My story and my purpose

I was born in Barcelona and grew up as a child with a great sensitivity for understanding others and doing whatever it took so that they would not get upset with me. Quiet, a nice smile, a doll-like face with blue eyes that won everyone over. I grew up being a good boy because the repression I went through was a silent one. Instinctively I did what was expected of me, because that way there was no conflict. And so, attuned to everything around me, I slowly lost the connection with myself. I knew what other people needed, but I had no idea where to find myself.

Ever since, I have been freeing my voice, both literally and figuratively. I am a creator, because creating is the expression of who I am, and I need to express myself in order to know myself.

Music was my first door into this path of self-discovery. At the age of 10 I started playing the piano. I loved it, and I still love it as much as on the first day.

As a teenager I sang my first note. With a lot of fear, but my lips finally let out a do re mi and could not stop.

I decided to devote myself to music because (and I quote my own thinking at the time), “when I had no obligations at all, what I wanted to do was music, so if I made music my job, I could spend the whole day doing what I wanted to do”. In time I realised that this logic has some important nuances, but back then it felt like a revelation.

I studied a higher degree in modern music at the ESEM Taller de Músics. And even though singing did not come easily to me, I chose voice as my main instrument. I worked hard. I sang all day, non-stop, practising, looking for my voice. Alongside my studies, I taught singing and played in several bands.

During my second year of studies I came up with and built Synkratos, the personalised digital newspaper. I became an entrepreneur! It had nothing to do with my training but, in the Facebook era, it seemed to me that we needed a space to share news without the noise. I put together a team of young developers and a designer, set up the company, raised 15k in funding and launched Synkratos. An immense learning experience. I learned about law, marketing, design, software development and, above all, about human relationships. In my early twenties I was leading a team of 5 people.

Synkratos ended up closing down (a long story for another day), but thanks to it I had broadened my horizons at forced march. I went deep into the world of UI/UX design.

One day I logged into infojobs because I wanted to know how much a designer earned, and I found the job offer of my life (or so I thought). Tree-Nation, an NGO working to reforest the planet.

4 hours later I had put together a portfolio and a covering letter. The next day the CEO called me. The following week I was working there part-time while finishing my fourth year at the Taller.

I left music as a profession and devoted myself to Tree-Nation and to freelance work until, a few years later, I set up Utopig Studio SCCL, a software development cooperative, together with my dear business partner Maria Vilaró.

And since I am restless by nature and still had many questions and little conformism, I decided to train in Gestalt therapy, a three-year programme, and in doing so a new path opened up: that of support work and psychotherapy. After finishing I studied trauma and began a degree in Psychology.

My purpose is to help… to put everything I have been learning at the service of other people. I believe that each of us has a unique voice, born of our essence and of the unique set of experiences we have lived, and that it is by freeing our voice that we enrich the people around us. When insecurity creeps in I think: imagine if every song in the history of humanity were sung by Michael Jackson or Whitney Houston (two of my favourite singers)… it would be awful!