the sound universe of xabier erkizia makala
It’s not often that you get the chance to interview a local lad like Xabier Erkizia who is involved in just so many different things. This chap is a music fan, an explorer of other types of music, a composer and multi-instrumentalist; he’s worked on many solo projects (Gutariko Bat, Voodoo Muzak, Exxon Valdez, Kobak, Atekaluen...) as well as collaborating with many other different acts here and there (Xabier Montoia, Café Teatro, Alejandro & Aeron., Mattin, Rosy Parlane, Enrike Hurtado,...). He’s worked on production and arrangements (Miztura), he’s the promoter of the most underground festival in the Basque Country (The Ertz Festival in Bera), he’s a journalist (press, radio and TV), he’s an illustrator, graphic designer, video artist (zulo beltza – black hole) and for the last few months he’s been in charge of getting the AudioLab up and running. We met up at the place he’s shortly going to use for his first ever audio workshop. “IXI SOFTWARE” Enrike Hurtado and Thor Magnusson will be looking after the “Interfacing Sounds” workshop and they will be looking at sound programming with computers. Before I set the tape rolling I suggested that we divide the interview up into three parts. He agreed.
Work and Musical Trajectory
Ever since his first tentative teenage steps as a music DJ on Xorroxin Irratia, Xabier has felt especially drawn to radio. He decides to study some more at the Bilbao School of Radio & Television (just like me funnily enough) and at the same time he takes charge of another radio show at Irola Irala Irratia. He also starts to write for the nowextinct music mag El Tubo “... Well, I started writing about the type of music that wasn’t being written about in the music mags at that time and that led to me writing more articles for Entzun and Egunkaria...”. Later on he sets up and takes charge of the Ttipi- Ttapa Telebista (a TV station seen in about 30 villages around Bera). He worked there for four years. He now confesses that he’s not working as a journo, well, apart from the odd special article he’s asked to do, “...journalism was a job for me before, now it’s more of a hobby...”.
When we get down to him as a musician and I ask him what his first musical experience actually was, he tells me that as a nipper he moved in Basque Folk circles, playing the txistu (Basque flute), accordion and the kettledrum. He was also involved in bertsolaritza (the Basque art of improvising rhyming verse). But he admits that his first experience in the world of rock music was quite a buzz: “...I was doing bits and pieces for the comic Napartheid at the time and somehow I was asked to collaborate on a song by Kojon Prieto y Los Huajalotes, and after I wrote the lyrics and readied the song, it was released on a single with another song by Negu Gorriak...”. He had always wanted to play the drums, but his next step was to become lead-singer with Gutariko Bat. He then started playing the guitar and writing songs for the band. In 96 they gigged with French band Portobello, “...as soon as the concert was over the French lads came up to us and told us we had to record something...”, they released a single and were really successful on the French hardcore scene. They toured loads and recorded songs for loads of collections at Stefan Krigier’s Amanita Studios in the North Basque Country. There they met the cult group Voodoo Muzak members and himself and the drummer from Gutariko Bat started playing with them. This opened new sounds and musical forms to them and they slowly broadened their musical horizons, this was around 2000...
That was the year that Lesaka born Xabier Erkizia moved to Bera. He immediately hooks up with the local musical scene... with the Irazoki family, Petti, Xabier Montoia’s group and all the rest. They all start playing and experimenting together and that’s where some of the stuff they’re involved with today comes from. I’m referring to Kobak, Onddo, Sinuose, Atekaleun, Martiko eta Garate, Borrokan, etc...
The Ertz Festival
“... The year 2000 was really important because of the creation of the Ertz Festival. It meant sharing our own experiences here with people from abroad who were doing their own thing. We could see and learn at the same time. It was an exchange thing...”. Loads of artists have appeared at the festival. You have Alejandra & Aeron, Mark Cunningham, Francisco López, TV Pow, Mattin, Charlemagne Palestine, Fennesz, Café Teatro, Tzesne, ...and Xabier has had the chance to collaborate and play with some of these artists live. The fourth edition takes place during the first weekend in June and, as always, there are absolutely tonnes of interesting acts to catch: DJ Amsia, Bernhard Günter, Strafuckers, Radian, Mark Wastell, Graham Halliwell, Oier Etxeberria and Nad Spiro to name a few.
AudioLab
His latest project is already up and at ‘em at Arteleku. Audiolab. Xabier explains where the idea for Audiolab came from: “...at the Donostia New Music Festival in 2002 they asked me to get a selection of music together for an installation and I suggested a sort of collection of music by artists involved in experimental music. We picked stuff by about thirty Basque artists and that enabled us to take some sort of photograph as such, like, it gave us an idea of what the scene was like. It was an opportunity to get to know each other and we realised that we could get something going here... then me, Mattin and a few others jammed at a session at Arteleku and the people there kind of flipped out, really dug it... they really got into it...”.
More info:
Work and Musical Trajectory
Ever since his first tentative teenage steps as a music DJ on Xorroxin Irratia, Xabier has felt especially drawn to radio. He decides to study some more at the Bilbao School of Radio & Television (just like me funnily enough) and at the same time he takes charge of another radio show at Irola Irala Irratia. He also starts to write for the nowextinct music mag El Tubo “... Well, I started writing about the type of music that wasn’t being written about in the music mags at that time and that led to me writing more articles for Entzun and Egunkaria...”. Later on he sets up and takes charge of the Ttipi- Ttapa Telebista (a TV station seen in about 30 villages around Bera). He worked there for four years. He now confesses that he’s not working as a journo, well, apart from the odd special article he’s asked to do, “...journalism was a job for me before, now it’s more of a hobby...”.
When we get down to him as a musician and I ask him what his first musical experience actually was, he tells me that as a nipper he moved in Basque Folk circles, playing the txistu (Basque flute), accordion and the kettledrum. He was also involved in bertsolaritza (the Basque art of improvising rhyming verse). But he admits that his first experience in the world of rock music was quite a buzz: “...I was doing bits and pieces for the comic Napartheid at the time and somehow I was asked to collaborate on a song by Kojon Prieto y Los Huajalotes, and after I wrote the lyrics and readied the song, it was released on a single with another song by Negu Gorriak...”. He had always wanted to play the drums, but his next step was to become lead-singer with Gutariko Bat. He then started playing the guitar and writing songs for the band. In 96 they gigged with French band Portobello, “...as soon as the concert was over the French lads came up to us and told us we had to record something...”, they released a single and were really successful on the French hardcore scene. They toured loads and recorded songs for loads of collections at Stefan Krigier’s Amanita Studios in the North Basque Country. There they met the cult group Voodoo Muzak members and himself and the drummer from Gutariko Bat started playing with them. This opened new sounds and musical forms to them and they slowly broadened their musical horizons, this was around 2000...
That was the year that Lesaka born Xabier Erkizia moved to Bera. He immediately hooks up with the local musical scene... with the Irazoki family, Petti, Xabier Montoia’s group and all the rest. They all start playing and experimenting together and that’s where some of the stuff they’re involved with today comes from. I’m referring to Kobak, Onddo, Sinuose, Atekaleun, Martiko eta Garate, Borrokan, etc...
The Ertz Festival
“... The year 2000 was really important because of the creation of the Ertz Festival. It meant sharing our own experiences here with people from abroad who were doing their own thing. We could see and learn at the same time. It was an exchange thing...”. Loads of artists have appeared at the festival. You have Alejandra & Aeron, Mark Cunningham, Francisco López, TV Pow, Mattin, Charlemagne Palestine, Fennesz, Café Teatro, Tzesne, ...and Xabier has had the chance to collaborate and play with some of these artists live. The fourth edition takes place during the first weekend in June and, as always, there are absolutely tonnes of interesting acts to catch: DJ Amsia, Bernhard Günter, Strafuckers, Radian, Mark Wastell, Graham Halliwell, Oier Etxeberria and Nad Spiro to name a few.
AudioLab
His latest project is already up and at ‘em at Arteleku. Audiolab. Xabier explains where the idea for Audiolab came from: “...at the Donostia New Music Festival in 2002 they asked me to get a selection of music together for an installation and I suggested a sort of collection of music by artists involved in experimental music. We picked stuff by about thirty Basque artists and that enabled us to take some sort of photograph as such, like, it gave us an idea of what the scene was like. It was an opportunity to get to know each other and we realised that we could get something going here... then me, Mattin and a few others jammed at a session at Arteleku and the people there kind of flipped out, really dug it... they really got into it...”.
More info:
