Geordie Greep on the São Paulo session that made him believe in his solo debut

The former Black Midi frontman recalls the hastily arranged recording of his larger-than-life solo album, The New Sound, in Brazil, and the local musicians who became the most rewarding session collaborators of his career

I’d recorded some tracks for the album already in London and the plan was to do a big session at the end of last year; to put a big band together and get it like Michael Jackson, all super slick. But then Black Midi were touring Brazil and I had a few days off, so I thought: let’s just record over there. I knew one guy there – Fernando Dotta, who runs the São Paulo label Balaclava Records – so I sent him a text: do you know any musicians? Have you got a studio? He was like, “Yeah, let me sort it.”

Playing with those Brazilian musicians was a million times more rewarding than anything I’ve done previously. There was one moment on that first day of recording where it was like, oh right, this is actually going to be OK. Up to that point I’d been coming up with these ridiculous demos, just drum machines and stuff, thinking it might work but who the fuck knows. Then you’re over there, the studio is booked and you’re committed to paying people. But after a few takes, I knew it would work.

The level of musicianship there is just insane. It’s like the whole football thing; not to make a really lazy comparison, but everyone is just so good that it stops being like, “Oh, he’s better than me, what a wanker.” And more like, “We’re all just sick.”

While we were recording, I might say something like “this bit should be like [Puerto Rican salsa singer] Héctor Lavoe”, and they’d be like, “What’s that?” It’s a real westerner’s point of view to think of Latin music as one whole, whereas these Brazilian session guys only really knew Brazilian music, and the Argentinians only knew Argentine music. Like, Milton Nascimento? Who’s that?

It was such a satisfying way to play, though. You’re not discussing things for ages or getting bored of a song before you’ve even recorded it. I think it’s set the tone for what I want to be doing for the next however many years.