Uri Giné

Uri Giné (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈuɾi ʒiˈne]; born Oriol Giné de Lera; August 24, 1986) is a Spanish musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the founder, lead singer and songwriter of the alternative rock band Bongo Botrako from their formation in 2007 until their indefinite hiatus announcement in 2015.

In this Catalan name, the first or paternal surname is Giné and the second or maternal family name is de Lera; both are generally joined by the conjunction "i".
Uri Giné
Uri Giné in 2015
Background information
Birth nameOriol Giné de Lera
Born (1986-08-24) August 24, 1986
Tarragona, Spain
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • singer
  • songwriter
Instruments
Years active2003–present
LabelsKasba Music
Associated acts

Early life

Giné, the second of three children, was born and raised in Tarragona, Spain, a city just south of Barcelona. His mother, Maria José de Lera, is a nurse, and his father, Josep Giné, is a retired software developer. His younger sister, Alba, died at only ten months old from a heart malfunction, when Giné was 3. Some of his songs focus on the loss of his sister.[4]

Giné grew up listening to his older sister, Celia, practise the piano for hours daily, but even though she and his parents tried to encourage him to play an instrument since he was young, he was reluctant for many years. At the age of 13, Celia gave him a cassette of a friend's punk rock band and he was so fascinated that he bought an electric guitar and started learning to play it and sing. He taught himself imitating rock, grunge and punk rock bands such as Nirvana, The Offspring, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Extremoduro.[4]

Giné attended Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, but after four years taking classes in Audiovisual Communication, he dropped out to focus entirely on his musical career.[4][5]

Career

Extracto de Lúpulo (2003–2009)

Giné joined punk rock band Extracto de Lúpulo in 2003 while in high school. He wrote his first songs for this band but he soon realised that some of the songs he wrote didn't fit in the genre, so he kept them apart. In late 2007, Giné decided to create his own band with all those songs and named it Bongo Botrako.[4] In 2008 Giné recorded Extracto de Lúpulo's first album, El agua pa los peces, which was released in the following year.[6] However, after almost two years running both bands at the same time, Bongo Botrako had become way more successful than Extracto de Lúpulo and many gigs started to coincide, so in 2009 Giné left Extracto de Lúpulo to focus entirely on Bongo Botrako.[4]

Uri Giné performing with Bongo Botrako at Viña Rock Festival 2012.

Bongo Botrako (2007–2015)

In October 2007, Giné recorded a ten-track demo titled Bongo Botrako at his small home studio. He programmed the drums and performed all the rest of instruments himself. After passing the demo around, Giné quickly recruited eight more musicians and they started performing live in March 2008.[7]

Giné wrote the song "Todos los días sale el sol" (also known as "Chipirón")[8] in 2010 as part of Bongo Botrako's first album, Todos los días sale el sol, which was released on September 27, 2010.[9] The song became very popular in Spain after the men's national basketball team players, including Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol and Ricky Rubio, took the habit of singing it before every game in the EuroBasket 2011 Championship, which they eventually won.[10][11] In September 2011, "Todos los días sale el sol" peaked at #12 on the Spain Songs chart[12] and #2 on the iTunes Spain Songs chart.[13] The song accumulates more than 15 million streamings on YouTube[14] and more than 7 million streamings on Spotify, which ultimately makes it Giné's most popular song by far.[15]

Uri Giné performing with Bongo Botrako at Viña Rock Festival 2014.

The band's second studio album, Revoltosa, was released on November 12, 2012.[9] Giné and his bandmates embarked on an extensive tour that took them to eleven European countries, reaching particular success in the Netherlands, where they played at major festivals such as Lowlands 2014, Parkpop 2015 and Zwarte Cross 2015.[16][17]

The band's first and only live album, Punk Parranda, was released on November 3, 2014.[9] They recorded it performing to a crowd of more than 60,000 people at Viña Rock Festival 2014 in Villarrobledo, Spain.[18][19]

On October 13, 2015, Bongo Botrako announced an indefinite hiatus and a six-date farewell tour.[20] Giné explained that he felt exhausted after eight years of non-stop touring and noted that the band had lost the enthusiasm. However, he said he would continue to write songs and he left the door open to create a new music project in the future.[21] Bongo Botrako performed their last and 500th concert in Giné's hometown Tarragona on December 26, 2015.[22]

Personal life

Giné has been an active supporter of human rights movements throughout his career as a musician.[23] In 2012 and 2013, he performed two Amnesty International benefit shows in Barcelona.[24][25] He also included an Amnesty International quote in the music video for Bongo Botrako's song "Revoltosa" in 2012.[26][27]

Giné claimed to have had a life-changing experience in 2015 when he stayed six weeks in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest taking ayahuasca and other ancestral medicinal plants with a shaman.[4]

In May 2016, Giné took an Accelerated Freefall training to become a solo skydiver.[28] When he's not touring or songwriting, some of his main occupations are travelling, photography and skydiving.[29]

Discography

Extracto de Lúpulo
  • El agua pa los peces (2009) – guitar, vocals[30]

Bongo Botrako

References
  1. "Bongo Botrako - Punk Parranda Live 2014". Discogs. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  2. "Bongo Botrako verovert Nederland". Music Frames. February 10, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  3. "Bongo Botrako - Punk Parranda Live 2014". One World (in German). Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  4. "Entrevista a Uri Giné". Més Música (in Catalan). January 16, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  5. "Uri Giné". LinkedIn. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  6. Martínez, Javier (April 8, 2016). "El agua pa los peces". Rock Sesión (in Spanish). Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  7. "Bongo Botrako: About". Google+ (in Spanish). Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  8. "Bongo Botrako, los del 'chipirón'". Radio Euskadi (in Spanish). May 11, 2012. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  9. "Discografía". Bongo Botrako (in Spanish). Archived from the original on January 18, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  10. Mena, Fran (September 23, 2011). "¡Todos los días sale el sol, Felipón! Cómo se gestó la canción del Eurobasket". RTVE (in Spanish). Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  11. "Eurobasket: Los doce campeones, uno a uno". Spanish Basketball Federation (in Spanish). September 18, 2011. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  12. "Top 50 Canciones España - Semana 38, 2011". Promusicae (in Spanish). Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  13. "Spanish Songs Top 10 - September 20, 2011". iTunes Charts. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  14. "Todos los días sale el sol (Videoclip oficial)". YouTube. June 23, 2011. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
    "Todos los días sale el sol". YouTube. August 2, 2010. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
    "Todos los días sale el sol". YouTube. July 8, 2012. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
    "Todos los días sale el sol". YouTube. October 15, 2010. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  15. "Bongo Botrako". Spotify. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  16. "Conciertos anteriores". Bongo Botrako. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  17. "Uri Giné: En este país no interesa que la gente tenga cultura". Diari de Tarragona (in Spanish). August 23, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  18. Quílez, Rafa (November 2, 2014). "Bongo Botrako publica mañana un directo 'fresco y espontáneo' del Viña Rock". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  19. Castelló, Antonio (May 13, 2014). "Crónica Viña Rock 2014". Un Festival por Dentro (in Spanish). Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  20. "Hasta la vista". Bongo Botrako. October 13, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  21. "Hora Camp de Tarragona" (minute 21:22). Cadena SER (in Catalan). October 21, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  22. "Bongo Botrako s'acomiada amb un últim concert a Tarragona". TAC 12 (in Catalan). December 28, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  23. "Bongo Botrako encara la recta final de su gira". Diari de Tarragona (in Spanish). October 16, 2013. Archived from the original on January 18, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  24. "Dia dels drets humans". Amnesty International (in Catalan). December 10, 2012. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  25. "Ho diem amb música: No a la pena de mort!". Xarxanet (in Catalan). Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  26. "Revoltosa (Videoclip oficial)". YouTube. November 28, 2012. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  27. "Taller sobre voluntariado". Amnesty International (in Spanish). March 3, 2013. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  28. "Título AFF en caída libre conseguido". Twitter (in Spanish). May 21, 2016. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  29. "Uri Giné". Twitter (in Spanish). Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  30. Extracto de Lúpulo (2009). El agua pa los peces (CD booklet) |format= requires |url= (help). Santo Grial Records. DL B-51470-2008.
  31. Bongo Botrako (2010). Todos los días sale el sol (CD booklet) |format= requires |url= (help). Kasba Music. DL B-29603-2010.
  32. Bongo Botrako (2012). Revoltosa (CD booklet) |format= requires |url= (help). Kasba Music. DL B-28505-2012.
  33. Bongo Botrako (2014). Punk Parranda (CD booklet) |format= requires |url= (help). Kasba Music. DL B-21219-2014.
  34. "Punk parranda (Live)". YouTube. October 22, 2014. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
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