Like a three-headed gargoyle perched on the steps of Motown, Juha’s blend of hip hop, soul, gothic, and world music is the backdrop for the choir that dwells in his vocal chords. A remarkable obsession with God and his dick is the three-part harmony that moves him.

The diversity of Juha’s sound is best explained by one of his mottos: “If you get diagnosed with multiple personalities, make sure that they’re all players in your orchestra.” And so the hypnotic account of slicing one’s wrists as love and sanity vanish is followed by a jig in which he proclaims, “I only where pants so I can stick my hands down ‘em and grope.” Between the storms of fury that he unleashes from a political soap box on the subjects of revolution and transformation, he’ll take a moment to musically press you against a wall and slip you the tongue.

In the beginning, Juha had a habit of blowing out his parents’ stereo as he made primitive remixes. Using a turntable and the “pause” button of a dual cassette player, his first was a mash-up of Salt n’ Pepa’s “Push It” and his mother’s favorite ‘How To Cha Cha Cha’ album. Over time, the mash-ups became a little more gloomy, as Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me” met a radio interview with a teenage cannibal. “Well, I like the taste of human flesh, but it’s not exactly something you can pick up at your local A&P....”

Told from an early age that he’d never succeed as a Pop Star, with resigned obedience Juha pursued the more stable, practical career of a Performance Artist. Both mourning the deaths (or as he called it at the time, “slaughters”) in his community and finding radical inspiration in ACT UP, his early AIDS-themed solo pieces included ‘If You Cough In A Metal Box’ - in which he played characters ranging from drag queens to neo-nazis to lab monkeys - and ‘I, Dolores, Lost Member of the Jackson Family: the shocking story of Michael & Janet’s long-lost HIV+ sister.’ He landed several grants for these and other works, including a Fellowship from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.

In 2002, Juha released the POLARI album on hardcore label Agitprop Records. Produced by Juha with artists Adam Capriccio and Ghalib, ‘Polari’ quickly scampered to #1 on the Outvoice chart, and made the rounds at urban and college radio. It also catipulted Juha to the much-coveted summit of the “Middle Eastern-flavored Vegan Hip Hop From Hawai’i Explosion,” which had of course followed the late-90’s “Latin Explosion” as hot pop-world trend. He had by this point fallen in love with the sound of his own voice, and decided that he was a Rock Star after all.

And now Mister Juha is happy to announce that the GROOMS OF GOD are here. As much a sermon as an album, ‘The Grooms of God’ finds Juha transforming himself into thieves and madmen, sages and whores... a little world of outcast men. And he places each outcast into song as if music were stained glass, and they the saints. Which, much
like you, they are.