“It’s a very complex and constantly changing matter. With the arrival of internet, everything changed and speed of life increased all over the world.” – Alessandro @JuBhota
Listen to the show
Episode #301 : A.V.A Live Radio Behind The Music with Jacqueline Jax : http://www.blogtalkradio.com/avaliveradio/2016/02/25/episode-301-ava-live-radio-behind-the-music-with-jacqueline-jax
GETTING TO KNOW ALESSANDRO SPONTA
by Jacqueline Jax host of A.V.A Live Radio
Band: Ju Bhota
Music business…
It’s a very complex and constantly changing matter. With the arrival of internet, everything changed and speed of life increased all over the world. While it’s undoubtedly positive for musicians to have an expressive range within a potentially endless network, we’ll discover in the future is this advantage is only an apparent one, benefiting only big business companies.
What pros and cons have you experienced…
In my case, I think it’s still too early to talk about music business: presently, my main aim is sharing and spreading my music and my ideas. I’m really happy to be able to do that – at this respect, internet is an amazing tool. Till today, I only collected positive feedbacks.
Hurdles and pitfalls…
Positive and negative things happen everyday in our life. It depends on us whether we consider them as obstacles or as useful signals on our path. What’s difficult is staying calm and positive. I always try not to expect too much, I try not to persist too much on things if something doesn’t go the right way. I don’t rush. I know frustration, and I know it’s often caused by unrealized expectations.
Social media…
I’m very enthusiastic about the possibility of sharing my music offered by internet. Being able to directly interact with people from the whole world is great.
Have you found any challenges that you’ve had to overcome?
I grew without social media, and I feel they are radically changing the way people interact, and even how they look at themselves. For me, knowing both ways – with and without social media – is a positive and inspiring fact.
Singles vs an album…
The “singles vs album” question, for me, is a strictly commercial fact. I prefer to produce an album, because joining various songs, including an order of listening, for me is creating a context and an overview that can be enjoyed by listeners. I see a single as a “bomb” to be thrown on the helpless listener, while concerning albums, it’s the listener who decides to dedicate time to music and to himself.
I’m trying to orient my musical production towards the audio-video world. I’m very fascinated by the idea of joining music and images, of telling a story through notes and musical landscapes. That’s what I’d love to happen. Anyway, I’m a musician, not a marketing expert: so, on one side I’m trying to make some good original music, attempting to capture the spirit of these times.
On the other side, I spend time sharing my music online, since I think it’s a basic aspect of the music itself: to be shared. If my music will achieve recognition, if many people will listen to it or if it’ll be a great film’s soundtrack – all this will be a wonderful consequence of that. Currently, the act of creating music is central to my vision, like a daily ritual filling my life.
I would love to have 5 minutes alone with…
I’d surely love to spend some time with Mr Herbie Hancock. There are many great musicians, but just a few manage to make music evolve. I think that’s the most wonderful thing a musician can do, and he’s among the great ones that did it. I consider some of his albums as milestones in contemporary music. For me, more than a musician, he’s a superhero!
Do you find that there is to much emphasis on being current and trendy…
I consider these aspects as marginal. Actually I’m a rather introverted and reserved person, I always try to be on the fringes of the system and I love music exactly because you don’t need to appear, the important thing is to be listened to. I don’t even know about the moment’s trends, but I hold myself as very current in my own way. I feel very empathetic towards people and events happening in this world, with music I try to express this time’s tensions. For me, making music is a luxury I have to deserve, an artistic and spiritual act: it doesn’t have anything to do with the current trends.
I am most afraid of…
Currently, my biggest fear is living blindfolded, feeling alone and severed from the world and not taking part in this wonderful mystery that is existence.
My personal definition of success is..
An example of my idea of artistic success could be becoming a little Mr. Herbie Hancock!
As far as the rest is concerned, as I already said, I hold myself as very lucky for the life I had and I am having. If I look back I see 35 fully lived years; I started working very young and that always made me independent, I studied and graduated in Oriental Studies, which enriched me a lot and graced me with unforgettable experiences; I had the possibility to dedicate a lot of time and energies to music, sport and relations with the others; I come from a wonderful family and I’m building a new one…so, I can only thank the Lord for that.
My over all goal for my life & career is…
If you ask about my dream, I’d be rather happy in a big country house, maybe in Tuscany, next to Sting’s house, with my partner and children growing happy…various albums and soundtracks realized, and obviously a great music studio in the basement, for me and my friends. Will it happen? Who knows…
I have always been attracted by music…
I started studying as a child, thanks to my father, a musician and music lover too. From that moment on, I never stopped; throughout the years I had the chance to study different instruments (accordion, classical and electric guitar, bass, drum set, Afro-Cuban percussion and sound engineering). I played with various bands, in several musical genres. From classical music to trash metal, from Italian folk music to electronics, passing through jazz, blues, hip-hop, reggae and Afro-Cuban music. I consider myself very lucky to have had such opportunities.
The Right Side…
It is my first solo album’s title track. It’s a sort of plea, a call to make choices and undertake a journey towards… the Right Side.
“The Right Side” has been the first song I produced in my present studio. It was the first idea I worked on and it kicked the whole “Ju Bhota” project off. I am very attached to this song, because for me it marked the start of this adventure.
I remember very well the day when, after some years, I could finally buy all the equipment for my studio. I left the music shop, went back home, opened all the boxes, connected all the machinery, then I took the guitar and recorded the Right Side’s riff. Every time I listen to it, I feel that moment’s energy and enthusiasm.
https://itunes.apple.com/album/inner-being/id1077298899?i=1077298953&ign-mpt=uo%3D5
I believe that music…
among other things, has the power to take as many meanings as the people listening to it are. It affects each one of us in a personal way. From my point of view, I consider this album as the beginning of a new journey, both inwards and outwards, trying to interpret the tensions of the age we are living in.
For me it’s an energetic, direct, contaminated, contemporary music; it comes from the streets of this world’s outskirts. It makes a feint first and then hits you in your face. I hope it will cause inner turmoils and, why not? Sudden changes.
You’d better not listen to me if you want to sleep soundly in your bed!
Some years ago, following a very painful personal event, I swore to myself not to waste even a single second more from this earthly life, and that from that moment on it would have been my duty to live the present moment, to dream again, to try freeing my mind and opening it to self-awareness and personal growth.
Six months later, I had radically changed my everyday life and my job, and I was in studio mixing “The Right Side”. Artistically, this album represents both a synthesis of what I lived in 25 years of music and a first step toward new creative scenarios. It was the first time I did everything alone in my studio, from playing all the instruments to the most technical production-related aspects. I found all this very stimulating, and I keep realizing more and more that the only limits are the ones inside my head. It’s only the beginning…in a few months I’ll publish “Kali Yuga”, my second album, with new original tracks; I’ll try orienting my production towards film soundtracks, or anyway towards a union of music and images.
I was born in L’Aquila…
a wonderful city in the mountains of central Italy. When I was 19 years’ old I moved to Rome to attend the university. These two cities are not very far away from each other, so I’m a bit there and a bit here. The local music and art scene is a mirror of the national one: most artists are living hard times to be able to express their art.
Culture here is not respected and considered as it should, and the whole society is affected by that. That’s even more sad if one thinks about Italy’s great art tradition. For example, excluding some bigger venues (auditoriums, big theaters), live music is not incentivized in Rome’s clubs, or at least not at acceptable conditions for musicians. That’s one of the reasons why I chose to perform in clubs only as an instrumentalist inside other projects I take part in; concerning Ju Bhota, I’m focusing on musical production and web promotion, and that more abroad than in Italy.
Unfortunately, going out an evening in Rome, it’s not as easy to find live music as it is in other European capital cities. There is good music if you know where to look, but it’s not as widespread as it was some years ago.
I’m a lover of martial arts and archery…
having grown in the mountains with a strong connection with nature, I love to do all those things that can be done in such places…from trekking to farming to cooking, as well as playing traditional music accompanied by good friends and good wine.
I challenge myself…
When I was 15 years old it was obvious to me that I would have been a musician all my life. That dream, once so clear and assumed, with the years became less and less like that… slowly, you start flying lower, if you don’t come from a rich family you have to work hard; external pressure becomes stronger and stronger, social models would like you rich, competitive and stressed; life pushes you down and staying human requires an ongoing effort and struggle. At a certain point, I even tried stopping making music, but luckily I failed.
Today I’m happy of having had the strength to make some choices: now I keep on going straight on my way.
The second chapter is on its way, stay tuned…
Bio:
Ju Bhota is an independent music maker based between Rome and L’Aquila (Italy).
Composer, multi-instrumentalist musician, independent music producer, Ju Bhota began studying music at age 10. During 25 years of living music, he has had the opportunity to study different musical instruments, playing in many musical projects and local bands, exploring different genres and musical languages. From folk music to trash metal, from classical music to electronic music, raggae, funk, afro-beat, jazz, blues and afrocuban rhythms. He studied accordion, classical and elctric guitar, bass, drums, percussions and sound engineering. At the moment his favourite instrument, what he loves most to play, is the afrocuban percussions, conceived and played in a personal style, in a context of contaminated contemporary music.
“The Right Side”, is Ju Bhota first solo album. All music is composed, played and produced by Ju Bhota. No samples used. Listen to original contaminated groove from Italy!
Personal web site
http://www.jubhota.com/
Facebook :
https://www.facebook.com/Ju-Bhota-1566896653576432/
Google +
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JuBhota/posts
Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/ju-bhota
Twitter
https://twitter.com/JuBhota
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNCeGR1GXYmYSgnt07GzTgw
Reverbnation
https://www.reverbnation.com/jubhota
Link to purchase music:
– http://www.jubhota.com/buy/
– https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01AXP9M1E?ie=UTF8&keywords=Ju%20Bhota&qid=1455729281&ref_=sr_1_1&s=dmusic&sr=1-1-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0
– http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jubhota
– https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Ju_Bhota_The_Right_Side?id=Bzknv26fe34nbgm3ltbbmtrvhsa&hl=it
– https://www.jamendo.com/album/154171/the-right-side