Bio
Belako
Belako, from Mungia (Biscay) and formed by Josu, Lore, Cris and Lander, began in May, 2011. The brothers, Josu and Lore, started playing covers and was then joined by Cris and Ibon, who later would later leave the band. They were then joined by Lander, who has been with them ever since.
After several concerts and two demos, the quartet appeared in the contest, Maketa Lehiaketa, in 2012, organized by Eitb Gaztea, where they won first place. The prize lead them to perform in high-level concerts, such as the BBK Live festival. Soon after, Belako also was invited to RNE3’s Disco Grande program, where they achieved third place for their 2011 demo.
In March 2013, they released their full album, Eurie, with a tour throughout Spain from March to December, which included more than 50 shows, including some important festivals and venues: San Sebastian Jazz Festival, Kutxa Kultur Festibala, Sala Razzmataz, Sala Apollo, Sala BUT… and opening for important artists and groups such as Elvis Costello, Crystal Fighters and Shout Out Louds. In the summer of 2013, while touring, they were chosen as TALENTO FNAC, which lead them to extend their tour.
In June of 2014, the band published their EP’s “BELE BELTZAK BAINO EZ ” and ” AAAA!!!!”, going through the self-management world, and releasing their own BELAKO REKORDS. With these two new releases, they began a new summer tour, performing in the most important festivals of Spain (BBK Live, Spring Sound, SOS 4.8, LOW Festival, BIG Festival, Dcode, Sonorama, Ebrovisión, MadLive, …).
Soon after, they returned to the road for a tour of more than 30 venues. Before beginning this tour, the band won the Revelation Artist/Group, which is awarded by Rolling Stone Magazine. Ending this tour, they were awarded the prize of Best Emergent Group/Artist by the Prizes of Independent Music.
2016/2017/2018: HAMEN, RENDER ME NUMB AND INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH
The tour got longer up to summer of 2015, going through other festivals such as Benicassim’s FIB . In August of the same year, they started working on their new project, “HAMEN” (Belako Rekords, Mushroom Pillow) released in January of 2016. Hamen’s tour, which began before the album’s release in November of 2015, had more than 100 shows and gave them the opportunity to go abroad, playing in countries such as Portugal, England, Scotland, Mexico, and Germany. During this tour, they continued getting important prizes, such as RNE’s Critical Eye(Ojo Critico de RNE) and Independent Music’s Best Live prize (Mejor Directo por los Premios de la Música Independiente).
After giving a few special performances, such as Suena Guernica in front of Picasso’s picture, the band released the song “Render Me Numb” that gives part of the name to the album “RENDER ME NUMB, TRIVIAL VIOLENCE ” (Belako Rekords, El Segell del Primavera, PIAS), that the band released in February, 2017. Just after releasing the album, they travelled to the United Kingdom to give a couple of concerts in Scotland and England, and have the opportunity to present it at the Primavera Sound Festival.
That same summer, they played in several festivals, such as the Mad Cool of Madrid and Benicassim’s FIB. The really exciting thing for the band would come in September, where they began a world tour going through countries such as Russia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, USA, Germany, England and Scotland. During this tour, they were useful in touching on some of RMNTV’s new topics. They finished the year performing to a packed audience in Razzmatazz in Barcelona as farewell to a great 2017
2019: READING & LEEDS AND TOUR WITH DMAS AND CRYSTAL FIGHTERS
In 2018, after advancing the third single of their newest album “Lungs,” (previously they had advanced the song “Over The Edge “) they announced the tour of the awaited album, which was published on February 23, and they released it in the Palacio Euskalduna of Bilbao. On this next tour they will be playing in 15 cities across Spain, and will return to play in big appointments abroad, such as the Vive Latino Festival, Austin´s SXSW, and the Community Festival of London. They also won several awards sush as Best Artist, Best Live and Best Videoclip (Render Me Numb) in the Independent Music Awards.
In 2019 and while prepearing a new álbum, they announced some special gigs in festivals like FIB Benicassim, Reading & Leeds or Coordenada in Mexico. They also toured europe with friends DMAS and Crystal Fighters, having more than 45.000 people audience in venues of UK and Europe.
2020: PLASTIC DRAMA
2020 is the year of Plastic Drama, the 4th álbum of the band, their most ambitious, reflexive and vindictive work having great reviews by NME, The Line of Best Fit, Gigwise, El Universal, Mondo Sonoro…
The retro-futurist sounds that the band characterizes doesn’t follow any concrete style, but mixes raw punk-rock and hot environments of the symphonic electronics. In spite of singing the majority of their songs in English, the band is also proud to sing in Basque. The shows are full of energy with the freshness and motivation of the young members of the group.
BELAKO are:
Josu Billelabeitia (guitar, vocals)
Cris Lizarraga (vocals, keys)
Lander Zalakain (drums, vocals)
Lore Billelabeitia (bass, vocals)
