Ciro Pessoa

Ciro Pessoa

Pessoa performing at the Ibirapuera Auditorium in 2010
Background information
Birth name Ciro Pessoa Mendes Corrêa
Also known as Tenzin Chöpel
Born June 12, 1957
São Paulo, Brazil
Genres Pop rock, post-punk, psychedelic rock
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, guitarist, screenwriter, journalist, poet
Instruments Vocals, classical guitar, electric guitar
Years active 1981–present
Labels Voiceprint Records, Rosa Celeste
Associated acts Titãs, Os Jetsons, Ricotas do Harlem, Cabine C, Ira!, CPSP, Ciro Pessoa & Ventilador, Nu Descendo a Escada
Website http://calebav.com/ciro/

Ciro Pessoa Mendes Corrêa, also known by his Dharma name Tenzin Chöpel (born June 12, 1957), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, screenwriter, journalist, writer and poet. He is famous for being one of the founding members of Titãs, and for his later work with post-punk/gothic rock band Cabine C. He also formed numerous other short-lived projects before beginning a solo career in 2003.

Biography

Ciro Pessoa was born in São Paulo in 1957. When he was 7 years old he learned how to play the classical guitar, and with 12 he began to perform in music festivals around the city. As a teenager he studied at the Colégio Equipe, where he would meet Arnaldo Antunes, Paulo Miklos, Nando Reis, Marcelo Fromer, Branco Mello, Tony Bellotto and Sérgio Britto — being united by their similar musical tastes, in 1981 they would form, alongside André Jung, the rock band Titãs do Iê-Iê, whose name would be shortened to only Titãs later on.[1] Pessoa never recorded anything with Titãs during his stay with them, but co-wrote some of the band's most famous hits, such as "Sonífera Ilha", "Toda Cor", "Homem Primata" and "Babi Índio", among others. He left Titãs in 1983 due to creative divergences which culminated with a falling-out between him and André Jung.[2] Shortly afterwards, Pessoa formed two concomitant new bands: Os Jetsons, with his former Titãs bandmate Branco Mello and Charles Gavin (who was still with Ira! at the time), and Ricotas do Harlem, a soul duo with Fernando Salem.[3] Both bands were very short-lived however, and wouldn't record any albums or perform any shows.

In 1984 he formed Cabine C, one of Brazil's first and most well-known gothic rock bands, alongside Wania Forghieri, Edgard Scandurra of Ira!, Sandra Coutinho of Mercenárias (who would later leave the band and be replaced by also Ira! member Ricardo Gaspa) and Charles Gavin. They recorded some songs and performed some shows with this line-up, but with the exception of Pessoa and Forghieri, everybody would leave the band afterwards, in order to focus on their respective alternate projects. Scandurra, Gaspa and Gavin would be later replaced by former Akira S. e as Garotas que Erraram members Anna Ruth dos Santos and Marinella Setti.[4] With this new line-up Cabine C released their first and only album, Fósforos de Oxford, in 1986; despite being well-received by the critics and the public alike, it was a commercial failure. The band would come to an end in 1987 due to judicial problems with their label, RPM Discos, which was founded and managed by Paulo Ricardo and Luiz Schiavon of the eponymous band. Prior to their disbanding, Cabine C was working on a second album, which would be called Cotonetes Desconexos; four songs were already recorded for it, but the album would be eventually scrapped.[5] Alongside Forghieri, Pessoa also composed the soundtrack of the 1993 film Oceano Atlantis, which was written by him and starred Antônio Abujamra.[6]

In the early 1990s he wrote some songs for Ira!, such as "Efeito Bumerangue", "Tantas Nuvens", "A Natureza Sobre Nós", "Mistério", "Correnteza" and "Inundação de Amor" (which Pessoa originally co-wrote for Cabine C with Júlio Barroso of Gang 90 e as Absurdettes in the early 1980s, prior to Barroso's death), and formed alongside Kiko Nogueira, Roger "Vapt-Vupt" Lima, Fábio Scattone and Abrão Levin the band Ciro Pessoa e Seu Pessoal ("Ciro Pessoa and His Personnel"), or CPSP for short. Contrasting with the dark sound of Cabine C, CPSP moved towards a brighter and more pop rock-influenced direction which was, according to Pessoa, inspired by Jovem Guarda singers such as Odair José, Roberto Carlos and Jerry Adriani.[7] They never recorded any albums, but toured extensively around the state of São Paulo before disbanding.[8] Pessoa also began writing some articles, travel accounts and prose poems for some magazines and newspapers around this time, such as Playboy, the Folha de S. Paulo and its weekly magazine, Superinteressante, Galileu, VIP and Viagem e Turismo; "Caminho Afora" and "O Mundo dos Sonhos", two travel accounts he wrote for the latter, the first one regarding the Camino de Santiago, were awarded with the Prêmio Abril de Jornalismo. Most of Pessoa's articles are compiled on his official WordPress blog, "O Mundo de Mantraman", as well as on his Tumblr page.

In the mid- to late 1990s Pessoa formed another short-lived project, Ciro Pessoa & Ventilador, alongside former CPSP bandmates Kiko Nogueira and Fábio Scattone, and new members Tchelo Nogueira (Kiko's brother), Laudir de Oliveira, Serjão and Boris. It retained CPSP's pop rock sonority, albeit adding more experimental elements.[9]

In 2001, Pessoa and Branco Mello wrote the music and lyrics for a children's concept album, Eu e Meu Guarda-Chuva, about a boy named Eugênio and his trustworthy umbrella.[10] The album was adapted into a book in 2003 and into a feature film in 2010;[11] nor the book or the film had Pessoa's input, though.

In 2003, Pessoa began a solo career with the release of No Meio da Chuva Eu Grito "Help" on the Voiceprint Records imprint.[12][13] In 2010 he signed with independent label Rosa Celeste to release his second album, Em Dia com a Rebeldia. A heavily psychedelic and experimental album, it was intended by Pessoa to evoke the 1960s and 1970s bands he grew up listening, most notably The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Os Mutantes, Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Secos & Molhados, and to Surrealist painters and poets such as Salvador Dalí, René Magritte and André Breton. A huge concert promoting the album took place at the Ibirapuera Auditorium in São Paulo in the same year.

Pessoa's latest band, Nu Descendo a Escada ("Naked Going Downstairs"), was formed in 2010 and as of 2014 comprises Kim Kehl (guitar), Luiz Domingues (bass), Carlos Machado (drums) and Isabela Johansen (backing vocals). He is currently working on an anthology of his poems, Relatos da Existência Caótica, which will come out in May 2015 by Chiado Editora.

Personal life

Pessoa became a Vajrayana Buddhist in the late 1990s, thus obtaining the Dharma name Tenzin Chöpel, which he used to sign most of the articles he wrote for the magazines and newspapers for which he worked for.

He married Isabela Johansen in 2011, having with her a daughter, Antônia (born 2013).

Discography

With Cabine C

Solo

References

  1. ↑ Ciro Pessoa – Whiplash (Portuguese)
  2. ↑ Guerra nos anos 80: Titãs vs. Ciro Pessoa (Portuguese)
  3. ↑ 3/16 - Cesar Gavin e Ciro Pessoa: "Os Jetsons com Branco Mello e Charles Gavin"
  4. ↑ Décadas de Som — Cabine C (Portuguese)
  5. ↑ Disco Furado: Cabine C – Fósforos de Oxford (RPM Discos) (Portuguese)
  6. ↑ Oceano Atlantis at the Internet Movie Database
  7. ↑ Bizz magazine, August 1990: Depois de deixar os Titãs e o Cabine C, Ciro Pessoa quer ser jovem guarda (Portuguese)
  8. ↑ CPSP
  9. ↑ Ciro Pessoa e Ventilador - Samba Mantra Nepal Brasil
  10. ↑ BRANCO MELLO APRESENTA 'EU E MEU GUARDA-CHUVA'
  11. ↑ Maciel, Eliane (2009-10-23). "Livro de Titã vira filme infantil" (in Portuguese). Yahoo! Notícias. Retrieved 2009-10-23.
  12. ↑ Voiceprint Records – No Meio da Chuva Eu Grito "Help"
  13. ↑ Disco Furado: Ciro Pessoa – No Meio da Chuva Eu Grito Help (Voiceprint, 2003) (Portuguese)

External links