Street roots., April 10, 2015, Page 9, Image 9

Street Roots • April 10-16, 2015
A M A R A N TE, fro m p a ge 8
languages in it, that has a broad esthetic, I
knew that I was making a record that sits
somewhere in between. It doesn’t belong in
the world music niche or it doesn’t fit
comfortably in the indie rock niche, but it’s
just a reflection of what’s in my head. I
won’t say of who I am because that is very
transitory.
What was in my head and what I wanted
to reflect was my experience of being an
expatriate and all that. I felt like, when I had
that classical guitar I felt like it allowed
people to understand what I’m about.
Ah, I see he’s Brazilian, he’s going to play
us a bossa nova or something. And I didn’t
like that. It might seem like a small or silly
thing, but perception ultimately is what art
gives us. The most important thing
politically or emotionally is perspective.
S.Z. You are long way from Brazil... you
live in Los Angeles now... how do the cities
compare?
RA. I grew up moving from town to town,
so I’m very open. I’m not the kind of
person who is homesick all the time. I miss
my home, my family, the food, the smells ..
but I know why I’m here and so I focus on
that and I feel very lucky to be able to do
what I do.
I come from a town where everything is
on the street. You go out to drink on the
street and you meet people on the street.
You walk to the beach and everything is in
the public space. That’s how we are over
the^e. Here, it’s the opposite. There is.i « -
absolutely no chaos in your trajectory, g
There are a million differences; but one of
them is in Rio. The people who are from Rio
— w eare called carioca - we believe that we
live in the best place in the world. The most
beautiful city in the world. We are very in
love with our own town.
Over here, I slowly realized, one thing
that is very rich about L.A., which is that
the genesis of this place: Metaphorically, (a
place) to realize a dream that was said to be
impossible elsewhere.
Here, I found people that are ready to
form new families, based on affection rather
than blood. That was very refreshing to me,
and Very interesting - to abandon
everything I have constructed: a career and
an audience and trying to write in a different
language for people that dp not know who I
am, or don’t care.
And to do that in a place where the most
amount of records come out every, day. It’s
very competitive .. and try to do something
earnest and pure.
S.Z. What is the experience of a foreigner
here? Do you have that feeling? Do you identify
as a foreigner?
R.A. Well, yeah. I’m talking about that on
the record in different ways, in different
languages too.
Being a foreigner, being in a new place,
you are all of a sudden stripped from all of
the things that were around you to remind
you of who you think you are. Or who you
News
want to be or become and what other
people think you are.
We know that identity is a very fragile,
transitory thing. Making a solo record,
where I am making all of the decisions, the
instruments and writing all the lyrics, and
the whole thing, was inevitably an exercise
in identity: In.my case, doubting that
identity or dealing with the stress of having
to make it concrete even though I know that
it isn’t.
Being a foreigner, I grew up that way, I
was in my country, but every three years I
would move towns and I would have an ;
accent, I was a foreigner all of the time.
When I finally came back to my town, I had
an accent from somewhere else. I had lost
my hometown. My hometown didn’t
recognize me. Me? I didn’t recognize my
hometown. It Was actually a freeing
experience because it gave me the ability to
go anywhere I wanted.
Page 9
R. A. I grew up in the Samba School ...
S. Z. Wait, the sumba?
RA. Samba School. You know what that
is?
S.Z. I don’t. School me.
R. A. The word school meaning more like
a school of fish than an educational
institution. It’s the Samba parades that
happen in Rio during Carnival.
So these groups, each one has their
space where they practice and write songs
and these huge drumming circles, And this
is the culture of the favelas.
My sister is still a percussionist at the
oldest Samba School in the country. She
was the first woman to be admitted into the
drum ensemble.'
S. Z. Fantastic!
R.A. She is a movie editor and she has
S.Z. Racism is a widely discussed and
set up the first movie theater in the biggest
debated issue in the
favela in Rio. Yeah.
United States. What does
My people and my
racism look like in
family are not from
Brazil? Have you any
the favela, although
la ear core^ w® are social
thoughts about the
my family is from a
dem
ocrats
We
bell®v®
that
If
ongoing and rising rift
job pay tar®sf lit® slat® should poor part of town. But
between the public and
they are a big part of
the local police agencies provide you the highest
my city’s culture.
that govern it?
q ua lity free e lw a ilo B ^ should
All it is, is poor
provide health care lo r
RA. Racism is very
everybody and the police
different from here. In
shoald not k ill yon«
Brazil, because we are
more 'mixed'in terms of
race, it is more social.
The majority of black
people are poor in
Brazil. The way we deal with it there is very
different.
America is a strong influence in the
world. One example, when in America you
say, “Black people,” but it has shifted so
that people say “African American people,”
right? To my ears, that sounds wrong in the
sense that there is the American and there
is the half American - the African
American. To my ears, that sounds a little
complicated. Over here, culturally it seems
very separated. In pop culture and things
like that. Black people in America are often
portrayed as people of the sports and
entertainment. Arid that’s it. And that’s
where they excel. And I mean that sounds
horrible to me and not constructive - and
diminishing.
That said, in Brazil if you offend a black
person verbally, you go to jail. And there is
no bail. Why? I’m not saying that we are not
racist, particularly because we have been
(historically) very racist. We abolished
slavery after America in 1888. We are a lot
more colonial thinking than in America.
In one instance, manual labor is a lot
cheaper. Many people in Brazil have maids,
in their houses because it’s very cheap.
There is still a lot of colonial thinking like
that. In America it is not like that.
S.Z. Have you any experience with or
connection to the favelas?
people. It’s a class
thing. That’s all that
is. .
What defines the
favelas is really the
geography of th e city.
The favelas were
illegal housing that; ;
were built on the hills of Rio where the rich
people were living, not on the actual hills,
but on the city. The city is surrounded by a
big forest. So people started building these
houses and living there because their work
was for the rich, in the rich part of town.
These hills were once the Native people’s
from Rio’s land. And of course over the
years it has been taken. What defines it is
that because they are on the hills and they
are so tight together, for a long period of
time, they last 30 .or more years. The drug
dealers would operate from there because it
operates like a maze. For many years the
police wouldn’t be able to go in there. The
gangsters in the favelas would take care of
whatever needs to be taken care of as a
form of state.
They would have a pharmacy where drugs
were free. Remedies for the people were
free. They would have a line and people
would say, “Oh I need a toothache pain
killer” and it was, “Here you go ...” there
was no robbery in the favela because the
gangsters wouldn’t allow th a t Whoever
robbed someone would pay. I’m not saying
it’s right or wrong, just stating how it was.
Things in Brazil have been changing since
the first left-wing government has been
elected, We have had a dictatorship starting
in '64 arid it officially ended in '88, but we
only had our first free presidential elections
in '92.
I voted in that '64 election, I was 16 years
old. And so these slow changes. When we
had our first worker’s party government
assume the presidential palace, 10 years ago
or so, then things changed quite
dramatically — the economy of the country
and the difference between rich and poor -
which is still huge, but a lot less than it. once
was.
In recent years, the government managed
to occupy the favelas and kick out the drug
lords. It’s not completely gone and the
cleansing was motivated by the World Cup
and the Olympics.
You asked me earlier about the
differences in the countries ... There is one
fundamental difference which is heavy on
me. South Americans, we are naturally
social democrats. We believe that the state
is a union of the people to help the people.
We do not associate freedom necessarily
with choice, in that sense.
I know that sounds crazy to an American.
In America, freedom and choice are almost
one word. That comes from Adam Smith
and Milton Friedman and that kind of
thinking where we were led to believe that
the market is like the jungle.
It’s like subverting Darwin’s words
sprinkled with Jesus’ messages to make us
believe that civilization is a natural thing and
it’s like the jungle and we should let the
strong win, the weak die - because that will
make us evolve as a whole.
Individually, you should be free to choose
whatever you want because in that way, you
are voting with your money to increase the
quality*of living o f everyb o d y T h a t talk, o f
course, has reached Brazil somehow, but in
our core, we are social democrats. We
believe that if you pay taxes, the state
should provide you the highest quality free
education, should provide health care for
everybody, and the police should not kill
you.
S.Z> There is something ancient about your
music in many ways. I mean to say is that
your music seems to be rooted in a knowledge
deeper than simple songwriting. It seems there *
is some kind respect for something that came
before you. Where does that come from?
R.A. It’s very flattering for me to hear
that because I try to write music that is not
following anything other than what I am
trying to find for myself.
I have something that is really not very
flattering - a true sense of purpose. In the
end, all I want to do is serve or belong, I’m
not here really, I’m not alive just to gather
some stuff or to succeed in a sense that I
have gathered the most amount of comfort
(or praise) I can get my hands on.
I am aware that I am just writing songs.
But when I do write a song, I am still trying
to give some perspective to someone. I’m
trying to tell a story that is worth being told.
I say that humbly. I try to write music that I
think could be useful.
I’m notmaking music to take, money or
respect or fame. I make music to give.
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