We recently connected with Xabier Iriondo and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Xabier, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I found my purpose in the storm and in the calm of the events/encounters that marked my journey.
Composing music in multiple contexts (dozens of bands, film sonorization, etc), recording and producing 60 records, playing live on three continents, etc.
Trying to realize my vision of contemporary artist.
“The contemporary artist has a unique relationship with his own time, which adheres to it and, at the same time, distances himself from it, it is a particular skill, which amounts to neutralizing the lights that come from the era to discover its darkness, its special darkness.” (G. Agamben)
In music I like light and darkness and try to represent it with different instruments, timbres and arrangements often combining my vision with other artists, creating a unique meta-language.
A hot example of what I’m talking about is the band BUÑUEL, a rock band that involves an American singer (Eugene S. Robinson) and three Italian musicians.
In these weeks will be released our fourth and most awaited album (“Mansuetude”) that will take us to perform on 2/3 continents during 2025.
BUÑUEL was formed in 2016 and has made a trilogy of recordings (that mix the foundations of rock tradition deconstructing them and shaping a new metalanguage: our) that have led us to play live in Italy, Europe and Canada.
When making our records we always use the same formula, we musicians record in Italy in 3/4 days all the music of our future songs and Eugene Robinson sings in California and sends us his tracks, all without ever meeting.
BUÑUEL is a meaningful project in my career for opportunities to grow through new experiences.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I was born in Milan in 1971, half Basque (from region on the north of Spain) and half Italian. I started playing guitar at 17 and I became in my twenties something of an Italian underground celebrity as part of the alternative band Afterhours, with whom I have been a member since 1992. Outside the mainstream circuit I also made art with myriad projects (more than 60 records), like my recordings and performances with CAN’s Damo Suzuki or the collaborations with the cream of Europe’s avant-garde (Brotzman, etc), numerous solo projects, and the list goes on and on.
Sound Metak was the name of the eclectic shop I ran in Milan for about five years in the early 2000s, which sold everything from old lap steels guitars to modern amplifiers, from old gramophones and vinyl shellac records to fuzz pedals and electric guitars, from cd/dvds to books, jukeboxes, etc. Within the space I organized more than 250 free musical performances on Saturday afternoons, ranging from classical music to butoh dance, from folk singers to hard-core bands, from electronic sets to avant-garde improv, etc.
For four decades I have been collecting and playing electric guitars and various string instruments (especially from the East Asia), amplifiers, electronic devices to modify sound, many of which custom built on my specifications.
In an era where much instrumental music is recorded without dialogue (playing in separate rooms) I am very proud of the working method that we carry on with BUÑUEL (the American/Italian band I’m most engaged with at this time) : the musical instruments are recorded live, with the band members standing together and looking at each other in the same room.
Eugene Robinson records his vocals from the other side of the planet (he lives in California) and the final result is definitely unique.
The sound spectrum in this project varies from abrasive/apocalyptic noise-rock to unstructured free improvisation, breaking the patterns that often lead bands to focus on one musical form.
In any art projects where I am involved I explore the endless energies of my imagination. I’ll conjure up sounds that are heavy and dark or playful and light.
I write songs and music since I was twenty years old and I always had the need to drink in more artistic sources, collaborating with different disciplines (painting, cinema, theater, dance, etc).
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Listen to yourself, listen to others, have a personal vision.
Read books, broaden your knowledge in more disciplines, don’t lose the big picture of things to focus on a single aspect
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I have always worked with other artistic fields (cinema/ music, theatre/ music, dance/ music, painting/ music, etc), currently I am open to collaborations with contemporary dancers
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.xabieririondo.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xabieririondo
Image Credits
Annapaola Martin
Emanuela Bonetti
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
