Pedro Ayres na Graça

Born in Lisbon, Pedro Ayres Magalhães is a musician. Creates, plays music all over the world and dreams about changing it. With Lisbon in the background, the man who idealised Madredeus, confesses he hates the epithet of Portugal&146;s "ambassador"; don&146;t ask him "to make tours in the United States" ; he wants his songs to be known by more people. From Graça, the city has other colours. Even more when afternoon comes at the table of an esplanade. There&146;s where we met Pedro Ayres Magalhães. In a conversation accompanied by the mathematical ringing of the bell of the Convento da Graça - still in - remodelment &150; the composer speaks in the first person :

"Since very early, my fantasy was traveling all around the world and playing songs. When the 1974 revolution happened, I quitted the Colégio Militar (Millitary School) &150; just a coincidence &150; and in my life ... everything was possible. I started putting bands together, making groups, which was a ‘cyclopic&146; task" he says. After some bands, he starts "Heróis do Mar", his first major success. "Our idea was playing concerts everywhere, with ideological messages about Portugal". In 1987 Madredeus came up. Both project lived together through almost three years, but the option had to be made. "The idea of making Madredeus came up in order to allow me playing guitar, which is what I really like to do. My desire was to bring music to the castles, the theatres, the monuments and to the gardens. There was no such habit in Portugal.". He continues: "We had to make a band that fitted Teresa&146;s voice". The band passed from twenty concerts, in the first year, to one hundred concerts in the middle nineties. In the early nineties Madredeus starts his internationalisation and they&146;re now the most successful portuguese band in the worldwide market. "We knew how to evolve. That is the secret of our success. That, and the dedication of the eight people that became part of this band and the passion for this opportunity of having the whole world as our public". In their travels, Madredeus are globetrotters and they found that Portugal isn&146;t unknown by the people abroad. " People we found in Japan or Italy know about our country, the ‘Descobrimentos&146; and our music. I just don´t want people to say we are ambassadors" he guarantees. Despite the 70 thousand copies per album sold by Madredeus, in Portugal, and the doors that have being opened as they reached new levels of success, the support from their homeland isn´t as big as we could expect.
"This country could have enjoyed his music much more... because there&146;s lots of it, but people don&146;t hear it nor play it very much". Singing in portuguese? No doubt about it. That&146;s one of the childhood dreams: that one day portuguese music will play a role it doesn&146;t play in today&146;s Portugal. "That&146;s my innocence. I have a sort of inner country inside of me".

Without abandoning Madredeus, Pedro Ayres Magalhães was one of the Resistência project founders. Together with Fernando Cunha, Miguel Ângelo, Tim and Olavo Bilac, he brought portuguese bands to a larger audience. "Those times were fantastic" he remembers at the same time as he excludes the possibility of a return to the project - the musicians agenda doesn&146;t allow it.

Of the audiences he helps to enchant, Mexicans are "the most incredible ones. They have their own music, they are always listening to it and applaud whenever they like it. They don&146;t care about Teresa&146;s dress or if I&146;m fatter, as it happens here" he criticises. "I would like people to discuss more about music. I&146;m famous but most of my songs aren&146;t. And they don&146;t bore them or offend them". In the United States, the concerts don&146;t go very well. "They don&146;t live. Each one does what they have to do and leave. We don&146;t talk with the public and neither with the organisers of the events. And we better not talk about the food they provide us."

Madredeus&146;s ‘Antologia&146; was launched on Wednesday. There are 15 songs, from all the band&146;s albums plus two unreleased songs: "Oxalá" and "As Brumas do Futuro". The first time you hear "Oxalá" you&146;ll feel it jazzy, but Teresa&146;s voice brings everything to its place. It&146;s a different approach in style they already tried in previous albums. It has to do with the influences of travelling. In the second unreleased song, the main song of the film "Capitães de Abril", Madredeus sing about something concrete, for the first time. "We lived 15 years of subjective things, words, intuitions and feelings. It has nothing to do with our style. This phase on our career is fantastic, but we want to reach the 10 million portuguese people that only know ‘A Vaca de Fogo&146;. Everyone knows Madredeus is a portuguese group and that it has a female singer. That isn&146;t much."

This ‘best of&146; happened by suggestion of the EMI label. It will be released in 26 countries and the cover, after 15 years, it&146;s like the foto from the ‘true artists&146;. We&146;re all there We are heroes because what we have passed through, for all the sacrifices, for the planes we flew in. This is worse than the army. It&146;s a life."

   

 

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