The Most Inspiring Story In My Life
Recently, after finishing writing original music for the international theatre production Rainbows Over Hiroshima that currently runs in Russia, I was reflecting on my very first release, a remix for Bjork’s Joga. It was a year before I released my first album.
I was sitting in my tiny bedroom studio in Israel and was looking outside on the same old boring view. After what happened I moved and built a proper studio, something that I did many times as part of my search for a place that will feel like home (one of them is below). Anyways, that day I felt nervous about releasing my almost finished first album. It felt very personal and vulnerable. I also was afraid that as an artist from such a tiny country as Israek, the album would just disappear into obscurity. So I decided to write a remix for one of the favorite songs by a musical hero of mine, Bjork. Beyond a way to promote my upcoming album, that remix was in a way my gift back to one of my heroes, for inspiring me to create music. I decided to use only Bjork’s vocals and some of the strings, and to write a completely new music to it.
I was very proud of the result. I decided to promote it on Twitter and Facebook, but I was not prepared for the outcome. Literally tens of thousands people downloaded that track, blogs from many different countries wrote about it, an amazing artist from Italy contacted me and designed a cover for it for free because he loved it so much, and the remix was featured on Bjork’s LastFm page for many weeks. But the most amazing thing was all the love that I got from people from all over the world, who wrote, tweeted and commented on my interpretation of that beautiful song.
A few years later, after many other releases, I moved from Israel to Colorado following my dream, I literally left all my life behind, all my friends and family, and took a leap of faith. I brought with me only my guitars and two suitcases, one of them filled with essential studio equipment. It was a huge leap of faith. But once again, when I trusted the universe and jumped, the universe caught me and didn't let me fall. A month after I started performing live in America I was approached by a person who invited to audition for Arise Festival, the biggest festival in Colorado. I passed the audition and that was just another sign from the universe that all those twenty years of musical effort were worth it. I got another proof that I am doing what I was born to do.
My version of Bjork's Joga is a departure from the original with new dreamy synth sounds and melodies and electronic beats. It was such an honor to get such a reaction to my twist of that beautiful song.
The track is not available for sale but as a thank you for being one of my subscribers I want to give it to you for free - no strings attached. Download my version of Bjork’s here. If you like the track you might also consider checking out Only Music. It's the album that I released after that remix and it's full of electronic pop tunes that I like to think would make the queen of electronic music proud :-)
Warmly,
Sasha