Interview With 'Ian Carvalho'
Firstly, introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about the band and how you came to be?
My name is Ian Carvalho, I was born in Brazil and grew up between Italy and Brazil before moving to the UK. My parents were a young and wild couple during the 80’s and me and my twin brother grew up surrounded by music and caos. While they were playing Bossanova gigs in Florence we were sleeping in the backstage. This has been my first music influence.
Things between my parents didn’t work out well, so we moved with my mother to our grandparents in Brazil. There I received my first drumming lessons. I remember the school years has been full of different influences, I never just sticked with one genre. I was hanging out with all kind of “music lovers”; rap lovers, goth lovers, reggae lovers, electro lovers and so on. It was around that time that I started my first band that went out of business the first time I came to London. The people I met there changed my way to live and feel the music and therefore the way I play it. When I went back to Florence to start my university studies in Literature I created the band I had the chance to tour around Italy, the UK, US and South America. This band is Novonada and after eight years of adventures we decided to take a break that gave way to my solo project.
What were you all up too prior to the band, was this always the chosen path or did you have other dreams and aspirations?
I’ve been through tons of different jobs to be able to go further with my music career, I’ve been a waiter and a photographer.. now, I work as a chef. Nothing gives me satisfaction but playing and song writing.
Tell us about your latest EP and why our readers should check it out.
My latest work is also the first as a solo artist. It features several artists/friends with different influences and musical background, from the mainstream to the deepest underground.
Has been recorded at Relax Studio in Florence (ITA), at Casaro Studio in Piracicaba (BRA) and at Brothersroom Studios in London (UK). I like my lyrics to be a blend of the languages I speak (Italian, English, Portuguese and Spanish) and my music to cross genres. I want to create a hybrid universe of ideas, dreams and feelings where every sound has an understandable message despite the language it’s written in. I’m trying to recreate an idiosyncratic syncretism.
Have you ever come face to face with someone within the music scene who has left you awestruck and why?
I often go to see concerts and gigs, especially in the underground scene. There’s a something extra in this type of gigs that always leaves me amazed because of the way they deliver their message. They’re somehow untainted and wild.
If we were to head out to one of your live shows what can ourselves and others expect?
You’ll be walking into a room expecting a 4 plus pieces band and you’ll find just two of us; one at the drums, electronics and voice (me), and the other one, Thiago Jorge, my new fellow in this adventure, playing the synth guitar and the sax. Firstly you’ll be intrigued by what is going on, trying to figure out how the two of us are able to make such a mess. Then, while you’re still checking out what’s going on on stage you’ll find yourself following the rhythm and there is already too late, you’re hypnotised. You’re expecting a relatively quiet gig in a small venue and you find yourself surrounded by a massive energy wave full of folklore, an almost religious noise, almost mystical.
If you had one artist/band that you could go on tour with tomorrow who would it be and why?
Right now I’ll go for At The Drive-In.
You can spend an hour with a musical icon living or dead, who would you pick, why and what would you speak about?
I would love to get drunk with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and to chat with him like friends would do at a pub, talking of philosophy and politics, music and women and so on.
And finally and most importantly is Die Hard a Christmas Movie?
Yes!
We just want to say thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.
Website - http://www.iancarvalho.com
