Cristóvam – the first concert in Poland
A few days ago Cristóvam played his first concert in Poland and charmed the audience. And it all started in Terceira over a year ago. Last year, as I’ve already mentioned to you, there were two Polish guys in Terceira. They were doing Erasmus, we were climbing together. One day one of them sent me a message: “Milena, have you heard about the concert on the 8th of June in the theater? Cristóvam will be singing”. I didn’t know who Cristóvam was, I switched on the YouTube. In the middle of the first song that I listened to I already knew I would go to the concert. Teatro Angrense, the main theater in Angra (and in the whole Terceira), was full. 650 seats taken to a man. Just before the beginning I got to know that Cristóvam is an artist from Terceira, a song writer and their performer. And as it usually happens on the island – he is a friend of a friend. I admired the interior of the theater (yes, theaters are “my” places), the scenography – and the concert started. At the concert I was sitting as if I was charmed. And together with me – the rest of the audience. From the stage there was pure magic flowing. During the concert the artist was saying “thank you” to each person who helped him get where he is now. People who helped him make his first steps, first records, who were there when he needed them. It was so pleasant, the atmosphere of happiness and gratefulness infected all the viewers. After the concert – a music album, an autograph, exchange of impressions after the concert, asking acquaintances who the artist is. “Yes, he’s my big brother”. This island is really small. And later the record played round and round in the car – until the CD player stopped working. And my thought: I have to bring him to Poland! I wanted to both present in Poland music that entranced me and bring to my country a piece Terceira, my new home. I wanted to share what’s important to me – both in terms of art and life. One thought has quickly turned into a big dream which I wanted to make come true. And later, in September, there was the official record premiere and the second concert, this time in Teatro Alpendre. A much smaller theater, on the stage only Cristóvam with a guitar and a harmonica, at some moment also with his friend who joined him with another guitar. Intimate atmosphere, a sensation of closeness. It could almost seem that the artist plays for each of the viewers separately. Basically I don’t remember when I mentioned to the artist for the first time that I would like him to play in Poland. Was it after the first concert? After the second? I don’t know. I only remember one barbecue, when we talked about it more seriously. And I remember fixing the details. And translating the artist’s biography to Polish. My first e-mails and phone calls to the potential organizers. And even more work. And finally happiness that the concert will happen. And the interview Cristóvam – Being vulnerable in front of other people shortly before the concert. And finally: On the 13th of August, 2019 Cristóvam played his first concert in Poland! And he charmed the Polish audience. The concert took place in DK Śródmieście in Warsaw. It’s a place that I adore. It has a great team (it’s fantastic to work with them), a great stage (it’s pure pleasure to play on it) and a great audience (it always welcomes the artists with arms wide open). It was a great experience this time as well. During the concert I was smiling in the darkness. I was listening to the music from the record „Hopes & Dreams” and from the one that’s being prepared, to the stories about the songs, to warm thank-you words for me and the organizers. And I was just smiling. I was looking at other smiling faces, at people swaying, tapping the beat. I was listening to the chores repeated by everyone, to the volleys of applause – and I was happy. There were a few people close to me on the concert – and it was so nice that they showed up! There were also people that I don’t know at all – and they were also delighted! That was a big reward – seeing so many happy faces. Cristóvam was also happy. He’s an artist who appreciates each concert and each viewer. Who’s happy to have a chance to share his art and to see that somebody gets moved by this art. I think he was waiting for the concert in Warsaw as much as I was. It was both his first concert in our country and his first visit to Poland. He started learning Polish from a word “dojrzewające” (no comments, maybe once you’ll hear that story on a concert) and at the end he could already read in the subway “Świętokrzyska”. I enjoyed seeing his reaction to the concert and to Poland. It’s difficult for me to say more about the concert itself, it brought too many emotions for me. But I asked a few of the viewers for sharing their opinions. Let them be the summary. „Cozy, even intimate atmosphere of the event made me sorry to have to come back home. I will remember the songs sung with warm voice in a dark concert hall for a long time. But the concert was exceptional mainly because the artist himself: witty, eloquent, with a distance to himself”. Kasia „I didn’t know Cristóvam’s music before. I listened to a few songs on Spotify on the day of the concert and I had a positive attitude. But the positive energy and the contact with the audience during the concert combined with technically very well performed songs made me have a great time”. Mikołaj „The artist was able
Cristóvam – Being vulnerable in front of other people
You have to fight for what you believe in. An artist has to learn to be vulnerable in front of other people. How it is to be a musician in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. These and many other things in the interview with Cristóvam. Cristóvam is a great singer and song writer, who comes from Terceira and makes his music here, and luckily shares it also with the rest of the world. On the 13th of August, 2019, he will play a concert in Warsaw. I decided to introduce him to you before that concert. Today’s article in untypical. Because it’s the first podcast on my website. I hope that you like that form. The text below is a transcription of our conversation. Under the transcription you will find more information about the artist and the concert. And now – enjoy the interview! Here you can also download the interview an listen to it in a convenient moment: Hi! It’s Milena Dąbrowska speaking and you’re listening now to an interview with Cristóvam. Cristóvam is a singer and songwriter coming from Terceira island in the Azores, Portugal. Yes, that’s where I live. And that’s where I heard him for the first time in June 2018. I was so enchanted with his music that I immediately knew I had to bring him to Poland. I wanted you to listen to him as well. And the impossible is happening now. Cristóvam is playing his first concert in Poland! His concert “Hopes & Dreams” will take place on the 13th of August, at 7 p.m., in DK Śródmieście in Warsaw. You can find more information about Cristóvam and his concert on my website www.milenadabrowska.com – and now relax and enjoy the interview! Hello. Hello. Thank you that you agreed for this interview. Thank you. The first question is: why music? Because drugs are bad. (laugh) And illegal? (laugh) And illegal. (laugh) No, because my grandfather was the founder of the radio here on the island and he left a big collection of music that my father inherited and also I inherited myself. I grew up listening to many records that were very old for my age, so… when I was 6 or 5, I already knew Dire Straits, Supertramp and Bob Dylan and Neil Young records back and forth. And without having any musicians in my family, I did have a good friend of my father, who was a great guitarist. And he would lead me to this passion about trying to learn guitar. When I was 11, my father finally gave me my guitar. My first guitar. And then I started locking myself in the room until 4 a.m. every day, trying to write songs. First learned two or three songs and then started playing my own songs. And because I did now know other musicians when I started doing my songs and I wanted to hear other instruments, I had to learn the other instruments in order to have them in my songs. So that is why I learned how to play bass, and some keyboards, and to program drums, and record myself in all of that. It was a necessity. Did you learn it all on your own? Yes. And there was no YouTube. (laugh) Because I’m old already. (laugh) Oh, you’re so terribly old! (laugh) But there was no instructions, so yes, it was a lot of trial and error. But I loved it so I never got bored. I saw my friends getting bored every day and I was never bored, I was always eager to come home and to play with these toys. And at that time were you already thinking about making it your profession or was it just some playing? At the beginning no. Probably around 15 or 16, I started to realize that the only thing that I was really absolutely passionate about was music. I started to think about making a living out of music, despite everybody telling me it was impossible. And that I would have to move to a big country and a big city, because the Azores were very bad to become a musician. I think you’re reading my questions because you’re already answering them the way they are here. (laugh) So how is it to be a musician in a little island in the ocean? It’s something that you cannot explain, because it’s a very unknown reality. Even to myself to a certain degree, because there was not a lot of people that I could look up to and see, and say: this guy is doing really what I want to do. There was no one that I could look and have that. There were of course great musician from the island and there are some great musicians that I admire and think are very talented, but there was no one doing what I wanted to do, which was to live here, but to make music and to tour the world. It seemed even a little immature to think that big. But I was very stubborn and when I was 18, I sent a message to a big pop star from Portugal back then and he replied, and he listened to my music, and I met a lot of other people. That was a big turning point to me, because for the first time I felt like that this gap dividing the islands from the mainland was not as big as people thought. Because of the internet. That you could send these messages to these people. And of course most people that you send messages to when you are a kid making music don’t even answer, but some do. And that was a turning point for me. And then I went to Lisbon to study fine arts. It only lasted 5 months. And then I quit college because I could not afford to pay college and make record at the same time. I had to choose between