Elias Babad

In his own words, his father raised him on bread and rock: “He made me listen to Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Cream and many others. He passed on to me his passion for the guitar.” And without leaving his neighbourhood he stumbled upon the blues and upon his first teacher, Sergio de Checchi, the owner of an instrument shop who gave him lessons in the only technique he knew: fingerpicking. With him he travelled the paths of gospel and early blues, and in 2018 he arrived in Barcelona to take lessons with Chino Swingslide, whom he acknowledges as his first teacher and mentor, the person who eased his entry into Barcelona blues through the jams at the Honky, the Harlem and the Pipa Club. At one of them he met Quico Hernàndez, with whom he created Lust N’Found and began his career as a professional musician, with a pre-pandemic Twelfth Night concert at the Honky Tonk. The adverse circumstances of lockdown gave his career an unexpected push: with the venues unable to programme anything, Elias and Quico took to the street, where they polished a repertoire that in later years would take them to stages and festivals all over the country.