Interview Da Cruz

Nella speranza che il vostro affezionato dj non ve l'abbia fatta conoscere in preda ad un attacco di nostalgia housereccia facendovi ascoltare una più pertinente versione di Taj Mahal (di cui girava forse lo scorso anno un'oscena versione house programmata fino alla nausea dalle logge radiofoniche del Bel Paese), vi proponiamo una stretta di mano ideale con tanto di sorriso durban bianco come l'avorio della simpatica Da Cruz (nome completo che emerge dallo scambio telematico di chiacchiere e battute... tenetevi forte: Mariana Sidelça Benedita Da Cruz!), protagonista di una pubblicazione per la Boom Jah, in cui trasfonde generi differenti in un calderone che evoca, sì, la saudade (sintomo comunissimo se si pensa che Mariana è originaria di Sao Paulo, ma da tempo vive nel nostro splendido continente!), ma con un taglio decisamente più "globale" (e non rabbrividite sempre quando leggete questa parola!!!), vuoi per l'inevitabile iniezione electro-breakbeat indotta dai suoi collaboratori (tra cui spicca Ane H. dei cranioclastici hop-metallari svizzeri Swamp Terrorists) vuoi per l'apertura mentale che immaginiamo connoti questa pregevole ugole carioca. Un incrocio e un incontro ideale fra Sud America e Europa, che si risolve in una formula per l'ascolto e per il movimento! Ancora una volta pregevole il "patrocinio" di un cantone svizzero - quello di Berna -, mostratasi più efficiente di qualsiasi amministrazione pubblica nostrana (dalla stragrande parte delle regioni -le eccezioni ci sono sempre- alla più remota delle comunità montane! qualcuno obietterà che i problemi veri sono altri... la cultura è un dettaglio inutile... presupposto sbagliato che caratterizza il ragionamento sempiterno di molti politicanti italiani...) nella promozione culturale!!! E se delle cosiddette tradizioni pare siano rimasti in pochi ad importarsene, val bene anche il fascino sincretico delle meticciature moderne!!! Questione di intuito... C'è chi l'ha capito e chi continua ad ignorarlo... Ad ogni modo, buona lettura e buon ascolto!!!! Da Cruz "Nova Estação" (Boom Jah Records, Distribuzione Audioglobe) 01.Intro (São Jorge) 02.Madrugada 03.Depois De Aplauso 04.Sarah 05.Selvagem 06.Nova Estação 07.Lindo Lago Do Amor 08.Vida Antiga 09.Mais Uma Noite 10.Itapõa 11.Tou Na Torcida 12.Perdida 13.Taj Mahal

Hi Mariana Da Cruz. Did any Christian priest suffer from exstatic visions when introduced to you? Mariana Da Cruz... what a name! Yeah, I had good luck with this one. But actually it is only a short version of my name. My full name is: Mariana Sidelça Benedita Da Cruz. But as beautiful it sounds, the name Da Cruz doesn't have a nobly background. The "Da" means, that my great-great-grandfather was a slave of a portuguese family in Brazil. It means, we've been owned by a family Cruz…

Such as many Brazialian style records, yours is able to transmit joy and vitality, but my favourite track is maybe the saddest one, Depois Do Aplauso. What about your feeling when singing that song for the first time? Welcome to the club of the melancolics. It is funny, because it was the last song we wrote for this CD. Actually we already had too many songs for it and had to throw out five tracks - I call this process to kill my children. Then, me and my producer travelled to Paris, to make a decision. And there we had the idea for this melody. There are songs, you don't write, you don't have to think about, they just happen. "Depois Do Aplauso" was one of this songs. When we presented the idea to our guitarist, it took him 20 minutes to record a line. In the end we threw out all the beats and basses and reduced it to the max.

Another "experiment" I appreciated a lot is Selvagem... What about the background and working on that track? This one - on the other side - was one of our first songs. It was supposed to be a pure bossa nova song in the beginning, then we found this ridiculous disco-beat and started to merge the whole stuff together. Our live drummer - a jazz man - was not amused by this, but I like to juggle with the styles. Otherwise I get bored.

But maybe what it's even more appreciatable is your voice... De soperba beleza!!! What about your artistic background? When did you discover your love for this form of art? Thank you so much. But I fear, the story of my singing career could bore you. I sung in the church choir, like almost all brazilians do. The next step was to sing in a club in Campinas, a city near Sao Paulo. It wasn't a very chic place - I think today it is a brothel… but I had the chance to sing there regularly. I choosed the saddest bossa nova ballads I knew, and the scenario was always the same: the tourists have been amused and drunk their wines, and the Brazilians started to cry. There I discovered, that my voice has the power to move the people.

Nova Estaçao is just your debut. Any work in progress? Ha, of course. We are - actually all the time - writing and producing new songs, because next year we already want to release our next album. And the new stuff will be a little bit more radical, both, in the sadness as well as in the vitality. At the moment we are working on a electronic-samba-version of the Normal song "Warm Leatherette". It's gonna be funny.

Let's speak about Nova Estacao again. What's your favourite song and why? Now you ask me, which of my children I like the most - this is not fair… It changes from day to day. I like "Intro (Sao Jorge)", because it sound like a brazilian electro-blues to me. I like "Madrugada", because it has this strange latin-approach mixed with a crunchy breakbeat. I like the title song "Nova Estação", because the refrain is one of the best on this CD. And I like "Sarah" very much, because it has this rude organic brazilian HipHop-charme and is full of emotions anyway.

Your first song is dedicated to Sao Jorge, patron of England, Portugal and of Corinthians. But the figure of this "warrior-saint" - famous in popular religious legends as the killer of the dragon, a sort of metaphor of the Good prevailing on Evil - has been grabbed by pop culture, comparing on garments, too. What about your Sao Jorge??? In Brazil we see Sao Jorge as a protector, not as an agressive warrior. I have chosen this methaphor because there are so many things going wrong in Brazil at the moment, that I have the impression, we need a kind of protection. A protection against corrupt minds, against social injustice and against ignorance. The problems in my beautiful country are huge. So for this we need a true warrior. One who can kill dragons.

Saudade in your own words... This indescribably, half snivelling, half pleasant longing for a lost paradise. And one of the greatest inspirers for the greatest songs ever written.

In a way or another, have your ever identified in the figure of Sarah you describe by your astinishing voice? I know a lot of girls like Sarah. Brazilian girls they went to Europe with the illusion to have a better chance here. Sarah I met in Lisbon, where I lived for some years. She always came in the club where i was singing, and she always sat on the same table and cried. She left her children in Brazil and wanted to find a good job in the old world. But she failed. She couldn't send money to her family, she missed her children, sold her body and lost her dreams. As I told, I know a lot of girls with a history like that. I had better luck. And I didn't come to Europe to find a better life, I was rather curious about an other life.

"Quero amar quem me quiera/Com todo o seu carinho/Como um vulcao em chamas acordando/do seu ninho/Anunciando a libertade/De una vida pantaneira/olhando sol poente de uma nuvem passageira"... Wow! Are you going to compete with Gilberto for the next presidentials in Brazil? :) For gods sake no. I think Gilberto Gil does a good job as cultural minister in Brazil. But the last concert I've seen of him at the Montreux Jazz Festival was a little bit boring. He acted like an ambassador on stage, wanted to explain the whole brazilian music history. For me, poetry has a bigger power than political slogans, because poetry - in the best case - doesn't know any vanity.

Do you think Brazilian way of thinking and culture is still misunderstood or not? Yes and no. The image, we have in the world, is a part of us. This joy of life, this love for music, football or dancing. But, as always, life is not as simple as that. It is only one facet of our complex character. There is a Brazil beside of the clichees. There is a modern, open and reflective Brazil. And Da Cruz wants to talk about this Brazil.

Any Italian date in your agenda? Not yet. But we are working on it. In Decembre we go on a brazilian tour. After we are ready for Italy. Hey, there are only some mountains between us…