A cool brazilian-music breeze to your ears

That's how Paulo Muniz's music has been described. In this section, you will read brief descriptions written by Paulo about his albums.

 

 

Eu comigo (Independent 2004) - ALBUM CREDITS

This was my second personal experience with recordings. It was the beggining of the "homestudio era" in Brazil and people were getting more and more interested in digital home recordings but it was still a very small movement compared to what it would become in a few years. I had this small room where I had my equipment set up and called "Composito studio". The technical conditions were far from ideal but I just had this will to finish this project and I did it.

This album is called Eu comigo because I did everything on it. It means "I and myself" or something like that in english. All the twelve songs are compositions of mine, and I recorded virtually all the instruments but saxophones and flute. When I say I recorded all of them, it means that the drums and all other instruments that I can't play were just programmed by me. It may sound weird but the recording technology for homestudios at the time were not even close to 2008. So, you can imagine that, despite it has a strong musical essence, the audio results were not that good. Even though it was also treated in a professional studio (TBS studio - Rio de Janeiro), when the recorded sound is not perfect, little can be done to make it better in the mixing and mastering. A lot of songs from this album were re-recorded in following albuns of mine.

I only sold it to close friends and family, what makes it a very rare album to find.

 

 

Trying to fool destiny (Independent 2006) - ALBUM CREDITS

I had the opportunity to record this album during 2006. It was a long, exhausting but rewarding year. By the time I finished the record, it started being sold on the internet (mainly at CD Baby) and physically in Japan (Disques Dessinee- Kobe) a couple of months later.

It is a truly independent record, with no label behind it. I invited the great musicians I was working with in another job to record with me and most of them agreed. The trouble was finding available time in the musicians' and the studio's schedule at the same time, since I was a payless job. However, I was working in the recording studio I was using back then and I had resonable time to mix the songs in my free hours.

Writing lyrics in english was, by far, my biggest challenge, even with the help of dear english-speaking friends. I tried not to write complicated arrangements, in order to have the songs flowing well to the listeners. Most of the compositions were brand new, made exclusively for this record but one of its most popular songs, Smile at me, was an english version of an old song of mine. To be honest, I'm very proud of this work as a whole.

One curiosity is that, sometime during the recordings, I came up with this expression "trying to fool destiny". I wondered if I might have been doing that: fooling an damned fate of mine which tried hard to prevent me from reaching happiness. As crazy as it may seem, I found it so nice that I decided that I would not only name the album after it but also a song. A couple of months later I managed to finish the song, which happens to be one of my favorites.

This album can be found in a lot of websites but I recommend you to buy it at CD Baby.

 

 

Trying to fool destiny - Japan (Production Dessinee 2007) - ALBUM CREDITS

A few differences from the original album. Due to the good sales of Trying to fool destiny in Japan, it was given new cover, artwork and three bonus tracks: a whole new japanese edition, by label Production Dessinee. It also started being distributed to major record stores through out the country through Vivid Sound Japan.

As an independent artist, it was great to see my work gain bigger proportions. Reviews and comments from japanese listeners made me think about how important for my career would be a tour in Japan. As far as I am concearned, more people got to know my work because of this new release.

This record can be found anywhere in Japan. If you are not from there, you may also found it in virtual stores from other countries.

 

 

Sine qua non - Japan (Production Dessinee 2007) - ALBUM CREDITS

During the year of 2007, I negotiated with japanese label Production Dessinee (the same one that released the japanese version of Trying to fool destiny) about the release of a brand new record. The main difference would be that this one would have not only songs in english but also in portuguese, being all of them songs of my authorship but this time with one single collaboration. Not mentioning that, this time, I would be paid to record an entire album of mine. Better, impossible.

I called musicians among the best in Rio de Janeiro to record with me. Most of them also had been present in my previous album but this time it was a whole different situation. The schedules were tighter and we were able to finish recordings in about a month (very fast, comparing to the eight months of Trying to fool destiny). The mixing and mastering of this album were pretty much based on the first one. I guess I was able to intentionally create a sound unity between them.

Just like the first one, this album caused good impressions on listeners from Japan. It has been receiving positive reviews and comments from japanese on the internet. It can be easily bought in stores from Japan and virtual stores on the internet.

 

If you want to know more about these albums, go to the "videos" section.