With over more than 20 years of career, Doio Kaosos, heteronym of Fernando Santos, worked with reference names of Portuguese music as Lena D'Agua, Lara Li, Candida Branca Flor, Carlos and Raul Paião Indipwo and was part of the bands Doyo, Davinci, Zanzibar and even the German band Waveband, who considers his favorite until his current project with Claudia Vau. Now, he conquered millions of global fans worldwide with his music that has reached the top of the list of ReverbNation.
Why you decided to follow a musical career in London when in Portugal you cemented a career, you were part of several national bands, work as a composer in the fields of documentary and publicity?
Fernando Santos: The main factor for this change was falling in love with a person who resides in London, Claudia Vau. At that time I still lived in Portugal, had a young daughter but knew I had to stay away for long, because it was difficult to be separate from her. From the moment, after a few years I went to London I could promote my original music, because in Portugal never found answer for the things I do, in fact, there is not answer, it is simply ignored. Most radios only air a type of music and the ones I got some feedback they told me no, because I played on an acoustic piano at the time and had to work quite successfully, "Aragon, el Griffin", so answers were silly, while relying on radio playlists, based on that identity, the answers are weird. That is my kind of perception.
But in London the picture is different.
FS: Yes, also the way they criticize, are more objective, although they are not experts, they notice that there it is very good, there is something. I think in general the type of culture we have in Portugal, in musical terms, it is difficult for people to realize if the music is original or not, because we are only exposed to a specific type of sources in the case of London, the exposition is the world because it has many communities, more cultures, in schools, in their daily lives. The community Shik, the Pakistani, the Chinese and many other countries have always brought with them their culture and Londoners live surrounded these artists of all genres and this influence has weight on what is presented to them, when they hear a different work. I think they easily understand if it is or is not a copy. In Portugal, we are witnessing the copy of original musical genres of others countries. Even in pop music we heard versions, there are singers whose work is being plagiarized and that analytical mind to unravel if it is or not an original, does not exists. I always worked with my music, was in New York that I first was discovered and then come to London, at the time the American table was the largest now it is "ReverbNation". Everything always varies. My instrumental music has been in the first place and is now third in the classic area in a highly competitive world, people who hear has a great capacity for analysis. For sure I may not be the greatest pianist in the world, but on the whole they gave value to what they heard, the balance of the technique. The internet has a problem that are copies it is true, but people perceive when they hear a certain theme that may not be the musician's original, it may seem that the network is a friend of the pirates, but it is not, although it seems, is more Vampire friendly.
You call your music different, but it seems more fusion. It is important to deconstruct these different sounds that permeate your music?
FS: It is and it is very natural, part ethnographic you may say so, world music, has always existed in my work. Always carried it inside, when I was a kid. I started playing when I was eight and lived in front of the Casino of Figueira da Foz, in summer feasts in general there were communities of various countries who came to spend holiday in this place, Iberian music happening in the streets. People left the house and heard the clapping of the Roma community. So this is my relationship with these sounds, my openness to other aesthetic cultures has always been very natural. Also, I am of a generation that in the 70s had many influences of Orientalism, we had the introduction of Buddhism in our culture and my opening starts with that feeling. I do not researching music of other countries to enter into my compositions, I never do it, I do research, ideas, feelings, sensations and sensibilities that later appear in my music, so it has plenty of universalist world music.
Walk me thru these lists of global music, what is the importance of a ReverbNation?
FS: It's a list that lets us know directly who is listening, what it interests them and how they download. If on one hand has a very diverse audience, we also find people connected to the music, in the case of "ReverbNation" is a community of musicians, my work is heard by half a million, of between 2 million projects throughout world, is a community that is always alive. In 2006 when I have noted when I discovered this movement, it is a space that people can see and check my progress over time. Its importance goes beyond the idea of the CD that I have to send to radio, spending money on contacts and mail, and in most of the cases as I said, they do not give you an answer, still governed by the old system of music sales in Portugal. The internet, on the other hand, is immediate, allows me to reach a wider audience, globally.
But is there a rebound in professional terms when you place the themes in "ReverbNation"?
FS: There is, the analysis of what I do is the results the type of feedback I receive. I already been contacted by people from all over the world and there are also those who are connected to the music. There are no results in terms of sales. Always survived of my work, but do not analyze my success by sales. The last work I did not do a CD, in 2004 I recorded in 2004 "Tuvalu" and one day a friend stopped to tell me that always listened to my music in the car, because it made him feel well. And that to me is a paid much higher than if you were to make lots of money. It is very nice to know that I reach to people both in Brazil and elsewhere in the world. I was lucky because I knocked on several doors, I played my music and they liked it, in London is normal pay to play and you undertake to bring x number of people for concerts, is much more difficult than in Portugal.
Fernando you currently have a project with Claudia Vau, what is it?
RS: My involvement stems from a project of Claudia Vau called "World Wide Woman" involving women in various areas; this is a live performance that we started working together. These are topics that are fracturing and played at the same time, such its status in many cultures is a very beautiful project. Part of the writing is developed by her and jointly we worked the music. It is something that we are developing, albeit with difficulties. We now have in the project, Nora Byte, a Lithuanian guitarist who worked more in jazz and we will have some more guests.
It is a musical staging, where Claudia says the texts and Fernando enters in musical terms?
FS: Yes, but is not yet been presented this work is to arise, because we made a record and we do not know how the guitar will evolve. It has my music and also of Claudia's.
Going back over twenty years ago, when did music for Lara Li, to Carlos Paião and other Portuguese singers noticed that there was a higher quality in musical terms than today?
FS: Always was recorded quality music in Portugal, there are works with great feedback. The music of Zeca Afonso, Fausto, was a song tied to a certain erudition that could be popular, had an intellectual root at the same time a great ability to reach many people from all sites. The work I did with Carlos Paião was Cinderella and although the music is not mine, I did the production theme "c'mon gang" sung by Herman José. Lara Li has always had a work of great quality and there was a group of people who have always had a great success with the public in Portugal. Today the music more exposed, there is a greater foreign influence, there was, however, something that has greatly evolved, was the ability to record, before there were two or three large studios that recorded the work with a reduced quality much of Amalia's work is in a bad version unfortunately, it should not have happened like that. Nowadays everything is easier with digital, a greater number of people can submit their work and with acceptable quality.
What failed here between the public and Portuguese music? Is that people are no longer sensitive to various types of sounds?
FS: I do not know what failed, because otherwise I would try to solve it. Well, how shall I say this? How many singers in Portugal have the status of an Adelaide Ferreira? Now, I'll tell you something that maybe will be very unpleasant for some people in Portugal, it is best to ask people who always worked in the record companies, see if they can answer that. I was lucky to have had a fabulous pre-school, in a little town, where kids were involved in various musical activities, there were presentations might not be the best, but I do not see that in these new generations. People who program the cultural events will also have a word to say in what is happening in Portugal. For decades there was always a lot of musical quality, but this problem plagues all areas, making up programs focused to a certain way then has no continuity, because next year it's all different and successive years of this broke our country. We are lucky with some people, Rosa Mota in athletics, Maria João Pires who is a genius on the piano at a global level. We have these amazing things, but cultivate the opposite.
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