Lorenzo Testa
Italian musician from northern Italy, best known as a tenor banjo and mandolin player in Irish traditional music. Co-founder of Gadan, founder of Uncle Bard & The Dirty Bastards, founder of Hyades.
A life in Irish traditional music
I have played music since I was a kid. I started playing guitar, both acoustic and electric, as many musicians do, but today my main instruments are the tenor banjo and the mandolin. As I have grown older, my main interest has become folk music, especially Irish traditional music, which I absolutely love to play.
During the 2000s, the Celtic Tiger years, I had friends living and working in Dublin and I spent a large part of that decade going up and down between Italy and Ireland. That is how I fell in love with Irish music, society and culture, and it changed my life. Back home, I grew up musically under the guidance of my mentor Luca Crespi, founder of Inis Fail, and I owe him a great deal of what I know.
Three bands, one path
I founded Uncle Bard & The Dirty Bastards, an Italian Celtic rock band, in 2007. Around 1,000 gigs worldwide later, our milestones include becoming the first Italian band to perform at the Dublin Irish Festival in Ohio in 2019, sharing the stage with Dropkick Murphys three times, and touring with Flogging Molly. We have also played alongside The Dubliners, De Danann, Frank Turner and more.
Since 2013, Luca Crespi, founder of Inis Fail, has been with us on tin whistle, Irish flute and uilleann pipes. His arrival marked a major step forward in my own study of traditional Irish music, helping me deepen my understanding of the tradition and develop as a musician.
Our live journey has taken us to the biggest Irish and rock festivals in the world, including Guinness Irish Festival, Rock The Ring, Montelago Celtic Festival, and Sjock in Belgium. Alongside performing, I handle most of the band’s production, management and booking.
In 2021 I co-founded Gadan with Jacopo Ventura: a storming Irish trad band blending the drive of Irish traditional music and bluegrass with the soul of Celtic and Appalachian roots music, all spiced with unmistakable Italian seasoning. Fiddle virtuoso Joan Gatti brought a fresh and contemporary sound to the band, and in 2024 we joined forces with Enda Scahill, tenor banjo legend and founder of We Banjo 3: sharing the stage with him is a privilege and an invaluable learning experience. From 2025, songwriter and clawhammer banjo player Eric Long, from the Appalachian heartland of Pennsylvania, completes the line-up. Three banjos, fiddle, mandolin and guitar: a powerful strings-only sound driven by a relentless rhythmic pulse. Our album May The Divil Tune Your Banjos came out in 2025. Gadan is now first and foremost a touring band: extensive tours of the United States, where we have played all the major Irish festivals, and regular dates in the UK and across Europe.
I founded thrash metal band Hyades in 1996, when I was 14 years old, and I have been its guitar player ever since, writing lyrics and music for four albums released worldwide by Mausoleum Records (Belgium) and Punishment18 Records (Italy), plus special South American editions. With Hyades I have played all over Europe, including a European tour in 2006 supporting US act Omen and live appearances at some of the most important metal festivals in the world, sharing the stage with some of my favourite bands, such as The Misfits, Agnostic Front, Tankard, G.B.H., UK Subs and more.
Tour dates
Upcoming dates
Discography, 1999 to today
Gadan
- 2025May The Divil Tune Your Banjos
- 2022Gadan
May The Divil Tune Your Banjos: official release · Gadan discography
Uncle Bard & The Dirty Bastards
- 2026Rusty Door [single]
- 2025Waiting For Another Day [single]
- 2025Dead Souls [single]
- 2023These Are the Days (Live in France)
- 2022The Story So Far
- 2021The Cellar Tapes vol.1 [EP]
- 2020The Men Beyond the Glass
- 2020Back on Your Feet [single]
- 2017Handmade!
- 2016Folk Rock III [Tower Records Compilation]
- 2015Get The Folk Out! [Japan version]
- 2015Plastic Paddy’s Day [single]
- 2014Folk Rock II [Tower Records Compilation]
- 2014Get The Folk Out!
- 2013Fly The Flag [Punk Goes Acoustic Compilation II]
- 2013Up the Bastards!
- 2010Drinking Not Thinking
Hyades
- 2015The Wolves Are Getting Hungry
- 2009The Roots of Trash
- 2007Alien [Tankard: Best Case Scenario: 25 Years in Beers]
- 2007And the Worst is Yet To Come [South America Special Edition]
- 2007And the Worst is Yet To Come
- 2005Abuse Your Illusions [South America Special Edition]
- 2005Abuse Your Illusions
- 2002Hyades [Demo]
- 2001No Bullshit… just Metal! [EP]
- 2000MCLXXVI [Demo]
- 1999Princess Of The Rain [Demo]
The Roots of Trash: line-up, songwriting and production credits (Metal Archives)
The Wetdogs
- 2013Yer Country [Punk Goes Acoustic Compilation II]
- 2012Straight To Hell [Punk Goes Acoustic Compilation]
- 2011The WetDogs
- 2009Magenta Avenue 79th
Collaborations
- Hillary Klug, the Dancing Fiddler from Tennessee: two-time National Buck Dancing Champion, famous for playing fiddle and buck dancing at the same time, with a video seen 64 million times, two albums at number 3 on the Billboard bluegrass chart and tours in 17 countries. I toured with her in Europe and the United States as session banjo and mandolin player
- John Whelan, seven-time All-Ireland champion on the button accordion: Transatlantic Project (US West Coast tour)
- Jason O’Rourke, Belfast concertina player with over thirty years of playing and recording behind him: live dates in Europe
- Celtic Roses, Italian Irish dance company: live music for their dance shows
- Gens d’Ys, Irish dance academy: live music for their dance shows
- 2021David Knopfler, co-founder of Dire Straits: Shooting for the Moon (banjo on “Sailing All The Way Round”)
Sources: official album details (Paris Records) · Lorenzo Testa’s teaching biography and David Knopfler collaboration.
Irish tenor banjo and mandolin lessons
I teach Irish tenor banjo and mandolin at music schools and through private lessons in Busto Arsizio, Milan and Saronno, and online.
For lesson enquiries, email loretxt@gmail.com or call +39 349 425 2904.
Private lessons
One-to-one banjo and mandolin tuition, in person and online.
My banjos, mandolin and guitars
- Clareen Pearl tenor banjo, custom made by Tom Cussen (banjo.ie)
- Dave Boyle custom short-scale tenor banjo, 17 frets, handmade in Leixlip, County Kildare
- Samuel Domeneghini custom bouzouki
- Flatiron Performer mandolin (1996, built in Bozeman, Montana)
- Martin D-28 acoustic guitar
- Fender Jason Isbell Custom Telecaster
- Gibson Les Paul Standard ’57