That which has inspired us....

Sun, sand, water, drinking and dancing. The image of Brazil we love so much. We wanted to tell you a little bit about the music that has inspired our music. We are obsessed with the music of Brazil. We also have a combination of rock a jazz backgrounds behind the two of us so we wanted to incorporate the three into our sound. How did we accomplish such a feat you ask?

We started out by learning a bit more about Samba. Samba is the dance music of Brazil and has helped shape the global image of Brazilian music and culture Samba is a style that is heavily percussive, incorporating simple melody lines and harmonies. This popular style is known for its heavily syncopated rhythms, commonly played in time signatures such as 2/4, and 4/4. The heavily percussive sound we have captured is based off the clave  Groovy hey? We wanted to recreate some of the rhythms played by the percussion instruments present in Brazilian music. Such as the tamborim, the surdo and agogo’s.

Whilst Samba is an inspiring, atmospheric and groovy style we wanted to incorporate more popular music into it. What better way to create new music that to throw in something contemporary like electronic music and the classic guitar riff. As guitarists we wanted to incorporate that as much as possible into the style. With guitar being a commonly used instrument in Samba and the stripped back version, Bossa Nova, it was easy to put in some guitar work.

We are inspired somewhat by the history of the music as well. Brazil is a country with a vibrant history and an array of music filling every nook and cranny of the country.
There are many popular styles that make up the colorful music scene in Brazil, including Baiao, Choro, Bossa Nova, Forro. Samba music developed in regional parts of Brazil in the early 20th century. It has become the international identity for Brazil and Rio de Janeiro, before the emergence of Bossa Nova in the 50’s. Particularly when Hollywood exposed America to Samba with Carmen Miranda. Samba quickly gained popularity in Brazil and became the image for the country internationally. This dance music paved the way for the ever popular Bossa Nova as well as Brazilian Popular Music. Move over Brazil it’s our time to shine.