Ever since I've had use of reason I remember I went crazy trying tyo understand
what was that thing coming out of my parents' old music player, that sound mass
known as music disrupted me since I was a little boy. At age seven I spent all day
playing my shiny Casio Pt1 all those melodies that seduced me at that time, like
Oh Susanna, the Joy Anthem or the Smurfs tune.
But it wasn't until I was nine when I made my parents sign me up for keyboard lessons.
The following 4 years I spent studying at the worst academy I've ever known
(sadly there are many like that).
At age eleven I started studying Spanish guitar with Master José Perea,
in a guitar and laud group in which we played songs like "Clavelitos",
"Estas son las mañanitas" and other "tuna" hits.
When I was 13 I entered the Fuenlabrada local school to study keyboard.
This school was free if you joined the music band, so I joined it; the bad part
is they Ð me a huge tuba, instrument I didn't like at all. I endured one year
studying that big, noisy thing, until I left that school; I couldn't stand
the pressure from my teachers, who tried to convince me into playing it.
It wasn't until I was 13 when I suddenly heard a heavy band, I couldn't get out
of my awe when I discovered what could be done with a guitar. My God!!!!! Steve Vai,
Yngwie Malmsteen, Slash, AHHHHH!!!! I soon abandoned my old Spanish guitar and the
tuna songs to replace it with my Stratocaster imitation and Metallica songs.
Between 14 and 15 I spent absolutely all day playing guitar, I learned by myself
with books, methods and transcriptions of my favourite bands at the moment.
I remember a certain day I bought the sheet music to Yngwie's Marching Out and
the usual buddy older than you, who's been playing longer than you, couldn't stop
laughing at me: "where are you going with that!? Do you really think you'll be able
to play it? Ha ha! A whole year it took me, day after day playing the same solo
(the one from I'll see the light tonight). I was the most persistent guy on Earth,
had to play it thousands of times, every time a bit faster, but I made it and that
way I could shut that guy's mouth, who couldn't get out of awe when he saw me playing
it.
At age 15, I started playing with my first band, "Skualidur", there was Bronka
(later guitarist for ángeles Del Infierno and currently on Infernoise)
and Jalipollas. We had a great time, we believed we were the Guns'N'Roses,
we were the lords of the world!
It was at that time when I made friendship with my neighbour from the third floor,
who was heavier than a thunder; he called himself Leo "la bestia" (does that sound
familiar?), who at the time was only 13 and spend all day telling me about heavy
bands and albums, he drove me crazy, I had no idea about heavy music, I only knew
about guitars; I entered the metal world due to how guitarists played. Leo got to
my house on saturday mornings to sing metal songs, accompanied by my Les Paul
imitation (my current guitar, with which I recorded Primer Acto).
Truth is Leo already did it raelly good. Soon after that, along with other
neighbourhood friends, Javi (currently bassist for Cuatro Gatos), José (current
drummer for Hamelyn) and later when Jose left us, Patricio Babasasa on drums,
we decided to create "Krysálida", a band that kept certain paralelisms with
Stravaganzza. Despite our short age, we made a very elaborated music, with dark
and symphonic touches; it wasn't a rather conventional music, perhaps that was
the reason for our lack of success, I think we couldn't be understood.
Four years later, Krysálida disappeared and with it my passion for guitar.
For the following five years I barely picked up my, until then, irreplaceable
instrument. Another period in my life began. I re-starded my keyboard studies,
this time with piano; I began to deepen into studying harmony and orchestration
(which fascinates me). I studied piano and harmony for a few years at a jazz school
and later I switched to the classical music word by studying piano and composition
in different conservatoriums. Also, I was formed as a sound tech.
Through the following years I did a lot of different works as a musician or sound
tech, while still studying. As a technician I've done sound post-production for
series from TVE1 and Antena3, did the sound for hundreds of concerts and events
and many musical recordings. As a musician I've worked for two years at TVE1,
I've composed and made arrangements for Radio, TV, multimedia productions,
composed the soundtrack for a movie (O.F.N.I, by José Semprum), composed music
for more than 15 computer games, I've been arranger and orchestrator in several
albums (Mago de Oz, Ebony Ark, etc) and I've played as a professional in several
ocassions. I've been a teacher in musical language, harmony, guitar and sound.
Also, I've participated in other musical projects of diverse styles which range
from Jazz, Latin Jazz or Latin House to gothic projects like "Ecléctika".
I've also played in musicals, like Jesus Christ Superstar along with Patricio
Babasasa. Right now I'm developing a musical creation company: MagicaMusic.
Ecléctika is the personal musical project I did at a period in my life in which
loneliness and desperation took reign of me. It mantains a great similarity
with Stravaganzza, with the difference that Ecléctika was even darker, decadent
and a bit more electronic. T that time I composed songs like Lágrimas De Sangre,
Diosa del Infierno Azul or Miedo en el Alma, songs that later would be recovered
for Stravaganzza. In Ecléctika, besides playing several instruments, I was vocalist,
but a problem in my throught kept me from continuing with singing. Some day I'll get
back into it...
Immediately after that I joined Leo and Edu (another dear friend) and began
giving shape to what later would become Stravaganzza, but that is another story...
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