Singer/songwriter Ceu recently recorded her In Residence session at home in São Paulo. With social distancing still in place, she was unable to record in a traditional manner. Brazil has been pretty hard hit with COVID-19, yet music feeds the soul of its people. At a time when so many of us feel isolated, we're grateful to share a little insight into this artist and her music. Enjoy a couple of Ceu’s original songs and a very special cover.
We don't usually ask this but, tell us about the title of your current album, "APKÁ!”
Ceu: My baby was, at that point, starting to talk his first words, and this one caught our attention because [it] doesn’t exist in Portuguese. He created it, and every time that he said, it was clear that he was happy, full of energy, asking to play.And was always super loud, like a scream: Intense, full of love, satisfaction, kidding. I felt that was the word to illustrate what was going on in my inner world, that I wanted to show to whomever was interested in my music a scream, intense, full of energy between love and big big worries about our social problems. I mean, that was the word I was listening every single day, I borrowed from him.
Where are you writing from and what do you see when you look out the window?
Ceu: I've been in São Paulo, Brazil since the beginning of confinement. I have the privilege to have a beautiful sunny day right now, watching our small full-of-plants backyard out of my window. But out of my own, the window outside, to our society, politics, it's absolutely not sunny; It is drastic.
São Paolo is such a musical place. It's hard to imagine Brazilians without thinking about music. How are people making and sharing music these days?
Ceu: There are a lot of lives happening here, new ways of communicating, all artists trying to survive in this chaos.
What do you think your job is as a musician/artist?
Ceu: I love a lot of my work, and if you want to do art here, you really have to love, because you won’t have support. But you know, even in these difficult days, music is still feeding the soul of the people. This is everything for me. This, somehow, supports all the bad treatment that artists are so familiarized [with] here.
Times are challenging.Is there something you do everyday to make the day better?
Ceu: I’m trying to concentrate in the present, taking the advantage to be with my kids, with an open mind, ears, and heart, to understand how we can grow and develop in this crazy world that humanity built.
Check out more In Residence sessions:
Jungle Fire
Fabiano Do Nascimento
Nana Adjoa
Raphael Saadiq
Perfume Genius
Yuna
Norah Jones
Jensen McRae
Peter CottonTale
Rufus Wainwright
Rocky Dawuni
Lianne La Havas
Blake Mills
Laura Marling
Aloe Blacc
Devon Gilfillian
Jonathan Wilson
Juana Molina