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Artist
It was the city of Valencia (Spain) that saw Efrén José Miguel López Sanz come into this world on the 9th July, 1972 at the tender age of nought. Due to his size at birth (5.8kg) he was immediately, though unofficially, christened “Urtain” by the hospital orderlies, after a famous Basque boxer of the 70s. At school he was an absolute disaster. In fact 36 years after his arrival on earth, he still holds no official academic qualifications, not even his Leaving Certificate. The blame for this lies in a number of disagreements with a certain P.E. instructor. This marked the beginnings of Efrén’s less than perfect relationship with authority… He has been interested in music for as long as he has been conscious of the world around him, and can still remember all the arrangements of the songs he heard being played in the working class area he grew up in: Camilo Sesto, El Fary, Boney M, Los Pecos, Obús… It was around this time, 1993, that Efrén formed his first, more or less serious group with singer Cándida Sanchis. The group was called Margaritas y Cerdos and was influenced by 70s rock and various traditional styles. This is also the time he initiated his sitar studies, and began to investigate music from the north of India with Bengal resident Elche Sazed Ul Alam. He also started working with Miquel Gil as bass guitarist and producer. The warmth of the acoustic instruments he had been acquiring (sitar, mandolin, bouzouki, swarmandal, 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars…)