Artist Spotlight is a segment that we started to introduce our listeners to some deserving up and coming artists/ bands. They have made an impact on us for all of the right reasons. We think they kick ass and we hope you do too! Today, we’d like to shine the spotlight on Ratinoff!
Creativity burns like a flame. Fueled by inspiration it only grows bigger, bolder, and brighter. Inspired to blaze his own trail, Jay Ratinoff ignites a scorching sound independent of border and genre lines. Fusing highly personal subject mater with ‘80s alt rock sounds and energy, his debut album teems with an incendiary, infectious, and inimitable spirit of its own.
Once a budding Latin pop star with acting credits to his name, Joaquin Torres made waves with a pair of explosive singles, which amassed over half a million You Tube views. The stage was set for a big change though. In 2019, activating a 360-degree reinvention, Joaquin legally changed his name to Jay Ratinoff, adopting his mother’s surname. He also received a second baptism as an adult at St. Bart’s church in the SF Bay Area.
Jay’s spiritual renewal crystallized his musical perspective, and he found himself reaching back to a time before he was born to draw on influences ranging from Joy Division to New Order, Billy Idol, and The Cure. The new songs, which will be unveiled on the debut Ratinoff album, Let It Out, in summer 2021, churn with driving bass and drums, and sinewy synth and guitar lines, over which Jay’s rich baritone spins tales of love, loss, and living in the modern world; think Ian Curtis meets Robert Smith, with a dash of Bono.
Every superhero and villain have an origin and an artist is no different. Well, minus the radioactive spiders and secret government experiment. What’s the origin of Ratinoff?
Wow…That is a great question. I hadn’t really thought of this, and it took me a while to come up with the answer to this question… The first thing I think of ‘’Ratinoff’’, is a new Me. Ratinoff is like a sign of liberation, emancipating all of my years of constant frustration just coming out. Not only musically, but personally as well. I always had the songs, but there was no real voice, until RATINOFF gave me a voice. It was like I had been walking on a limp all of my life, and now I wasn’t only walking, but I was running, jumping, taking a dive, and removing the safety net. Ratinoff was and is my freedom.
Some artists cite when they heard a specific album or saw a band live as when they knew music was going to be their life. When were you bitten by the music bug?
In 1998, I moved to California from a small little beach town in the Mexican Pacific, that was predominantly Americans. I was 15 years of age, and obviously I was not happy for the move… in November of that same year, I asked my mother if she could take me to go see Depeche Mode at the Oakland Coliseum, and I remember feeling like I wanted to do what they were doing on stage. I knew every single lyric and sang it with all of my heart. From that point on, all I did was write songs on a notebook that my grandmother had given to me. When most of the people from my school were going to parties, I would spend my time writing poems, and songs. Now more than anything, I love writing songs. That is where my passion is.
We’ve lost quite a few music icons over the last few years. If you could pick one or two to jam with, who would you pick?
That is a no brainer… My hero Peter Hook from Joy Division, and SIA.
If your music were a five-course meal what would be on the menu?
1) Fried Calamari 2) Caesar Salad 3) Pizza with eggplant and anchovies 4) Salmon with Mashed Potatoes 5) Creme Brulee.
You’re booking a tour that you are on, and you can bring along any 4 bands (even if they are no longer with us or broken up). Who would you choose?
Peter Hook and the Light, U2, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Sex Pistols
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