He is young, vivacious and a
\nrock music lover – he has an earring, and sports a massive ring to go with the
\ntattoo on his hand. Austin Jesse Mitchell is a native of LA, California, and he
\nwas born on December 22nd 1989, when the revolution that toppled the
\nCeausescu regime was in full swing in Romania. It is a curious coincidence for
\nAustin, who, 20 years later, decided within the span of five seconds to move to
\nBucharest to play bass in the band Bosquito. The band’s singer, Radu Almasan,
\nspent a few years in the US, where he met our guest. This is what Austin told
\nus, speaking in Romanian: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
I was brought here by a very
\ntalented Romanian singer who I’d been playing with in LA. When Radu decided to
\ngo back to Romania, I asked him if I could go with him, so we could continue to
\nplay together. He wanted to leave, but it didn’t even occur to him to take me
\nalong, to get me out of my native town and travel all across Europe. When I
\nheard that, I thought about it for all of five seconds, and said: ‘I want to go
\nwith you! I want to keep playing with you. I didn’t know much about Bosquito,
\nor about Romania, for that matter. I only knew one phrase in Romanian: ‘The
\ngentleman is paying’, and that’s about it. I had learned it from a book, and I
\nthought it would be useful when going to a foreign country where I didn’t know
\nanybody.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
At first, all Austin could do
\nwhen Romanian was spoken around him and he didn’t understand a word, was to
\nsmile. On January 1st 2013, his band mates had a surprise for him:
\nthey told him they would refrain from speaking English around him altogether.
\nAs a result, the young American is well acquainted with the Romanian language,
\nwhich is why he wanted to do this interview using it: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The first two years when I
\ndidn’t know Romanian were the worst. After that, I started learning it bit by
\nbit, and speaking it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In the meantime, he kept to
\nmusic: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
I’ve had a lot of concerts
\nsince I got here, I’ve lost count already. There are people who really want to
\nlisten to what we play. They missed Bosquito while Radu was in the States.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The young rock musician
\ndoesn’t give any thought to what he would have done had he stayed in LA. Most
\nlikely also music, but of a very different kind: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
I don’t think the kind of
\nmusic Bosquito makes would be possible there. Many say it is Latino, or Balkan…
\nIt has elements of both, but you can’t peg it down. Of all the music I’ve
\nlistened to in my entire life, there is nothing that can compare with Bosquito.
\nThis is a rock band with many influences.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In addition to music, Austin
\nMitchell also writes lyrics in English for Romanian singers or bands. As for
\nhis relationship with Romania, he says he liked the country from day one: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
A lot of people ask me: ‘Why
\ncome to Romania, when we all want to go to America?’ They really don’t get it.
\nWhen you watch American movies, you think America is some sort of heaven on
\nearth, that everyone’s having a great time all the time, that everyone is super
\nhappy, and everything is cool. But we are people like any others, and we have
\nour own problems, our own culture, and a lot of people feel better somewhere
\nelse.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Austin Mitchell feels just
\nfine in Bucharest, and hopes to provide us with plenty of musical surprises this
\nyear. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Austin Jesse Mitchell was born in the US, but now lives in Romania, where he is part of Bosquito music band<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":175412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46047],"tags":[46064,46065],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-175411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-expat-in-romania-en","tag-austin-jesse-mitchell","tag-bosquito"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n