VR Collab #4 – Northern Portuguese Synth Wave

To continue my run through the three albums that inspired me to produce the track, I introduce a new element to the vaporwave/neon/synth core paradigm – David Bruno.

Who is David Bruno? What is David Bruno? Why is David Bruno?

Who is David Bruno? He is a Portuguese northerner proud of his roots. In every concert, he reminds the public, “David Bruno from Gaia!” referring to the standard inclusion of Gaia in the Oporto panorama.

Traditionally, Porto and Gaia are the same cities, but they represent two different “boroughs” (in Portuguese “Concelho”). David Bruno takes his roots seriously.

David Bruno is a multidisciplinary musician, producer and lyricist with a solo career and a band called Conjunto Corona. His aesthetic is a synth wave fusion with Portuguese underground urban traditionalism. The type of register he has in his solo career is what I’m influencing my work on.

What is David Bruno? He represents the resurrection of Portuguese traditionalism by acknowledging aspects of everyday life and including them inside an artistic leitmotif. In Portugal, we call it “chunga culture”.

What is chunga culture?

I searched for an equivalent word that could replace chunga, but I didn’t find anything similar. David Bruno has stated previously that the term kitsch doesn’t completely define his art, and he prefers to use the Portuguese term instead. This is the definition found in the Portuguese dictionary:

[Portugal, Informal, Depreciative] Which is of poor quality; and has no value or good taste.

It relates to another word often used to describe this culture, which has no definition in other languages, azeiteiro:

[Portugal, Informal, Depreciative] Who or who is considered ignorant, simple-minded.

We found these two adjectives present in the Portuguese streets dripping from either people, places, or events every day. It can also be found in music, art, fashion and even literature. Here are some examples:

A song about a man that goes around the globe to find true love, but he realises that he can only find that in a Portuguese woman he met before he left the country.
A song to bring awareness to Portuguese migrants when coming back from France to drive slowly, because they could die. It’s a very tragic song, but it also reflects how powerful these productions are among the Portuguese migrant community.

In an interview with Nuance, o Podcast, Francisco Castro asks whether his lyrics are meant to make fun or are truly intentional, and he replies:” Some people will find it funny, some others don’t, but both can still enjoy it. However, the point is to represent reality itself without mockery.

He also referred that he is in talks with Gaia’s Hall to create an ethnographic museum dedicated to the guna:

[Portugal: Porto, Informal, Depreciative] Young urban man, usually associated with the most disadvantaged social classes, with noisy, disrespectful, threatening or violent behaviour and who has tastes considered vulgar (e.g., wearing a hat on the side, like gunas).

In David Bruno’s music, you see all these details from Portuguese chunga culture reflected through synth-wave and vaporwave music with inspiration from the 80s Portuguese pop.

Nostalgia is also something he wants to provoke in the listener, and the lyrics tell stories of fictional characters or even real people that are well-known in the city. These stories are romantic, lame, intense and dramatic. Some common themes are love (betrayal, seduction), crime (going to jail, bad businesses), depression (loneliness, driving around the city), and self-analysis (inhaling iodine, drinking a very fine cocktail, going on vacation to a very standard hotel, buying made in Portugal products, eating shellfish, Portuguese lifestyle).

David Bruno and DJ António Bandeiras

I think it’s better when you “flex” on stuff that is seen as bad quality. What do you think it’s best? Flexing your brand-new rolex or your 1995 green Nissan Micra?

David Bruno for Nuance, o Podcast

This portugality revival is also a way to turn the page in the contemporary music scene, where most things are influenced by content made in the US or even the UK because what is made in Portugal is not considered legitimate. His music, as said before, is a fusion of Portuguese pop, synth wave, sometimes vaporwave, sample-based, and sometimes hip-hop. His act is always accompanied by a guitarist player, Marquito, and DJ António Bandeiras. On a project released last year called David & Miguel, he co-produces with Mike El-Nite and together made a romantic pop synth wave album. His latest project was a collaboration with Samsung, where he explains the new functionalities of the model S22 through romantic lyrics.

Some examples:

from the album Raiashopping (2018)
a song that revolves around the main character, Adriano Malheiro (non-fic.) paying a dinner with his taxpayer number, and at the end he invites his companion to go home and listen to TSF, a local radio station. The video clips are intentionally made with poor quality, and they’re all directed and edited by David.
Adriano once again tells about his stay in the Aparthotel Céu Azul where he drinks safari-cola (Safari is a Portuguese liquor white brand, but very popular in Porto). In minute 1:20 we see a wall with graffiti saying Adriano Malheiro Caloteiro (caloteiro means deadbeat), and it was not made by David Bruno. It is true evidence that Adriano exists. In an interview with Rimas e Batidas, David Bruno states that “Adriano Malheiro is like a King Sebastião of civil construction” (King Sebastião, or in Portuguese Dão Sebastião, was a Portuguese king who disappeared in battle and was the reason why Portugal was occupied by Spain due to non-existing ancestry and later the creation of the Iberian Union, and according to the myth/legend he would come back in a misty day on his horse. Sebastianism is a messianic myth that still exists among people who wait for unlikely events to happen).
the hotel Aparthotel Céu Azul in Miramar, Gaia.
David and Miguel talk about their stay in Inatel, the pinnacle of Portuguese vacation. They talk about the activities one can do inside it and also the relation quality-price.
INATEL was previously part of the fascist leisure program called FNAT – Frente Nacional para a Alegria no Trabalho (National Front for Happiness at Work). In the 60s the name was changed to INATEL – Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicações (National Instute of Telecommunications). Nowadays, it’s a private institution and has no statal functions. However, they are still active in the hospitality sector, with many hotels spread in the country (the same as in the fascist era but refurbished). The people who frequent these hotels are the same who used to back in the fascist era (which doesn’t mean they’re conservative or fascists), who are now elderly people. I can recall many times I’ve spent holidays with my grandparents in their hotels. It is some sort of tradition, and my grandparents venerate and idolatrize this place as the best of the bests.
Samsung collaboration where David Bruno explains the new functionalities of Smart Samsung through romantic songs. The song is dedicated to his cat.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *