The beginning of Johnny Loda’s career as a rockabilly guitarist and singer dates back to the 1982 when as a sixteen-years-old boy he gave life to my first band, Nervous Kids and The Thunderbolts. However, if you wish to date back to his musical roots, you have to make a step back to the early 70s. He started playing the guitar when he was 8 and studied classical music until that fatal august of 1977 when the GREAT ELVIS left this valley of tears and his mother bought the LP The Rockin Days. He was extremely struck by the music and even by the videos that in those days the TV broadcasted. Since that moment, although so young, he understood that rockabilly music would become part of his nature. . he spent many year confined in his room where he played and sang until one day, finally, he was able to create his first band. He started performing when he was still a teen-ager. In 1986, after the military service, he made up the Rockin Rebels. Together with them he played and sang Rock’n roll and Rockabilly all over Italy for many years earning a widespread success from the audience and even from the musical criticism. Johnny performed in the most important festivals of the period dedicated to 50s music. He recorded many songs in many compilations, until in 1992, when finally created, together with the piano and the double bass players of the Rockin Rebels, the Silverjacks, a band consecrated to Rock’n roll, Swing and Jump and Jive. With the Silverjacks He performed for almost 10 years, at the beginning only as a guitarist but later even as a singer and, in 1997, he recorded his first long playing album, Breakfast on the Moon, and took part in many festivals both in Italy and abroad. After several rockin’ and swingin’ years, Johnny perceived in his soul a call of the more authentic and pure Rockabilly, that sound that made him fall in love many years before. Therefore, he has started to play in trio; after a short period which the band was called “Aces Trio”, a three fixed elements band, has in the beginning become a plan as a soloist, using his stage name “Johnny Loda” (his real name is Ettore Chiavinato), where he relied on the collaboration of different artists of the Italian Rockabilly scene.
In 2004 Johnny Loda recorded his first long playing cd as solo artist, titled “That’s me!!!” for the Swiss label “Blue Lake Records”. The cd was such a success and it was well appreciated by the critics and, most of all, by the people of Johnny’s audience.
After this recording, the critics has defined Johnny Loda as one of the best Rock’n Roll and Rockabilly guitar players of Italy and Europe.
In the same year, Johnny found out the two perfect elements he was looking for to realize his new musical projects, Matteo “the Babbaiù” Rorato on Double Bass and Severino “Tommy” Tomasella on the drums. The new trio was called “Johnny Loda & the Echorecs”.
In the wake of the success of the aforesaid cd, the band performed a lot both in Italy and abroad earning the esteem of concert organizers and they made their reputation as remarkable musicians and histrionic showmen.
A couple of songs of the band, appeared on some compilations in the last year and, in late 2007, they entered the studio again, to cut a new full length cd titled “Cool Tall Girl”, a 17 songs record; 9 tracks are original compositions of Johnny Loda.
In 2009, Johnny replaced the double bass player, Matteo Rorato, with Davide Boschetti (aka Pepe Mezcal) from the Rockabilly band called The Kryptonite; also Tommy, former drummer of the Echorecs, was replaced in the same year with Renato "Ato Kona" Ardizzoni, from the Rockabilly Hawaiian band "I Belly di Waikiki.
In the same year, the name Johnny Loda & the Echorecs switched to JOHNNY LODA TRIO
And for now, that's all folks!!!
