Photo: Adriana Pittigliani
I´ve sent some questions to my friend Sany Pitbull to answer in order to finish the script of my documentary about the Baile Funk scene in Rio de Janeiro. I said to Sany: "Man, no need to answer everything if you´re busy. All I need are some specific informations, so take your time." And for my big surprise he got me back with this amazing testemonial telling a bit of the history of the Baile Funk scene in Rio, his own history and point of views about racism, politics, music and the past and the future of Funk Carioca. He gave me a life´s lession by writing this and that´s why I decided to publish it here.
Interview by Sabrina Fidalgo
"I grew happy, poor, suburban and carioca, son of a Bahian mulata with a catarinense descending of German that met at Rio (the mixes already are in my life since forever). I was born in 17 December 1968, in the best hospital of Nova Iguaçu, city of the of the state of Rio de Janeiro, but lived at suburban Ilha do Governador, up to 1977, with my parents and two brothers: I'm the oldest, 3 years more than Laércio, again 3 years older than Luciano. By that time we could still swim at the beach in the suburb, without pollution. We enjoyed walks and plays at Quinta da Boa Vista public garden, playing futebol, school and Maracanã, to see Flamengo plays and Santa Claus arriving on a chopter to the city.
My mother, Vitória Reis, were house servant and my father, João Silva, son of the refugee of war Angelina Kristarla, worked in civil construction. Person in charge of machines, for incredible that it seems, he couldn't read and badly wrote his name, but commanded a team of specialists and helped construct the Rio-Niterói bridge. In 77 he moved of company, and the family to Nova Iguaçu, and in 83 we came back suburbia to São Cristóvão, where I live until today, with a fast exit to Petrópolis when my son João Vitor was born.
Music was always present in my life, blame it to my parents who listened at home Tonico e Tinoco, Texeirinha -- sertanejo was the choice of my father, who piloted the family in the weekends. During the week I listened to pop brought up to date of radio MUNDIAL AM, they had the top shows national and international, and my mother listened to Abba and disco music, it was a happy noisy house.
Funk appeared when we moved to São Cristóvão, I had 13 or 14 years, underage for the party, but my friend Walmir, who turned later partner DJ Pancada, already deceased, had this older sister that was dating one of the security guys of Clube Magnatas here in the quarter, that had a ball with the team Cash Box, every sunday. TomTom Club, NewCleus, 100% american funk. Big wall of speakers, 3, 4 thousand people, that feeling will stay with me forever, I was coming from countryside, starting to date …
Fan of the Cash Box team, I started to go with a group, Roberta, Roberto, Flavinho, João Henrique, Sabonete... We were real groupies and also went in the other nights in other quarters, anywhere in Rio De Janeiro, until we got the attention of the owner of the team, DJ Marcão. There were prejudice already, I had friends with more money that loved funk as us, but finished having problems with the family, because bailes were poor people's thing. They ended up changing to rock fans. I used to argue with my father too, but the passion was stronger.
I started to arrive early at the ball and to take one liter of the peach batida do Primo, celebrity here of the quarter, glue in to Marcão, fan of the drink, and start learning from him, that showed me the labels, taught tricks. I used to buy those expensive chrome cassettes and make him record musics for me. He always gave me the entire songs, but with the vignettes of Cash Box, by that time the last funk releases were exclusive imported vinyls not released here that only Tony Minister and DJ Nazz brought to pro DJs like Marcão. National records, only from the sound teams, mixed and old already. I started to know djs, as Pouca-Telha, Portugues, Marcão from Furacão, made friends.
One day me and Walmir knew of a meeting of DJs, were you could just show up and play, at Vale do Ipê, hidden at countryside Rio state at the city of Caxias, we catched 2 buses and a train only to get there, and knew nothing about mixing, but DJ Garrafinha, full of imported vinyls, gave us a shot. We started performing together (Dj Sany and Dj Pancada), bought some imported records, I remember in special the Krafwerk with Trans-Europe Express (this I was ripped off, scraped label, it was national... 'cause it was not funk, then was released in Brazil, but we were so used to difficult ones), and Smurf Rock. Walmir liked playing the slow ones with lyrics, and I made people dance with instrumentals. Side A and side B, we always shared the tracks.
In 87, I made my first solo ball. The place was at Ramos beach, one box of concrete, did not have window nor nothing, only a small door, the people called Forninho. I played there for about a year, started to receive compliments, and became professional. While also studied at night, worked as ofice-boy during the day and served the army, but I never gave up until I was living only out of funk, around 92.
My dream, twenty years behind, was to travel, to know Miami and Berlin, because of it's music, I wanted to know the places, the people, if possible the artists, and the technology, know how they did that. I wanted to learn, only. Never, never I imagined that one day I could travel because americans and germans wanted to listen to our funk. Nor I nor nobody in funk. Today, I continue wanting to go all places, and to learn, but the conversation became longer now, there's much to show about funk carioca, not only my work, but many artists, I wish to show it to the greatest possible number of people.
I never passed hunger, work since 12, selling home made ice cream, whatever, did not complete high school degree, my bigger pride is music, to have always been funkeiro. It feel that I'm conquering today slowly my dreams, despite the difficulties - I cannot forget Walmir, DJ Pancada that started with me, gave up funk, and some time later finished killed by police, or crime, doesn't matter, he was funkeiro for me.
To be carioca is what makes funk of the bailes to be syntonized with the world, not this or that artist or style. Somehow our people makes ART out of the parties and happiness. With little traditional education even for those who had school, is in the parties that people develop skills to understand life, ones with the others. I find this carioca (or Brazilian) atittude what attracts the foreigners. In music, this carioca feeling always ment having much percussion, with complicated rhythmic harmonias, even when the remaining portion of the song is all well simple, coarse even. For the natural born funkeiro or sambista it feels easy, but for a more erudite musician is full of timming and timbre details hard to execute.
In funk is even more complicated, with the electronic effects and the lyrics coming directly from the behavior of the crowds at the balls, it has an huge amount of encoded information there. Just to make it harder, there's this brazilian taste for the new, disposable or not, and love to be always mixing, transforming everything that falls in our hands -- each month appears a small detail, and as everybody absorbs, starts to be part of the genre itself …
The future? I only know that it depends on all of us together, depends on Sany, Pitti, Marlboro, the artists, the guys producing the balls, journalists, gringos, brazilians. Each one is alone to make right its part, to have self-respect, to be professional, at last, to have faith and to believe the future. As I am funkeiro, already I was born with this carioca antenna in the soul. I do not know which beat or style will dominate the future, but this irreverent carioca mixing attitude is spread all over, in the music of the world today, we are here making the music that young artists of the world are doing too, we are connected, that's for sure.
My religion is God, there's something there, but I do not identify myself with no Church in particular. I never had great contact with none of them, but friends, family, girlfriends, we live here surrounded of different histories in Brazil, you know? And all of them also finish being part of ours. The tamborzão has much agogô afro. But in Brazil you don't need to be religious to know that. It's part of our daily culture already.
Even with this practical mixture going on, I suffered many prejudices, is complicated to understand this in Brazil, we are turn-cans in everything but we are ashamed of funk, poverty and slum quarters. And theres the colour of the skin, mulato, bad hair, I open my mouth and funk comes ... I lost a few girlfriends and DJ gigs already to that. Around 92, 94, even already easier to find fresh released funk records in Brazil, still it was considered without value – even at the inferninhos of strip-tease at Copacabana where I took off the recess of the Djs from monday to wednesday, if I played Stevie B., Tony Garcia or Spring Love, always a waiter or the manager came saying -- ' What's that, my brother? Funk here, no'. And it was not even the funk carioca that I played at the balls, just american funk, part of pop world-wide nice set for me.
I love all music, arab, japanese, samba, hip hop, electronic, heavy metal, pop that everybody knows and hidden things, current, old, good, very very bad. I am addicted to music. It is something of an entire life. Taking off some other popular rhythms in Brazil, still I can't really share fully this passion with the funk musicians here, there is this exclusive circuit of balls and ephemeral records of funk carioca that seduces the kids mainly, and few are eclectic, curious with the remaining portion of the world. But already they do not find me eccentric as before, have come to ask what is there out, where to find infos.
Funk at the balls has their own language, the circuit is like a private channel of subscribers, the funkeiros, that nobody else understands right, but once you catch the signal you can't unglue off the TV. And the audience goes increasing, diversifying, the person on the other side of the screen can be in Asia, or Ipanema. So around the globe all kinds of different people are translating and incorporating pieces of this language at its own universe. Each one with its culture, its history, out of its skills. That's how today's balls are turning into funk carioca spread world-wide. Funk of the slum quarters belongs to the slum quarters, each audience has its own taste, all DJ knows, the crowd rules.
The great evolution of funk in last the 20 years was to become brazilian, while it changed the technology, and the carioca society. In 89 the llyrics in Portuguese appeared, then later the romantic success, in 94 the corridor balls, always in the suburbs, and 98 the first slum quarter balls. While this, american funk transformed into voltmix, and finally the tamborzão, each time more and more batucado (beated, like the act of playing a tamboor), from vinyl and tapes, mds to mpcs. The message was always the life of simple people in Rio De Janeiro, but the audience changed many times, and with it the form of the music, we sang 'I only wanted to be happy at my favela' when speaking to the asphalt, made almost punk-rock when playing for the suburban crowds, proibidão when funk was finally banished to the favelas, and putaria when funk artists became promotional exotic performances at fancy parties …
My great idol is my father, who had a happy life, full of accomplishments out of very little, with much music, love and respect. When he saw me serious and progressing as DJ, never argued again and supported me, said one day he was very proud of me. This respect marked my life, somebody invented this maestro nick and it worked, I do take music seriously, like to work together with other musicians, and don't mind teaching some music to kids with patience - I learned all this with father, when somebody calls his funkeiro son a maestro, I think of him.
Carioca Funk Clube - This is the project that I want to continue making, working serious new mixtures of sounds and people, commanding the carioca balls wherever they be, at a favela or the moon, to have one little better studio to mix the artists, freedom and audience to play what I want not only at Stockholm, but downtown Rio too. I wanna take what's carioca about funk even further worldwide, and continue to have the privilege of keep a tradition from many artists who I saw and I had been with but are gone, playing funk of all the kinds that already existed, or will exist, at a studio or live crowd, for me the best ever invented drug and only one I do, this is my life, is shy, I'm shy, not much of a talker, my history is the history of funk carioca.
I am Sergio, the fiancé of Alessandra, father of João Vitor, Sany for the family, and maestro Pitbull of funk since I joined Serginho's crew with the same name, after many other great sound teams as Live, A Cova, Águia Disco, I launched and worked with many artists, MCs, DJs and Bondes (groups). It was the people dancing at the balls that gave me SANY PITBULL, and I work for them for already 21 years as musician and artist."
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