“The statutes of artists and authors in Portugal are very anachronistic”
Consider that the theater is his “home” and his “essence”, but Tiago Torres da Silva is also a reference in music. He has written lyrics for “over 200 singers”. In an interview with Renaissanceconfesses that writing song lyrics is “a therapy” for him.
He explains that he is a “voice lyricist”. “If not recognized as recognized as one who is recognized”, But its lyrics have already been sung by Brazilians Ney Matogrosso, Maria Bethânia, Elba Ramalho, Cuban Omara Portuondo or Portuguese Carlos do Carmo, Marisa Liz, Carminho, Camané, Sara Tavares or Simone de Oliveira.
Now, on the 23rd, he celebrates 30 years of his career with a concert designed by musicians Joana Amendoeira, Nuno Guerreiro and Marcos Sacramento for whom Tiago Torres da Silva wrote as lyrics for his latest albums. In this interview in which he reveals how the lyrics were born, the author confesses that “making a career of this in Portugal has many very hard moments” and criticizes the statutes of artists and authors that he considers “very anachronistic”.
We start with the concert on the 23rd at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon. Is it a tribute? How did an idea come about?
This was not supposed to be a tribute concert, but it happened, Joana Amendoeira, Nuno Guerreiro and the three great singers in common. Then the press began to notice that it was the first 30 years since the fado I wrote for Tereza Tarouca. And this began to gain a load of homage that scares me immensely!
Why does it scare you?
Because the idea was to celebrate the Portuguese language, poetry, music and we celebrate this thing of the different accents with which I write. I write with an “accent” of Fado, samba, and others. I love the Portuguese language in all its variants. And suddenly it got a load of homage, but it wasn’t meant to be. It is a celebration of the diversity of the language, of the rhythmic and timbral diversity of these people. It’s a journey through the Portuguese language through 3 extraordinary voices that gave me the great joy of making records only with my lyrics. Joana Amendoeira with music only by Fred Martins, or Nuno Guerreiro with music by Pedro Joia and Marcos Sacramento with music by him.
Writing song lyrics for me is my therapy
And of regret was attended to for 30 years!
That’s it! Of regret 30 years!
What is being a lyricist, Tiago Torres da Silva?
There are many ways to be a lyricist. I’m a lyricist who writes for a lot of people. Writing song lyrics for me is my therapy. I have to search in myself for the voice that will sing to me. I have to look for in myself what there is of Daniela Mercury, of Tonicha, of Celeste Rodrigues or of Carminho.
In other words, are the lyrics born in the head and in the heart designed for those who will interpret them?
Always always always! I don’t write myself as someone who is going to sing, I have a voice in lyrics. I’m a voice lyricist. it started in the theater and it’s as if I were soon writing the parts of a great imaginary play that is life, and the singers were the characters that will give voice to these ideas that I have. The truth is that the biggest compliment I have, and luckily I have it many times, is the singers, when they look at the lyrics, saying: “- If I wrote, this is what I would have written”. I can do this thing of putting myself in that person’s shoes and writing as if I were them. Nuno Guerreiro says that, in his latest album, “How did you know everything about me?”
Know these many singers. Can you write for someone you don’t know?
It’s much more difficult. I love writing for those starting out, and writing a lot for kids just starting out, but it’s harder and more laborious. I need more conversation with them. I didn’t know her very well, but when I was writing her work well, it was her persona in Fado that was more immediate to me. When I don’t know, it forces me to unveil my soul in other ways. The singers who have been here for many years already run through my veins. It’s more natural now.
What was the first lyric of a song you wrote?
“The Island”, for Fado Alberto for Tereza Tarouca.
I got into Brazilian music with great joy
Is there any particular singer you like to compose for?
I prefer not to say that, because others might get angry! I can say that now on the 18th, “Nua” is released, the album “Da Gente” by Simone, Brazilian. It’s a song with her. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve done in my life and she sings in an extraordinary way. Her voice enters inside me and is lodged in my heart with a force! But there are so many people! There are more than 200 singers who recorded my stuff. I even wrote for Omara Portuondo! Something I never imagined! In Brazil I wrote to Maria Bethânia, Ney Matogrosso, to Elba Ramalho, to Alcione, a lot! It’s even vain for me to say…
When you write for Brazilian musicians, do you write with an accent?
Completely! I write for that person and if they have another accent, I have to appropriate their accent. Sometimes Brazilians said that it was impossible for a Portuguese to write that. In fact, I got into Brazilian music with great joy.
In the midst of all this there are also the Lisbon Marches. There is a lot of writing for various neighborhoods. Is it very different to write these lyrics?
I like. I am a very patient person and I like to do very different things. When I can do one thing, I’ll do another, when I can do this, I’ll go back to the other. I came to a complete stop by chance in gears. I was so welcomed and discovered something I thought was dead and buried for years and isn’t. It’s the kids, the younger ones who go crazy with the marches. The integration that the marches bring to the neighborhoods is extremely important. I have been the godfather of Marcha da Bica for 18 years. I also walk down the Avenue and I am very happy to participate that it is a phenomenon that brings together younger people from neighborhoods, with many difficulties, and who give so much joy and a sense of belonging. Realizing the march gives a sense of belonging to the inhabitants of the neighborhoods, they stayed there with their soul and heart. I’m not leaving anymore.
Who have you written to?
I’ve written for São Vicente, for the scribblers, for Bairro Alto, for Santa Engrácia, but the one I’m in every year, because I’m a godfather, is the Marcha da Bica.
I don’t think that a Portuguese artist has to express himself in the Portuguese language
Today there are still Portuguese singers who prefer to sing in English. Do you think they have the courage to sing in Portuguese?
I dwell very little on this. I think if an artist decides the way he has to express himself which is in Chinese, I think he has that right in Chinese. If there’s a generation that listens more to music and that drank Anglo-Saxon Pop music, and that’s how if there’s a generation that is an artist, it’s nothing to me that canutras tongues. Even now at the Festival, Áurea was in English, it doesn’t bother me at all. In the 70s, ABBA won in English and Swedish.
I think each artist is a different world, a different path. If that’s how they express themselves, fine. I don’t think that a Portuguese artist has to express himself in the Portuguese language. If his soul tells him to express himself in Portuguese, I think so! I also love doing it in other languages, in Creole, French, I love doing it! I feel that the Anglo-Axon world has had a weight in Pop music that is unbeatable and that will influence musicians all over the world.
He also writes for theater. He made the musical dedicated to Simone de Oliveira. Where is it located in theatrical creations?
I am always an author and director. Producer never. Whenever I tried to be a producer, things went wrong because it’s a skill I don’t have. My theater for me is my home, the essence, even in music, in lyrics, or when I produce an album, it’s always as if I were a director. Always thinking about the dramatic power of each thing, the comic power of each thing, in each solo, in each word. For me, theater is at the base of everything and I would love to do what I do very much. I’ve staged 20 or so plays and it’s not little. I’m staging a play now, and I really miss doing theater. For me, my essence is in the theater.
Perhaps because of this passion for theater, Samuel Beckett’s phrase “Fail, fail again, better fail” is not on your Facebook wall.
It’s one of my phrases. These are phrases that always drive me to keep going, because Making a career out of this in Portugal has many difficult moments and we have to hold on to strong anchors so we don’t give up and move on. The statutes of artists and authors in Portugal are all very anachronistic. With this physical world for the passage of digital art, all means lost and we need to cling to the anchors.
The pandemic has greatly worsened the situation in the cultural sector. In the meantime, the Artist Statute was launched. What assessment do you make of this status?
I think it was the first baby step on a path that needs to be walked quickly. How the world changed, and how we realized We have to adapt the reality of the lives of artists and authors to the new world that we have to transform the internet completely. I think it’s a good first step. There’s a lot to do.