It's been a while since the first song, from the first concert, where you published the album. A lot has happened in these two years…

The truth is, I love it, because the surprise has been total. But I already live in that surprise, I've built a routine in that surprise, and I've gotten used to the new situation. There is also that fear of effervescence. You don't know how long this is going to be. I proposed that it should be slow, but that it should extend what had begun.

What was new is no longer new. Has anything changed?

It has changed me a lot, but the essential thing is not. Now I look with other eyes at everything that has happened these two years. I've had all the sweet things, and I also want to look at the negative aspects of this world of music, to face it as much as possible. My biggest concerns are now others: how to dignify and professionalize this road.

I didn't think I could dedicate myself to music and to life before. Now I realize that yes, that I really enjoy doing this; that they ask me for many hours; that I want to keep training; that I would like to engage with my musicians and go on for many more years… All of this I do from dignity, and it is very difficult if you have to combine it with another job.

He has also had to make a lot of decisions. However, despite having other offers, he preferred the album to go out on his own.

On the one hand, I wanted to know what the whole process looks like. If a company does, you don’t know what work it is, what to keep in mind… I wanted to get inside in that mud. Maintaining independence is also very important to me, both as a musician and as a person. I do not want to have anything to do with anyone. There is always someone who wants to make a profit, but I'm not a product. In people, yes, I have confidence, and that's why I decided to fund it with crowdfunding.

Like the production of the album, in the concert you also carry the management.

At least at the level of the Basque Country. Like any other job, we shouldn't be ashamed to ask for money for ours, but many times it's the hardest thing to ask for money. It's true that carrying that negotiation as a musician gets you a little dirty. If someone does it on your behalf, all the ugly words are for the manager… I try to be kind in general and respond to a negative, always. But for the first time it happens to me that I forget to reply some messages.

That will also give you flexibility, we’ve seen you in festivals, gaztetxes, rooms, small bars…

That is also a difficult issue. I feel more comfortable in a warm place, with the possibility of listening well, the public sitting but not too far… There are rooms that offer that, but also some gaztetxe. For example, festivals don't normally. It is not easy to have clear criteria. But normally, when we go to the places that we go, a lot of people come in, and there's no better reward. Sometimes we can think, so much work... for what? Is it worth it? But we got to the stage, we played the concert, and finally, we're clear that yes, it's worth it.

We must also highlight the atmosphere that you have created in the group. It is clear that Ane Bastida, Iker Lauroba and Oriol Flores are more than the musicians wearing Izaro.

I've realized how different our camerino is compared to many groups of farandulas. There is no drug or alcohol in our country. We are meditating, saying nonsense… We are not “guayas” in that sense, but I prefer to do so. We've become a family, they're from my home to me. Right now, they're the most important people in my life. Musically, they have given another dimension to songs, although at first I find it hard to put them in the hands of others.

You've already said you do the songs almost suddenly, and you don't like to make changes later on. If you need them, leave that and create another song.

For me, every song is the answer to a question that I have in my head at any given moment. If I have to make a lot of adjustments, I no longer answer that question at the moment, so I am not worth it. If I want to transform myself or give him another point of view, I make another song, another answer.

Starting with songs, I'm at the forefront of language selection. I know you're comfortable in three languages (English, Basque and Spanish), but there will be Euskaldunes asking why you don't do more songs in Euskera, and also people who don't understand why you're still so fond of Euskera.

I have no limits on the subject of languages. I do it naturally, according to every song and every moment requires me. But it's true that I spent four or five weeks writing a song every day, all in Spanish. For the first time, I felt that pressure. “Izaro, should you also write in Basque, or?” Then I wrote the works of Euskera in a very natural way, but that concern served me to have my contradictions. I thought it wouldn't work for me, but I thought, “What will you say?” People tend to easily evaluate the other, but I don't do this to draw seven, eight or ten according to nobody's criteria. I do it for myself.

Great festivals, managers, money accounts, knowing all that world behind the scenes, have you found anything that surprised you for bad?

Everything is as I expected. But I was sad to see some assumptions. For example, once I was advised to paint my lips and go on stage with a skirt. I understood that if such things take you, young and without a fence that protects you, they would destroy you. It's no wonder that very young people end up as Disney stars end.

You have also denounced the comments and judgments you must suffer for being a woman and a musician.

It is rage, of course, but that is the case. It has touched me to hear everything: “With how many people you would lie down to get here,” or “it’s there just because it has the body that it has,” for example. If you're lean, because you're lean, because you're fat, because you're fat. No matter how you are, from the moment you get on a stage with a vagina, your body is judged and it conditions you. My male colleagues don't get any of that. I've done a personal job, and I've realized that I don't care what those people who aren't my audience say and think. But it takes good friends and a lot of self-esteem.

In a short time you have achieved many hotbeds and microphones. Do you feel the need to represent a generation? Pressure or demand to take several flags?

Yeah, I've felt that weight of becoming a little social referent. But I don't feel comfortable. I'm just a musician. I, as a musician, do not want to engage in any political initiative. Izaro Andrés Zelaieta will go to whatever initiatives and demonstrations he wants, but Izaro will not. It's a thing that I doubt going around in my head, hard, because everything has its ideological burden. But I don't want to link my work as a musician with anything, at least as long as I don't have very clear things.

You attach importance to caring for social networks, the media and communication in general. Many musicians experience this work as a burden.

I think social media is a very effective tool to make your work known. There's a lot of people moving around, and then, fortunately, there's also the direct ones. It takes away my time, but it's a lot that I get back. Izaro is a very personal thing, very mine, and I don't have to make any special effort to be Izaro. It's a job I can only do.

Essays, communication, concert management, concerts… Do you also have time to create?

I would appreciate more time and days to create. These last few days it has happened to me, for example, to have a “refrain” on my head, and not to be able to compose the guitar. I have a lot of songs that didn't fit on the first record, but as a friend told me, they don't represent the current Izaro, and at the moment, they'll be kept. Still, little by little I'm making new songs.