Mikel Erentxun

Mikel Erentxun spent only the opening year of his life in Caracas, Venezuela, the city where he was born. His family relocated to San Sebastian, Spain, by 1966, and that remains his residence to this day. His earliest stage appearances date to 1978, when he and a friend assembled the Hillbilly Cats, a band that earned neighborhood notice in Amara through its version of Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes.” Throughout his youth he stayed active in the city’s live-music circuit, performing rhythm guitar and bass with several rockabilly ensembles. He enrolled at the University of Architecture in 1983, yet music quickly became his primary focus. The following year he formed Duncan Dhu and took the role of lead vocalist. After playing local bars and issuing singles during their debut season, the group recorded two tracks for the Grabaciones Accidentales label that appeared on the compilation La Unica Alternativa. Duncan Dhu subsequently signed with the independent imprint and released its first album, Por Tierras Escocesas, in 1985. Erentxun continued recording with the band through the remainder of the 1980s before launching a solo career in 1992 with the album Naufragios. Although those early solo efforts retained a stylistic kinship with his Duncan Dhu work, toward the end of the decade he began integrating electronic textures and a more processed production approach. Credited with seven albums, Erentxun has become a leading presence in Spanish rock.