Name: Carmen Souza
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Nationality: Cape Verdean
Current release: Carmen Souza's Interconnectedness is out via Galileo MC. She also has an album out with Thep Pas'Cal called Quamundos 2.

If you enjoyed this Carmen Souza interview and would like to know more about her music, visit her official website. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.  



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you?

It is very hard to say, because it can come from anywhere at any time, a story on the news, a film, a book or music that touches me.

My newly released album – Interconnectedness – was inspired by Turkish-German film The Edge of Heaven (Fatih Akin).

What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

Very often, life inspires me and is a strong contributor to my music.

I am telling my story through my music, so I am open to be influenced by a conversation, a laugh, my family, the rain, the sun. Everything is possible.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work?

To be honest, I actually have trouble organising and structuring an idea, because my problem is that when a small idea comes, I want to hear the full arrangement already. Ideas start flooding my brain and I quickly get overwhelmed.

Thankfully Theo Pascal helps me settle and come back to earth. He is much more methodical in the composition process.

What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

Me and Theo always worked with our most spontaneous expressions. So on all of our released albums we have never done pre-production, because we ultimately want to preserve that good energy and emotion from the beginning stages of the composition.

Is there a preparation phase for your process?

The composition process can be open, because it can happen quite randomly, and when it does, I need to record straight away on my phone or zoom recorder.

However, when the composition is done and we start recording, we prepare the studio for the session, and we carefully choose the instruments and musicians that we think are most suitable for the music. This stage is more planned and thought through.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

I am a coffee fan, so I love having my coffee mug next to me. Also some incense is very nice to set the mood.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

I find the lyrics stage can be harder to put into a melody, because the syllables have a musicality and rhythmical aesthetic. The perfect balance can sometimes be hard to achieve.

Also my chord progressions tend to be complex and quite full, and sometimes I find hard to edit my chord choices and not making them so dense.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

Sometimes the lyrics come first, sometimes harmony and melody come first.

If the lyrics come first, I will try and listen to the rhythmical cadence of the syllables and follow that path. But if the harmony and melody come first I find a story that matches the vibe of the whole.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion?

I am still not sure. :-) Even after the song is already recorded, I still have doubts with the lyrics. It is only when I start to perform the music live that the lyrics get absorbed and most of the times gain new meanings.

Whenever I listen to my previous albums I get surprised by my lyrical choices and message.

What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

My wish is to have a good story and a good message for me and for the audience. Some lyrics can be challenging. Like for instance when I wrote a lyric for Donna Lee, which has a fast melody. (Kachupada album)



But in the end I want the lyric to relate to the audience's life experiences and for the message to bring something good to them - like hope, joy, love etc.
 
Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

Yes, I believe that the narrative has a life of its own. Looking back on all the music me and Theo Pascal have composed, the music and the narrative gain new meanings.

Depending on what stage in your life you are going through, the lyrics will show me different perspectives and sometimes new solutions. Just like we have no control over life, we have no control over music.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

Theo will help me during these times, we never waste an idea and if the music is guiding us there, we follow that direction. Every idea appears for a reason and we like to give attention to all that happens in the process.

That is why our music is full of details, different moments and environments.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

There surely is, I believe in God and I believe that music is the expression of God.

I am studying for a Masters degree in Ethnomusicology here in London. One of the modules is called Performance as Research. Basically this module requires us as students to immerse ourselves in music of another culture and analyse the learning process and discover new traditions and genres.

I chose North Indian semi-classical music, and I am so glad I did. Because it is such a highly developed genre. Indian music requires the performer to search for God and find it in the music, and it’s a form of spirituality, meditation and healing. It really made me change my perspective about the way I make music and the way I approach it.

As Western musicians we are so immersed into professionalism and social media, that we forget to be healing agents and agents of change. So this a perspective that I want to bring more and more to the music that I do.

Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

Well me and Theo are very much analogue. Of course the digital side makes the process easier and practical, but that’s it.

Our studio and creative hub in Portugal - called This is Sessions - is based on analogue equipment and most of the gear belongs to the BBC's golden era. We love to explore this sound and we are so amazed with the authenticity of the sound and the components. This equipment was built to last, that is why we have so much equipment from the 70s in our studio and the sound is so beautiful, true and full of character.

The end of the process is marked when me and Theo and happy with the results and we feel that we have fulfilled the goal of the composition.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

Me and Theo spend a lot of time with the songs, working and reworking them, and as the song grows, we take decisions together.

Normally the decision process is practical. We don’t second guess our decision making, we like to follow our gut.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

Theo assumes the production, mixing and mastering. Normally he is more immersed in this process, although I do get involved in co-production. He knows more of the technical processes to achieve the optimum results.

I love to step back a bit from this stage and then come and hear it again with fresh ears, because Theo always does magic with the arrangements, mixing and mastering.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

Tiredness for sure, because it can be pretty intense. But I think that after finishing an album we get a sense of fulfilment and thrill, because then we can’t wait to put it on the road and watch gain a new life.

The methodology is to explore the songs that are fresh out of the album and they will lead the way into new songs and compositions, and the cycle begins again.

But normally it will take a while before we start to compose again, also because we are constantly touring or Theo is producing different artists at the moment. So there is not much time to compose.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

As part of my ethnomusicology masters, I have been challenged to look and analyse gesture in performance. Until now I saw gesture as a spontaneous physiological aspect of making music, because I deemed sound, harmony, melody, rhythm, or intonation more important.

Sometimes necessity fuels creativity, and that is where you often find the most innovative creations. If you hear the early reggae albums produced by Lee Scratch Perry, you can attest to this phenomenon, where he explored dub techniques with very basic gear.

Through music I express what words can’t express, music is connected with emotions and feelings and it is the most natural way of communicating. Music is a natural form of expression and for me it is as natural as walking or breathing.