Rodrigo Leão: “I don’t know if my career would have existed without Maddeus’s years” | Culture | EUROtoday

Rodrigo Leão (Lisbon, 60 years previous) has the feat of getting made historical past within the worldwide enlargement of Portuguese music with out resorting to Fado. It additionally has the feat of promoting information the place it was sung in Latin. The first occurred with Madedeus, that group that turned the world a number of instances. The second, throughout his solo journey from the Nineteen Nineties. On April 25, when the 51 years of the Claveles Revolution have been accomplished, he printed The Mountain Boy And the day earlier than, on this interview, he was unable to specify whether or not he did quantity 21 or 22 of his discography. Which, in itself, is revealing each its inventive capability and the little significance that provides the numbers {that a} profitable profession summarizes. This Tuesday acts within the theaters of the Canal, in Madrid, with exhausted tickets, and later will accomplish that in Tenerife (November 29) and Bilbao to current The Mountain Boyessentially the most Portuguese work of which is the least Portuguese of the nation’s composers. An album the place he pays tribute to Zeca Afonso and the singer -songwriters who wielded guitars in opposition to the dictatorship.

Ask. Where is new inspiration when so many issues have already been finished?

Answer. It is at all times troublesome as a result of inspiration can’t be compelled. You must have persistence and persistence. Maybe 20 years in the past I felt extra blocked or pressured to make totally different information, however I’ve at all times finished what I wished. My music has influences, which go from tango to classical music, British pop or Brazilian music, and the general public has already turn out to be accustomed to discovering various things. This album is essentially the most Portuguese, greater than The Portuguesethe instrumental music that I made for a documentary sequence concerning the final eighty years of the nation of António Barreto and Joana Pontes. In a method it’s the continuation of that undertaking. It is a really marked album for what I listened to within the seventies like Zeca Afonso. I by no means thought I’d make such an album, though it’s evident that it doesn’t have the robust political message that there was then. There is a good complicity of the closest individuals who take part within the choirs. My accomplice, Ana Carolina Costa, nearly all of the lyrics in the past.

P. RODRIGO LEÃO ES EL Mountain?

R. No. The album is known as that as a result of all of us have a little bit of the individuals who don’t make up with the each day that we dwell and instances we now have moments after we really feel like fleeing to the highest of a mountain to assume. Define the spirit of the album effectively, with the choir and the percussions. The titles are at all times very difficult.

P. He stated in an interview that music is a remedy.

R. I’m very stressed, I cannot be 20 minutes in the identical place, however the music I make transmits some peace, finally ends up combating the agitated life I’ve. Maybe inside I’ve some peace that comes out intuitively via music. It may be nearly a remedy.

P. Is the composition what provides essentially the most pleasure of the method?

R. I’m a self -taught musician. I like to seek out concepts, it’s the half that provides me extra pleasure, however within the final twenty years I started to benefit from the live shows, the place there’s a direct contact with the general public. I’ve musicians with whom I work for a few years and we now have an incredible complicity. The most lactal half is after we go to the studio, it’s many days repeating and I’ve no persistence. I’m current however I’ve two folks of my belief which can be extra demanding than me to regulate the method.

P. Was being self -taught a ballast or a bonus?

R. It was one thing optimistic. As I didn’t examine music, issues come out extra intuitive and spontaneous. It is obvious that it additionally has a dangerous facet and it takes a very long time to make preparations, though I’ve individuals who assist me. I’ve a considerably lazy half, I might have studied music, however I started to compose in the beginning of the eighties when there have been teams like Joy Division, New Order or Echo & The Bunnymen, who performed very badly however have been good. At the start of the seventies folks understood that with three chords they may make impressed songs. Before this album I recorded Pianothe place I performed that I by no means studied piano and my daughter who studied him ten years, we did 15 live shows, it was lovely as a result of it was a dialogue during which we discovered quite a bit about one another, having very totally different musical universes.

P. Do you’re feeling that you just now have extra inventive freedom than in Madedeus?

R. In the final three years of Motherdeus, we did many live shows and I most well-liked to be at house composing. At that point I preferred it a lot much less to play dwell than now.

P. And why?

R. I preferred live shows, I’ve improbable recollections of excursions of Japan or Brazil, however as a self -taught musician in these 160 live shows we did per 12 months, my approach didn’t develop a lot. I spent eight years with Madedeus and ten with seventh legião, after I determined to start out composing my music, they have been concepts that didn’t slot in both. In the nineties I used to be very fascinated by the minimalist present of composers comparable to Michael Nyman, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Philip Glass and composed with a pc the place I recorded symphonic music with voices in Latin, subsequently the primary album that got here out in 1993 was very totally different. I didn’t wish to do what I had already finished with them and that’s the reason the primary albums have been extra minimalist and experimental and did few live shows. Only from Alma Mater (2000) I started to make use of a special formation with battery and bass, we started to have songs in English, French, Spanish, folks started to get used to those mixtures. But this album is totally different. When I started to compose I knew that every thing could be sung in Portuguese.

P. What is the connection with the reminiscence of Madedeus?

R. Almost 40 years handed but it surely would not appear to me that 40 years handed. Madedeus continues to be very current inside me and what I do, each from Madedeus and Seventima Legião. We have been very associates, we continued working collectively on many tasks. I’m going to eat typically with Pedro Ayres Magalhães, with whom I began Motherdeus in 1985. I’ve good recollections. My profession would have been very totally different, I don’t even know if it might have existed if I had not spent these years with Madedeus, the place I discovered quite a bit with my classmates.

P. Could you get collectively once more on stage?

R. It’s troublesome, however you by no means know.

P. Would you want?

R. I would love, I would love. Unhappy Francisco [Ribeiro] He is now not with us a few years in the past, however I would love. Have longing to the touch with it.