Reinis Jaunais- Painted Sounds (July 2021)

Issue Fifteen- July 2021:

By Mercedes Barreto

Travel experiences painted with sounds – that is how you would describe the music of Reinis Jaunais, a musician from Riga, Latvia. Reinis has been performing all over the world for many years sharing his exceptional guitar skills and unique songs. His music combines distinctive guitar playing techniques – including fingerstyle, tapping, percussive, and looping.

He has been composing his own songs since 2005 when he was busking and hitchhiking around Europe and Asia. For the last few years, Reinis has played over 200 concerts a year and has toured all around Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

What is your inspiration, the main source when it comes to your creativity and music?

“Surely, my travels. I’ve been hitchhiking around Europe since I was 16. I spent a lot of time busking in many different cities. Later on, I traveled around the Middle East, Central Asia, and West Sahara mainly by hitchhiking, too. Those low-budget trips still inspire me to create new music.

I still do travel a lot, although most of my travels are related to music tours now. I spend a lot of time booking gigs in indie concert venues, bars, cafes, or festivals, also house concerts. Most of them are very small concerts for intimate audiences but sometimes I get lucky to get booked on larger events, too. In 2019, right before the pandemic took over the world, I played 250 shows in a year – that is my personal record so far and it feels unrealistic now because of current travel restrictions. I’ve performed in many countries in Europe (including most of the EU, as well as Russia and Belarus, also Balkans) as a solo musician, also in New Zealand, Australia, Turkey. Most of the time I travel with my family now, that is, together with my wife and daughter. On the day off on my tours, I still do busk because I like it.

Fingers crossed that traveling and performing will be possible again soon!”

When did you get started? When did you realize this was what you wanted to do, and that you were good at it?

“Not sure if I ever realized that I am good at it! But I love playing music and creating it. Besides, I do spend a lot of time practicing. I don’t really consider myself as a very talented musician but I am happy that I can make a living with my original music as an unsigned indie musician, and that songs are played on the radio sometimes, or they get used in some TV series or videos made by other creators.

I started to play music when I was 13. Together with some teenage punks, we formed our 1st hardcore punk band. I was playing drums and the other guys were slightly older than I was. To be very honest with you, at the 1st rehearsals we didn’t even know how to tune our instruments. But we had lots of fun playing as loud as we could. Later on, I tried to pass the entrance exams at a music school but it turned out that I wasn’t playing drums well enough for a music school. A few weeks later somehow I was lucky to pass the entrance exam as a guitarist, though. I was playing guitar besides drumming back then. Then I started to practice guitar every day for a couple of hours. Together with my classmates, we formed a few bands too.

I was playing in a death metal band, as well as in a pop band at the same time. It was fun!
A few years later I made friends with some indie musicians that were touring internationally. I helped to arrange some shows for them. Some of these musicians are The Flamenco Thief (UK), David Blair (CAN), Andrei Senkevich (BY), Kenta Hayashi (JP), Voodoo Healers (GR), Oswaldovi (CZ), Volkan Incuvez (TR). Was happy to share the stage with Tim Holehouse (UK), too.

They inspired me to book some international shows for myself. That was the time when I got on the road and started to play shows internationally. I think my background as a drummer in the early days helped me to learn percussive style on a guitar.”

What are just three words that describe the sway, the flow, or the vibe you feel when all the music comes together as one? Why is this worth sharing with the world?

“Friendship. Travels. Unity.

I believe that music is like food for our minds. It needs to be shared with the world so people can choose music that suits them best. We all are individuals with different tastes.

I am happy that it is my music that some people choose to listen to because there are thousands of new songs coming out every day.”

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Has Covid affected, impacted, or inflicted your musical skill and/or career in any way? Positively, or negatively?

“Sure it did. Both positively and negatively.
When the pandemic started, we got a Europe tour booked, with most shows scheduled in the Balkans. We spent a year arranging it, together with my wife. We were supposed to play nearly 100 shows and the trip was supposed to be 3 months long.

I managed to play the first 3 shows in Poland and Germany when I had to rush back home before the borders got locked. It was a stressful non-stop drive. I crossed Polish – Lithuanian border 1 minute before it was closed! Crazy adventure. We had to reschedule tour dates 4 times ever since then. I got a bit anxious, probably also depressed and for a couple of months couldn’t find the courage to practice and to play music anymore. To me performing live is everything.

On the other hand, a few weeks later I started to compose a lot of new music and I had more time for that. Some of this music is recorded already. In November last year, I released my 7th album ‘Zeme’ (which translates as Earth, soil, or ground from Latvian) and it features a few guest artists as well. Some of them are fellow musicians from Latvia (which is the country I am from), others are from Nepal, Japan, UK, Hungary, and Australia. Worth mentioning Ivars Stubis – he is a great singer and guitar player but plays bass in the album. Also Regan Awale – a brilliant sarod player from Nepal. And Balazs Danko – excellent violin player from Hungary. And of course, Erna Daugaviete (LV) on cello – we often perform as a duo.

I was also a guest artist in my friend’s music albums that are coming up soon, such as singer-songwriters Dinārs Gulbis, Guna Grote Majore, Džeina Gavare, metal band Kayro, Rob van Barschot (NL), and others. Besides that, I released a few new music videos and most of them are made by my lovely wife Laima Jaunā. She will appreciate it if you will check them out. They all are on my Youtube channel!
There is still lots of new music coming on the way. Some songs are yet to be recorded but some other compositions are in the mixing process already and will be released later this year.”

Why should someone listen to your music? What will entice them, fully?
“I believe that the music I’ve made until now could be described as pretty diverse. Some parts of it could be described as relaxing, uplifting fingerstyle guitar music. Some other compositions fit well the World Music category. Other songs might fit your taste well if you like heavy post-rock or even prog-rock.

Therefore, many of my listeners appreciate classical and jazz music, too. So I believe, there is a little bit of everything and you will definitely find something for yourself. Some people have told me that it is good music to listen to while they are studying, driving or working by computer.
Most of my music is instrumental, some songs are in my mother tongue Latvian (that probably might sound like instrumental music for non-Latvians), but hey, I still believe that music is pretty much our universal language. Personally, I love listening to music in languages I can’t understand.”

Where can we find your music? Why should we?

“You can find my music on all major streaming platforms. On my Bandcamp and my YouTube channel, you can also find my 2 most early music albums which probably aren’t as professionally produced as the following ones but hey, these are my roots and some people actually like them most.

I put all my heart and soul (also most of my income) into the music and I really appreciate it when new people check it out! And if you come to my show and tell me it is because of this interview, I might even buy you a drink!”