He was first guitarist of the Criminal Brigade, then founded Fiachras together with Haritz Artola, was also part of the group in the last two albums of Bizardunak and ended up being What a band crockery. After the arrival of the Pandemic, Aitor Aldanondo (Bergara, 1978) then set himself. He dared to do what he had to do a long time ago and had not done so until then: to bring together the pieces of song that he had been recording a long time ago and to form a branch of his own harvest. At first I wanted to do two projects: one with the partner Maitane Azkarate and another with her friend Ekaitz Ubera. It was not possible: “Maitane got pregnant, a child has come, we didn’t have time for anything… and in the end I told them I couldn’t with the two projects and if they wanted to join the two in one”. Azkarate has sung on several songs from the album, Ubera has made two songs and the rest are from Aldanondo itself, many of them prepared by the Guille Sanz battery. The album was supported by people like Iñigo Cabezafuego, Haritz Artola, Adolfo Alcocer or Fredi Peláez, among others. They have all shaped the first work of the Harria Group. It consists of twelve folk songs, although each song has its own stamp, some psychodelic cut, others of Latin rhythm, and others of different layers: electronic bases, rope arrangements, etc. We met to interview in a hamlet on the Bergara Mountain, in a room prepared to rehearse throughout the pandemic, at the height of low fire.

He has made a long musical journey, always as a guitarist. Instead, Harria is your most personal project so far. Most songs and letters on the album are yours.

Yes, at least in recent times. I've always wanted to make a record with my songs, with my words, and I sang. The problem is, I'm pretty poor at singing and it was a big challenge. It happens to me like other aspects of life: I used to work with a van in transport, I knew I had to leave it, but how did I leave it? Also in music. Did you know I had to make this album, but how? You have to undergo a transformation: you get closer, you get scared… At first you don’t see it, you picture it little by little and you end up doing it. (Haritz) With Artola it was easy to make songs: he is a very fruitful guy, he does four songs for tomorrow and always some hit. But I wanted to be autonomous in creating.

A few years ago he started creating songs…

Cabia may be eight years old. The Intro has a little time, Month or Life. When all of this ends, I was hit a little while ago, and the others are pretty new. I usually record ideas on my phone for fragments of songs, and I start thinking about what parts can be joined together. I also like to make some weirdbits. In darkness and light, for example, there's a jump from dark rock to Latin music. The words of this song are the work of Mikel Garate, but they capture the global idea of the album: internal alchemy, transformation…

We often talk about the hardness of this life. But there is always hope for better times.

It took me a lot to talk. In the previous groups I have never written words, but this time I had to have done them, because nobody would have done it. I think the record is very positive. Many say to me, “Jo, what letters, how many deaths…”. I put on the record a phrase: Mori moment (remember you are going to die). So enjoy life. I feel everyone scared, with work, with life… I don’t know, but life is happening now. I have been searching for several years: I quit the job, I was unemployed, now I am in another job, tomorrow I don't know. This is the essence of alchemy: how we are born of those small symbolic deaths of life.

And what have you left behind?

A stage of life – youth, I think [laughing]. It's hard to get out of the spiral of blinds. When you're a 25-year-old, a juerga makes all the sense of the world: friends, laughter, muddle… Also, if you play in a group it's very difficult to dissociate music and alcohol. When you're there, your head doesn't work well, you start to forget about things, you do nonsense, you have an emotional hangover... when you turn 35 and you still come back there, you say, "I have to get out of here." For me now, all this makes no sense. New Catechism Catdeseo (NCC) sang “do not change” (I don’t want to change it). Well, great. No, life is about transforming, and if you don't change, bad care. In the punk and rock world there is always a tendency to recession: “Ez donk amaitu” has recently been organized in Arrasate, and all of them again in the 1980s. Until four days ago in the txosnas we often heard…

What is the name Harria referring to?

It's not unique and it doesn't get a huge depth. That stone from the front page image, located in the Bergara Elosumendi, is for me a very symbolic place, because I made some greetings to my father. I also liked it from sonority. And it can also guide the philosophical stone. According to Alchemy, this stone would have the ability to convert lead into gold, which would generate a drug that could regenerate cells. But we all have that stone inside, and we could reach it through transformation. There's a lot of talk about transcendence, about reaching a situation where you find yourself with the whole. In short, it is a level of consciousness. Right here, we're scared by those issues, because religion has thrown us many gangs. But alchemy has nothing to do with religion.

What has the personal evolution you mention served you for?

My father committed suicide when I was 9 years old. He was 40. This marks you and creates a relationship with death. I’ve always been pulling around: I started in macrobiotics, then in my youth I started studying philosophy… I’ve always been looking for something. My brother has channeled everything in a different way: it's much more rational, it hasn't given him so many laps. Everyone lives these things in their own way. That has taught me things, for example, I think I'm not too afraid of death now. And I see that people find it hard to talk about death, that they want to hide the natural. I think we should talk a lot more about these issues. We live in fear.

Those who started the Criminal Brigade share a similar evolution in music, from punk rock to folk, both in Fiachras and in Bizardunas, Unidad Alavesa and Harri. What's behind it?

In the Criminal Brigade, we got bored with punk rock and started listening to Irish folk, especially The Pogues and The Dubliners. First we created Fiachras and then came Bizardunak, if you want a better exercise of style, with violin and flute. In the end you can like blues, rock, country, psychedelia -- but everything goes into this extensive folk culture. The essence of everything we've heard is in folk, and I see it today as a rich tradition. On the other hand, we also had the will to break clichés. We were bored with the rock cliche wearing the MC5 and Stooges T-shirts. For us punk was something else, Eskorbutok did. But then I pijo became a crew, and the punk rock that is being made here today, all right, but far from being transformative. Something like that says Johnny Rotten in his biography that when he created PiL after the dissolution of Sex Pistols, the punkis did not understand anything, that they were still there with their skin-sucks and with their hairs on the tip. There's a guay punky stereotype, and I've also been there, but it doesn't make sense anymore. When we created Fiachras, we were all very lazy. The whole movement of the Buena Vista of San Sebastian at that time was very strong: NCC, Mr. No and these have been very good… but we wanted to flee. Where? Folk to the roots. At present there is nothing more to tap than to put an organic vegetable garden.

He recently wrote a tweet about a song by the Chill Mafia: “The Real Punk.”

It has to do with what I'm talking about. They have broken it, they have given fuel to everyone and I think they make good music. Then, some of their attitudes are far away, all of those drugs things to me five, but you see that they're street people, they don't come from wealthy families, they've advanced because they're artists, they're spinning around their heads, and they've managed to create something disruptive. And what you want me to tell you, that that direct tone that is imposed on Twitter is turned upside down, that it applies to intangible stars -- that's the punk spirit. They are now part of the industry, but at least they will live there. Hertzainak and Evisto do the same, but over sixty years old.

Chill Besides the Mafia, what new groups do you hear lately?

J Martina seems quite different to me. Or Tatxers, a more sophisticated rock. O Flash, Oki Moki, TOC, Marmol, Ibil Bedi… Many interesting things are emerging. Ana also seems to me to be very disruptive in her line. My beard friends are now making Andean rock with flute and guitars, Enemies of Trade. In general, monotonous discs with very similar sounds bored me.

What are your aspirations going on?

To start with, sell some records to get some money back. In February some live performances are planned and, in addition to the ones we recorded the album, other musicians such as Adolfo Alcocer de Barbas and Ander Elorza under Fly Shit will be included. Fredi Peláez likes a few performances: February 4 in Ataun, February 10 in the Bergara seminar, February 25 in Matadeix in Azkoitia, and March 11 in the gaztetxe of Igorre with Unidad Alavesa… If they call us from more places, we will see, but Maitane and I have a son of year and a half. Meanwhile, I've already started thinking about new songs. The process of making a disk is long and exhausted. I am eager – and also afraid – for the direct. And to start thinking about what to do next.