Iñigo Etxezarreta: "There will be different formats of ETS in the future"

Iñigo Etxezarreta, head of En Tol Sarmiento (ETS) (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1988), faces with increasing patience and security the large format concerts he offered at the BEC in March 2025, the show broadcast two weeks ago at the Palau Sant Jordi sports centre in Barcelona and the assembly of the concert he will offer this Saturday, 25 March at the Movistar Arena in Madrid.

The musician is happy to take the step of setting in motion such challenges, because they allow him to learn and do "crazy things" and he feels "more artist" thanks to those outbursts, and because thanks to these special evenings the name of the group has grown. 

Anyway, shows like the concert that can be followed tomorrow, Saturday, live on ETB1 and ETB ON (20:45) force Etxezarreta to be in front of the computer or with the phone in his hand even longer than in musical works, with the guitar on or in front of the microphone rehearsing melodies; works of artistic director are imposed on musicians in performances of that size: "I spend most of my time and energy in artistic direction," explains Iñigo.

"When I stop for a week or two, I think I'm the one who has to go up there, and I'd be even calmer if someone else came on stage. It's a rich proposal, and there's a lot of things behind it: musical decisions, of course, but also what to do with lights, what to do with visuals, how to relate songs, scenography, performance..."

Anyway, the Alavese musician is on his way to learning more about the live, and he feels that there's going to be a change in that direction this year: "I don't usually enjoy concerts as much as people think; there's a lot of pressure. I want to be calm on stage, and I'm sure. But Barcelona was probably one of the three concerts I've ever enjoyed most, and I'm happy. So far, I've suffered a lot, and even after the concerts I see people crying and I'm still on a rational plane.

Etxezarreta will henceforth have countless opportunities to carry out this transformation, since ETS will continue in the squares - "I would like the band not to give up its journey so far and continue to play in the squares," the musician tells us - and also, at times, offering "special concerts": "ETS continues, there are many things to be done and there will be different formats in the future," he explains.

These special concerts, needless to say, require an additional effort in terms of resources and creativity, but they have opened the way for the public to propose and avoid losses at a "not too high" price of "international professional performances" (track tickets were 46.20 euros for the Movistar Arena and 31 euros for the BEC), thanks, among other things, to the contribution of the sponsors; the Basque Government, for its part, has supported with a direct subsidy of 300,000 euros the project "Conquering of the Hearts" for the dissemination of the Basque Euskera and Basque culture outside the Basque Country.

  "Conquest"  

In the musical arena, ETS has extended and diversified the raw material, the repertoire, for these shows of any kind, on the album "Conquista", released at the end of 2025. It is "a very eclectic album", summarizes Etxezarreta, a work that includes "songs born of emotional chaos, like life itself, eleven songs full of contrasts and contradictions".

He talks about theft, wounds and contradictions in four to five months, "Until you empty your guts," the tanned record ("I've gone through a complicated emotional state, a loss of direction in the last two years," Etxezarreta explains), through stories that rely on both pop-rock standards and Latin rhythms.

The Valencian Fernando Boix (David Bisbal, Dani Fernández, Ana Guerra, Alfred García...) and Felipe González Abad Nabal (Morat, Sebastián Yatra, J Balvin...) have been responsible for adjusting those melodies created by Etxezarreta in four more aligned songs with the Anglo-Saxon pop Boix and the Colombian Nabalez in the remaining seven with a clearer Latin accent.

Back and forth between Miami and Yécora, songs based on the Bachata and the Argentine quartets, framed in the sound universe of musician Luck Ra ("La Morocha", "Luck Ra: BZRP Music Sessions, vol. 61"...) and other proposals that are at the crossroads of the so-called urban style and the sounds of the tropical echo, and, to Etxezarreta's surprise, "At full speed:" I've never enjoyed the process of creating the album, I've seen it, I've seen it, I've seen it, I've seen it, I've seen it, I've seen it, I've decided it, I've made it I've made it, I've made it I've made it I've made it I've made it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it, I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it, I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I'm I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it I

"The Conquest of Hearts"

Many of these songs, adapted for the live ones ("One thing is on the record, and another thing is how you bring those things to the direct," the ETS composer tells us), will be heard on Saturday at the Madrid concert of the show "The Conquest of Hearts."

There will also be surprises, of course, but the team has not wanted to make much progress, and we will have to keep an eye on the Movistar Arena runway or the ETB1 and EITB ON broadcasts, ready for surprises.

Speaking of surprises, Etxezarreta has told us that one of the next steps of ETS will be known to the public at the concert itself.

So we'll know, "What now?"