Teresa Salgueiro is returning to Brussels to present her fifth post-Madredeus album. On O Mistério (“The Mystery”) the Portuguese singer with the velvety voice goes in search of the mystical element in every one of us. “The mysterious side of human nature is a fascinating phenomenon that we just can’t get a firm hold on.”
In 2006, after twenty years as the singer of Madredeus, Portugal’s most internationally successful group, Teresa Salgueiro set out on a solo career. O Mistério is her fifth solo album, although that’s not the way she sees it: “This is really my first solo album. The others were collaborations with other artists. The compositions weren’t mine; they were covers from a variety of cultures. This time it really is my music, played by a band that I set up, with compositions and arrangements that I wrote with the musicians, and all the lyrics are by me.”
The time was ripe for making your own music?
Teresa Salgueiro: Well, I performed an original repertoire with Madredeus for twenty years. But the songs were written for me, not by me. It has taken a while, but I have now gathered a group of musicians around me with whom I feel I’m in a position to really do my own thing.
You didn’t find it easy to find the right people?
Salgueiro: It was a gradual process. In the course of the many projects I took part in over the years, I came across musicians who were on the same wavelength as me, but they were all very busy. The first one to come on board was Rui Lobato, a producer, drummer, guitarist, and composer I have been working with since 2007. After him came the bassist Óscar Torres, the accordionist Carisa Marcelino, and so on.
Teresa Salgueiro: from Madredeus to mysterious
So it’s a tightly-knit group, not just a backing band?
Salgueiro: Sure, there is a great understanding between us. We compose together; everyone chips in. We have a shared language, an approach that we stick to. A basis that allows the musicians to give the best of themselves. Our combined ideas and creativity add up to much more than the sum of the different group members.
The music is written during composition workshops. How does that work?
Salgueiro: It is our way of writing music. We come together for a few days to rehearse on the basis of particular ideas. I like to describe it as creative craftsmanship: discovering together the potential of these five instruments.
Our starting point is the distinctive contemplative aspect of Portuguese culture. I was born and raised in Portugal, so my music has a direct connection with Portuguese nostalgia and melancholy. But my music looks forward. The decision to use electric bass and guitar with pedals and delay, for example, was carefully thought out, although those elements are used in a pared-down way.
For the first time, you have written the lyrics yourself. Where did you get your inspiration from?
Salgueiro: From the music itself, above all. We come up with the music first, on the basis of a melody that I sing, without lyrics, or taking a musician’s idea as a starting point. Then we work on that and it’s only at the end, when the arrangements are ready, that I put lyrics to it. But right from the start I can feel what the song is going to be about. Our music is very emotional and sentimental; of course, that comes from the way I see the world too.
A mysterious way of seeing it – hence the title O Mistério?
Salgueiro: What is mysterious fascinates me. It is part of a human dimension that we don’t have a firm hold on. There will always be questions that we have no answer to. People attach a lot of importance to that, but actually it is not important. There will always be a lot of mystery – that is the fragile side of human nature. We are small and fragile in relation to the universe. Humanity evolves, but that is a very slow process and sometimes there is a great human cost involved. We keep on making the same mistakes. That is sad, but it is human nature. We mustn’t lose heart. Humanity is strong and creative too. We have to keep on resisting injustice.
It must be difficult to write lyrics in a country with such a strong poetic tradition?
Salgueiro: Yes and no. Portugal undoubtedly has a great tradition of poetry, but my lyrics are written on the basis of the music. That’s very different. It is a limitation and at the same time it is also a fascinating challenge. I used to always write things down on bits of paper, but never real songs. Portuguese music is pervaded by saudade [a mixture of yearning, nostalgia, and melancholy - BT] because of our geographic position, surrounded by the all-powerful ocean. For decades we had to stand up to a great monster, the callous sea, in order to explore the world. It was a long martyrdom for the Portuguese people.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tckK2jAu2MY〕
Has that influenced your music?
Salgueiro: Yes. But so has Portugal’s natural diversity: it’s a small country with a very varied landscape, ranging from mountains to plains and a huge coastline. From time immemorial, Portugal has been a cultural melting pot. Even before Portugal was founded, there were already Celts, Romans, Jews, and Arabs here. As a gateway to the world, Lisbon is the epicentre of that Portuguese melting pot. Africans, Brazilians, and Indians washed up here over all those years of maritime trade.
Your music reminds me a bit of Radiohead, including the voice. Is that deliberate?
Salgueiro: Not at all, but that’s nice – I like Radiohead. We don’t actually draw inspiration from any specific genre. Each musician has his own baggage and from that we distil our sound. That isn’t preceded by any research: it all happens in a free, spontaneous way.
Your music has nothing to do with fado, but it is intrinsically Portuguese. How would you describe it?
Salgueiro: It is contemporary Portuguese music with a strongly meditative character. A fusion of genres and an encounter between people and instruments... It is difficult to describe contemporary music. No single label seems to fit it. But it is indeed definitely not fado: I have never sung fado, even though people will probably always keep on asking whether I sing fado. [Laughs]
Teresa Salgueiro • 31/5, 20.00, €25/28, Ancienne Belgique, boulevard Anspachlaan 110, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-548.24.24, www.abconcerts.be
Salgueiro: Sure, there is a great understanding between us. We compose together; everyone chips in. We have a shared language, an approach that we stick to. A basis that allows the musicians to give the best of themselves. Our combined ideas and creativity add up to much more than the sum of the different group members.
The music is written during composition workshops. How does that work?
Salgueiro: It is our way of writing music. We come together for a few days to rehearse on the basis of particular ideas. I like to describe it as creative craftsmanship: discovering together the potential of these five instruments.
Our starting point is the distinctive contemplative aspect of Portuguese culture. I was born and raised in Portugal, so my music has a direct connection with Portuguese nostalgia and melancholy. But my music looks forward. The decision to use electric bass and guitar with pedals and delay, for example, was carefully thought out, although those elements are used in a pared-down way.
For the first time, you have written the lyrics yourself. Where did you get your inspiration from?
Salgueiro: From the music itself, above all. We come up with the music first, on the basis of a melody that I sing, without lyrics, or taking a musician’s idea as a starting point. Then we work on that and it’s only at the end, when the arrangements are ready, that I put lyrics to it. But right from the start I can feel what the song is going to be about. Our music is very emotional and sentimental; of course, that comes from the way I see the world too.
A mysterious way of seeing it – hence the title O Mistério?
Salgueiro: What is mysterious fascinates me. It is part of a human dimension that we don’t have a firm hold on. There will always be questions that we have no answer to. People attach a lot of importance to that, but actually it is not important. There will always be a lot of mystery – that is the fragile side of human nature. We are small and fragile in relation to the universe. Humanity evolves, but that is a very slow process and sometimes there is a great human cost involved. We keep on making the same mistakes. That is sad, but it is human nature. We mustn’t lose heart. Humanity is strong and creative too. We have to keep on resisting injustice.
It must be difficult to write lyrics in a country with such a strong poetic tradition?
Salgueiro: Yes and no. Portugal undoubtedly has a great tradition of poetry, but my lyrics are written on the basis of the music. That’s very different. It is a limitation and at the same time it is also a fascinating challenge. I used to always write things down on bits of paper, but never real songs. Portuguese music is pervaded by saudade [a mixture of yearning, nostalgia, and melancholy - BT] because of our geographic position, surrounded by the all-powerful ocean. For decades we had to stand up to a great monster, the callous sea, in order to explore the world. It was a long martyrdom for the Portuguese people.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tckK2jAu2MY〕
Has that influenced your music?
Salgueiro: Yes. But so has Portugal’s natural diversity: it’s a small country with a very varied landscape, ranging from mountains to plains and a huge coastline. From time immemorial, Portugal has been a cultural melting pot. Even before Portugal was founded, there were already Celts, Romans, Jews, and Arabs here. As a gateway to the world, Lisbon is the epicentre of that Portuguese melting pot. Africans, Brazilians, and Indians washed up here over all those years of maritime trade.
Your music reminds me a bit of Radiohead, including the voice. Is that deliberate?
Salgueiro: Not at all, but that’s nice – I like Radiohead. We don’t actually draw inspiration from any specific genre. Each musician has his own baggage and from that we distil our sound. That isn’t preceded by any research: it all happens in a free, spontaneous way.
Your music has nothing to do with fado, but it is intrinsically Portuguese. How would you describe it?
Salgueiro: It is contemporary Portuguese music with a strongly meditative character. A fusion of genres and an encounter between people and instruments... It is difficult to describe contemporary music. No single label seems to fit it. But it is indeed definitely not fado: I have never sung fado, even though people will probably always keep on asking whether I sing fado. [Laughs]
Teresa Salgueiro • 31/5, 20.00, €25/28, Ancienne Belgique, boulevard Anspachlaan 110, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-548.24.24, www.abconcerts.be
Read more about: Muziek
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