Q+A with Lua Viana of sonhos tomam conta

All the way from São Paulo, the sounds of corpos de água made their way into my home in Amsterdam a few weeks ago. Purchased by my partner, who buys far more vinyl than I do, I went to find the album on Bandcamp and clicked directly on a track titled "Scarborough Fair (cântico)". Was this a shoegaze version of the much loved Simon & Garfunkel version? Some sort of Garfunkelgaze?

Well, no. What would Garfunkelgaze even sound like anyway?

Far more haunting than Simon & Garfunkel's version, "Scarborough Fair (cântico)" by sonhos tomam conta feels emotionally heavy, but with spacious layers that seem to allow a bit of light to sparkle through.

As I told Lua, the Brazilian artist "painting dreamscapes" under the name sonhos tomam conta, I'm fond of the film The Graduate and the introspective mood that "Scarborough Fair" repetitively lends to a series of scenes. I asked why she decided to make her own version of the song and why it ends with the words "free Palestine".

Lua explained to me the creative, political and emotional reasons for her version of "Scarborough Fair". She also shares her thoughts on the "syncretic nature of Brazilian cultural manifestations" and blending those with shoegaze. Lua also mentions some Brazilian shoegaze bands you should listen to and her favourite Leonard Cohen song.  

Your rendition of "Scarborough Fair" was included in episode 17 of blank mood. I adore the Simon & Garfunkel version for its introspective mood, which feels heavy when paired with the film The Graduate. Your version feels emotionally heavy. It is beautiful and haunting... like thinking about something very heavy or difficult for a bit, allowing yourself to be overwhelmed by it, but then finding relief. Why did you decide to make your own version of "Scarborough Fair"? 

I have a deep appreciation for traditional folk songs, I always loved how they convey this mystical aura around them. As their composition credits are almost always unknown, they become the work and heritage of entire cultures. I specially love how Simon & Garfunkel made their version from "Scarborough Fair" as a timeless anti-war song about impossible loves. Interpolating the classical composition with Paul Simon's anti-war chant "Canticle," both voices complement each other and create something unique, almost transcendental about the impossibility of love and the ultimate tragedy of war. I recommend everyone to watch this Polyphonic video.

To make my own version, I took direct inspiration from Simon & Garfunkel's composition and I interpolated their Canticle part, rewriting the lyrics to talk about the ongoing genocide of our times in Palestine.

Through my version of "Scarborough Fair," I narrate what is happening daily on Palestine: incessant bombing, massive killing and dehumanizing war crimes - made by the genocidal Israeli forces against a civil population unable to defend themselves. Genocide, plain and simple. Israel is the spearhead of fascism today, they experiment on the Palestinian population tactics of control and killing so they can export to the U.S. and the rest of the Imperialist Core their Apartheid technologies. Israel is a central part on the maintenance of the global imperialist system. What is happening on Palestine is almost anachronic. The indiscriminate killing, bombing and segregation is so absurd and blatant that it seems almost displaced from our times. It makes me really desperate to see that it's probable the U.S. won't stop funding their genocide proxy any time soon.

are you going to scarborough fair?

parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme

remember me to one who lives there

she once was a true love of mine

tell her to make me a cambric shirt (on the side of the hill of the jordan river)

parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (tracing the bullets that fly over mosques)

without no seams nor needle work (and white phosphorous blazing on the soil)

then she'll be a true love of mine (sleeps unaware of the air raid siren)

tell her to find me an acre of land (on the side of the sea in the gaza strip)

parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (struggling to breath in the dust of debris)

between the salt water and the sea strands (while the idf soldier polishes a tank)

then she'll be a true love of mine (to kill in the name of the apartheid)

tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather (genocide blows over the open streets)

parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (israel order its soldiers to kill)

and gather it all in a bunch of heather (and to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten)

then she'll be a true love of mine

are you going to scarborough fair?

parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme

remember me to one who lives there

she once was a true love of mine

from the river to the sea

free palestine

With this song, I wanted to bring awareness about the greatest crime of our times and do what I can as an artist, to sing for a Free Palestine.

I asked someone else this question recently, but do you think protest songs still matter? I'm guessing you do, but it seems music is at risk for having less potency or meaning to social movements in the digital age. What do you think?

I understand your concern that protest songs aren't as important today as they once were and I do agree with you that music is at risk of losing impact on social movements. I think it all comes down to what Mark Fisher described on his Capitalist Realism book as the effects of neoliberalism and its cultural effort of disengagement. The main problem in my view is that art which openly criticizes the imperialist/liberal status quo and proposes actual change can't get much attention. In the U.S. specifically, ever since the Bush Era, the furthest an artist could do in the mainstream to criticize the Empire was Green Day's American Idiot satire of the American dream.

But, I do think that now our political landscape allows the best opportunity in a while to engage on these themes. As the genocide became so blatant, the anti-war movement is at its highest ever since the Vietnam War era. I also think that the particularities of the Global South allow a better chance to discuss those political themes. So, I am trying to do what I can as artist, being open about my political views and trying to do more of a protest art. Despite the limitations of our times, I still think music as an art form has great potential for inspiring people.

You are based in São Paulo, Brazil, correct? What is special about the shoegaze or general music scene there?

Yes, I live in São Paulo! Since the COVID lockdown ended, the alternative rock scene here started to blossom and lots of new bands with new, young artists appeared. It's really nice to see so much talented people working hard to create a richer cultural environment. If you wanna discover new Brazilian shoegaze bands, I'd recommend Terraplana, Virtudes Fantasmas, Eliminadorzinho and Adorável Clichê.

I've recently discovered Echo Upstairs too.

I see from Instagram that you appreciate the music of Leonard Cohen... what do you like about Leonard Cohen? Do you have a favourite song?

I love Leonard Cohen songs! His lyricism is very touching and inspires me a lot, I also love how delicate and intimate his compositions are. If I were to pick a favorite song, I'd say "Famous Blue Raincoat".

Longinus Recordings notes "With corpos de água, Lua Viana (sonhos tomam conta) has made manifest her dream for shoegaze to be Brazilian". What is most Brazilian about your music and this album?

I think Longinus described the album this way because corpos de água was my attempt to initiate a process of anthropophagic syncretism in my discography. I mean that as Oswald de Andrade describes in his "Anthrophophagic Manifesto", as 1930s modernist Brazilian authors were trying to blend elements that came from outside the country with many more national ones. Here, I tried to blend shoegaze and dream pop aesthetics with samba, bossa nova and MPB (música popular brasileira) sensibilities, while recognizing the syncretic nature of many more Brazilian cultural manifestations.

What would you like people to feel or think when they listen to this album?

I hope this album can connect with the ones looking for soothing from their grief, the ones who need a time for contemplation of the eternal mysteries. I also hope this album can help people to open their minds, and be more thoughtful to what makes Brazilian culture so rich. So we can have less religion intolerance to Afro-Brazilian practices, so we can have more awareness of the climatic apocalypse going on right now, and so we can have the strength to fight the injustices of our times.

There are sonhos tomam conta t-shirts available and you can catch some glimpses of Brazil in the video for "oração do mar". Thank you to Lua for the thoughtful responses and her unique rendition of "Scarborough Fair (cântico)".