The music of Juno Mamba / Vinci Andanar is definitely an experience. Listeners are brought into his world through a plethora of unique electronic elements, most notably culminating from influences beyond the realms of music.
“I get a lot of inspiration from everywhere, not just music. I get inspired by sportspeople and athletes,” he says.
Vinci’s love of music started back in his hometown of Ballarat, which has undoubtedly helped breed some of our best musical artists in recent times.
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He notes that the town’s rich musical scene and bevy of talented individuals helped make it an easy choice to pursue a career in the arts.
“Ballarat is one of the most talented, creative cities. I think being in a town with 110,000, it’s still a lot of people, but growing up, it seemed pretty small,” he says.
“It’s probably every generation, but I feel like in my generation, there were just so many talented people. A lot of that had to do with The Karova Lounge in Ballarat. They really fostered local bands.”
It what was formerly known as The Karova Lounge, (Now Volta), the venue was once a hub for young people making their way in Ballarat. That may be the key to the town’s success: anyone who wanted to be a musician went there, met fellow people in the industry, and found their path into their dream field.
“My first battle of the bands was at Karova when I was 15/16,” Vinci says. “Then all I wanted to do after that was play at Karova and I couldn’t wait until I was 18 and start playing shows.
“That was how I got into the industry, I just hung out at Karova every single night when I was 18. Just meeting people that way.
The town has not only fostered those in the music field, but talented individuals from all areas of creative fields around Ballarat.
“Videographers, photographers, graphic designers,” he continues, “a whole bunch of people that I feel were either a couple of years above me or a couple of years below me have just gone on to do incredible things. I can’t speak highly enough of Ballarat and there’s obviously some key figures in Ballarat that have made it happen.”
The Be_Hear/Now festival experience has been great for musicians to learn, network and create a performance that defines themselves. Vinci noted that the Be_Hear/Now performance meant a lot to him.
“For this project, a big thing for me was creating music that made people reflect and contemplate life because this project was a vehicle for me to explore those thoughts,” he says.
“Personally, I was at a point where I was quite lost in where I was in life, and I needed to channel that energy into something, so it was through this music and through this project.”
This experience gave Vinci means to connect with an audience who mightn’t be familiar with his work, detailing what he hopes listeners get out of watching the Juno Mamba performance in the Be_Hear/Now world.
“I love listening to music where I get taken somewhere else completely and just start daydreaming,” he says. “That’s what I hope people get out of when they listen to my music. I think it’s important for us to be still, and kind of take everything in. For me, music helps me get into that mind frame.”
As is clear by the Be_Hear/Now videos we’ve featured so far, they are an incredible display of visual mastery, the talented team working with the artist to follow out their vision and make things come to life.
Vinci’s vision for the amazing video below culminated in much consultation between himself and the wonderful Be_Hear/Now team
“I think we did a good job in matching it with the song,” he says. “Early on, I got put in touch with the videographer Jack, and Adrian who did all the visuals. So, I did have a couple of references in mind, and I shot that through to them.”
On the music side, these were fresh songs created just for the festival; “From my end, there was a little bit of preparation, I’ve never played these songs live. To prepare the songs took a couple of weeks, and because it is electronic, there’s a lot of stuff that I had to programme beforehand. I got a completely new live set up during lockdown, so it was the first time I’ve actually used this whole new live setup” he adds.
It’s clear that Vinci puts a lot of attention into all areas of his music making – the music of Juno Mamba is an experience, everything has been focused on for this Be_Hear/Now performance – from music to lights.
“I programmed some lights for the performance, too,” he continues. “With my previous band, we were pretty anal with our light show. I think it does help these days, it’s almost a standard, you have to have a good light show, or at least bare minimum of something flashing in time.”
The world built during a Juno Mamba performance not only thanks to the amazing visual elements, but an array of gear and instrumentation that sets him apart from the pack.
“I’ve got all these guitar pedals, my synth and my drum pads. Then I’ve also got my guitar pedal and my guitars. So, there was a bit of preparation in making sure that it was all working, and flowing with how I wanted to perform the songs.”
Juno Mamba’s song below meaning a lot to Vinci, and helping the Ballarat Be_Hear/Now experience come full circle.
“The song that I performed was inspired by my first underage rage in Ballarat, in this place called The Chapel. Also, my friend who wrote the lyrics for the song was with me that night, around 17 years ago,” he says.
“It’s pretty funny, it’s just a full circle moment where I’m doing this performance for Be_Hear/Now for Ballarat, and the song that I was performing was basically about a night out in Ballarat.”
Follow Juno Mamba on Instagram here, or head to the Be_Hear / Now website to check out all the performances.
