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’m Lorenzo Testa, an Italian musician specializing in Irish traditional music, tenor banjo and mandolin. I’ve been playing music since childhood, starting with acoustic and electric guitar before discovering my passion for Irish folk music and its traditions.
My connection with Ireland began during the 2000s, the Celtic Tiger years, when several friends were living and working in Dublin. I spent much of that decade travelling between Italy and Ireland, falling in love with its music, people and culture. Those experiences had a lasting influence on my life and musical journey.
Playing alongside Luca Crespi, founder of Inis Fail, in Uncle Bard & The Dirty Bastards helped me grow considerably as a musician. Over the years, I’ve also attended workshops with renowned Irish musicians including Paul Kelly (The Dublin Legends), Garry O’Meara (We Banjo 3) and Enda Scahill, founding member of We Banjo 3.
Today, I have the pleasure of sharing the stage with Enda in Gadan, the band I co-founded, blending Irish traditional music with bluegrass and Appalachian old-time influences, performing across Europe and the United States.
Three bands, one path
I founded Uncle Bard & The Dirty Bastards in 2007, and I’ve been playing tenor banjo and mandolin with the band ever since. More than 1,000 shows have taken us around the world, and in 2019 we became the first Italian band to play the Dublin Irish Festival in Ohio, one of the largest celebrations of Irish music in the United States.
Somewhere along the way, we became one of Europe’s best-known Celtic punk bands, carving out our own place in the genre. For us, traditional Irish music was never just something to sprinkle over punk rock: it was where everything began, the beating heart of our sound. That approach helped spark a sort of new wave of Celtic punk spreading from Italy all over the world.
Besides playing, I write most of our songs and look after the band’s management, production and booking.
There’s a good part of our story in the records we’ve made: the studio albums Get the Folk Out!, Handmade! and The Men Beyond the Glass; a Japanese edition of Get the Folk Out! and appearances on Tower Records compilations in Japan; the live album These Are the Days (Live in France); and The Story So Far, a collection of songs from our journey released in the UK by Angel Air Records.
From small, sweaty clubs to some of the biggest Irish and rock festivals around, our travels have brought us to places like Guinness Irish Festival, Rock The Ring, Montelago Celtic Festival and Sjock in Belgium, and many more.
In 2021 I founded Gadan with Jacopo Ventura and Joan Gatti, bringing together our love for Irish traditional music, bluegrass and Appalachian folk, with a good dose of Italian spirit. What began as a shared musical adventure soon grew into something much bigger than we had imagined.
In 2024 we joined forces with Enda Scahill, legendary tenor banjo player, All-Ireland champion and founder of We Banjo 3. The following year, Pennsylvania songwriter and clawhammer banjo player Eric Long completed the line-up. Three banjos, fiddle, mandolin and guitar: a strings-only sound with enough drive to make you forget there are no drums.
Since then, we’ve crossed the United States coast to coast on several tours, playing some of the country’s most prestigious Irish and folk festivals. Among our proudest moments was becoming the first Italian band to perform at Milwaukee Irish Fest, the world’s largest Irish music festival.
In 2025 we released May The Divil Tune Your Banjos, an album that brought us some wonderful recognition. We made the cover of Irish Music Magazine in September 2025, followed by a glowing review from Seán Laffey, who described our music as “string band music on steroids” and praised the band’s “phenomenal energy and musicality”, predicting the album would become “a classic for years to come.” Not bad for a bunch of Italians with too many banjos!
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
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 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”)
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