STOLEN NOTES was formed in 2006 by a group of musicians who met each other while working on various projects centred around traditional Irish music.
For 4 years, the band enjoyed limited success touring regional festivals and events in Spain and beyond. During this time they experimented with changes to the composition of the band, periodically changing musicians and instruments to create their unique sound.
Although the band was doing well, they recognised that even with their Spanish pedigree the market for another band producing unique arrangements of existing Irish and Celtic tunes would be limited. In 2010 the band began to create their own compositions drawing on the inspiration and creativity of its members, weaving a bit of Spain into the rich tapestry of their music. And so began a new journey for the band as they set out to perform their original repertoire in public.
It didn’t take long for them to get the feedback they needed. In 2010 Stolen Notes won second prize in the musical competition at the Folkez Blai festival at Ermua. This highly selective competition in the Basque Country narrows down submissions from emerging artists and groups to just 6 to perform live at the festival for the prize. In the following year, they submitted an entry to the Runas competition at the festival de Ortigueria. This competition selects its winner through a combination of judges’ submissions and public voting. Stolen notes won first prize and an opportunity to perform live at the festival which draws up to 80,000 people to Galicia each year for a week of Celtic celebration.
Having validated their decision to create original music, they began touring and headlining festivals throughout Spain and Portugal including Festa Folk na Fin do Camiño, Noite Celta de Porcía, Festival Intercéltico D’Occidente, Cáceres Irish Fleadh, and O Festival Internacional da Máscara Ibérica. In 2023 following some changes to the band composition, Stolen Notes have continued to perform and tour appearing at the Festival Intercéltico Sendim, Noche Celta, etc.
In addition to numerous promotional videos and selected releases on various media sites, Stolen Notes has produced three albums to date, "Stolen Notes" in 2010, "The Loot" in 2013 and "The Ocean Road" in 2018.
In a nod to the quality of Stolen Notes’ compositions, the Scottish band Old Blind Dogs included a cover of the tune Ridee for Jean-Michelle Beillon on their recent album Knucklehead Circus.
Self-taught in the "Art of Piping", his journey began twenty-five years ago, traveling to Ireland attracted by the sound of the Uilleann pipes, without even knowing the complexity of the task that he would have to face. With constant tenacity and dedication he has managed to make this wonderful instrument sound over the years, thanks in part to his relationship with Aragón and Parrado, Spanish builders of the Irish bagpipes. In his career, he has frequently visited Ireland, NYC and Scotland, where he has managed to perfect his technique. He has attended master classes from renowned pipers from around the world: John McSherry, Robbie Hannan, Mike O'Brian, Conor Lamb, Tiarnan O'Duinnchinn, Alain Formont, among many others...
With Stolen Notes he has toured many of the most important folk festivals in Spain and is a regular at sessions and gigs wherever they are organized. He continues to this day lending his knowledge and compositions to the band.
His journey begins when he was only 10 years old and his first bodhran came home (his beginnings were with a mortar stick on books). Soon he gained a taste for folk and bodhran and acquired different instruments over the years: Victor Barral, McNeela, Christian Hedwitschaky, S' Okane, although currently he has opted for the Hedwitschak maker. Around 2008 he acquired his first bouzuoki with which he began. Currently having an octave mandola from the maker, Joe Foley.
He has been to Ireland and Scotland several times and rarely misses the opportunity to share his talents with other folk musicians. His great influences have been Flook, Dervish, Solas, Deaf Sheperd, Comas, Lúnasa and within the national scope Llan de cubel and Felpeyu, having learned a lot from the different workshops that he has attended throughout his career. Among them, the bodhran workshop with Seamus O'Kane stands out, where he learned something as basic as the importance of accent and knowing the theme that is accompanied, and the Bouzouki workshop with Rubén Bada, where he was able to correct even the way of sitting with the instrument in hands.
Thanks to Stolen Notes he has visited many festivals, stages and cities from which he has always brought something learned. Currently he continues to contribute his rhythm and way of understanding this music with the bodhran and Mandola to the group. He is, along with Alejo, the oldest member of Stolen Notes.
Classically trained on the Böhm flute at the conservatories of Ávila, Salamanca and The Hague. He is currently a flute teacher at the “Manuel García Matos” Elementary Conservatory in Alcalá de Guadaíra (Seville). He began in the world of folk at the age of 14 with the tin whistle and the Galician bagpipe at the Centro Gallego in Madrid, and delved into the Irish flute in 2017, which he gave free rein to in the sessions at the “El Guitarrón” bar. ” in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) and becomes a regular at the annual Drumshanbo festivals in County Leitrim (Ireland), and the “Cáceres Irish Fleadh”. His main influences on the Irish flute are great folk flutists such as Shannon Heaton, Steph Geremia, Enda Seery and June McCormak, having been a student of some of them. He has been interviewed by the great flautist Shannon Heaton on her podcast “Irish Music Stories” and has belonged to two folk bands, Ceolish in Ávila, and Keltiko in Jerez de la Frontera. He is currently a member, in addition to "Stolen Notes", of the folk trio "Southwest".
A self-taught guitarist in different styles, he has been training with figures such as Tito Alcedo and regularly attending music sessions of different kinds throughout his life. He has collaborated with groups of different styles and trends and has been a member of the duo Anna Sound.
A versatile and ecleptic guitarist, he began and trained in folk music with the Asturian guitarist Jose Ignacio Folgueira. DADGAD's style and tuning have been polished until reaching a standard at the level of what the most contemporary Irish music demands. He was part of the Irish folk group Keltiko and participated in various events and concerts for several years. He is now an active member of Stolen Notes.
