VMS News: Musician Bara Jonson: A Success Story - Angharad Catteneo Reporting...

Bara Jonson

Bara Jonson, a Second Life musician from Åhus, Sweden, has one of the greatest real life success stories I’ve encountered. I remember viewing a documentary on his Second Life so it was a treat to catch him live on the Grid. His music is a little alternative rock/country and his acoustic guitar complemented his strong voice. Listening to his performances, it’s easy to tell that Bara’s original songs were inspired by real life experiences.

I interviewed Bara about his music career and his journey to success.

Bara started with music at age seven and continued into his adult years. Around 1997 he took a ten-year break from music to concentrate on a business recruitment company. When the world’s economy took a nosedive in 2007, no one was hiring and as a result, recruitment companies weren’t needed. That was when he first started playing Second Life. The virtual world was a way to take his mind off of real life, although he had no knowledge of the music community within it.

“Well, I didn’t know anything about SL when I started. Then I thought about the idea of connecting a guitar and microphone to SL and maybe I could ‘find a place beside a fire to play for those who stopped by’,” he says of his first experiences in Second Life. Before he knew it, he had won the mediaculture Virtual Music Award of 2008 for Best Artist.

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