it some thought and talking about it with some friends, I decided to build a web site as well -it seemed like the best option since my music involves very different styles. 

I bought a good computer and for over a year I committed myself to learning how to use it.
After spending my whole life trying to get musicians, sound engineers, graphic designers, etc, to translate my ideas into an art form through techniques I wasn’t familiar with, I thought it could be a good opportunity to learn how to do it!

I made two CDs: "67" (a concept album in which I did exactly as I pleased) and "Raw Acoustic" (a compilation of both old, unused material along with brand new acoustic music). And also two others that only exist as MP3 albums: "Dance... And Flims" (a compilation of used, unused and brand new material for dance and films) and "Leftovers & Other" (the title says it all..).    

I followed the same process with all the graphic art for my albums and web site.  I also sent a bunch of pictures to some friends and since they liked them I ended up using them for my work. 

Today, at the beginning of 2009, I work to promote my music through my site. I'm also working on an new album and editing a video clip a friend and I made with kids. My primary focus is to compose for contemporary dance or films projects but I’m definitely open to everything...

My main goal with my music is to trigger people’s imagination. Imagination has always been and will forever be one of the most important ways to progress.

January 2009

Please refer to my CV for detailed information..

Download CV (PDF)