David Fonseca

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David Fonseca
Born 1973 (age 34)
Origin Leiria, Portugal
Genre(s) Pop / Rock / Alternative
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter
Years active 1998-2002 (as Silence 4) 2003-present (Solo)
Label(s) Universal Records (2003-present)
Associated acts Silence 4,

Humanos
Website DavidFonseca.com

David Fonseca (born in Leiria, Portugal, in 1973) is a Portuguese musician. He's a singer-songwriter, but he also plays several instruments, like acoustic guitar and organ. David is married and has one son. He studied Cinema at Escola Superior de Belas Artes de Lisboa between 1992 and 1994, where he obtained a degree. David began his professional life as a photographer, working for various fashion catalogues. He participated in many exhibitions, both group and individual. He also worked in a radio station for a while. But he is mainly recognised because of his successful music career. David Fonseca has dedicated his life to his love of music choosing to become a pop / rock alternative musician. Besides playing various instruments and being the author of almost all of his lyrics, he is also responsible for the graphic designs on his album covers. He has multiple musical influences by names such as Sérgio Godinho, Jeff Buckley, B-52's, Pixies, Roy Orbison, Aphex Twin, Twisted Sister, Light Crust Doughboys and Ryan Adams, all of whom had a huge role in his musical creativity and individuality. He also mentioned in an interview with radio station “Antena 3” that he has an addiction to the group Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Silence 4

It all started with a band called Silence 4, formed by a group of hometown friends. They first released the unpredictable Silence Becomes It, in June 1998 that was a huge success at the time, selling 250 thousand copies (the equivalent to six platinum records). This was a remarkable achievement in the Portuguese musical scene, where it is usually difficult to sell this many copies. The album has only two songs written in Portuguese. One of them is “Sexto Sentido”, featuring the popular Portuguese singer, Sérgio Godinho. To complete this great year for the band, which played at most of the Portuguese summer festivals, they closed the world famous exhibition Expo '98 in Lisbon, playing for about 50 thousand people. Later in the same year, in December, Silence 4 was the first national band to sell out at Pavilhão Atlântico, performing to an astonishing 18,000-strong crowd, only 6 months after the release of their first album. Two years after the “phenomenon” the second album was released, Only Pain Is Real, in July 2000, selling approximately 100 thousand copies to this day. The respective tour ended in a double concert at the legendary stage in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, the Coliseu dos Recreios, which sold out completely and was released later on in CD and in DVD format. Throughout 2000, Silence 4 went on their last tour. In 2001, the band entered an undetermined hiatus, that still remains.

[edit] Solo career

With the 21 st century, David’s solo career kicked off with a different sound from what it used to be while in Silence 4. Sing Me Something New was recorded in 2003. In this first solo work, in addition to singing, he played nearly all instruments, now exploring a totally new environment of sounds all by himself. The album was recorded in the studios of producer Mário Barreiros, and later on in the Sterling Sound Studios (in New York), by the well-known sound engineer, George Marino, who is connected to some works of Coldplay, Rollins Band, The Dandy Warhols and Sepultura, among many others. The first single was Someone That Cannot Love which debuted on about 150 Portuguese radio stations in a unique way: they were all played on March 10th at midnight. And it soon reached #2 on the National Sales Chart and was certified Gold. The tour of this first record was extensive; it included many big music venues and large festivals across Portugal. Our Hearts Will Beat As One is said, by David himself, to be “scarily personal” and was only released in the fall of 2005, because of the other projects that David was involved in between his two solo works. The second album includes Who Are U? as the first single, described by David as “the song I always wanted to write”. It reached #3 on the Portuguese airplay charts. Our Hearts Will Beat As One was critically acclaimed by the media and was considered pop album of the year in Portugal, even before the year-end. The album went straight to #1 on National Sales Chart and reached Gold status on its first week of sales. In October, 2007, his third original album, Dreams in Colour, was released and the first single was Superstars II, a song that counted with large airplay due to a cellphone campaign that adopted the single.

[edit] Humanos

In 2004, David entered a new project called Humanos. The idea behind it was to bring to light some unpublished songs by a great Portuguese artist, a singer-songwriter, from the 80’s, António Variações. David Fonseca, Manuela Azevedo (the lead singer of another Portuguese music group, Clã), Camané (one of the most famous Portuguese “fadistas”), Sérgio Nascimento (a member of Sérgio Godinho’s band), Hélder Gonçalves (also from Clã), Nuno Rafael and João Cardoso are the seven members of a group responsible for what would become a huge success, something unseen in the Portuguese music scene. The homonymous album scored impressive quintuple platinum, staying for weeks in #1. “Muda de Vida”, “Maria Albertina” and “Rugas” are just some of the group hits. All this culminated in three sold out concerts, two of them in “Coliseu dos Recreios” (Lisbon) and the other in Porto. There was also another memorable performance, in front of a crowd of 40 000 people, at the “Sudoeste” Portuguese Festival, in the year 2005. This is supposed to be a short project, because the unpublished Antonio Variações’ songs were very few in number. Thus, the CD and DVD with the recorded Coliseums’ live concerts was released on November of 2006, which marked the end of the Humanos project.

[edit] Live Concerts

David Fonseca is already known by his powerful dancing on stage, equipped with his pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars. He plays different instruments during the show and he is accompanied by his band, which includes: Sérgio Nascimento (drummer), Ricardo Fiel (guitarist), Rita Pereira (ex-Atomic Bees in the piano and also voices; the second record single “Hold Still” it’s a David and Rita’s duet), Nuno Simões (bass player) and Paulo Pereira (hammond). David doesn’t just play his solo-career hits and the lesser-known tracks; he also plays (in most of his live concerts) “Angel Song”, the first music to be written by the artist, composed when he was only 18 and which was included in Silence 4’s first album. This theme is perhaps the one most loved among fans, both of the group and of David. At the middle of the show, he usually leaves the stage to return wearing a white suit, to announce that the “dancing time” has begun and that the “moonwalk” move is near.

[edit] Discography

Albums

Singles (solo)

[edit] External links