...An eternal paradox in our society is how to market arts. It is implanted in our subconscious somewhere that it is important to our lives, more and more research is being done into the therapeutic qualities of art and music in particular. It is an important part in my autistic son's therapy for helping him understand basic concepts of communication and social cues that makes us humans different from all other species. Music is maths coming alive, it can rewire your brain, it can alter your biochemistry, it can lock up memories, feelings and smells in it just to be released whenever you listen to it. The question is how do you price such a product, service, commodity? How do you market it, how do you format it or how do you even identify what is being sold? How do you bottle it?
These questions are very much alive today in the time where the bottle has been broken and music is floating in the World Wide Web feeding people's lives while the farmers have gone poor of means and recognition.
Back in 1990 however, this storm was still brewing under our feet (That's right not over our heads, that's where heaven is) and the general public would never have guessed the online revolution that would hit us. It was a time when you recorded a demo tape in a studio, made cassette tape copies of it and posted them, yes, put a stamp on the envelope, went to your local post office and sent it to all record companies that you thought matched your style, since nothing around matched our style, our selection was pretty much sending to those we liked their cast or that the name perhaps sounded good. Many of these letters came back as wrongly addressed, since it wasn't as easy as searching key words on Google, you bought books, directories, that most of the time were many years old and people move. Many came back with an unopened pack saying they didn't listen to demos, some with a standard letter wishing us luck but they weren't hiring anybody at that moment, only a couple had real handwritten comments which could tell you they had really listened to the music, one of these letters really filled us with hope as it was from one of our favourite labels in the way they marketed bands and respected their artistic content: Rough Trade Records.
We sent them more songs and had an even more favourable response and Sarah came to see us at the Fulham Greyhound Gig. It was a very successful gig, it was full, people were enjoying the
music, dancing to it, great applause at the end, but we heard nothing from Sarah, we pursued it and after a while we received the dreadful note that she really liked our material and really enjoyed seeing us live at the Greyhound, but unfortunately they couldn't use our material at that moment. We didn't understand it at the time because Record Companies were not known to soften anybody's blow, they either didn't listen to you or listened and didn't like it, which they made sure they explained why, feedback was always very specific of what they thought didn't work for them, in our case it was most of the lyrics being in Portuguese. We were convinced that was the case with Sarah even though she didn't state any reason for our dismissal, and we set out to change our lyrics, translate some of them or write new songs in English, we knew it would take a while but we were willing to try. What we didn't know was that Rough Trade was on the verge of going bankrupt as indeed it did in 1991.
One funny adventure came up when Tayo and Paulo went to spend the day in Manchester and visit Factory Records, another favourite. They insisted in seeing someone, in leaving a demo tape but were barred at the entrance, when walking back disillusioned they heard a deep voice calling them: "Hey were you the Brazilian Boys?" It was Donald Johnson, the drummer from A Certain Ratio who heard about them trying to get in the building and went running to get them. They wanted to include some Brazilian percussion in one of their tracks for their latest record and wondered if the boys could help them to play them so that they could sample them in an old fashioned AKAI, and so next minute Paulo and Tayo were inside Factory Records studio recording with A Certain Ratio playing Agogo and reco-reco or something of the sort. The boys were over the moon, A Certain Ratio was an old favourite as they, like us, liked to mix in different rhythms to their overall Indie style, although we have never heard again what happened to that recording.
Other disappointing ventures with other companies followed, including Virgin Records, a major company. Tayo in a crazy absurd coincidence, one of those worth of featuring in the book Celestine Prophecy, got to know well the brother from one of Virgin's A&Rs who grew to admire our work, he showed his Brother our work first hand but his Brother claimed the company was only hiring dance music acts at that time.
We grew tired of investing so much getting nothing in return, a feeling we are all accustomed to, no matter what your trade or age, but when you are miles away from home without your loved ones that pressure can be unbearable for some. We had a new set of gigs booked to try out our new mostly English repertoire when our drummer Sergio decided he needed some Holidays which would be with his Brazilian girlfriend in Greece. We insisted he shouldn't go abroad as we had gigs booked and Immigration officers didn't really like foreign residents coming in and out of the Country when their visas were about to have to be renewed, they always thought you were trying to cheat as a new entry and in a pre-computer era that meant hours of interrogation when you were bound to say something they thought was suspicious.
Sergio went to Greece anyway, his Holidays, his rest time, was the most stressful time in our lives, all our work was at stake, all that we built in London was at stake. He came back, bringing with him a letter that said he had 48 hours to gather his belongings and leave the Country. We gathered at the flat he shared with Tayo at the time, he tried to make a farewell party out of the affair but we were angry, very angry, we knew it was the end of Felix, of Fritz. We only existed as a mix of Indie and Brazilian rhythms and Sergio was the Brazilian rhythm bit, crucial. As sadness is said to inspire art we have written many songs about the feeling we had on that day, my favourite one "Premonitions". Sergio went back to Brazil and tried to come back to England twice more spending all his savings but he was denied entry 3 times. Farewell Felix...
But don't they say cats have nine lives?...
...To be continued
Pictures: 1, 2 and 3 - Murilo Teixeira
Other disappointing ventures with other companies followed, including Virgin Records, a major company. Tayo in a crazy absurd coincidence, one of those worth of featuring in the book Celestine Prophecy, got to know well the brother from one of Virgin's A&Rs who grew to admire our work, he showed his Brother our work first hand but his Brother claimed the company was only hiring dance music acts at that time.
We grew tired of investing so much getting nothing in return, a feeling we are all accustomed to, no matter what your trade or age, but when you are miles away from home without your loved ones that pressure can be unbearable for some. We had a new set of gigs booked to try out our new mostly English repertoire when our drummer Sergio decided he needed some Holidays which would be with his Brazilian girlfriend in Greece. We insisted he shouldn't go abroad as we had gigs booked and Immigration officers didn't really like foreign residents coming in and out of the Country when their visas were about to have to be renewed, they always thought you were trying to cheat as a new entry and in a pre-computer era that meant hours of interrogation when you were bound to say something they thought was suspicious.
Sergio went to Greece anyway, his Holidays, his rest time, was the most stressful time in our lives, all our work was at stake, all that we built in London was at stake. He came back, bringing with him a letter that said he had 48 hours to gather his belongings and leave the Country. We gathered at the flat he shared with Tayo at the time, he tried to make a farewell party out of the affair but we were angry, very angry, we knew it was the end of Felix, of Fritz. We only existed as a mix of Indie and Brazilian rhythms and Sergio was the Brazilian rhythm bit, crucial. As sadness is said to inspire art we have written many songs about the feeling we had on that day, my favourite one "Premonitions". Sergio went back to Brazil and tried to come back to England twice more spending all his savings but he was denied entry 3 times. Farewell Felix...But don't they say cats have nine lives?...
...To be continued
Pictures: 1, 2 and 3 - Murilo Teixeira
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