GETTING TO KNOW OLIVER NOSACYNSKI
by Jacqueline Jax host of A.V.A Live Radio
Artist name/music brand: Oliver Nosaczynski Bohovič
I always dreamed of…
writing pieces that many people would love to listen, as well as pieces that I can fully relate to, something coming from the very deep of my heart and that is what people can expect from my upcoming piano album which is coming soon.
What I can say about it is, that it will include 10 of my original piano compositions and 1 very interesting bonus. There’s a nice story behind this bonus track, I was asked by a famous Slovak singer/songwriter Peter Nagy, to re-make one of his songs which was a major hit in the Slovak radio back in the 80’s. Not only he wanted me to do a piano version, but he encouraged me to let my imagination flow and completely re-compose the song to a point where I only worked with the main melodies from the song, and I harmonized them in a very different way and structure.
Peter said to me “I want you to make it something like your piece Ballerina” and so I did. He was very satisfied with the result and I can’t wait what his fans will say about it. Behind each one of the compositions on my upcoming CD, there’s a story and there’s life. I lived with these pieces for a long time, believing in their value and quality. Many of these pieces already have had some success in the international composition contests for example “Impression” was a 2x Finalist in the instrumental cathegory of the prestigious UK songwriting contest or “Ballerina” was awarded 1st place for the nation Slovakia in the Ravel association composition contest in Bergamo, Italy.
I always wanted my music to be included in films, I love film music so I guess it has a lot of film music influences in it. The album title will be “Ballerina”, named after one of the compositions on the album and I believe it will be for everyone who loves movie soundtracks, romantic music, piano music, emotional music, relaxing music or simply music that is original and honest. It’s strongly melodic and very romantic and serene. This album is very important to me and I hope and believe it will find it’s place in people’s hearts. If anyone’s interested, I released a presentational EP album in may 2016 where 3 of the pieces from my upcoming release are included. These are “Ballerina”, “Waltz in B minor” and “Impression” and aside from these, there’s also my jazz ballad where I also sing and which I wrote for a Czech popstar Helena Zeťová, but decided to keep it for myself, a videogame music for the Pixel federation company, or a movie-sh guitar piece.
You can buy the EP here https://oliverbohovic.bandcamp.com/releases
I compose various genres, I don’t really like any boundaries. I love composing music in general and that includes also songwriting and genres like pop, rock, jazz, and of course classical and soundtracks. I just like to have fun with it and take the new challenges, so please stay tuned for more in the future ☺
Ballerina…
The Story behind the piece: I always deeply loved beautiful piano compositions since I was a little child. Whether it was the notoriously well known piano ballads like “Fur Elise” or “Pour Adeline” , or later more sophisticated ones like “Clair de Lune” or movie piano pieces like “The heart asks pleasure first” or “Comptine d’un autre été”, I always felt like it’s a music worth living for. So thoughtful, so meaningful, so beautiful. Like a lullaby I always wanted to fall asleep with and as a composer myself, I always desired to write something like it. Something recognizable right after few notes being played, something that everyone would love to play or listen, from the very young people to the very old ones.
One day I sat down at the piano and started to play around like always. I was always led by my feelings and never really cared about structures very much, and it was no different this time. I was putting my feelings into some random harmonies that I liked and suddenly I got this melody, this simple melody about which I thought it could be something many people can relate to and can touch many hearts and then when I had this basic melody, I just let my imagination flow.
Once the first half of the composition was written, I knew It’s not finished yet by far. I needed something to not only fill the duration time, but to create an equally good second half which seemed like a difficult task to me. And so I decided to be patient and take time to finish it, so each time I got something that seemed like a piece of the puzzle that would fit in. I would write it down and see what sense it makes in the context.
It finally took me a few months to finish the composition and I was really happy with the result. I remember my mom yelling from the kitchen downstairs “please keep on playing, you’re playing with my feelings!” and I thought “oh, that’s it! That’s what I wanted to do!” The only thing remaining was the title for the piece. I wasn’t sure what it should be called, I struggled because it seemed to me that writing the piece was easier than finding the right title for it, so I asked my family and friends and suddenly I think it was my mom who pointed out that one part reminded her of a ballerina dancing, and that was it. I called it “Ballerina” and as for now, it’s one of my most popular pieces I play live or on the streaming services such as soundcloud where “Ballerina” has over 12,000 plays so my dream of touching many hearts is slowly coming true and I hope it will be even more! ☺
Slovakia…
I live near the city Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia in Central Europe. The city belongs to UNESCO world herritage and it’s a very magical city hidden in the hills. You almost feel like the time has stopped here. We moved here from the Slovakia capital-Bratislava 5 years ago and here’s where I composed most of my music, being inspired by the gorgeous nature and the magical vibe this place has. The music scene in Slovakia in general is rather small, given the fact that Slovakia is a little country with a population of just something over 5 milion people. But people in Slovakia are very passionate about music and are a great audience.
Music has always been a very important part of life of the people in Slovakia since the old days. The unique folklore that Slovakia has, is still alive and we have uncountable number of folk songs that the people are singing for generations and that’s why I think that Slovakia is a very musical and musically talented country. However, there are not as much music venues as I’d wish and the musical scene is not supported enough. The commercial radios don’t support Slovak artists as much as they should and I only hope that this will change because there’s a lot of talent here, it just needs to be discovered. I also make my living composing also for other projects, for example an online strategy game Emporea:Realms of war&magic by amajor Slovak videogame developer Pixel Federation, or writing songs for artists.
Music Business…
I feel that the music business has heavily changed with the streaming services and internet in general. I was born in 1992 so I never experiences the golden era of album sales, but this is just something everyone says. It’s not easy to sell your music today, but rather than giving up I want to try and so I try to find ways of how to effectively sell my music on the internet or live shows etc.. With my upcoming release, I’d like to try some indie music stores like CDbaby and stream my music on various services like Spotify, iTunes etc. I think that the pros of today’s music industry is that thanks to the internet, I can share my music everywhere I want and independently sell it and present it. And the cons are that people don’t buy that much music anymore, and as an independent musician it’s difficult to find my way through, but I learn…
Inspiration…
That’s a really difficult question ☺ few names immediately came to my mind, but it would be Ennio Morricone- for his mastery of the melody and emotions, I’d like to ask him what is his creative process like and just have a talk about music ☺ so that’s from the film/classical music and from the pop culture, propably James Hetfield- because I always thought he’s such a badass and I loved metallica since my early teens. I consider James being one of the most charismatic frontmen in rock music and I love his songwriting so I would have a great time talking to him!
Link for the song purchasing: https://oliverbohovic.bandcamp.com/track/ballerina
Social media:
https://www.facebook.com/oliver.nosaczynski.bohovic/
https://twitter.com/OliverBohovic
https://www.instagram.com/oliver_bohovic_music/
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/oliver-nosaczynski-bohovic
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ60uF2uruJIRtSoaG3duSQ
https://soundcloud.com/oliver-nosaczynski-bohovic
https://oliverbohovic.bandcamp.com/releases
http://bohovic.org/