A Conversation with The Berman Brothers – HuffPost 7.9.14

Mike Ragogna: Chris and Frank, where did the idea to transplant this group of artists into a Brazilian genre come from and what motivated you to put this project together?

Chris Berman: We were always huge fans of Brazilian music since a very long time, since the eighties. Frank and I were living in London and we were going to these really amazing rave parties at night and there were always Brazilian musicians playing along. Also on the other side, the really beautiful melodic structure of songs, that love of Brazilian music was there all the time. We also have this huge, huge love for those classic, iconic American songs from the sixties and seventies like those of Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin or Sly & The Family Stone. One day, Frank and I were sitting in Berlin and Billie Holiday was running in the background somewhere from an apartment far away. We could only hear the voice for some reason. It was a beautiful summery day and the idea was born–how would it sound to put some easy-going bossa nova beats or some smash salsa beats behind it? Brazilian music is so tasteful, so elegant. It needs an elegant counterpart in the melody. That was when we thought, “What happens if we blend these two worlds together,” the beauty of the classic American vocal performances of Billie Holiday or Aretha Franklin or Sly Stone with that sultry, really fantastic intelligent Brazilian backbone.