Exposed Vocals Interviews Muuska

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

 

 

 

Muuska: So Im from Sarasota FL, and for one christmas my mom bought me a keyboard to see if I would play it. That was when I was six or seven. Then as I grew older I picked up more instruments and took music in highschool and in college (but i dropped out, meh) and ever since Ive been finding other musicians and artists to go along with.

 

 

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?

 

 

 

Muuska: So, its funny because my nickname for my whole life has been bananas, which is how people kinda took my real last name “Bonanno”. I always thought Bonanno just sounded like a fancy way of saying banana. But i thought it would be too cut and dry to just use bananas, so i looked up banana in different languages and somehow “banana” in Somalian sounded the best to me.

 

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

 

 

 

Muuska: So heres the thing with free music, you can make sounds for free. Literally you can tap on a table its just free sound. The only thing that gives anyone the right to sell their music is if its arranged and recorded by them and yada yada. BUT the real kicker is that not really people care to BUY music, because they would rather buy the cool teeshirt and just have a burned copy, or whatever, of the mixtape and so on. Sharing music is hard because artists can come across like they are just using someone as a step in the ladder to get more followers and not being able to actually know that person in a human sense. My solution is just being yourself and allowing people to find out who you are rather than pushing them away with some type of music they dont even like, because at the end of the day all music “genres”(for lack of a better term) come from different lifestyles.

 

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

 

Muuska: Dont ever think that just because you KNOW your music is good (ie people are obviously liking it) that its worth more for YOU to play it over someone elses music. People might spend more to see Guns & Roses over Deadmau5, but thats because Guns & Roses has been around longer and they following might even be based from some older guy who saw them for free at one point long ago. The bottom line is, if anyone is truly a musician, they should just play because it feeds their heart and makes them happy inside, not because they need money just alone from gigging. Ive seen people lose what playing music really means just because they found the right places to play for money. Its just not about selling out I guess, its more.

 

 

 

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?

 

 

 

Muuska: Where. do. i. begin. UMMMM, hmmmmm, lets see, I guess its kind of like this: If i decided one day that wanted to buy a bag of cheetos, and the cheetos were good, I might start making a remix of a Rihanna song. Basically, there is no code to getting music that sounds right unless its your own code, your own thought process. Plus I also love listening to different samples from old to new and throwing it together in whatever way i feel, and maybe recording some too. You never really know when you are going to get a good tune or not, just follow it if it comes by you.

 

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

 

 

 

Muuska: I like to keep it simple for right now since Im dont yet have a huge following. I use soundcloud and twitter mostly. I have also not really had the money to afford a website haha and lets just say im working on it. I also use different not so known platforms like Wavo, artists union, splice and sites geared more towards musicians themselves.

 

 

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?

 

 

 

Muuska: I would consolidate all of my debt, I would get a School bus or one of those old british double deckers and pimp it WAY WAY out, with like a loud system and couches and like maybe even a popcorn machine somewhere, possibilities are endless. THEN, I would get some nice mobile recording gear and travel all the through out the continental US and at that point like I said, there is no telling what i could get myself into.

 

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

 

 

 

Muuska: The music industry is forever changed by one thing: instant exposure world wide. The key is getting to the point where you make enough sense that everyone is looking at you and your music. So twitter is great and so is facebook, even marketing through ads and such. Its not spam if people actually like it.

 

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

 

 

 

Muuska: Im currently working on an EP in the genre of garage trap and future bass, mixed with a little trip hop and some other stuff. No genre really. Just working on my life and putting all of my lifes experience into a medium for others to relate to. Eventually I want to be collaborating with some people ive met over twitter and the like.

 

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

 

 

 

Muuska: I would be a doctor.

 

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?

 

 

 

Muuska: There in lies the rub of all your questions. Its going to get a bit real now. My life: my mother passed away 8 months ago, my father left when i was 6. My girlfriend and I just moved to f***ing Huntsville, AL only to have her leave me a month after. So now im in Huntsville and I dont really know anyone, really. I mean I know people, but I dont KNOW them? All my friends are back in FL. So ive been riding my bike to work. And atleast I have a grand piano to play. Money is tight, im basically just trying to stay afloat for a couple months until it evens out again.

 

 

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?

 

 

Muuska: Im going to BUST OUT! in 2017 though. Just kidding. 2016 is going to be really underground for me, however, I have to mention that artists like NatoFeelz are just out of the blue following me on twitter. So I have good feelz, haha, about the year ahead.