Mastretta (musician)

Early years

Even though he was born in Barcelona, Nacho (short for Ignacio) Mastretta is considered a Cantabric musician, since he moved as a young child to Santander where he studied piano at Conservatorio Jesús de Monasterio of Santander.

His first music project was named Las Manos de Orlac, a band formed in 1987 that played pop and Caribbean music, where he sang and played a lot of instruments. With this band he recorded two albums, La Furia (1988) and Salud y Pesetas (1989). He then moved to Madrid in 1991 and from 1992 until 1999 he worked as a sound technician in the famous studio El Sol. He also worked at Sala Maravillas, working with international and local bands throughout the expansion of alternative rock.

Instrumental music on an indie label

By the same time, he started developing a personal instrumental style that didn't quite convince the multinational record companies, until Subterfuge Records, an independent label from Madrid, used his style to open a new music section in the label. Under the name Música para un Guateque Sideral in the summer of 1998, the instrumental single Highballito was released (Highballito is the name of a Mexican cocktail that appears in a Hemingway novel).

He had critical success, and it was in December 1998 when he released his first album: Melodías de Rayos X. Instrumental sounds took a new step with the vocals of Ana Belén. Although Melodías de Rayos X was not an electronic music album, it was still chosen by the editors of El País as The best electronic album of the '90s.

In 1998 he became the official composer of Spanish designer Jesús del Pozo's fashion shows, and in 1999 he published the EP Música para el Desfile de la Colección de Otoño-Invierno 1999–2000 de Jesús del Pozo. By that time he had already collaborated with his music for Volkswagen Polo and Bitter Kas ads.

In January 2000 his second album Luna de Miel was issued: an interesting work where 10 female voices give some warmth to the compositions. Curiously, the lyrics were written by Mastretta –with help from his brother, Fernando- and voiced by women from different nationalities: Julieta Venegas and Alaska from Mexico, Rubi from Argentina, Beatrice from Italy, Gemma Corredera from Cuba, Rasha from Sudan and, from Spain Raquel Pascual, Irantzu Valencia from the band La Buena Vida, Cristina Lliso, Ana Belén and Ajo from the band Mil Dolores Pequeños. The link between the songs in Luna de Miel is the irony and sadness among women in distress with everyday problems. Due to the concept of collaboration, only two live presentations were done in Madrid for two days in May 2000 at the Colegio Mayor San Juan Evangelista.

In February 2000 he published the soundtrack of Asphalt the fourth film of Daniel Calparsoro, which was nominated that same year in the XV Premios Goya and the Goya Award for Best Original Music. In May the soundtrack of the short film Malas Compañías by Malagan Antonio Hens.

On the occasion of the XI Semana de Cine Fantástico y de Terror de San Sebastián, in 2000, he published Bascombe a CD single inspired in Sci Fi films, with versions of the music from Star Wars and Mars Attacks.

In 2001, besides playing throughout the American continent beside Julieta Venegas, he composed the soundtracks for the feature film El Sueño del Caimán by Beto Gómez and the short film Desaliñada by Gustavo Salmerón, and in November, Música de Automóvil An instrumental album that reflects his characteristic sound, but always with an unprecedented point of strangeness added.

He has performed at international festivals such as Pop Komm in Germany, Arezzo Wave in Italy, Sónar in Barcelona and in Mexico, United States.

As a record producer

As a producer he has worked with Liquits, Tonino Carotone, Peret and Josele Santiago. He has remixed Fangoria and Titán and he has collaborated with numerous band and artists like Renato Carossone, Peret, Los Enemigos, Los Planetas, Mercromina and Pauline en la Playa.