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By Jeb Wright
The year was 1982. It was 3:30pm -- school was out for the day and you
were
sitting around chilling with friends. The new cable
channel MTV was cranked up on the 12" television screen. The sound
was terrible coming out of the tiny speaker on the back of the set but
the fact that rock music was on TV 24/7 was damn cool. If you were at your
friends house whose parents both worked, then a few beers were cracked open
and a doobie made the rounds.
Just as you were settling into a nice buzz, the screen showed what looks
more like a low budget Russian spy movie than a rock video. After a slow
fade, helicopter blades spun around and a leather clad Canadian
appeared. Power chords were tossed about with reckless abandon, as your
eyes were glued to the set for the next five minutes and six seconds as
"Fantasy" had your head banging and your fist in the air. The
descending pentatonic guitar scale between
verses stuck in your head and on the way home you stopped by the local Sam
Goody and purchased the album. Aldo Nova was as surprised as anyone
at the quick success of his debut effort, "It came
out of the box strong but I don’t think it hit enough people because
back then it was all still dominated by radio. MTV was just coming into
it’s own and was not in everybody’s household. I listened to it
just the other day. I realized that when I was making the album I really
didn’t know what I was doing at all. It is totally innocent. I went
completely on instinct. No one was there to tell me what not to do so I
just did what I wanted to. I put innocence to tape."
Aldo Nova was imported from Canada, Montreal to be exact. With the help
of MTV, his self-titled debut sold over one million copies. Nova
actually was a late arrival in the music game. He didn't pick up the
guitar until the age of 15. Only a few years later, he was selected to
play George Harrison in a production called Beatlemania.
Nova was not content to be an imposter though.
In between gigs he honed his craft. "I would work on those songs
while I was in Beatlemania. I wrote 'Heart To Heart' in between sets
during a Beatlemania gig. I came up with the riff and then had to go down and
play 'Help.' It was really strange. As soon as we were done with our Beatlemania
gig, I would grab our drummer and we would go to the studio. There was no
thinking involved; it was pure inspiration. I think that makes the record
special."
Nova was not content to be in a tribute band and after his nightly
performance he worked in the studio, playing nearly all the instruments
on what would become his self-titled record. "Fantasy" changed his life
and suddenly he became a sought after concert attraction. His follow up,
Subject.. Aldo Nova, started out promising with the anti-drug
anthem "Monkey On Your Back" but the rest of the album lacked the same
passion and drive of the debut. The release sold decent and kept Aldo a
player but it was clear that things were going in the wrong direction.
Nova reflects on the inner workings of the record company of the time, "Record
executives had gotten involved in the mishmash of it. They were trying
to steer me down to a certain direction. They wanted me to tone it down
and go for radio. I wanted to go where my instincts told me to go but I
wasn’t allowed to do it. The first record was innocence and inspiration
to tape. The second album was done in a professional recording studio
and went over budget. All these cooks were in the kitchen and it wasn’t
really that good of an album. I wanted to do a concept album but they
told me that I couldn’t do that. They said I had to do a regular album.
It really just became a bunch of songs that really didn’t make any
sense. They didn’t let me tie it up. The third album was even more of an
attempt to be more commercial. After that, I got out of the business."
Tensions mounted due to several factors. First, Aldo was not comfortable
touring and suffered from extreme stage fright. "My
guitar player would go, 'Let’s go kill ‘em' and I would go, 'I want to
kill myself.' I was not comfortable onstage at all. I had a
good time doing it but I think as time wore on I knew that I really
wanted to become a songwriter." Adding to the problems were
changes in how his music was created and recorded. His first two efforts
had been self-produced and featured Nova playing, arranging and writing
nearly everything on the finished product. The record company wanted
another successful single like "Fantasy." Under their pressure, Aldo
conformed and changed his image and sound. The record company brought in
outside writers and producers to make him sound modern. Instead of
sparking his career, these moves, along with his performing problems,
set in motion the end of Aldo Nova.
Ironically, despite the record companies direction to have other people
write for him, Nova became sought after as a writer for other artists.
Michael Bolton, Blue Oyster Cult and Lita Ford had Nova pen music for
them, the most known of these songs being BOC's "Take Me Away."
Aldo recalls the origins of the track, "I had written
that song and it was called 'Psycho Ward.' It was about an escaped
convict who escaped from the psycho ward and would kill again and again.
The music was the same as it was on the Blue Oyster Cult version. We are
both science fiction nuts. Eric Bloom said he wanted to write some
lyrics for it. He wrote 'Take Me Away.' It blew me away. When they
were doing the album Revolution By Night, I got permission from their manager to sneak
into the studio and play on the tape. It is actually me playing all the
guitars and the keyboard. It is not my solo though. I did the whole
thing except for that. I didn’t think it sounded like my track. The demo
sounded better so I went in and did it again. It went on to become a
staple of the band. It wasn’t like 'Burning For You' or 'Don’t Fear The
Reaper' but it is up there in their catalog."
Nova made a bit of a comeback with the release of Blood on the Bricks,
which was released on Bon Jovi's JAMBCO label. Nova had known Jon Bon
Jovi since his early days when Jon was a janitor in a studio. Nova's
self-titled debut was produced by Jon's brother, Tony Bongiovi. The
album also featured future American Idol judge Randy Jackson on bass.
The album proved to be too little to late but Aldo harbors no
resentment. "I went back to Montreal and I got
an apartment. I started producing Celine Dion when she did her first French album for Sony. That
led me to doing a bunch of stuff for Sony. I was really working the writing and
producing side of the business and I found myself enjoying it just as much, if
not more. I was able to create but I didn’t have to leave my laboratory."
Nowadays, Nova has traded in his Gibson Les Paul for an acoustic guitar.
He stays behind the scenes and produces and writes for other artists.
Nova has become most known as one of the main songwriters for Canadian
pop star Celine Dion. Nova co-wrote the hit song "A New Day Has Come"
among others and has been featured playing guitar, synthesizer and
percussion on her records. Recently, Sony BMG has released The Best
of Aldo Nova. While he is now among the pop elite in terms of
songwriters, Nova is proud of his legacy, "It was all
good. It was a good learning experience. I am glad I did it and I am
glad I got out of it when I did. When I was a kid I used to dream about
being on the cover of Circus magazine or Cream magazine. I
managed to do that. I am not frustrated about it at all. Once I
accomplished that, it kind of lost its luster for me. It is like getting
piece of ass. Once you get it you are ready to move on to the next."
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