In a Buddhist story, “Not Too Tight, Not Too Loose,” Sona is the name of a lute player who achieves awakening through finding balance in his practice. Sona realizes that if his strings are too tight or too loose, he cannot produce the music he desires. His strings serve as the metaphor for what goes on inside each and every one of us as we strive to find balance and peace in our tangled lives.
In this interview spotlight, we have a virtual pow wow with SONA to discuss music, motivations, the new project, and more.
Full Q&A, links, and a stream of Come Up For Air can be found below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We formed SONA in Boston, Massachusetts in 2015. Our sound calls from a wide range of influence. SONA is an intimate/soothing yet powerful mix of soul, folk, rock, and pop music. We define ourselves as a folk-soul duo to our listeners.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?
Love in every capacity. Corny? Absolutely. Our goal is to continually work to connect human beings with the power of music. We live in a time in which the world desperately needs to remember what is important. We can’t think of a time when music wasn’t hugely integral in bringing society together – especially in movements of social and political change.
Who or what are your biggest influences when it comes to your creativity?
Our parents. The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Neil Young, Ella Fitzgerald, Pink Floyd, Joni Mitchell… we could go on forever. Music was huge in both of our lives growing up; the soundtrack to the soul. We were both involved in many activities, but music always remained a constant in both our lives. There’s also of course the acts that our parents definitely did not turn us on to, but we learned through the just-as-crucial social scene in our developing years: RHCP, Nirvana, Sublime, Glen Hansard, Regina Spektor, Elliott Smith, Amy Winehouse, and, more recently, Allen Stone.
How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?
We were looking for an organic sound, and it’s something that we really believe we captured on the record because of the relationship we were able to form with the musicians we got to play with and our whole studio team. There was such a relaxed yet professional environment that really allowed us to cut a lot of live first takes, and left time for us to improvise and add in sounds/textures and personality that we originally hadn’t thought of. A lot of the tunes were written before breakfast in the morning – practically whilst dreaming.
Do you face any challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? On the flip side, how has technology helped you (if it has)?
Good question. Honestly, the digital age is all we know. We were using myspace in middle school long before we even thought we’d be playing music professionally. Having instant access to the rest of the world is no doubt a plus when it comes to reaching fans. It allows for our sound to spread rapidly throughout the entire world. We can post pictures and sound bites and video clips to keep our name in people’s minds ( which is invaluable as an artist trying to get their name out). At the same time, however, the reason that we do what we do is so that we can go out and meet people who have the same values and goals as we do; to connect on a personal level. Luckily we can do both.
The thing with today’s scene is that more and more media focus means there is more pressure for any business to have a staff member assigned specifically to social media, booking, etc. Venues and media sites may be more inclined to respond from a band’s manager or social media representative than the members of the band itself. It’s a lot to keep up with: facebook, bandcamp, twitter, reverbnation, tumblr, snapchat, instagram… The endless list of possible networking platforms needily pulls the focus from the art to the immense amount of time it takes to get people to take a serious listen.
How do you feel about streaming services? Any romantic attachments to the physical formats: vinyl, 8-track, cassettes, CDs?
We love vinyl, and any hard copy of music. We believe art should be consumed in the form it was intended by the artist. When someone takes the time to create an album, that album as a whole tells a story. A song is a song, and can be an amazing song on its own, (which iTunes is perfect for), but at what point is a piece of the story being taken out of context and pushed for immediate profit rather than ar itself? For example, you wouldn’t generally pick up a book and only read one chapter. You process the whole thing from start to finish in order to digest its full meaning. This kind of piggybacks on your question about living in a digital age. People don’t necessarily purchase or want full albums anymore.
Where can we follow you online and hear more music?
Please do! You can find us on Facebook, Soundcloud and Bandcamp.
- https://www.facebook.com/sonaentertainment/
- https://soundcloud.com/sonamusicgroup
- https://sonamusicgroup.bandcamp.com/
Anything else before we sign off?
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us! Keep your eyes and ears peeled for more music from yours truly.
