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I come from a cool middle-sized sea-shore town in the north of Spain, Gijon, but I've been living in Madrid for quite a few years now. It's been also quite a few years since I first took up the harp, back in the good-ole teen days in my hometown. Blues harp to be exact. I like old-school dirty blues, and my main fields and interests are pre-war and Chicago blues.
I've been playing regularly all around the Spanish blues scene as a sideman with several bands and some of the big names in the country. I've always played in my own band as well, together with my close friends and blues partners in Madrid. With "Alias Blues Gang" we played some of the main fests in Spain, and we put out a self-produced record. In 2005 most of us who played there put together a new band, "The Blind Lemons", in which I play the role of singer/frontman besides the harp. We play Chicago influenced blues with a good dose of New Orleans piano funk, and we released our first CD in 2007. I keep a duo project with my old partner from Alias Blues Gang, Vladi Olmos, in which we play old delta and country blues. Occasionally I also play as a sideman in Vladi's own band, as well as with other blues guys and bands like Bluedays, Tonky de la Peña, Malcolm Scarpa, Fede Aguado, Flaco Barral, Smiling Jack Smith, Fred P.G. or Norman Hogue. Basically, with anyone who needs my harping services -and that extends to garage/punkrock bands, pop artists or even children audiobooks! I recently started my newest project, "40 grados", with Jafo Otero on bass, Pax Álvarez on drums and the one and only Pablo Sanpa on guitar. I have to keep a daytime job, though, so I don't make a (full) living on music, but I sure as hell am having fun with it!
For the fellow harp geeks, I'll say that I play preferably Hohner Marine Band harps, but I also like and use the Hering Vintage 1930, all tweaked and repaired by myself. I have an assortment of mics, but I favour Astatic ceramics. My amps are a '62 brownface Fender Princeton, a '75 silverface Fender Princeton Reverb with a 12" Weber 12A150 AlNiCo speaker, which I use most of the times, a '59 Fender Bassman RI, a Dutch made Marble Max, a Sonny Jr. 410 and a Masco MA-17N with a 2x10" cab.
I've been playing regularly all around the Spanish blues scene as a sideman with several bands and some of the big names in the country. I've always played in my own band as well, together with my close friends and blues partners in Madrid. With "Alias Blues Gang" we played some of the main fests in Spain, and we put out a self-produced record. In 2005 most of us who played there put together a new band, "The Blind Lemons", in which I play the role of singer/frontman besides the harp. We play Chicago influenced blues with a good dose of New Orleans piano funk, and we released our first CD in 2007. I keep a duo project with my old partner from Alias Blues Gang, Vladi Olmos, in which we play old delta and country blues. Occasionally I also play as a sideman in Vladi's own band, as well as with other blues guys and bands like Bluedays, Tonky de la Peña, Malcolm Scarpa, Fede Aguado, Flaco Barral, Smiling Jack Smith, Fred P.G. or Norman Hogue. Basically, with anyone who needs my harping services -and that extends to garage/punkrock bands, pop artists or even children audiobooks! I recently started my newest project, "40 grados", with Jafo Otero on bass, Pax Álvarez on drums and the one and only Pablo Sanpa on guitar. I have to keep a daytime job, though, so I don't make a (full) living on music, but I sure as hell am having fun with it!
For the fellow harp geeks, I'll say that I play preferably Hohner Marine Band harps, but I also like and use the Hering Vintage 1930, all tweaked and repaired by myself. I have an assortment of mics, but I favour Astatic ceramics. My amps are a '62 brownface Fender Princeton, a '75 silverface Fender Princeton Reverb with a 12" Weber 12A150 AlNiCo speaker, which I use most of the times, a '59 Fender Bassman RI, a Dutch made Marble Max, a Sonny Jr. 410 and a Masco MA-17N with a 2x10" cab.