Next Saturday (07), two young artists from Belo Horizonte, Alexander Andrés and Rafael Martini, will perform in the closing of the 2013 musical programming at Inhotim. Both artists have an intense musical production, acting as composers, musicians and performers. One after the other, they will perform on stage at Inhotim theater, at 2:30 pm and 4:00 pm. In the interview below, Andrés tells a little bit about his career, influences on his work and partnership with Martini, who he considers to be “a complete musician”.
You began composing when you were only 15 years old. How has your career in music been since then?
I grew up in a musical home. My mother is a pianist, a professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and my father is a flutist and also a professor at UFMG and a member of the Uakti group. Since I was a child, I had contact with good music from Minas Gerais as well as with classical music, played by my parents in a flute-piano duo, in which, by the way, they still play together nowadays. I studied music from an early age, and when I was 15 I became interested in composition. In 2008, at age 18, I recorded my first album, “Agualuz“, in partnership with poet Bernardo Maranhão.
Do you consider yourself more of a singer or composer?
I consider myself a musician, who appreciates the search as an interpreter, flutist, guitarist, singer, as much as the search as a composer.
In a few moments of my life I see myself more as a composer, usually when I am experiencing the compositional process, creating arrangements and everything else. On the other hand, at other times I feel more like an interpreter, usually when I’m on tour, releasing an album, a new project. That is, in fact these two aspects are very strong in me, perhaps they have the same strength.
How do your home state roots influence your work?
The fact that Minas Gerais music is present in my work is inevitable. Ive followed artists like the Uakti Group, Clube da Esquina, among others, ever since I was little. I got a lot of musical baggage by listening to good music from Minas Gerais. So naturally, there’s a lot of music from Minas in my work.
What relationship do you establish with the work of musician Rafael Martini, who will perform the same day you will at Inhotim?
Rafael is a complete musician, a pianist and one of the leading composers and arrangers in Minas Gerais, representing the new generation of musicians. I met Rafael in 2008 and, at that time, his work with the Quebra Pedra group started to influence me a lot in terms of music. Today I consider him one of my best friends and one of my greatest musical partners. We have been playing together since 2010, when he invited me to perform with Quebra Pedra. Since then, we have played together quite often. In his album Motivos, I participated in the recording and all the release shows and he took part in the recording and release shows of my “Macaxeira Fields” album. This is the second time this year we will be together on stage, performing both shows. We did this in July during the São João Del Rei Winter Festival. It will be very nice to make these two beautiful concerts in a space as special as Inhotim.