Nick: Hello Lua. How are things?

 

Lua: Hi Nick! Everything is great here. The album reception has been so good. I’m very happy.

 

Nick: Let’s kick things off with this new album before us, “No Ritmo Da Terra.” Is “fusion” a good way to describe what your sound has evolved into?

 

Lua: My desire to make fusion music was something present in my career since the beginning. The main thing that distinguishes the type of syncretism that happens in “No Ritmo da Terra” from the one in previous sonhos tomam conta albums is the political consciousness behind that act of fusion, an awareness of the power dynamics between intercultural exchanges. You see – the album’s sonority was born out of a reflection from the Anthropophagic Movement of 1920s Brazilian Modernists. At the time, they were developing an artistic thinking that sought to cannibalize Western influences in order to merge them with local traditions – which ended up defining Brazilian cultural identity in the XX century. The essay I wrote as accompaniment to the album brings up a very common critique in academic circles to the way capitalism appropriated that syncretic spirit in order to whiten the avant-garde and transform it into a product. My main contribution is that, in order to preserve our popular culture, we need to prevent the gentrification of local traditions by a conscious practice of fusion. My proposal is a renewed anthropophagic approach oriented by a practice of expropriation of Western influences. If we are not careful in the way we handle those Western influences, we may end up being drowned by them. They need to be subverted and put to the service of popular culture, in order to balance the power dynamics between those intercultural exchanges.

 

Nick: To further that answer, what’s the background behind that fusion between traditional

styles and modern electronic production?

 

Lua: The main motif of the album is the dialogue between ancestrality and futurism. That idea is brought to comprehend ancestrality not as the past, but the future – a solution to the paradox imposed by capitalism’s infinite growth in face of the limitations of Earth. It’s not solely present on the themes, it’s a totalizing current that dictates the aesthetics and structure of the sound. Ailton Krenak’s philosophy and the arguments defended on the essay are manifested here through the sound design itself: as the percussive elements take center stage, the post-rock guitars, psychedelic synths and glitch effects submit themselves to the own nature of the songs, they are chants to the Orixás (deities of Candomblé). The album is, above everything, spiritual.

 

Nick: What about climate change made you want to bridge the gap between Brazilian music and Emo Rock (in the broadest sense)?

 

Lua: You see, I firmly believe that art doesn’t merely reflect reality, but rather creates new ones. In order for us to properly deal with those urgent needs of our time and learn to coexist with the planet, we have to construct new ontologies and realign our world visions. In that sense, art plays a crucial role. With that in mind, I also think that just lyrics are not enough to properly communicate those ideas, they need to be reflected on the aesthetics for them to be effective. That’s why I started to make those fusions, to develop an artistic argument that is able to provoke needed reflections on the way we see and understand the world. The movement I made from those melancholic genres of Alt-Rock to this Experimental project was born out of a critique from my own work and my necessity to defend what I believe, a world vision that is less centered on individuality (and thus, consume) but rather in collectivity. Only after we understand this and properly decentralize ourselves as subjects, we may finally be able to forgo that idea of infinite growth which is central to capitalism, one that makes it impossible for this economic system to coexist with other lifeforms. 

 

Nick: Have you ever visited the Amazon Rainforest? What was that experience like? How do you think the Antropoceno project ties into that?

 

Lua: Brazil has the largest reserves of rare earth on Earth (metals essential to build cellphones, computer parts, and mind you – military technology). As the world enters another death spiral of war and destruction, Western powers are already trying to usurp Brazilian natural reserves. The album is a declaration of love to the forest, one that is meant to communicate that, in order for life on Earth to be possible, those resources are not meant to be explored, by no one. The rainforest is our greatest heritage, it’s responsible for keeping us alive, controlling the climate, making agriculture possible, and preventing disasters. It should not be exploited. Unfortunately I haven’t visited the Amazon Rainforest yet, it’s so far away from São Paulo, but it’s probably the place I want to visit the most and I really hope I can do that soon. A great part of the nature samples from the album were taken by this project that recorded the sounds of Carajás National Forest, available here.