João Barbosa AKA Branko first became known on the International scene as the driving creative force in Buraka som Sistema, the worldwide phenomenon whose releases helped create a new attitude towards global sounds. Challenging the notion that “everything has already been discovered,” Branko embarked on a musical journey across the globe, diving into some of the most vibrant music scenes today to meet and work with a new generation of artists. The end result is his debut full-length album, ATLAS.
Interview by Mike Greene
Photography by Joao Retorta
Mike: You’re from Portugal and travel the world doing what you love. What’s the biggest insight you’ve gained about culture, and people in general?
Branko: People everywhere have this notion that they have their lives all figured out. Everyone has an opinion on everything all the time confined within their own life experience. But as much as this is true, it’s also true that without realizing it these thoughts and judgements keep changing as you go through life. So as much as life seems to be all wrapped up in beautifully labeled boxes of thoughts it’s also part of everyone’s nature to keep adapting and learning from experience without even realizing it. So I feel like traveling gave me the opportunity to be able to look objectively to other cultures and my own and eventually realizing what my place as an artist.
Mike: Do you think there is a difference in creating music that will gain popularity in America, versus gaining popularity in Portugal or elsewhere?
Branko: I’ve never actually made any special effort to break my music in the US, but personally I don’t think there needs to be a difference in the actual music you make, I just feel like there needs to be a difference in the packaging. Countries like Portugal have always absorbed culture from around the world, most of the music playing on the radio over here is either American or British, so that changes the way people are opened to outside stuff. For example, I can’t walk around in LA saying I’m Portuguese because people have no idea what that is, it just starts this really awkward conversation that I keep trying to avoid all my life, so I just skip that part of the conversation and after a while it’s all good. It’s like that movie inception, with enough time my silence ends up planting the idea in everyone’s head that I’m an ok guy. I guess this would be the same with music. I wouldn’t get away with selling Portuguese music in the US unless it was something traditional. So I guess I would just have to be around long enough for people to think it’s ok to like my music.
Mike: What’s it like growing up as a producer in Portugal? Who got you into music?
Branko: I can’t remember his name but probably the person responsible for what I do right now was a high school colleague that had a cd-rom full of cracked music creation software for windows. Once I installed Fruity Loops and Sonic Foundry Acid on my father’s pc my priorities in life changed. I think that when I became a music producer I had no idea what a music producer was. There was only one other person in Amadora, the suburb of Lisbon where I grew up, that was into making beats as much as I was, and I ended up starting Buraka Som Sistema with him.
Mike: Is there any particular musician from your childhood that you, or your parents listened to, that affects how you create today?
Branko: I remember there were a couple of ECM records in my house that really fascinated me because they were collaborations of artists from completely opposite places of the world. A good example was the Codona Trilogy where Collin Walcott, Don Cherry and Nana Vasconcelos got together to make this awesome compositions that were all over the place in terms of influences and sounded more like field recordings than actual records sometimes. That definitely had some sort of influence in my appetite for travelling and collaboration.
“Everyone has an opinion on everything all the time confined within their own life experience. But as much as this is true, it’s also true that without realizing it these thoughts and judgements keep changing as you go through life.”
Mike: How was the underground music scene in Portugal, and is that reflected in your music at all?
Branko: The scene in Lisbon was and still is pretty small, everyone kind of knows each other. 10 years ago I felt like there was a lot of talent but people were just not ambitious enough to actually believe in themselves. Most of the people making beats were middle class 25 year old dudes who had enough money to sustain themselves so music was sort of secondary. In a way, the lack of an underground music scene ended up having an impact on me and in what I wanted to do with my music, because everything was pretty much opened, there was no Lisbon sound, besides Fado, the city didn’t have a musical personality yet. So for me and the people around me it made sense that this personality came from it’s diversity, it had to come from the fact that there’s no other place on earth were all the Portuguese speaking countries like Brazil, Angola,Mozambique and Portugal are so linked together.
Mike: Each song on atlas is beautifully crafted and distinct with a different sound; ‘Fluxo’ is fast paced; ‘Let me go’ has guitar riffs and an airy flow; ‘Made of Gold’ has an electro feel. What was your ideology behind creating each song, each being able to stand on its own, while also fitting perfectly together.
Branko: I visited 5 cities while working on Atlas, Amsterdam, S. Paulo, Cape Town, NYC and then I wrapped it up back home in Lisbon. So collaboration and flexibility was a big part of the project. With so many people involved I knew that glueing everything together was gonna be my biggest challenge because I wanted Atlas to sound like an album and not a compilation, so I had to make sure each song had enough of every guest but also enough of my own vision and perspective on where I wanted to go with the album. In the end I think it works because in my opinion, even though I’m mixing different musical languages on the album, all of them are connected and come from a similar attitude towards music creation.
Mike: Similar to Atlas, the video for ‘Let me Go’ is stunning and aligns with the song perfectly. What was your role in creating the video and what was the thought process behind all of the color schemes – the pink car, aqua shirts/wall paper, and the different lipsticks/makeup changes?
Branko: I had been discussing ideas for a video for ‘Let me Go’ with Francisco Neffe for a long time, we actually had this whole different concept involving vertical dancers and all sorts of unreal dance moves. But in the end we ended up deciding on more of an aesthetic approach to it and I’m super glad we did, because the pairing of the song with his and Nonku’s ideas was the perfect visual element to the track. We started off with wanting to have Nonku singing in several locations, surrounded by visual elements that define her style and Johannesburg’s style as well and the rest organically came together. All the clothes were made by wardrobe stylist Nola Williams, and the dancers come from Soweto’s Skeleton Pantsula and Orange Farm’s RealAction dance crews. Locations include the Vrededorp suburb, Old Park Station and Yeoville Ridge.