Changes guide Salvador Sobral’s career, from frequenting the jazz venues of Lisbon to studying in Barcelona, ??and from there to winning the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Amar Pelos Dois. A path that has not stopped after undergoing surgery to receive a new heart, nor now that he is the father of Aïda, the 11-month-old little girl who has changed his life again while he was in the studio recording Timbre (Warner) , fifth album by the 33-year-old Portuguese in which his voice becomes the protagonist to sing eleven songs composed with Leo Aldrey and his sister, Luisa Sobral, where a cappella singing is intertwined with Brazilian rhythms among rhythms of happiness.
Your new album is called Timbre, is it related to the desire to find your own voice?
My voice is what distinguishes me, my timbre, I wanted it to be the protagonist of the album as my artistic identity, something that did not happen on the other albums where there was more democracy of instruments. It is the celebration of finding my artistic personality, my vocal identity. It is not easy to put a song on the radio and have you recognize the singer directly, and I think that happens to me, at least the people who know who I am, it is something that has been difficult for me since I was studying here in Barcelona, ??at the Taller of Music.
Did you find your identity by changing your voice or assuming it?
I have spent my entire life imitating, the first artist I listened to on my own was Stevie Wonder, and I imitated him. He is good at the instrument, at exercising it, trying to make his runs. From there I moved on to Ray Charles and my whole life I imitated Caetano, Billy Holliday, Chet Baker, Silvia Pérez Cruz. I put all those influences in a pot, and found my own timbre.
When did you find it?
I was in an obsessive, almost pathological phase with Chet Baker, when my sister told me “man, stop imitating Chet Baker” and wrote me a song, I might just stay away, which is on the first album. It was the first time I had to force myself to sing something as myself. After the Workshop it was an epiphanic moment, and when I went to Eurovision I already had my voice. But it is always mutating due to influences, suddenly I become obsessed with Tim Bernardes and I steal things from him, or with Samara Joy, and I steal her chromaticism. All artists do it, I like to steal what interests me from each artist.
It took him years to take the step…
When I was a child my father said, “you sing very well, what a shame you are going to change your voice,” and I lived with that trauma. I’ve never totally changed because of the fear I got because of my father, and I think that’s why I sing so high.
Over time it has opened up to more popular genres…
People ask me what genre of music Timbre is, and my girlfriend told me “it’s music from a world, but from your world.” I like everything, on the Spotify playlist I have María Joao Pires, or Sokolov playing Chopin, suddenly you have Julian Lodge, a very good jazz guitarist that I love, Stromae, Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, a lot of Portuguese hip hop. I listen to music that seems honest to me.
What relationship does he have with Amar Pelos Dois, the Eurovision winner?
It’s going to be part of my whole life, it’s my Born in the USA, my Like a Virgin, my hit. There was a time when I rejected him because he told me that I was much more than this. I didn’t play it, and I’m proud of it because it’s not easy to resist that tension on stage. But I spent a year and a half without singing it and I felt that people were more sad than angry. I went to see my great idols and they all sing the songs that made them famous, Caetano sings O leaozinho, José González sings Heartbeats that he wrote 20 years ago. So I made peace and I sing it at all the concerts, sometimes I feel like it less and I do it more for the people, sometimes I suddenly feel it and sing it more for myself, but it is a song that I will be 80 years old and I will continue singing it .
Dedicate a song to the person who gave you the new heart…
Since the transplant I wanted to do it, use my talent to thank a person who had to die so that I could be alive. But I did not yet have the maturity of a transplant nor the calm and consideration to discuss this topic. This is the third album I have made post-transplant and it is the first time I said ok, let’s start.
Did you write it in Spanish?
It’s to have an emotional distance, because if I do it in my mother tongue I couldn’t sing it without crying, you would completely break down. Spanish is also very close to me, but it is not my mother tongue.
Is it a responsibility to have received a heart?
Yes, to treat him well, I have never been one to drink alcohol or anything, and I am happy because I feel that I have to treat him well. It’s not just me, there is another person who also lived in this body, so I can’t be doing stupid things, I have that responsibility.
Do you dedicate a song to Sílvia Pérez Cruz?
Brazilians do a lot of what I call name dropping, like Caetano, they talk about other artists in their songs. In Barcelona I feel that there is a lot of exchange of artists and a lot of mutual admiration, that’s why I wanted to make a Brazilian song, dedicate something to Sílvia and give back for all the inspiration she has brought me. And what better way than with my voice, just like I did with the donor.
Do you sing it with Silvana Estrada?
We had thought about Sílvia herself, but the song is quite literal and it seemed strange to us that she would sing a song about herself, so we remembered Silvana. I sang with her in Madrid and we talked about Sílvia and how we both fell in love with her voice and everything she has brought us. I also called Lucia Fumero, who is now a pianist in my band, and we formed a collective of adoration for Sílvia, almost a sect.
Apart from Lucía, it has two other Catalan musicians, Eva Fernández and Magalí Sare…
That’s it, I’m Catalanizing my band, it’s my Machiavellian plan to live here again.
What does Barcelona have on a musical level?
Musical quality, technical quality and a lot of sensitivity. There is no snobbery or machismo so present in the jazz world in Lisbon, and I think Sílvia has helped open many doors in Portuguese jazz, because there are only men, there is no woman playing an instrument. Instead, I went to the Tallers Musicals d’Avinyó and saw many women playing instruments, that is incredible, and I see that they are open to all types of music. I still romanticize it, but I notice a lot of musical openness in Barcelona and much more support from the Catalan Government to export music than in Portugal.
He closes the album with Jorge Drexler in Al Arrives…
In 2010 my sister gave me two tickets to go see him at the Palau, and suddenly Drexler asked if anyone in the audience wanted to do a solo, half jokingly I think, but I raised my hand and went on stage. After the concert I went to say hello and we stayed in touch. Then the Eurovision thing came and he remembered me, he told me “I love your voice, let’s do something together, you sing like Elvis Costello.” I wrote him a lot of messages until one day I went to Madrid and we recorded the song. Now when I play at the Palau I always ask “does anyone in the audience want to do a solo?”
