The youngest of three sisters who all found their voices at an early age, Juanita can recall singing as early as 3 years old, wanting to be as good as her naturally gifted older sisters.
Juanita grew up in a non-conventional environment, was exposed to many different, obscure styles of music from this early age and would watch Countdown and Rage till all hours of the morning where she continued to fall in love with music.
While kids around me listened to nursery rhymes, I was obsessed with bands and artists such as Prince, Eurythmics, Martha Davies, Blonde, Minnie Riperton, Olivia Newton John, ABBA, David Bowie, The Motels, The Police, Fleetwood Mac, Roxy Music, and so many more from the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s – The common thread or draw card were artists with great story telling ability, tone, fusion styles and oozing with charisma.”
With a catalogue of her own original compositions, Juanita’s pure sound displays an emotionally charged, vulnerable performance which brings her lyrics and wit to life. This can be heard in indie-pop-industrial-disco-funk duo ‘The Stripperz’ where her voice has a distinct throaty, resonating roar, iced with a quirky, sweet vibrato. This undiscovered catalogue of music never officially released, doesn’t follow any distinct trend and has often been referred by listeners as timeless.
“I’ve always seen pictures when I write and sing, therefore I ultimately hear my music on films or TV shows that definitely have a raw underground edge.”
Other credits are, Juanita has performed with the likes of Carl Cox, Josh Abraham, Joe Camilleri, Ross Wilson, Andy DeSilva and many more artists. She regularly works in the Melbourne Corporate music scene with Australia’s finest musicians, currently performing alongside Andy DeSilva in a Prince Tribute ‘Purple Revolution’ and has had the privilege of travelling the world to sing and perform throughout the years.
Some of the highlights being: Performances at StereoSonic with Carl Cox, a recent collaboration was with the epic Lisa Gerrard (a Golden Globe Award winner for the music score to the film Gladiator) on a song 2:23 for Hollywood film score 2:22, collaborated and co-written with Josh Abrahams, Davide Carbone and Carl Cox on Album ’Every Road Leads To The Dance Floor’, and also provides Top lines for DJ’s around the globe writing ‘Colors’, which was picked up and released as a dance track by Avicii’s label Le7el and featured on complications including Ministry Of Sound.
Co-written songs to brief for TVC’s for Baileys, Portmans and Lincoln Motors Asia as well as providing vocals for many other TVC’s and provides vocals to studio’s and recent TV show’s such as X Factor.
Whether it’s executing a vocal, performing & connecting to audiences, writing a script or song, the common thread Juanita has is a commitment to communicate authentically and to give it all. She believes knowing yourself and how to get yourself out of the way, is the great tool to have when you’re up to things that often test your comfort zone.
Rock Academy is a school holiday music initiative for teenagers established in 2015. Currently staged in Melbourne and on the Mornington Peninsula, Rock Academy features established artists mentoring teenage musicians as they rehearse a cover song and write an original song to perform on a real rock stage.
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