New York-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist who is one of the founders of the eight-piece roots rock band, American Nomads. He has toured internationally as well as written and recorded multiple film soundtracks, plus he had a song chosen for a movie trailer and played on a French film. Early in his career he had founded another band, and, present day, American Nomads has a new single that was just released last month, plus they’ll be releasing a new album in September and another in January. The band’s music has received national radio play, reached number 6 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, and passed the first round of GRAMMY nominations for one of their songs.
“I really get inspired when I’m up against a wall to write something. It really comes out well, I think, when I have something to work towards, something to achieve.”
“We were introduced to Joe… And I looked at Joe’s history and it’s pretty amazing. He’s pretty much been with Joe Walsh forever… And Joe Vitale also played with The Eagles. He toured with them, he recorded with them. He pretty much did all the drumming for Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and he worked with Ted Nugent early on, Dan Fogelberg, John Lennon, and many other artists.”
“I started when I was twelve years old, I started playing the accordion. I’m from Istrian descent, Istria, Croatia, so the accordion is kind of the instrument in that area.”
“When I was about 16, 17 (years old)… I was really fascinated with the Hammond organ, the whole Steve Winwood thing, Billy Preston, all that, so, I bought my first Hammond. And it really, really changed my world… later into synthesizers, piano, and the mini-Moog, the Oberheims, and all that, and it just opened up a whole world for me. It really inspired me to write and perform in whatever genre was happening at that time.”
“Music is a whole world of amazing instruments… and I’m very fortunate to have many of them and hopefully make them shine.”
“At the time, Jose had a contact with Chrysler Motors… so he started writing some industry soundtracks, industry films. There would be some footage of Chrysler making motors, doing road tests, and so forth, and so we would write particular soundtracks for that particular scene. So, we were doing that for a while and (were) pretty successful with that.”
“Actually, when I was born there was the former Yugoslavia, so, we kinda had to escape, so we lived in refugee camps in Italy for three years… We had to wait to come here for the American dream.”
“We found an old, abandoned firehouse in… Brooklyn… We got it all up and running, and it turned out really, really beautiful. As a matter of fact, it was published in a few architectural magazines and a few movies were actually filmed in it and actually downstairs my friends… started Firehouse Productions, which right now is one of the biggest sound companies in the world… So, we’ve had it for a while and right now we rehearse here, and we also record here. We set up a beautiful rehearsal and recording space on the third floor.”
“When I write I always go for the hook, the chorus, because that’s what people remember.”
“Running On An Empty Heart”
“Can’t Cheat the Hangman”