I was born a three-headed gargoyle on the steps of Motown. I started off in angry political/Middle Eastern-flavored hip hop. Then did what I called "Gothic Soul" - euro soul music with dark harmonies. I'd still do goofy raps about my dick, though. And now anything goes.
I'm a one-man choir. And the critics say:
"Try to peg down Juha... and you'll likely be so far left field or right field or not even in a field at all. If anything, Juha is the brilliant corsage bobbing in the junk-strewn waters of hip hop."
- Good Times Santa Cruz
"Juha is wickedly intelligent, with talent and intensity and - balls. Musically, Juha toys with the fringed edges where hip-hop is barely distinctly itself, not just bringing together but actually using and fusing an impossibly broad range of influences. Juha is shockingly good."
- Joseph W. Bean Out In Maui
"For all of hip hop's thuggish wordplay and stances, there are those whose mission is to infuse the culture with new visions, rhymes and beats. Juha creates music that stretches the boundaries of hip hop. 'Polari' is a exciting musical journey that says more on its 14 tracks than most hip hop artists do on their entire oeuvre."
- The Tablet Seattle
Juha's Rock N Wrestle Road Show is the tour I'm about to embark on. Special moments? I once did a show in an Episcopal church. And there was all this gorgeous stained glass behind me, and I was literally rockin it from the pulpit. The audience was in church pews, kinda swaying along to me and my foul mouth... which included angry bits that could be construed as anti-religious. After the show, this grandma who'd immigrated from Russia (a Babooshka?) ran up to me, hugged and kissed me, saying "I couldn't understand a word you said! But your ENERGY! The ENERGY! We can't do this kind of thing where I come from! Whatever you were saying... we can't say it!"
The first three albums that my big sister brought home were Shannon's 'Let The Music Play,' Joan Jett's 'I Love Rock N Roll,' and Steve Martin's 'A Wild And Crazy Guy.' Billy Idol came soon after, and some RUN D.M.C. At the time I wanted to do everything my sister did except the dishes, and so those albums impacted me and explain a lot about the sounds I'm makin now. Also, my mom's records stretched from Swiss yodeling records to Turkish 45s from the 50's to Miriam Makeba to French children's music to a 'How to Cha-cha-cha' album, so I was surrounded by that.
I found hip hop and punk on my own. I was also influenced by Beastie Boys, Blackalicious, Cab Calloway, De La Soul, the true and deep disco that existed long before Saturday Night Fever or Abba, Eurythmics, Harry Belafonte, Latin house music, Manu Chao, Operation Ivy, and Yoko Ono. By gospel choirs, Motown harmonies and the later "psychedelic Motown" works of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. And there's a holy trinity of Euro-dwelling Pisces girls named Nina: Nina Simone, Nina Hagen, and Neneh Cherry.
Current favorites: Cartoon Monster, Chumbawamba, David Hoyle, Deep Dickollective, Demune, Hinterlander, Marc Almond, MDC, th' Mole, Nomy Lamm, Older Than Hours, Puritan, Rajni Shah Projects, Restarts, Rikki Beadle-Blair.
Mainly my throat, and after that any equipment that comes my way or program that I can plug a shitty old keyboard into.
I'm vegan because I recognize that all animals are equal and have souls, and that all humans are animals (and souls) no more and no less than any other. The tears of an elephant are made of the same stuff as yours, and the whimper of a dog comes from the same place in its broken heart. Which will always move me more than an animal-eater's lecture about "the food chain."