Roden Budonis

Rodensos Maufil Budonis was born in Piscipla in the year 1900. He is the son of his mother Maufila Gonica and his father Odano Budonis. His mother was a relatively known singer, and she taught the basics of singing and music to her son, who joined her on her performances at the age of 7. He would later be split from his mother and many of the other musicians due to the juachian revolution in 1913. He would continue performing on his own at age 14. He began to see success in the 1920s, and his fame would only rise through the next decades, becoming a universally respected singer and musician on a national and international level. He retired from his music career in 1978, but still collaborates and co-writes with other musicians from time to time. He has a wife, a son and two daughters.

Early life and performing with his mother
Budonis was born is Piscipla in the year 1900. He was an only child at birth but his younger brother Dado was born later in 1902. Sadly, Dado fell ill in 1907. The same year, Budonis joined his mother on her performances throughout Juachia. Her mother taught hih how to sing, and he turned out to have an excellent voice. They were also accompanied by other musicians. Despite their relative fame in the bars and clubs of Juachia, their economic situation wasn't the best.

They performed in their first large venue in 1910, in the Piscipla theatre. The performance was filmed, but said films have never been found.

Juachian revolution and Arsondism
The Juachian revolution broke out in 1912. Rodensos' father had been sent to the front as the war against had begun turning against Juachia. Rodensos and his mother continued performing until this became impossible due to the civil war that was going on. He and his mother were separated on their way back to their home city. Maufila had to leave in order to hopefully find a ship to Torberia to escape from the war, but the young Roden couldn't come with her. Regardless, Budonis made it to Piscipla and stayed with his aunt. He soon received the news that his father had died at the front. In 1914, as the war ended in the mainland, Roden decided to resume his music career in order to make money, and he also started attending the Piscipla music academy. In 1915, like all professional musicians, he had to join the People's Music Association in order to keep performing and release records. The PMA was known for censoring the artists, adn it oftem required them to include revolutionary motives in their songs. The PMA did not view Roden favorably as both parties often clashed. Most infamously, he was arrested in the middle of a performance. His uncle, who had been his manager until then, was replaced by the PMA head of young artists. In 1916, after the asassination of Arsonde Renan, the PMA allowed Roden more creative liberty in his works. In 1917, Juachia returned to the mainland, and the PMA was dissolved. Budonis stopped using his full name when it came to music, and started using his nickname Roden instead.

Early successes
Although he had sang folk music with his mother and early in his own career, Roden began singing the contemporary music of the late 1910s while playing the piano. He was reunited with one of the musicians, Ason Piscar, who performed with him and his mother before the revolution. Sadly, Budonis also discovered that his mother had passed away due to illness soon after she made it to Torberia.

In 1918, the now young man achieved his first great sucesses with his song "Poumia", which became a contoversial yet very popular song, as the topic of the song about a divorced woman and the Roden's manners were seen as outrageous by religious people and old people. Roden continued composing hit songs with this new sound, but it all started to change in the mid 1920s. The musical style known as "flam" had come from abroad and was taking Juachia by storm. Roden hired flam musicians along with his old musical partner and started singing with them. Adapting flam to his own style, Roden wrote sweeet songs along with his songs with topics that had to do with life in Juachia. Budonis and his band started performing in grand venues. In 1928, Roden married his wife Adi Budonis in his home city.

The classic era and worldwide fame
By the early 30s, Roden's few supporting musicians had become a full big band, which gave an iconic sound to his songs. He kept releasing hit after hit and his performances were extremely popular. As the war went on since the 20s, Roden joined the juachian army, but his superiors, upon recognizing him, ordered him to write patriotic songs for the war effort. His songs became very popular among the soldiers and defined the sound of the war. His fame only grew in the 1940s. Binar Gonic became his main competition. Both parties were inspired by eachother to write new songs.

In 1946, after some discrepancies with his record label, Roden helped create a new label along with other big names from the industry to release his new songs. This allowed him to have full control over his music.

In the early 1950s, Budonis perfected his sound. He also started experimenting with music and instruments from all around the world here and there, but his voice was always the same. He performed all over Maurea and Rivesteka and his records sold very well internationally.

Venture into florg and collaborations with Shnarbet Flugwair
In the late 50s, Florg music gained popularity in Juachia. One of the most famous florg stars from the time was Shnarbet Flugwair from Sued, who first toured Juachia in 1956. Roden, who had already gained interest in florg music, attended one of Shnarbet's concerts, where the two talked for hours. They eventually agreed to compose music together. The single "Florg tra roken" produced by the two of them was released in juachia in 1956, and despite Roden's company's initial doubts, the song performed quite well, which convinced them to support Roden in his idea for a florg album co-produced with Flugwair. Budonis' florg venture did confuse some of his audience, who saw florg as "rebellious" music. Young people who were asked in the street also seemed to have doubts. One of them said "My old man listens to this guy, and now he's singing florg?". Thankfully, Shnarbet's involvement secured sales among the young population. FLugwair, when asked about the collaboration, said that he was "excited about getting to compose and perform music with one of his greatest idols". The eventual album named after the previous single which it included, was released in 1957. Despite the intention being to make a pure florg album at first, Roden incorporated his big band in some of the songs, and also some slower songs and his classic topics. The album was released along with another Roden album, which had been proposed by his associates to make sure that "one would sell if the other didn't". This meant that during the end of 1956 and the start of 1957, Roden spent most of his time in the studio. Both releases were very successful. Roden allowed Shnarbet to publish their collaborations himself in Sued. Budonis would release another florg album in 1958, this time with less involvement from Flugwair due to his constant tours around Rivesteka. He began to polish his florg and also mix it with classic elements with each release.

The 60s, and composing with Sakilo Mauben
In 1961, due to Shnarbet Flugwair's absence from the music scene to record his films, Budonis looked for another collaborator. He found that collaborator in 1963: the popular Juachian florg star Sakilo Mauben. Mauben's florg songs were quite experimental, and he brought that twist to Roden's music. Around this time, Roden's big band expanded to become a full orchestra. Roden's orchestra played in almost every song by this point, either as individual musicians or with the entire orchestra present. Slowly, roden's classic style and his florg music fused to create his modern style, which involved both classical instruments and modern, electric instruments and sytnthethizers. As Roden aged, Mauben took his place more and more as singer, and Roden had a bigger hand in composing the songs rather than performing them. In 1970, Mauben had to be hospitalized due to a car accident. He thankfully survived. He and roden would go back to making music together in the following year, and Mauben ended his solo career to collaborate with Budonis full-time.

Latter career and current day
In the 70s, Roden performed live less and released very few songs due to his age. He still performed yearly in the grandest venues of Juachia. The few songs he wrote were still great successes due to his already stabilished fame. In 1975, Shnarbet Flugwair passed away due to his drug and alcohol abuse. Roden Budonis, in collaboration with other artists, performed live in his honor.

In 1978, Roden dedicated his last concert and song to his mother, as he retired from music. Juachia and the world were moved while they watched the performance live. Roden, despite his old age, is currently still alive and well, and despite not creating music himself, he appears in various shows and other artists' performances as a guest. His son and daughters have sang many of his songs live in his place, and also release some relatively successful songs, but most of their fame is owed to their father.