I grew up in Merces, a small village in Goa, listening to hip-hop, 80s music, classic rock, country, and R&B. Not exactly the origin story for someone who ends up making Afrohouse. But that's the thing about music: the roots you don't expect are often the ones that matter most.

I've been performing in Bangalore for years now, first as a musician and singer-songwriter, then as a DJ. The Jonas Monteiro sets (Bollywood, commercial, EDM) are where most people know me. But there's a second project that's been running alongside all of that, and it's where I've put the most of myself: Jovah.

Jovah is my Afrobeats and Afrohouse alias. It's where I've been doing something that felt genuinely risky when I started: bringing a South African sound into rooms full of people who had never heard it.

Why Afrohouse

I got into Afrohouse through artists like Black Coffee. The way that music moves a room is unlike anything else I've worked with. It's percussive and spiritual at the same time. It doesn't just get people dancing, it gets them feeling something.

The problem was that Bangalore didn't have any of it. Not in the clubs, not in the playlists, not in the conversation. When I started dropping Afrohouse into my sets a few years ago, I was playing it to crowds who had shown up expecting something completely different. Some of it landed. Some of it didn't. I kept going.

That persistence is something I learned long before music. Growing up, my personal mantra was simple: stay determined, stay humble, keep hustling. It took years of consistent work to build what Jovah has become. The Afrohouse Showcase at Kitty Ko was a milestone I didn't take lightly: a full night in Bangalore built around this sound, with a crowd that showed up specifically for it. A few years ago that night wouldn't have been possible.

The Music: The Rise, Dumba, Mantra

My production work under Jovah has been telling the story of where this is all going.

The Rise was the beginning. The first real statement of intent, and the origin of what I've been calling #TheRiseOfJovah. Afro-inflected house with melodic depth, made for the dancefloor but built to hold up outside it.

Dumba is the one that broke through. It spread across Afrohouse playlists on Spotify and reached people well outside Bangalore. I'm proud of that track because it does something I always try to do: it drives the groove hard but it carries a melody. It doesn't let go of either one. Still my most-streamed release.

Mantra is my most recent track, and if you want to understand where I'm headed, start there. The title means exactly what it sounds like. I started working with Indian classical and tribal source material, not as a surface layer but as something structural. The chants and rhythms go into the foundation of the track. That's what makes Mantra different from what came before it, and it's what points toward what I'm building next.

Indo House

I call the new direction Indo House.

What I'm working toward isn't a fusion in the easy sense. Adding a sitar to a house track is one thing. What I'm actually after is a deeper conversation: African tribal percussion and Indian tribal percussion share a lot more than most people know. Both are polyrhythmic. Both were built for communal movement. Both carry something spiritual in the way they work on a crowd.

My reference points are Black Coffee for the African lineage and producers like HUGEL for melodic architecture. But the Indian side of this is wide open. India has one of the deepest percussion traditions on the planet and electronic music has barely touched it. That gap is where Indo House lives.

I started these gigs not just to play music but to build something. I've always believed that a DJ night done right isn't just a party: it's a community gathering. People come together around a shared sound. What I'm trying to do with Jovah and Indo House is give Bangalore a sound it can genuinely call its own, something that didn't exist here before and that carries its own identity going forward.

What's Next

The Afrohouse scene in Bangalore is young. Indo House is younger. I'm not trying to rush either one.

What I know is that this city's nightlife audiences are some of the most open I've worked with anywhere. They follow when they trust you. I've spent years building that trust, and I'm going to use it to push this further than I originally thought possible.

The music is coming. The sets are happening. Watch the Jovah side closely.

My music is on Spotify. Follow the journey at @soundofjovah on Instagram.