An Interview with Carminho
Carminho, world-famous Portuguese singer, just completed a limited U.S. tour, kicking it off Nov. 18 with an NPR Tiny Desk Concert and concluding with a show at The Town Hall in New York City on Nov. 24. She also released her EP “Carminho at Electrical Audio,” which she recorded in one day with legendary producer Steve Albini, on Oct. 11.
Carminho sings fado, a traditional Portuguese genre of music that was created in the 1800s. Its songs are often described as melancholy expressions of longing.
I got the chance to talk with Carminho about fado, as well as attend her show, where I was amazed at her unmatched ability to channel honest, raw emotions into the songs. She calls fado its own language, and it’s safe to say she’s fluent.
See the full interview below.
You’ve been performing in the U.S. for the past few days. You started on Nov. 18 with an NPR tiny desk concert and this is your concluding show. How has this short tour been for you?
“It’s beautiful to see all the engagement and love that the audience is giving me and to see them approaching more and more to the fado culture, the Portuguese culture, and, specifically, to my work. It’s beautiful. Since I recorded the EP I just released, the show changed a little bit with these new songs, but I’m mainly practicing traditional fado. I am trying to think about the ways that fado is for me an instrument of my thoughts and speech. It’s not just an exercise of memory. It’s a live language that I can speak.”
What do you feel are the differences between performing here and performing in your home country, Portugal?
“Every night of fado is completely different and unique because of this chemistry between us and the audience. It’s never the same. Even in Portugal, if you change the town, the audience and the energy is going to be different because of their relationship with the genre, because of the venue, and because of who is in the venue. But when I sing outside of Portugal, where people don’t understand the lyrics, there’s even another level of understanding, because we speak a language of emotions. I just came from St. Louis and I did this show, and people were listening to fado for the first time. It’s the first time fado went to St. Louis, and I thought the interest and the open mind and heart to this kind of music was really incredible. I feel that the United States is more and more open to other cultures, and it’s incredible to see.”
You started your career as a fadista performing in traditional fado houses when you were very young. These venues have no lights, no speakers, and no microphones. What about performing in that type of environment is most special to you, as compared to performing in an arena?
“It’s the proximity of the faces and the acoustics. We try to reduce that gap when we are here. I try to look at the people’s faces. Sometimes, we can get a very intimate ambience, and it’s beautiful.”
Fado involves some improvisation. You’ve compared it to jazz in the past. Do you have any specific memorable moments from past performances where the music carried you away to a place you weren’t expecting?
“Of course. That happens all the time. There’s a lot of love between me and the musicians. There’s a lot of eye contact and connection. My show has to be only a little prepared, not a lot. If you prepare too much, if you fill the lines in too much, it’s boring and mechanical. I just go with the flow.”
Fado means fate and you’re the daughter of famous fado artist Teresa Siqueira. Was it your fate to sing fado?
“Probably yes. I started to practice in my mother’s belly. I started to listen there. It changed my destiny, my fado. I did university, studying marketing and publicity, and I hated it. At the end of university, I was very unhappy, so I went on an around-the-world trip, one year, as a backpacker, doing volunteer work with Mother Tereasa in Kolkata, India. That was very important for me to decide what I was choosing in my life. But fado was the main language I was speaking as an artist. Fado is an instrument, a way to get to some place. It’s like a brush and paint. I use the songs and the lyrics and the possibilities to change the lyrics to the music or compose new compositions to old lyrics. These combinations of the elements of fado, I like to touch so that I can change, not fado, but my perspective. I don’t have the potential to change fado. Fado is bigger than all the fadistas. It’s a bigger organism that moves by himself, and, in the end, chooses if things stay or are forgotten.”
What is the biggest lesson you learned from the trip abroad you went on before starting your career?
“I was always meeting new people. Every day, someone asked me, ‘Who are you?’ I had the option of lying, saying that I’m a Russian ballerina or anything else. When I was an adolescent, I was singing fado, but all my friends hated fado. It was not cool. Nobody wanted to hear it. I suffered a bit with that. I didn’t have invitations to the parties because I was a fado singer. I was finally on my own, on the other side of the globe, deciding if I wanted to say, again, that I was a fadista. It was quite a difficult decision for me. But I decided to do it, and the reaction was so great. Nobody had any references. References sometimes make you closed-minded, but without references, you just receive, as anything else. ‘Oh, you’re a singer. My country doesn’t have a traditional song. What a cool thing to do!’ I was like, ‘This is a cool thing after all.’ It was very important for me to get confidence, to see that you need to respect yourself and your values, even if others don’t.”
Why do you think fado has been able to stand the test of time and remain such a powerful force in Portugal, seeing as how it’s been the heart of Portuguese music since the 1800s?
“It’s in our DNA and personality as a country, as a people. Fado was born in Portugal, and I think it’s the only place that fado could have been born at all. We are near a very violent ocean, the Atlantic. We have this strong connection with the sea and with the faith the sea brings. Even today, there are a lot of fishermen in Portugal and a lot of families live off of the fish and the sea. I think Portuguese people, even if we don’t know it, have in our DNA a sense of nostalgia. We are urgently looking for our feelings. We are remembering something we lost, even if we don’t know what it is. Other cultures don’t, so I think fado had the perfect land to grow, with seeds of nostalgia and sadness, but also beauty, poetry, and longing.”
You’ve helped bring fado to an international stage through your appearance in the blockbuster film “Poor Things” last year. A lot more people are listening now who may not be from Lisbon or speak Portuguese. Why do you think fado transcends those cultural and linguistic barriers?
“It’s a very honest performance. It’s about the live performance, with the Portuguese guitar, the way the voice interprets the lyrics and the music, and the improvisation. It brings you a feeling of fear, but at the same time you know everything will go well. It’s the feeling you get watching an acrobat. You are afraid for him, but at the same time, it’s beautiful and spectacular.”
You learned how to play guitar specifically for your role in the movie. It’s especially interesting because fado has been shaped for many years by very defined positions: the woman sings, and the men run the fado houses, play the instruments, and compose the poems. Have you seen these defined roles changing at all in recent years?
“Of course, and we need it. I think it’s very important to have women writers, composers, musicians, and producers. It’s slowly changing. The women have always had a very important part in fado, because the woman is the singer. The singer is the open door. Fado puts women in the position of glory and power, but I think there are a lot of old, male lyrics. I am trying to bring what is beautiful and poetic from the past and the tradition, and to leave behind what doesn’t make sense anymore. There are a lot of lyrics written by men for women to sing that say things that are incredibly out-of-fashion. It’s like how you love your grandmother, but sometimes, she says things, and you say, “You cannot say that anymore, Grandma!” You love her, and you understand, but we are in different times. We have to respect the past but also respect our changes.”
Did learning guitar for this film inspire you to keep playing?
“Yes. It was great for me. It was a sense of power. We can always learn. When you learn something new, you become bigger, in the sense of your own imagination and doors of inspiration.”
Fado is often labeled as melancholy. Tell me about the happy side of fado.
“Fado is about life. Every question and subject of your daily life, I have expressed in fado. Festivals, holidays, lovers, beautiful days in the park, descriptions of a boyfriend and girlfriend. There are a lot of stories telling our happy side, but, to be honest, the sadness is very creative, because it’s very dynamic. There’s a lot of beauty in sadness.”
Recently, you put your own lyrics on traditional fado songs, broadening the genre, and have put your own modern touch on it, adding things like electric guitar instead of just the classical and Portuguese guitars. Are there any other new aspects you want to incorporate in your songs?
“This is not actually new. In the 50s, big bands were playing fado with electric guitar. Now, I’m including the guitar in a different way. That is what interests me the most, to understand the service of each instrument to fado. The Portuguese guitar’s melodies respond to the voice. It’s another singer. Sometimes, the electric guitar occupies the position of the Portuguese guitar, and sometimes, it occupies the position of the acoustic guitar that provides the rhythm. It fulfills the space of the spectrum of sound. I am trying to put new instruments to fulfill the spectrum, not to change the way we do traditional fado. It’s an exploration, and it’s beautiful. I love it.”
You were born Catholic. You actually got to perform for the Pope in Lisbon recently. Seeing as fado causes you to express such deep emotions on stage, how does fado intersect with your spirituality?
“It’s transversal. I was born with this faith and this relationship with myself and with God. I think this is a fountain of inspiration and strength. I never feel alone. Even when I am the most lonely, in the end, I look for someone and there’s someone there. It’s also an inspiration to look to others and to be empathetic with others’ lives and their suffering. I think connecting with another human being, if you know them or don’t, puts you closer to your spirituality, because it puts you outside of yourself, and that is an exercise that I try to do all the time.”
You released your last EP, “Carminho at Electrical Audio” on Oct.11. This project was borne of a one-day collaboration with the legendary producer Steve Albini, who worked with Nirvana and the Pixies during his time with us. You guys made four songs in 12 hours, and we can listen to all of them on the EP. What did you learn from Albini that day that you will take with you into your future projects?
“It was beautiful to work with someone who is a legendary producer and always tries to get the most authentic experience from a live performance band at the studio. He was one of the few producers who just wanted to capture the reality. He looked at this band of fado that he never recorded before, and probably only heard a few times in life, as another band, without preconceptions of genre. He just looked at the essence, the energy, of this band, and that is a very important thing to do. He didn’t want to change anything. It gave me a lot of pride and confidence.”
You are currently working on your next album. When can fans expect new music?
“I think in May/June.”
What is your final message to your listeners?
“Look for fado. Let yourself enjoy. This is the kind of music where you must have a will to listen. Prepare a good ambience, a glass of wine, put the songs on, and just travel in those chords, the sounds of the guitars, and the voice. It’s going to be beautiful.”
Carminho’s latest EP can be streamed on all platforms. Read more music stories on The Garnette Report here: https://thegarnettereport.com/category/art/music/.
Photo credit_ Marta Pelágio