Ben and Alex were friends and one day decided to make music together, and loved the experience, so, they decided to drop Alex, Ben, the Teixera and Monteiro and became the D'Alva and from this unusual multiracial melting born a musical project called "#batequebate" and the rest is history, as they say.
What was the unifying idea for this your first album?
Alex D'Alva Teixeira: At the beginning we did not start working for the record, we worked together because we are friends and Ben saw me play. I had a garage band and he had a proposal model for this group, but the band ended and then the idea was to develop an album for me because I do write songs and record them made sense. After this model became an EP and continued to write music.
After finally you decided to do a record together.
Ben Monteiro: We were already are doing it together, the difference is that it was on behalf of Alex and then became the collective, but the truth is that from the beginning we are going to work together.
ADT: It was not intentional to create the D'Alva, but it happened naturally we assume what was happening and took it on stage left the Alex and Teixeira and got D'Alva and that's how we decided to do it.
Why the title "#batequebate"?
BM: It's an expression we used a in song of our album and was right at the time we were thinking of a title for the record, I was already thinking about it, that should be more than a word or a phrase, but a game of words phonetically had pace and then I remembered that the "batequebatequebatequebate" is a very African thing, the polyrhythms and as we have African offspring so made sense. It also has to do with the percussions which is another important aspect for us, by the way, there are songs that begin with that kind of rhythm.
And you referred to the pace because I was listening to the EP and there are many influences of the musicians of the 80s and 90s even, as we have said, but also has a lot of beat and rhythmic sounds, it was something that happened and have been realizing this, or was it intentional?
ADT: I think it was a mixture of both, actually when we realized we were the D'Alva, did not have this intention. Most of the first album of a band has no sound, has not a personality, we walked in search of that identity and realized it was important to include the influences of African music that we heard while we were growing and also of Brazilian music. In previous bands where we could not do it, so there was no room, now it was for us.
BM: By the way, we play with a different format, which is the redux with fewer members of the band, when we played with all the musicians are six, except Simon, are five to hit something in percussion instruments, it is a hell to the sound technician who has to put more microphones (laughs). I thought as the concerts were advancing we were reducing in size, but we have more pieces of percussion, because for me is a heartbeat and we put that excitement over, so it makes sense that all is rhythmic and syncopated. It is also very danceable, our work brings us to these discographic work 80, 90 that were dance records.
ADT: It's not really a dance record as now it is relative. Today dance music has a different connotation, but it is clearly a festive drive and an interesting thing when we give account that the song this on track not only are we singing it over and over, as we dance it.
What is the line of this album beyond the rhythm and the fact that it is danceable, it has to do a happy period of your life, since it is a festive drive?
BM: There is an interesting aspect that is when we wrote the album was not a happy time for us, but for some reason the song came out like that so I do not know if we were fighting this phase. It's like talking to a song about beach rackets, or we are talking about anxiety, in all these things we are addressing our experiences and our view of things. I think that in our songs because we wrote together, there is no word that we repent, or that does not portray what we were going thru and the people who we were at that time. The type of sound is all aesthetic, which runs through the songs is running regardless of the style we give it, or if we have a piano it is all the same work, whether more contemplative or more simple things like a good meal, we do not feak it, life has it, have the times when you wake up and one has a good breakfast and then maybe have bad news and at the end this with a friend and it's okay. We have tried to be consistent, while pop music has a reputation for being superficial and we do not we look at it in this way, but also not impinge a fund there is not there, if we are talking about rackets on the beach, we are to address it, if we want to talk about getting out of bed to face whatever, so we are ready, then we enter deeper and we looked at life with all its colors and textures.
Were there any song that after recording and listening to it has surprise you?
BM: There is a particular song that exists in the EP called "this moment" and we were not going to put another song on the album and that was not going to, but we decided to do one more song without thinking and that is what sprang to do. This song was finished, it came to be master and I remember listening to it five times a day, went to the street to walk which is something I usually do, and Alex was the same and we listened to this song.
ADT: It was almost therapeutic. It was not an easy time for various reasons from professional to personal and this song is that gave me courage to wake up in the morning and go to work.
You are too perfectionist?
ADT: Ben is more than me. I am as needed.
BM: I do not think it's a matter of perfectionism, it is attention to detail.
ADT: Yes, there is perfectionism, there is excellence and are different things. We all know that perfectionism is unattainable, but we tried to do things a certain way and we know that we are giving.
This album can be qualify to the best you could find?
BM: I think we leave nothing unturned. OK, a few years ago I was talking to a friend of ours, Miguel Ferradura that is who made the mix of our record and I told him that Alex has fewer years making music than me, but I said that few musicians can say that there is no second of our album that we regret and we did not change absolutely nothing. It is a privilege that.
ADT: The most interesting thing was we learn more with these two years we were on the road, producing music for other artists and maybe the next record of D'Alva will not be more rather a continued repetition, we'll probably start where we were done.
Focusing on the fact that you write the songs together, you write in Portuguese was always a common ground? You never considered other languages?
ADT: We thought about it, there are several reasons, above all at the time it made sense, it seems calculating, but we realize that for the music we were to do if we wanted to be heard had to be in our language, also the things we want to express.
BM: We thought about other languages because there are people from other countries who listen to our music, do not realize what we are saying, but are related in some way with the sound and we believed an even greater relationship with the word is much better. We realized from the beginning that is limiting because of the language, because the sound that we are doing is not only for Portugal. But if you ever want to write in another language will have to make sense.
ADT: We even had proposals in this regard by members of the international industry to say that the "frescobol" would be a hit if it were in English, but we thought it would not make sense.
BM: There's no pride in doing it in Portuguese, there are colleagues who do question it, but the mother of Alex is Brazilian, his father is from São Tomé and Princípe, he is born in Luanda and raised in Portugal. I, on the other hand, my mother was born in Rio de Janeiro, my father is from Green Cape an English descendent and marry a cape verdian and I am born in Lisbon, only here we have many languages and dialects, so it is not so. We used what makes us sense and will not use a language just to get to other places, all in D'Alva is what it makes sense that it is so, but with challenges, some records in Portuguese the writing is light and cohesive and it was difficult but I think we can do it.
Transpose your record to the stage is difficult? Because although there is a redux version, the album has many pre-recorded sounds.
ADT: In redux has a lot that needs to be recorded. But when we are with the whole band we all played live, and even other musicians have already given us their congratulations because they thought it as hard album with many synthesizers and even drum sounds that seem synthetic, we bring it to the stage with a band and real instruments. Ben when producing always had this concern of how it is that things will work?
BM: We thought so too, could make sounds for radio and commit to the stage would be difficult, this is another commitment to achieve. I remember that there was still one year to the record to come out and we were rehearsing the themes of the EP and I remember telling the staff of the band that was going to be hard, but once a year from the album would be release we did not have to learn to play it on stage, we already know how to play. And we see many artists when the album areout are still learning to play it live and only after two or three years is finally sounding as good, or better live. In our case, people tell us they understand what we are doing when it comes to amalgam of colors and sounds when they see us play live. The format is different in redux is more electronic and danceable and the way we feel we have two bands. Our debut was in "optimus alive" on the big stage with the whole band, were 15 people on stage with the gospel choir and the day after we did the redux version, it was me, Alex and Carolina, the two bands would work but a lot of work to think.
And in this process already you are thinking of a second album or not?
BM: Mentally we are preparing a new album.
ADT: A very specific mental space is required.
But did you said that you write songs?
ADT: Not necessarily. We have always ideas and recording models. And there is a great thing is that we have written for other artists and often. I at first was not very happy because I wanted to write our music, but Ben said it was a good workout for our songs so I started to see things that way, I returned to gain energy it takes for that module.
BM: The best songs come out when we are in the process of working with other artists and that's good because it makes us get out of our comfort zone, although D'Alva is very vast. I feel that when we started writing last September when they had the concert, we talked about making a record but there was nothing to say.
The topics you write for other artists already happened before this album?
ADT: It comes with the "#batequebate".
BM: In particular in the pop universe, people realized that we do not murder Portuguese and not add the language which does not give, but it's hard to have had the privilege of having going live and shared the stage with artists who write very well in Portuguese in our country, as Samuel Úria, Tiago Cavaco, Pontos Negors and the Fúrias who brought a lot of strength in Portuguese and do it well. Our music does not fit in this universe we live with these people, but we want to do other things, we realized that we do not needed not to be poets, we care what the language deserves. Then as we have a bit of Brazil and Africa under the tongue helps to round the edges of the Portuguese and sounds better.
