Aldo Nova

Aldo Nova (born Aldo Caporuscio) is a Canadian songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. At four years old, he knew he wanted to be a rock star, repeatedly begging his mother to buy him a small plastic ukelele which he then used in front of a mirror, pretending he was performing in front of thousands.

At thirteen, his mother was killed after being hit by a car. To deal with the loss, he asked his older brother to buy him an electric guitar. At fourteen, Nova had already formed a band and was writing original songs. Two years later he joined a cover band, an experience that helped him learn how to “structure a hit, do harmonies, and arrange a song”.

One night while performing with the cover band, a man approached Nova, explaining he had a record deal as a new wave artist, but wanted him to write, perform and produce the music for him (to which the man would lip-sync). Nova accepted and one of their songs, “XR-7”, got some radio airplay. However, the man unexpectedly disappeared, leaving Nova with the $10,000 studio bill. The owner told Nova he could either work in the studio or pay the bill, so Nova took a job at the studio, meanwhile writing and producing his own ten song demo.

That demo got him signed with ATV music publishing company (who then signed a deal with Portrait Records on his behalf), and became his debut album Fantasy. Its title track became a top 20 hit in Canada and top 30 hit in the US, pushing the album to #8 on the Billboard 200. “Foolin' Yourself” was a minor pop hit a few months later in both the US and Canada.

While Nova had been mixing his debut album at the famous Power Station studio in New York (at ATV’s request), he’d invited a pre-fame Jon Bon Jovi into the sessions and the two became friends. Later, when Bon Jovi was recording his first album, Nova was asked to contribute guitar, vocals and keyboard on it, including on the band’s first single and top 40 hit “Runaway”.

Subject… Aldo Nova, Nova’s sophomore album, came out in 1983 and peaked at #56 in the US. Its first single “Monkey on Your Back” was a top 20 US rock hit and its second single “Always Be Mine” almost landed on the Hot 100. Despite being less successful than his debut, Nova later shared it is “considered by most of my fans as being my best album”. That year, Nova also co-wrote Blue Oyster Cult’s 1983 single “Take Me Away” and it reached #11 on the US Rock Chart.

The more pop-oriented/less-rockin' Twitch followed in 1985. Aside from being certified Gold in Canada, the album was unsuccessful, with neither of its singles charting. Nova later shared that Twitch is “the only album I’ve ever done, which I hate with a passion”. By then he was, “not into being an artist anymore”, wanting to be a producer instead.

After prematurely exiting a tour in Australia, Nova returned to Montreal in 1987 and focused on producing artists like Cyndi Lauper, Michael Bolton and Lita Ford. He also produced for artists in his local area, including the pre-fame Celine Dion’s 1987 album Incognito. In the following years, he would arrange, produce and write for some of Dion’s Diamond-certified, Juno-winning, Grammy-winning and chart topping albums.

Between producing other artists, Nova worked again with Jon Bon Jovi on his first solo album Blaze Of Glory, the soundtrack to the film Young Guns 2, in 1990 – notably writing the main guitar line for its chart-topping title track. At the same time, he played a number of his own songs for Jon, who then signed Nova to his new label Jambco and released 1992’s Blood On The Bricks. Two singles from the album were minor hits in Canada.

In 1997, Nova released the instrumental electronic Nova’s Dream, an album that was “written, recorded, played and mixed in the space of 2 months, all without a single note or any idea of what I was going to do beforehand”. Since 1998, Nova has continued producing and writing for Celine Dion as well as Faith Hill, Clay Aiken, and a number of lesser-known Canadian artists.

In 2018, Aldo Nova released the album 2.0 which features reinventions of six songs from his debut album, plus “I’m A Survivor” – a song originally written for Lou Gramm of Foreigner. He shared with Blabbermouth:

During the time that I was working on 2.0, my wife was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I managed to finish the album right before she passed away on Christmas Day … She was a big part of why 2.0 sounds as good as it does.

In 2020, Nova released the the rock opera The Life and Times of Eddie Gage – a project he wrote 142 songs for over the course of twelve years that, in his words, “might as well be called The Life and Times of Aldo Nova … It’s my life story pretty much.”