I am originally from Mar del Plata, Argentina. It’s a resort city located 400 kilometers south of Buenos Aires. It is a very nice place with beaches that are very full in the summer season. It can get cold but no snow. The last snow was in 1991.

I’m the first musician or artist in my family. My parents were born in the ’60s, and they listen to very good music. I remember my father was a huge fan of The Rolling Stones. I remember at 12 years old to listen to some rock and roll bands, American and Argentinian bands. For example, there is a band in Argentina that they played punk rock music. It’s called Dos Minutos. That motivated me a lot to start playing the guitar. And I loved Blink 182.

I started with nylon-string acoustic guitar. I started taking the first lessons with a professor who was very strict. And I am left-handed, but he taught me to play right-handed. He told me, “No, the guitar must be played like this!” It was fine because I had never played another way. He taught me different kinds of music. Pop music. The music that he listened to was Cuban music that they play with a classical guitar. Silvio Rodríguez. I remember that he liked a lot Ismael Serrano from Spain. When I finished to study with this professor, he told me, “I can not teach you anything else. I suggest you to go to somewhere else to another professor.”

I remember that when I started to listen to rock and roll, I wanted the play the electric guitar for sure. I said to my father, “I want an electric guitar and amplifier.” He said, “Well, you have to work for that.” My father offered me to start working with him in a hotel. I start to go four hours a day helping him and preparing the breakfast, serving food. I was 12. I was very happy because I was learning to earn my stuff. I remember that I get all the tips of the day and when I finish work, I run to the record store and always buy a new record, a new CD. I remember my first payment was 200 pesos for the guitar. About 200 hundred dollars then. I still have the guitar in my mother’s house. I don’t want to sell it. I want it for me. The amplifier came one month later. I got my first Marshall 80 watts amplifier. It was everything for me.

I discovered that I had an ability to sing, and I start to do it when I form my first band with some friends when I was 14 years old. Nobody wants to sing, so I said, “Well, I will do it. I will start singing and if there is other singer, I will stop.” The name of the band was Scum. We write our own songs and play some covers of punk rock. We played at school. We played at 2 or 3 bars with that group. Our family come to see us, my grandmother, my mother, all the family.

When I finish the high school, I started in a conservatory of music. There were two institutions in my city: the conservatory of classical music and the other one where they teach jazz music, popular music, tango. That’s where I went. I have to say I was lucky. Although my parents were a bit worried about what I was going to study, I had the support. They want me to be happy, do what I want, but do it seriously. A part was easy at the conservatory, and the other part it was difficult. Despite to play punk rock and be a huge fan of punk rock music, I always have listened to every kind of music – reggae, jazz music, heavy metal. It was an opportunity to open the mind, open the ears, and learn new things. In the conservatory, I also studied trumpet. I actually played the trumpet with some groups in Argentina. Then, I changed the trumpet for electric guitar, but I didn’t graduate from the conservatory. I stopped because my thoughts in that moment were, “I don’t feel like studying this. I don’t feel like playing the things that they give me to study.” So I got tired and decided to give up and spend the time playing my own songs and composing. It gave me a little of regret. I was 21.

I played with other friends, but I played more for love than for business. We played punk rock or reggae but music we can not get to be paid well. We worked very hard organizing the gigs, taking the amplifiers.

I worked many jobs. I started with the hotels, to walk dogs, then preparing food and sell in the street, to deliver food or ice cream or medicine. I think every kind of job! I left my mother’s house at 26 and work to pay the rent, eat. In Argentina, you work for pay the rent, eat and maybe once in a month you go to a restaurant or concert. The quality of life is very quiet. You have nature. You have the sea. But then, I feel like it was a very small city and I need to move. At least I reached my maximum in music. I left at 30 years old. I think that if you do something with passion and not think of other things, like money, good things probably might come. The first city I moved to was on Mallorca. It was a very good destiny to start. It’s very similar to my city. Small city with a quiet kind of life, very enjoyable. I lived in the middle of the tourist thing. The first idea was to go, work for a season, try and then go back to Argentina. I worked the first season in a restaurant on the beach, very nice place. I decided to stay.

After the first season, I decided to travel through Europe and then to Mallorca and then the pandemic and lock down. After the lock down, I went back to Argentina and then back to Mallorca. I remember the first time of the pandemic, I was with my flatmates, we were about 10 in the flat and it was fun, we were together. We smoke a lot of marijuana, and then I moved to another flat and it changed a lot. I decided to start doing sports a lot. I like to swim and skateboard, sometimes go to the gym. We eat very healthy, train twice a day and then go to skateboard 2 hours every day. None of the flatmates were musicians. I didn’t relate too much with the musicians in Mallorca. I was busy trying to adapt myself to a new country, a new culture, getting a job, knowing the new system. I wasn’t playing intensely very much, but then when I came back, I had the first meeting with two musicians, a bass player and excellent trumpetist both from Argentina, and that gave me a click in my head. We played swing music. I discovered that I can do every kind of music that I want. It was very motivating to listen to jazz music, more complex music, more harmony. It made a click in my head. And also that I can earn money doing what I love. We played in the street, and we saw very good results. Then, I decided to come here to Barcelona for a simple reason. I didn’t know how to deal with the motorbike, so I get the moto on the ferry and came here! I arrived on the 4th of January, 2021.

I had to start from zero again. I had to get a new flat, get a new job and stabilize. The first months, I was worried about how to stabilize, and then I had the tranquility to make music and concentrate, to meet people and compose and play. When I got the stabilization, I started to ask, “How to start?” Playing the trombone was an idea that I had a long time ago. I got a trombone here in Barcelona and start playing trombone with some bands and start to go to concerts to meet people. One day I met a trumpetist, Fabian. I was working in a bar in Grácia, and this guy was playing the trumpet in the plaza. I listened to him and went straight to him and ask him if he want to play with me. I told him, “Let’s meet, have some songs, have a good time.” We had a good energy, a good connection, and we start playing some swing songs, jazz songs over here. I was playing guitar and singing and he was playing the trumpet. It was very good. And one day, Fabian told me, “Let’s meet with a friend of mine who plays clarinet, and let’s see if we can start a band.” This is now our band Volkanes. We play music inspired by the Balkan states.

All the time I was practicing, studying songs, trying to make the repertoire bigger. I study some theory. When I need it, I take the theory writing songs, listening to new music, playing trombone, playing guitar exercises. Trying always to be playing.

My first experience playing in the street here in Barcelona was not much time ago. I was playing the last summer in Grácia in the plazas and the terraces. I would say one year ago. I remember my first playing was in this same park. I wait for another musician to finish, and then I start. I was a little bit nervous. That is when I got more relaxed when I see the people looking at me, listening, enjoying the songs.

I like a lot playing in the street. I like the things you can find. The fact of my playing and showing myself is very good for me. Trying to be known a little, and I started taking it as a job. I think it doesn’t change how I play. When I compose my own songs, I don’t think of money. But when I decide to go to work, I try to take it seriously. Of course, sometimes I get bored or tired. It’s a job. But I try to focus the best I can. And I write most times in English. It’s an extra challenge to write a good song in Spanish for me! I have so many words that I can’t make to sound good. Rock and roll in English sounds incredible. Reggae music too. The sound of the words in English is more sweet. I feel I am expressing and letting feelings go out when I sing. It’s a kind of expression. What I can’t say to a person, when I sing I can just let the things go out.

It’s true many of us on the street are single. I have no serious partner here. My dedication was given all to the music, but I can say that maybe musicians or artists are very free people and that’s probably the reason why we are alone or we decide to give all our energy or time to the music. I’m focused to be aware of my own changes. If I don’t feel complete with myself, I don’t feel to give to another person. I feel like I would like to have a partner. I would really like to be a partner with another person, but it's not the situation right now.

I think that it sucks how music is controlled here. I understand the neighbors. Ten years ago, I think there were a lot of musicians. I mean a lot. They told me it was like a shitshow! So, I think that is when the government take some regulation. Also, I have the belief that the government doesn’t want too much artists and too much people who wake the minds up. The cop that stops you doesn’t have the fault. They are doing their job. The police stop me three times in Grácia. One time I was in a park playing at three in the afternoon. They ask for the permit. I don’t have. I would like to get a permit, but I never get it. It’s like a lottery. It was siesta time. One cop told me, “The siesta in this country is sacred.” I was very afraid because they might take my instrument. I say, “Sorry, sorry, pardon.” The other cop was just laughing. He was kind and told me to stop during the time of the siesta. My morale went a bit down that day. The second time in Placa de la Vila de Grácia, down there, there is the town hall. I was playing very low. They listen, and they say I can not. And then one more time.

I rent a room in a flat for 400 Euros with small balcony. I have a shared kitchen, bathroom and living space with couch and TV, but I need my privacy. Sometimes I wonder myself, “Is this correct? Is this what I want?” The conclusion is I want to enjoy. I take music as a job, but not forgetting that I have to enjoy and do it good and show the people that I love it. But sometimes when I see myself struggling too much, I take a break for some time. I try to get a balance. I try my best here. Still sometimes I feel lost here 5 years later. It never disappears. Like I am not from here. It can be a good feeling and sometimes it becomes a little bad. It depends on the situation. I always try to be with people who I can push to be better and reciprocate.

For the future, it’s not a very far future, a close future, I try to make a way having little goals, step by step. Every person has his own rhythm, and I always try to be playing. I feel like I need to plan a bit more. It’s ok when you enjoy the moment, but I feel this is the time to be worried about my future. I think about studying music production and studio production or maybe to become a music professor. Maybe I will do some private music teaching. Although I have the support of my family and I am a free individual, I am alone here, and I feel a bit sometimes afraid of what can happen. I worry about doing everything ok, to be civic here with the people, to respect the things that I have to do.

Everyday there are two things, individual and collective things, in my life that matter. Individually, to take care of oneself and to accept oneself. Collectively, the most important is that we can co-live with each other peacefully, that we can be solidarity with the other person. These are the values that really matter to me. Not to be indifferent. Try to be not so hard, not to have so many desires, and just to be human. To show love and take care of the person who is close to you and far from you, the neighbor, your family, the stranger. To be conscious that every person has his own life, his own suffering, own stories and always to be kind to the other person.

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