To Catch a Rising Star: Aldo Nova

Meet somebody who’s been out of the spotlight for a while that’s coming back in full force. His name is Aldo Nova and he’s known for his song writing, his virtuoso guitar playing, and all-around ability to produce an album all by himself, playing all the instruments, engineering and mixing it to boot.

Turns out waiting thirty years to come out of a self-imposed hiatus has paid off for Aldo. In 2020 he started doing revamped live home studio versions of his classic songs for COVID 19 attracting his old fans and new ones who had never heard of him before leaving them wondering,” Wow, where has this guy been?” The artist who was the soundtrack of their youth was back, and fans commented, “STILL ROCKING IT!!!” Once they saw Nova pop up on YouTube looking great, in shape, and not showing any sign of his 64 years of being on this planet rocking out to a point where much younger artists couldn’t compete with, they were pleasantly surprised.

“COVID was helpful in some ways.” Nova says because it gave me the chance to do something I love while helping people stuck at home because of the pandemic.”

In only a few months his 2020 version of Fantasy has already garnished 346,000 views, with all the other 9 he has done at well over 100,000 views each. Here are some links where you can watch a few of his COVID 19 performances.

Aldo Nova-Fantasy 2020-Smokin’ Hot-for COVID 19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f4rT30YxCU&ab_channel=AldoNova

Aldo Nova-Blood on the Bricks 2020-Smokin’ Hot-for COVID 19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pkWV_FysqE&ab_channel=AldoNova

Aldo Nova-Monkey on Your Back 2020-Smokin’Hot-for COVID 19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdsO1tawNO4&ab_channel=AldoNova

Nova always had musical aspirations. He recalls when he was four years old asking his mother repeatedly for a ukulele every time they passed the store window it sat in. She gave in one day and bought it, starting a long musical journey for him.

That interest in music never changed. At 13, Nova picked up his first guitar and says he didn’t leave his room for two years learning how to play it by ear. “Back then he says you used to have to put on the record, play one note, then move on learning the song note by note till you finally could play the song from beginning to end.” He also adds, “Nowadays, people learn things in a minute on YouTube, that’s cheating,” he says laughing.

He began playing in clubs just a few short years later. He performed songs from the Bee Gees to The Beatles gaining experience and confidence along the way.

He played four 45-minute sets in clubs four nights a week and that’s where he learned how to perform, perfect his vocals and learned how to structure songs by playing the hits. He then started writing his own songs and at the age of 21 went to a recording studio to record his first demos of those songs for what was later to become his first album.

He released his first album, Aldo Nova, on April 1st, 1982. It was a massive hit, selling over 500,000 copies in the first two months alone. That number would jump to 2,000,000 in just a year. The album yielded a song that 40 years later is now considered a rock classic, the powerful song called “Fantasy”

His second album, Subject…Aldo Nova, was released in 1983 displaying a completely new sound. It had a harder edge and was a concept album. It also featured the first rock anti-drug anthem, the blistering Monkey on Your Back.

Even though the album sold in excess of 1,000,000 units, the record company didn’t think it did as well as the first because of the massive sales and commercial sound of his first album.

When the time came for Aldo to record his third album, “Twitch,” the record company got really involved and they stated to take control of the production and song choices, to a point where they had Aldo singing songs that he didn’t write, like a cover artist. This left Aldo with an extremely bad taste for the music industry, and he asked to be released from his contract, which they didn’t want to do.

After that, he decided to move back to his hometown of Montreal, Quebec and started to do jingles for an advertising company. He was very successful at it writing some for Coca-Cola, Chrysler and Air Canada to name a few.

When Sony Music finally released Aldo from his recording contract in 1990, he was finally able to move forward as an artist. That year his old friend, Jon Bon Jovi reached out to Aldo to help him arrange and produce the demo for his song, Blaze of Glory for the film Young Guns 2 to which Aldo wrote the opening hook line intro. When Bon Jovi put his voice on Aldo’s demo and the film company heard it, Jon was commissioned to write the entire soundtrack to the film. Bon Jovi again called on Aldo to produce the other demos for the rest of the soundtrack, which was later recorded with the help of some of L.A.s best studio musicians. Aldo did all the arrangements for the record and Blaze of Glory became Jon Bon Jovi’s 1st number one single as a solo artist.

In 1991, Bon Jovi returned the favor and signed Aldo as the first artist on his own record company, Jambco Records. Together they co-wrote and co-produced Nova’s 1991 album titled Blood on the Bricks.

After that release, Aldo took a break as an artist to become a very successful songwriter for many world class artists such as Celine Dion, Jon Bon Jovi, Faith Hill, Clay Aiken and many more, with each having number one singles on the charts with his songs. He also always produced the songs he wrote for them. One such record earned him a Grammy in 1996 as a producer for Celine Dion’s 30,000,000 selling album Falling into You, which also won a Grammy for Album of the Year for her that year.

“When I was finished putting the final touches on that last song, called When All is Said and Done, it was a very emotional moment for me, and I’ll always remember it.

iinta believes in fair trade for all works of art, products, services and sales. As such, when purchasing authentic pieces from iinta you are paying the athletes and artists