"Benito Lertxundi was born in Orio (Gipuzkoa) 6th January, 1942 on The Wise Men's day. He is the eldest of 9 brothers and sisters from a large, modest family. His family was not traditionally musical although they did enjoy singing on special occasions. Benito himself showed a greater interest in drawing rather than music, although he remembers how he liked listening to the local organist secretly and in silence. He didn't like the official teaching of the times, with an imposed language which was not his mother tongue.