Ivona’s artistic career has been marked by independent work and collaborations that sought to create a unique and fresh sound. Not shying away from introspection and sensibility, as producer and performer, Ivona combines ambient and bass music with analogue and digital sound design. She expands her work through ambient and experimental club electronics, hip hop, pop, but also by composing for films and plays.
With experience performing at significant regional festivals (Illectricity, ZEZ festival, Music Biennale Zagreb, Grounded), as well as at the first showcase festival in Croatia, SHIP, tonota has participated in numerous music workshops and residencies not only in Croatia but also abroad. Her work has been recognized on an international level. In addition to her solo release ‘sve se kretalo i sve je stalo’ (2020), she has published her compositions on labels from the United Kingdom and Slovenia.
Can you tell us about your background and how you got into music?
I started playing the guitar in 7th grade. Then, in high school, I got really into hip hop and started experimenting with my own guitar and bass melodies over beats for a hip hop collective. After we split up, I couldn’t find a band, so I decided to try electronic music. At first, beats were kind of a background for the guitar. But the better I got at making beats, the more I got into electronics. These days, I’m bringing back the guitar into the mix because I started to miss playing an instrument live. And most recently, I enrolled in an MA in sound design in film because I wanted to expand my knowledge and bring a fresh perspective to my work.
Your sound is shifting between the more club-focused and ambient-home bound as veering towards sound design. Can you talk about these various sonic guises you have?
I don’t think much about what I’ll make in advance, in the sense that I don’t choose a specific genre. When I have an idea for a song, I try to find the best solution for its dynamic flow and arrangement ideas. I’ve done a lot of club-focused music because in Croatia, that was a way of getting more gigs if you wanted to do a live set. And I like to make music that can make people dance. I think in the future I’ll probably make more stuff that is influenced by pop and funk, but surely with my twist. Ambient-home-based songs come up more when I try to do something without thinking about the place where it will be performed. And when I get fed up with beats. I love how, in many interviews and conversations, people point out my sound design. That is something that just happened as a result of learning more and getting deeper into finding sounds that paint a picture that I want to portray.
Besides music, you also seem to be engaged in the music scene of your city, Zagreb, and the region as such (for instance, the compilation Grounded by the eponymous Slovenian festival), etc. What is the importance of being part of a music community for you?
When I was starting, it was really important for me to find some kind of community and a place where I felt I belonged. After opening a small business for music production, I went in different directions with different jobs and met a lot of interesting people who are part of different scenes. So I feel now, I am more focused on finding individuals with whom I feel comfortable sharing ideas and with whom I can have a proper collaboration. Meaning, both sides can fully appreciate what the other person can bring to the table. And accept that the idea will probably go in a different direction from what they’ve imagined. That aside, I want to make a space in Croatia where people can learn music production because there is no way of learning this in classical education. So I think I am mostly focused on opening a music community and scene to people who are not professionals but eager to learn new stuff. And in that way, also exposing them to new spaces and artists.
You also recently participated in a project that aimed to reimagine the sound of Croatian pop classics. Can you talk about this project?
Yes! To be honest, that was kind of a dream come true. I still can’t grasp the whole experience. I had to reimagine the sound for Vesna Pisaroviċ’s songs, who is one of the most famous pop singers in this region from the 2000s. It was an amazing experience. And I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned how some songs had to stay as they are because if you give them a new, more polished sound, you kind of destroy their core. Then you know you have in your hands something that had to be made in that period and wouldn’t work in any other. On the other hand, it feels even more special when you get an opportunity to take those classics and give them a newer sound, stepping over the technical limitations of that period.
What are your summer plans? Are you working on new projects?
My biggest summer plan is to take some time off. It was a crazy ride these last two years, and I really need to do some other stuff that is not music. But! Finally, I’ll have some time to focus on my album. I was doing sound and music for others, and I can’t wait to focus on my personal project after a really long time. I know for sure it will be a mixture of contemporary electronic music and South Slavic ethno. And I’ll try to include different artists from Croatia who I find interesting. So really looking forward to that! But first, much needed laying on the couch and doing nothing.
Interview Lucia Udvardyova
Photo Stephany Stefan