"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
Jiddu Krishnamurti
All songs were recorded and produced at Musitechnic's studios (Montréal, Québec) in between 2016 and 2019, except "Sick".
Technical info & background stories
Self Construction
(Instrumental)
Composed in January 2016 with a synthesizer during a sound design class. It's a result of a synthesizer exercise where I was supposed to reproduce a piano sound with my synth. The piano sound submitted in the end of that class is exactly what we listen here. The cellos, strings and other synth sounds were added later in 2017.
Synthesizers - cello - strings
Sick
Haters
2016 was for me a year of revolution and self-dis(re)covery. I wrote this lyrics inspired by some feminists activists that i follow on Instagram and Facebook - as a white heterosexual man cis gender, I'm learning that i'm part of the problem. Recorded organically with a acoustic guitar, and bass later the organ became the main part and pushed to a "crescendo" set of drums. The vocals were recorded several times between 2016 and 2018.
The album's older song and the spark of everything. I wrote it in my actual birthday in 2013 - my answer for those saying that I was sick - my statement that from that point, I'll be what I really am rather than what people want me to be! The song was originally part of the album "Voltando pra casa". Recorded in my living room in 2014, the bass and drums were redone in 2016 at musitechnic studios.
Drum set - Drums programming - electric bass - Acoustic guitar - Rhythm guitars - solo guitars
Percussion and hand noises - Drums - Bass - Organ - Acoustic guitar
One More Time
Carrying All Along The Way
One of the deepest poems I ever made.
It's hugely strong for me to sing it today (like "Sick", "Tristeza" and "Partidas") cause this songs reflect dark places! I wrote it for guitar, bass, drums to be heavy. Just after write it I was playing with a synth and for fun, I made an electronic version of that. Looks me months to decide which way to go whit the song and finally I decide to mix both versions and don't use electric guitars. "Carrying all along" was by far the hardest song to arrange, mix and produce and I love this song so much!!!
The simplicity to be in love.
The magic to deal with poetry is that we can feel everything we want, and sometimes it's not that complicated what we really want! I wrote this song for acoustic guitar, drums and bass. The piano came months after and transform the song in something completely unexpected and beautiful. I love sing this song!
Drums - Bass - Piano - Acoustic guitar
Beat programming - electronic bass - 2 sets of synthesizers - Drum set - Electric bass - Acoustic guitar
"Tristeza" (sadness) (feat.: Nick Aria)
"The poet is a feigner.
(He) feigns so completely
That (he) comes to feign that (which) is pain
The pain that truly (he) feels."
Fernando Pessoa
The melody was made in the piano as a mantra. I repeated the sequence of these 3 chords time after time during that class repeating the Chorus "humming" and living a deep and strong feeling of sadness - like Fernando Pessoa's poem. I spend 2 years trying without success, At some point in 2017 my brother Nick Aria invited me to jam with him with my bass and I showed him this mantra and we recorded what we did. I built the song backbone around its drums but still, no lyrics. Another year and suddenly, without plan, in a winter afternoon in the studio, I heard a history (too long to describe here). I close the studio door and wrote the whole thing in a couple of minutes. This song, like "Carrying All Along" tells me more than it really does maybe.
"O Golpe" (The Coup)
Like "Self Construction" and "Tristeza" this song was made as a synth exercise - the beat, the synth bass and the piano. this 3 elements never were changed or manipulated since this first exercice. Otherwise, the organ and the research of sounds took me month to elaborate. the lyrics were written immediately after in the same day, and they reflect my feeling facing the rise of fascism in Brazil and my weakness at that moment, unable to show the rise of the terror, even for people very close to me. friends that I lost forever because I'll never (NEVER!!!) tolerate racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and other forms of fascism around me! Never!!!!
electronic Drums - Synth Bass - Piano - Synth Organ
Lethal Mess (feat.: Nick Aria)
I wrote the lyrics simultaneously with the melody in my acoustic Takamine. After I add the electric piano and presented it (with lyrics) to Nick when he put some magic with his drums. I replaced the bass for a synth bass and add all the electric guitars after. The lyrics are based on the pictures of a profile on Instagram that brings me to a very special place and express a feeling of freedom that maybe we don't have but we know exactly what it is.
Drums by Nick Aria - Piano - Synth Bass - Synth Lead and noises
Drums by Nick Aria - Synth Bass - Acoustic Guitar - Electric Guitars - Electric Piano - Strings
The Last Song (to my children)
June of 2019! Everything was almost done but "Dark knob" didn't have lyrics and the it's spirit was not there and I haven't found something to give some closure. This album became more, so much more than album: it became a journey! And asking me what can I do to close a journey so intense, the answer was "go back to the roots! go back home!" Days before I had a very touching conversation with Mira about "what the hell we're doing with our lives on this planet" and I took all of this, sat in my bedroom with my guitar and wrote "The Last Song" for Mira and Michel and all the children in the past, present and future. I chose to end this journey trying to be simple and honest like them. I decided to record it just with my guitar without overdub - just sit, play and record! And I did it this way!! One take with imperfections, mistakes and unbalances, exactly the way I am - the way "we are"!... and that's everything we need!! Everything!!!
A Special gift:
At some point after record the song, I discovered that my dear friends Gabriel (Gabú) and Gabi had just received two little angels to join their first son Francisco: Miguel and Gaia!! Do you believe in coincidences? I don't!!!
What a journey!!!
Acoustic guitar recorded in one take.