The fourth track that you sang today - is that dedicated to your parents? Yes I wrote it and composed it with Theo Pascal, who is my producer, and we produced the whole album which is called "'This is My Cape Verde'.
So did you grow up in Cape Verde?
No, I grew up in Portugal but my parents were from Cape Verde and I always lived in an Cape Verdean environment, so I caught a lot of the influences and also from Europe plus jazz ands soul. So I mixed it all together - this is my fusion. Like an outsider seeing and feeling Cape Verde but being from its origin.
It says in the programme that your dad went on long cargo trips?
Yes, he was always away for about 9 months of the year and would only be back at home 3 months. That has a connection to the Cape Verdean way because a lot of men in Cape Verde do that to support their family and that's where the missing something and someone comes from. Because he stays away too long and then when he comes back we feast, and play guitar also. That's where I picked up the guitar - I will do the same with my children.
How did you meet our producer and bassist Theo?
In Portugal , he was producing and he's the musical director of some groups. I got into a gospel band in Portugal so that's where we met - I was 17 years old then. I'm 24 now.
Are you actually on tour at the moment?
Yes, the release of our album was in June so we've been doing a lot of shows in Portugal .
Are you doing any more in the UK ?
We have some possibilities here but they're not confirmed yet.
The website is www.theoothezz.com
You and your band all live in the same house - is that not very intense?
Well we have a recording studio in the house but we don't feel any pressure - we go in there when we need to do our own thing and we also relax and we live by the sea, so it's quite calm it's not an intense obligation to compose and be there. We do it naturally, it grows naturally.
Is your album different to the sound that we heard today?
Yes, today we performed a roots version and the album has a lot of mixing with keyboards. In Portugal, it's a different line up - I play keyboards also and there's a drummer so it's more composed.
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