Luís Represas

It’s been forty-five years since Luís Represas began his musical career. The eternal voice of the group Trovante now has a solid solo career that he began in 1993, in Cuba, from where the sounds of Feiticeira came. Over the last thirty years he has lost track of how many concerts he has given all over the world, on his own or accompanied by other national and international musicians. The voice that needs no introduction leads thousands of people to intimate and collective moments that will always pass the barrier of time. 

«Now there is very much the habit of performing on television without compensation and this can’t happen, because musicians create content»   

Was a musical career always part of your plans?
I thought I would go into medicine; becoming a professional musician was not in my sights, although I did consider going to the conservatory, something my father thought was not a good idea. But music was not outside of my context. I made my first public appearance on television when I was 6 years old. I received 47.50 Escudos, it was my first performing fee. Now there is very much the habit of performing on television without compensation and this can’t happen, because musicians create content.  

And when you were about 20 years old the group Trovante appeared. 
It was back in1976, when a group of friends, of the same generation and with the same way of seeing society, got together. We ended up coming together around the poetry of Francisco Viana. And songs were created. We were also invited to record the first album for record company Sassetti, Chão Nosso. Trovante had a very strong interventionist component and, from then on, we started working with other friends: Fausto, Adriano Correia de Oliveira, Zeca Afonso, and we recorded the second album. We were evolving musically and we were growing. It was crucial to widen our musical spectrum, the audience was bigger and bigger and everything was a succession of events, nothing was thought out or planned. We just went with the flow until we got to eight albums.

With the end of Trovante, Luís started a solo career.
In 1992, we decided to end Trovante. I started composing because I wanted to carry on in music. I decided to leave Portugal and went to Cuba, a country with which I felt a strong connection, I can’t explain why. Pablo Milanês, who I already knew, told me to work with his musicians, who I found to be extraordinary, and they realised they were working with an eclectic composer with a great sensitivity towards Afro-Cuban music. In 1993 I recorded the album Represas and to date there have been fifteen solo albums, between ones featuring original tracks and compilations.    

«Trovante had a very strong interventionist component»

«I decided to leave Portugal and went to Cuba, a country with which I felt a strong connection»

«From what fire reborn» is a line from Feiticeira [Sorceress/Enchantress] which that is part of that album and it seems to wield a spell...
The story of Feiticeira is a strange one, Francisco Viana wrote the lyrics for me in 91/92 and I composed the music. However, without having too much faith in the song. When the composer Miguel Nuñez started working on the arrangements, it started to grow, it started to become ‘round’, although I still didn’t believe in it, so much so that for the duet with Pablo this song was the third option, but he chose Feiticeira. About wielding a spell, I don’t know if there it does or not, but this is the song I have to sing at every concert, there is something in it that I can’t just work out, but it stuck. Good things happen without being premeditated. Music as art is not only what it provokes the moment you hear it, it’s what makes you return to the moment in another time.

Mozambique has also entered your life. 
It’s one of those episodes that can’t be explained. Mozambique was far away and, suddenly, it became very close. A friend of mine told me about Stewart Sukuma. She said he played my songs, and one day we met for the first time and it was like we'd known each other all our lives. From then on, we did a lot of work together and I know we still have a long way to go. He is one of those people with whom I identify completely. 

Of your four children, do any of them show an artistic side?
Carolina has already written three lyrics for me and, with three songs released, she is already considered my partner. Nuno did an acting course abroad and really wants to act. Zé has the soul of an artist, he is studying Political Science and International Relations and, for me, diplomacy and good politics are also an art. João, after some time searching, decided to study criminology, but with a view to discovering and understanding what is beyond the mind of the criminal. I am proud of them and of their mothers too. When we are fortunate enough to reach the moment when we look at each other and see that everything worked out, it is very good.