Interview:

How many people can say that music saved their lives? I am sure that somebody might answer that question with a “yes”. How is this possible? Well, when I was about thirteen I contracted Tetanus playing with my dog. At that time in Brazil, it was a death sentence because it was a rare and difficult disease to treat. Fortunately, my town was the only one in all of South America that had a special facility for Tetanus treatment. I had to stay in a sound-proof room in complete darkness, otherwise I ran the risk of triggering a muscular spasm, which meant a lot of pain and suffering. The people who were in charge of my treatment were real angels. The environment was brutal because they had to work in darkness while their patients died in silence. If I could define my life condition at the time it would be Hell.

Then I started to sing. I don’t know where it came from, but it was strong and intense, matching the intensity of the spasms and the pain I was in. It was as if my heart was vomiting this melody and these lyrics about a brunette who was dancing at night, and she was dragging her sandal on the sidewalk, and you wouldn’t say anything. She shook her hips in a really crazy way and turned her body into a salad of movement. They weren’t very appropriate lyrics for a thirteen year old boy, but it kept on coming, like a flowing river that would never stop. The nurses and the doctors were in a sort of shock at first, but it didn’t take long for them to start laughing and going along with the situation. That was something that probably had never happened before in that place. The more I sang, the more I felt like I was pumping up my spirit like a balloon. Even some of the other patients started to say things. They were voices in the darkness.

That suffering has surely visited some more times, but it never came close to defeating me because I transformed my environment with music. A bass player friend of mine, Greg Cohen once told me; “music washes away the grime of humanity”. Believe me, it takes a lot of courage to make music from your heart, certainly more courage than getting a gun to make war. I am sure that the human race needs music right now more than ever as a power that can transform the environment and create oceans of possibilities.

“The human race needs music right now more than ever as a power that can transform the environment and create oceans of possibilities.”
– Cyro Baptista, percussionist