IZETA

IZETA at Hueco Studio: songs to feel up close

Some bands need distance to be understood, while others seem to grow precisely when you have them right in front of you. IZETA belongs more to the second kind. Their visit to Hueco Studio felt like a return to an intimate format: little distance between band and audience, close-up glances, attentive listening, and the feeling of sharing something that would not happen the same way in a larger venue.

The band, formed by Santi, Virginia, Candela and Laura, came to Hueco Sessions to present Todos los días, an album where alternative pop, emotional sensitivity, guitars, bass lines with personality and an energy somewhere between delicate and danceable all come together.

The day also had a very special context: Palm Sunday, the arrival of spring, cocktails, a traditional potaje de vigilia and a session experienced slowly, under the sun, before moving into the studio.

An intimate format, almost like going back to the beginning

At the very start of the conversation, IZETA talked about how special it had been to play in a space like this. For Virginia and Santi, the format brought back memories: in their early days, they had played Sofar Sounds and house shows, even in Mexico, and it had been a long time since they had found themselves in such a close setting.

“It was beautiful to feel that flashback, but then to be the four of us playing the album we recorded.”

This kind of format changes the way music is received. People listen more, look more, move less at first. There is a kind of silent respect that can feel almost difficult to break, even if everyone is following the rhythm inside.

“In this kind of close format, people are really focused on listening.”

And maybe that is part of the magic of Hueco Sessions: it is not just about watching a concert, but about slowly entering the universe of a band.

From a small house to their own sound

IZETA began in an almost domestic way. Santi bought a huge amp, brought it into a small house and started writing songs. Virginia joined in naturally: they lived together, made music together, and at first the project had a more folk, intimate feel, almost like a couple playing in the Albaicín.

But the band changed.

With Candela and Laura joining, the project found a new direction. What had previously been more acoustic or pop rock began to open up into a stronger, more collective sound, with a new kind of energy.

“It was together that we started making this style.”

In the rehearsal room, the songs began to transform. Shared influences appeared, along with a funkier, more psychedelic, more rhythmic feel. Santi and Virginia would bring ideas or demos, and then each of them would add their own part until something more solid was built.

“The bass lines Candela comes up with, or Laura’s ideas… it all becomes something really solid.”

That is one of the keys to IZETA: although many songs may begin from a first idea, the sound really appears when the four of them enter the same room.

Four highly sensitive people

One of the most beautiful lines of the interview came when they spoke about emotion in their music.

“We are four highly sensitive people.”

IZETA does not seem to seek emotion as a strategy. There is no calculated intention to sound sensitive, deep or melancholic. It seems to happen the other way around: the songs come from what they are living, what they feel, and what is generated between them.

Virginia explains it very clearly: sometimes she does not write thinking, “I’m going to write a song about this.” Instead, she writes from a freer place and only later understands what the song was really about.

“It’s more like free writing, until we realise that the song is about something specific.”

That shared sensitivity is also part of the group’s bond. In a band, coordinating lives, rehearsals, concerts, trips and emotional states is not always easy. There are days when one person is doing great and another is going through a low moment. But that is exactly where support appears.

“It is a blessing to be four highly sensitive people who click well together.”

There is something very human in the way they work. IZETA does not talk about the band as a perfect machine, but as a group of people trying to hold something together.

Being independent without losing authenticity

Another strong topic in the conversation was self-management. IZETA is an independent project, without a label or external structure moving everything for them. That has a beautiful side, but also an exhausting one.

On the one hand, it allows them to do things their own way. On the other, it means taking care of everything: concerts, releases, social media, travelling, merch, dates, unexpected problems and logistics. Even a flat tyre on the way to Barcelona can become part of the story.

“Managing everything yourself is a lot.”

Still, independence in IZETA does not come across as a pose or a desire to stay outside of anything. It has more to do with staying true to what they are doing, even when it does not always fit what is expected from an emerging band.

Santi sums it up when talking about the feeling of being a somewhat peripheral project within Granada’s scene: a Mexican and a woman from La Rioja making songs in the Albaicín, without an obvious connection to the city’s major musical references.

“It is not about not wanting to belong, but about trying to be authentic with the music we are making.”

And little by little, that authenticity finds its place. In Granada, in Madrid, in other countries, in small formats, in venues, in houses, in studios. Wherever someone connects with what they are doing.

Granada as a meeting point

Although only Candela is from Granada, Granada has become the place where IZETA comes together. The band brings together different origins: Mexico, La Rioja, Tarifa and Granada. Perhaps that is why their music does not fully respond to one specific tradition.

They talk about Los Planetas, Lori Meyers or Lagartija Nick as an inevitable part of the city’s musical landscape, but not necessarily as direct influences. The real influence seems to be closer: in emerging bands, concerts, bars and the people making music around them.

“We feed a lot off each other.”

Granada appears in the conversation as a fertile city, full of bands crossing paths, listening to one another and supporting one another. Not so much a closed scene, but an ecosystem in motion.

“All the emerging bands are there, sticking together.”

For IZETA, that network matters. More than copying a tradition, it is about being part of a shared present.

Todos los días: letting the songs reach people

With Todos los días, IZETA has started to put into circulation a repertoire they no longer want to be only theirs. When asked how they would like people to receive the album, the answer is direct:

“For them to sing it.”

Not just for people to like it. Not just for someone to say, “that’s cool.” What would really make them happy is arriving somewhere far from Granada and finding that people already know the songs. The choruses, yes, but also the verses.

“It would be really beautiful to arrive somewhere that has nothing to do with Granada and play a song… and for people to know the verses too.”

There is a very simple and powerful idea there: the moment when a song stops belonging only to the person who wrote it and begins to become part of other people’s lives.

In Granada, that is already starting to happen. People sing them, dance to them, recognise them. Now the band wants to move more, play in other places and let those songs find new voices.

Social media, pressure and real life

The interview also stops on a topic that affects almost any independent project today: social media.

IZETA talks with humour about the tension between being present and not wanting to become a constant content factory. The group has its own aesthetic, there is care, and there is a desire to share what they do. But there are also lives, moves, friendships, jobs, concerts and limits.

“We have made a bit of peace with it: there are four of us and we have our limitations.”

In a world where it sometimes feels like you do not exist if you do not post, IZETA claims another way of being present. Sharing what matters, yes. Showing what happens, too. But without turning music into an endless calendar of countdowns, TikToks and empty strategies.

“What fulfils us is this: coming here and playing.”

And that line sums up the spirit of the conversation very well.

A small scene, a point on the map

Towards the end of the interview, a reflection came up that connects directly with what we try to build through Hueco Sessions.

Santi spoke about the importance of people not only taking the songs with them, but also the experience of what is being built on a local scale: people putting time, effort and care into making things happen outside the usual circuits.

“Creating a small scene, a point on the map where people come to present themselves.”

That idea defines very well what happened that afternoon at Hueco Studio. A band from Granada playing in a house-studio in Cantillana. People from the village, friends, a close audience, food, conversation, music and a sense of community that does not need big stages to make sense.

IZETA said it at the end of the interview: it had been a different Palm Sunday, without cornets or drums, but full of something that also felt like a ritual.

An intimate, spring-like and very close session. A band presenting Todos los días from an honest place. And a conversation about sensitivity, self-management, local scenes and songs that, little by little, are beginning to be sung by more people.