“I’ll always be a step away from my beloved Portugal”
Çith 45 years of career, Brazilian singer Guilherme Arantes says he is ready and committed to bringing his music to the Portuguese.
At the end of 2020, he was in Portugal after having released a new album and talked with News by the Minute, without ever leaving aside the affection he has for our country.
The career was the focus of the interview, but in his wishes for this 2022, his home country is not forgotten. “May our nation be joyful and inspired again.”
He has been in Avila, Spain, where he even passed confinement during a pandemic. Do you have a special connection with this place?
Ávila is a lovely and welcoming city, historic, mountainous, inland, very peculiar to religious tourism, with a heritage of monuments, especially the restored wall. It is a gastronomic and literary capital, which enchanted me and my wife Márcia. We have a home in Ávila, and now a little studio too. It is no longer simply a season, because we are residents. She is Spanish, from Galician family, and I also have Italian nationality.
The fact is that it may have been neglected in terms of strategy, for not having persevered in this idea of coming to Portugal to work. But for this dream to come true, I have a consistent trajectory
I read in an interview with a music portal in Brazil that your idea is to promote your work throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Is this an old wish?
Course is! I was in Portugal in 1992 and I fell in love not only with Lisbon and Porto, but with Coimbra, Sintra, Cascais, Fátima, Braga, and very peculiarly, Aveiro… Arantes are from Braga, with remote roots in Galicia, Arantei is on the edge of the Minho.
At 45 years of career, did you never have the opportunity for your career to reach Europe?
Always a very intense occupation of time in Brazil, with tours every year, so I let the time pass, years and decades on end, traveling roads and flights through Brazil, which is so immense… A continent… The fact is, it can have been neglected, not having persevered in this idea of coming to Portugal to work. But for this dream to come true I have a consistent trajectory, and even a commemorative box of 40 years bringing together all 30 clubs I recorded.
Numerous soundtracks from soap operas on Globo and important interpretations by Elis, Betânia, Caetano, Roberto Carlos, Fafá de Belém, Joanna, Leila Pinheiro, Vanessa da Mata, Ana Carolina, Gal Costa, and many dozens of other great names, make me a possible surprise for national Portugal one day, albeit late in their career…. It’s a real dream of mine, but totally viable! Will is not lacking.
A hardest part for me and my generation (70s/80s) was the 90s with the migration of discs to digital format
What do you remember about the beginning of this journey in the music world?
There are many trends, in every sense of the word, especially stylistic. As I have always kept my music anchored to the piano, I come from a very defined lineage of Brazilian piano that goes through Chiquinha Gonzaga, Ernesto Nazareth, Villa Lobos, Tom Jobim, Johnny Alf, João Donato, Marcos Valle, Antonio Adolfo, Taiguara, Ivan Lins, Wagner Tiso, Flavio Venturini, Leila Pinheiro, Delia Fischer, and passes through me too, leading to new generations, such as Ed Motta, Marcelo Jeneci, Silva, Amaro Freitas, Zé Manuel and so on…
I come from a very musical family, on my father’s side, I even have a cousin, Solano Ribeiro, who is a landmark in popular music in Brazil, having been the general director of the great festivals, which consecrated Chico Buarque, Gil, Caetano. I myself participated in an earlier festival, in the 80s with the song ‘Planeta Água’, which became legendary in my career. I was raised in this environment, I was a teenager who was in those auditoriums at Fino da Bossa, Jovem Guarda and Tropicalismo.
I believe that he has lived many good and bad moments over these 45 years in music… Can you highlight a good and a bad?
A good moment was ‘Tomorrow’, song by Sónia Braga in ‘Dancin Days’, in 1978… A more difficult part for me and my generation (70s/80s) was the 90s with the migration of records to the digital format, which terribly favored mass entertainment, the emergence of “collective ballads” and the rise of more radically marketing genres, which came to dominate the Brazilian scene with a drastic disruption in the behavior of young audiences. Everything became more fragmented and pragmatic, without the more sentimental elements of reflection that formed the axis of Brazilian music. This lasts until today.
He recently released the album ‘A Desordem dos Templários’. What stands out the most in this work and what makes it different from others?
He brings elements from the 70’s progressive, which are the hallmark of my crop of songwriters. It brings a reconnection with the Cordel and Armorial aesthetics, which are Iberian movements closely linked to Portuguese sagas. It also brings a clear inclusion of medical, Renaissance and Baroque themes and elements. It’s my trip, very peculiar. But the songs are sweet, they are loving reflection, they keep a strong unity with my special style of writing.
Who is your biggest inspiration?
Milton Nascimento and Clube da Esquina.
And how is your creation process?
I invariably compose the music first. The letters need the spiral notebook and lots of pencils and erasers. It’s a 100% old and analog way of polishing the verses… It takes a lot of reading of books, poets and short stories, biographies, simultaneously with writing to stimulate… It’s a season of immersion in this creative fatigue…
Now I feel even more and definitely “hooked” by the idea of being always present in Portugal
Been to Portugal… Wasn’t it the first time in our country…? How was the first time you were in Portugal and how do you see the Portuguese people?
We were in Lisbon for a few days now, which had already deeply enchanted me in 1992. I was able to confirm the current information that we have today, of the real, very positive, transformative explosion in the country. I am a witness of this and I found the mixture of tradition and modernity simply sensational, in an extremely attractive place and winner in an international competition… This is noticeable. The adorable treatment, the quality of services and the affectionate service, widespread in Portugal, turned into irresistible attractions for visitors and investors. A meticulous and persevering work that can be seen in every place, in every contact that the visitor has with the Portuguese.
Have you ever decided to move or spend a season in Portugal?
For sure! Now I feel even more and definitely “hooked” by the idea of always being present in Portugal… In fact, now living in Castile and León, with my house and studio in Ávila, I’ll always be a step away from my beloved Portugal.
May Brazil come out of its “snooker-beak” and return to being our happy and inspired nation
He has already done several duets, such as the theme ‘Cheia de Charme’ with Anavitória. Are there any artists you’d like to collaborate with that haven’t had this opportunity yet? Who and why?
In Brazil, Marisa Monte and Adriana Calcanhoto. I think Marisa and Adriana are amazing! In Portugal, António Zambujo, Carminho, Dulce Pontes… It costs nothing to dream… Here in Spain, Jorge Drexler…
What wish would you like to fulfill in 2022?
May Brazil come out of its “snooker pool” and return to being our happy and inspired nation, as we have always been loved by the world.
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