MADDI ETXEBERRIA

BACKGROUND AND WORKS

I’m Maddi, born in Navarre/Nafarroa. I’ve been surrounded by music since birth: my mother is a teacher and radio announcer, and through the records she played at home, we listened to a wide variety of music. My siblings and I grew up listening to Baby Mozart and Oskorri, bertsolaritza (Basque improvised verse), and jazz. I was enrolled in music school and taught to sing Navarrese jotas (traditional Basque folk songs).

I was interested in drawing in the margins of my textbooks, and after music school, I continued with professional and advanced conservatory studies. Over the years, I became reserved and disciplined, and it was a creative thing I’d known since I was a child. After finishing my formal music studies with great effort, I felt the need to transform the writings I’d been accumulating for years in a dozen different notebooks through singing, which came to me especially when I was washing dishes.

Songs began to flow, slowly and in bursts, almost always dedicated to someone with whom I’d had a romantic relationship. I recorded an album called Amaitasuna in 2024.

Over the years, I’ve met people who have shown me the path to a compassionate way of seeing and acting, rooted in the land and fighting for the things I love. In my case, these things are the survival of my mother tongue, Basque, and the struggle for a creative, community-oriented, and dignified life for everyone.

I enjoyed making and singing songs, and I still enjoy it, in a tender and gentle way, escaping the culture of productivity and speed. I’ve been buying machines of various sounds to accompany my singing, guitar, and violin playing, and I’m currently in a period of hiatus: I can’t think of any songs, my body is too tired to record a new album or give many concerts in a row, and I’m looking to feel that every time I play it’s a unique and enjoyable moment. 

THE PROJECT

During her (second) brief residency at Do Picho, Maddi will perform solo, as well as with Jolie Holland and Ben Boye. As Maddi says, the concert on August 12th will be one of those moments: playing songs I love, both mine and others’, for people I admire and/or want to meet, in a magical moment and a beautiful place. Thank you Do Picho and Granxa Maruxa, always thank you.”