The full Brazilian

I was born in 1977 in the city of Salvador in Bahia, which is an area of Brazil that is often called the birthplace of Samba. There are a great many Catholic and Protestant churches in the country, and when I was 16 I started to play the drums in a local Baptist church, and I’ve been playing percussion ever since.

After I left high school, I played with a lot of different acts around my area, but in 1999 I moved to live in Sao Paolo, which is about 40 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of over 10 million it’s the largest city in South America, and one of the biggest in the world. It is renowned for its food. My favourite dish is Muqueca, which is a traditional seafood stew from northern Brazil. It’s made of fish, onions, garlic and tomatoes and is cooked slowly without water. I recommend it to anybody who goes to Sao Paulo.
Sao Paulo is also a great musical city and I got the opportunity to play with a lot of top artists there, including Anastacia, Paulo Calazans, Ras Bernado, Dionorina and Leo Maia. Samba music is very popular in Brazil. There are lots of recording studios and record companies too. We have the same major international labels you get in most countries, but we also have Brazilian labels who record all kinds of music. The radio stations play every kind of music.
I made some trips to China before coming to Ireland to learn English about two years ago. Brazilian and Irish people are very friendly and both love their music, so I found it very easy to settle into Ireland where I now also have a child.
In October 2007, I joined Republic of Loose. I’d like to think that Republic of Loose would be very popular in Brazil. We have the kind of soul and funk in our music that Brazilians like, and Mick is a great singer. They would love him in Brazil.
There’s much more to Brazil than the beaches, samba music and soccer. My country has an energy that is really positive and I miss that when I’m away from home. Soccer is really important, of course, and I used to play myself for a team in Bahia, but it’s about 12 years ago now, and I was not good enough to make a career of it. Pele is a big hero to Brazilians because he was such a great player, but there are also players like Romario, Rivaldo, Socrates, Zico and others who are also very popular because of how well they played for their country.
Most of the top international pop and rock acts are well known in Brazil. While I was in Sao Paulo I heard some Irish rock music, like U2, Sinead O’Connor, Gary Moore and Thin Lizzy, but I never heard Irish traditional music until I came to live here. The top international acts come to play in Sao Paulo just like they come to Dublin. A concert by the Rolling Stones at the Copacabana Beach in Rio, about a year and a half ago, had an audience of over one million, one of the biggest crowds ever at a rock concert. The stage was as high as a seven-storey building.
Sao Paulo is very expensive, as expensive as Dublin, although many parts of Brazil are not as dear. One of the things I don’t like about Brazil is our government. They do nothing for the people. They make lots of promises but nothing ever seems to happen. Brazil has a drug problem, like most countries, but it’s not as bad as it is in Bolivia or Colombia or the United States. The USA is one of the worst places for drugs, but nobody wants to admit that.
There are many similarities between the people of Brazil and Ireland. Bono was asked by a Brazilian journalist if there was any difference between the people of Brazil and Ireland and he said that the only difference was that the people of Brazil know how to shake their asses when they dance. People in Brazil laughed at that!

The latest album by Republic of Loose VOL IV: Johnny Pyro And The Dance Of Evil is out now.

WHERE TO EAT:
Maksoud Plaza in Sao Paulo has plenty of really good restaurants. There you can have a feijoada, a bean recipe that is Brazil’s national dish. One of the best is the Café Brasserie Belavista, which is open 24 hours.

TOP TIP FOR A DRINK:
A caipirinha is a traditional Brazilian drink you can try at The Batidas e Petiscos Bar, which is also around Maksoud Plaza. It has live Brazilian music, and a wide variety of other Brazilian drinks like cachaças, caipirinhas and tropical fruit juices.

WHERE TO STAY:
You can pay as little as $68 for a night at the Blue Tree Towers Analia Franco at Rua Eleonora Cintra. It’s located in a quiet residential area, near a big park.

GETTING THERE:
There are direct flights from Dublin to Sao Paulo which cost about €1,000.