User:Crna vrana/sandbox

Childhood

J.R. August (born Nikola Vranić, January 30, 1989) is a singer-songwriter, pianist, record producer and a performing artist. Born in a small village surrounded by forest near Zabok, Croatia, J.R. spends most of his childhood writing simple songs and poems and playing the piano. He starts playing piano at the age of 6 and immediatelly is influenced by the great composers and starts writing his own tunes on the piano. One of his compositions is published in one of the note books. Soon after finishing his primary musical school he starts forming bands and plays whenever and wherever he can.

Career

J.R. started his career as a singer-songwriter in 2012 after writing a couple of songs in English. He previously had written almost 50 songs in his mother tongue but threw them all away after coming home from Los Angeles where he played on a Zack Dust album and had a small tour. J.R. plays many instruments but in one of his interviews he mentioned he likes writing and producing records more than anything else. When asked about his name he says: "I chose the name J.R. August for number of reasons. One of which was because I wanted to sound like a writer rather than like a musician (many of his favourite authors have such names: A.G. Matoš or E.A. Poe). The other reason was I wanted to pay tribute to some of the people that influenced me in my childhood and are no longer alive, those being my uncle John and my grandfather August. Adding the name Raven to that, after my favourite E.A. Poe poem at the time, and you get death and dead people living again through a living person and a recording and performing author at the same time. Which is pretty cool if you ask me."

Discography

J.R. August is known for releasing EP albums. When asked why he says that the main reason is the financial issues. "EPs are cheaper to produce. I definitely want to make LPs some day but I can't do it at the moment. Maybe one day I merge some of the EPs together and form an LP, but I'm not crazy about that thought."

Change of Seasons EP

In autumn of 2012 J.R. announced his first EP album. The album contained 4 songs and its video quadrilogy was inspired by Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The video quadrilogy was filmed entirely by his friend photographer DP Luka Smuk. The process of recording the videos took 2 years and in many of his interviews J.R. says that was the hardest and the scariest period of his life. Just as the two of them started shooting the video material for the quadrilogy, J.R. started experiencing first signs of depression. Very soon it escalated and J.R. became clinically depressed and stayed in that state throughout the whole shoot. It took him almost 4 years to regain his strength and become his old self again. Even though J.R. says that: "...it was a sort of my initiation, my rebirth and I became a new person after that long period of mental sickness."

Tea Party with Mr. Death EP

33 EP

Tales from the Forest EP

Black Waters EP

After failing to assemble his first LP album, J.R. decides to split the recorded material and divide it yet again into two separate EPs. The first one being Black Waters EP is a collection of 3 songs: MindHeart, Hold Your Horses and When I Wake Up Tomorrow. The arrangemets on the EP are rather simple and feature only the piano, J.R.'s voice and his own backing vocals and his newly assembled choir of 12. The songs are about and from his so called Dark Period and they dela with subjects of depression,death and transience.

Dangerous Waters EP

Personal Life

In many of his interviews J.R. talks about his passion for flyfishing and fishing in general. He says he feels an intense bond with nature when standing and wading in a river and fishing. He also says it's the best way to clear and calm the mind. J.R. prefers dry fly fishing and the catch & release techinque.