Miraldo

Hailing from Portugal, Miraldo is an indie rock singer songwriter, a multi-instrumentalist nomad who believes real well-crafted music still matters and therefore, is an active voice in keeping this artform alive. He creates music as a shelter for those exhausted from the tragedy that it is to be alive without disregarding the quest for meaning, for happiness, for a deeper understanding of ourselves and others. His music offers melodies that stick in your head for days on end, powerful emotionally delivered vocals supported by warm electric guitar tones, the delicateness of acoustic folk guitars, ornamenting acoustic/electric pianos, rocking prominent drums and a piercing bass holding it all together. That´s it… No gimmicks. 

Miraldo became an official music project in 2010 as an early version of “Seduced by routine” was released in a compilation album called “Remark Records Vol.1 music for fun”. After a six-month period in Barcelona, working on his craft as a guitar player, he returned to Portugal to finish work on M1RALDO, his debut album, released in December 2012.

Throughout 2013, he presented his songs in several underground venues in Portugal including Hard Club and several record stores. Two singles -” The ancient days” and “In my dreams there you were” - were introduced to the media and featured on the main independent radio stations in Portugal (Antena 3, R.U.M., R.U.C and Radar).

At the end of 2013, Miraldo moved to Stockholm, Sweden, so that he could further develop his drumming, compositional and songwriting skills. In 2015 he finished his master’s degree in music, at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and premiered a piece for jazz trio and string quartet called “Visions |Sounds |Stockholm”. In the capital of Scandinavia, he had the opportunity to perform solo in such venues as “Southside Cavern” and at the festival “Music in Stockholm”. In 2016, “Knowing you here” was included in “The Southside Cavern volume two”, released by “Porter & Thorells Syndrom Phonogrammes”

In 2018, he started a new project called "Amiati Series". It is a long form creation comprising of three phases documenting Miraldo’s songwriting process. Phase one consists of writing songs in their purest arrangement. Phase two is when songs are taken to the studio and phase three sees those songs performed live. This project will likely take many years to accomplish. Nevertheless, phase one has started and ten songs are available on his official YouTube channel.

In 2019, the musician moved to Hong Kong and is working hard on his new album, to be released in 2020. Korridor 21 is a collection of songs that reflect on his time in Sweden, the experience of a new country and living with a tight group of friends.

His search for meaning in life and places, for stories and friendship, bleeds into his work. In a reaction to a world made of plastic and overwhelm, Miraldo decided to write simple songs which blend reality with fiction. These 10 new songs go deep into the feelings of disappointment and the eternal search for significance. With each record the songwriter conveys his experiences, his life lessons and forges an invitation to reflect, to dream, to take one step further on this path of discovery and fantasy.

Miraldo was aged 3 or 4 when he was introduced to Elvis and soon after to The Beatles. This created a spark, an urge to sing. However, perhaps afraid of what the world would say, he kept it a secret. He continued practicing though: singing along with Led Zeppelin, Credence Clearwater Revival, Pink Floyd, The Velvet Underground… Guns and Roses was an obsession, at some point.  Grunge followed with bands such as Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Faith No More, The Smashing Pumpkins, Blind Melon and later Indie bands such as dEUS, Radiohead, Red House Painters, Zita Swoon, Mazzy Star, Belle and Sebastian or more recently Bon Iver, The National, Arcade Fire or Feist.

Singing backing vocals, album participations, singing a chorus here and there in the bands he played drums on, some vocal lessons, belonging to a choir kept the flame going but he would end up working professionally as a drummer and drums teacher.

As the rock world fell critically ill, Miraldo felt the need to create the music he could no longer hear on the radio thus increasing the time devoted to songwriting. As working in bands with original material was proving to be a frustrating endeavor, the songwriter had a pressing reason to go solo and put forth some of his own songs.  Furthermore, the passion for singing was still there and at this point it was time to overcome fear and doubt, to document his voice before it would be gone, ultimately, it was time to confide his love for singing to the world.

The first album, M1RALDO, started off with an introspective series of poems in Portuguese as sources for lyrics. The entire project was done mostly for his own amusement, with the hopes of later reaching an audience of kindred spirits.

Recorded by the songwriter at his parents´ house, he proceeded to invite some longtime friends to participate. The idea was to lay down different aspects of his broad musical taste, combining classical, jazz and rock aesthetics. Miraldo wanted to go beyond chord progressions most pop songs were using and instead explore the harmony-dense chords present in jazz tunes, paired with unexpected modulations classical composers use, without abandoning the condensed structures and catchy melodies of rock pop songs. Additionally, he wanted to play with contrast through juxtaposing happy and depressing songs, of acoustic piano or strings with distorted electric guitars and loud yet inventive drums and vocal tracks with an ocean of back-vocals, (fruit of previous experience with choirs).

All these elements, paired with lyrics that go deep into the compulsive thoughts that often inhabit his mind, resulted in an album that found its place within the chamber pop melancholia genre. A minimalistic design with an intricate, harmony rich, lyrically profound group of songs is what the artist aspired to create.

Korridor 21, on the other hand, is an album built on fundamentally different concepts. New country, clean slate, gone are the days where he was uncomfortable admitting he wanted to be a singer and was now pondering upon the concept of utility or purpose in art. In that regard, the artist was looking to create something that would feel artistically enticing but not elitist.

Miraldo would workshop songs on countless booze-tempered home concerts, in order to decipher which ones his friends were most interested in. Being in contact with people from all over the world also made it apparent that anxiety, loneliness and overwhelm were important widespread challenges of this era and that technology, advertisements, social media were the seeds for this pervasive chaos.  Lyrically shifting from an inward to an outward perspective and adhering to the simplest tune structures possible, seemed to be helpful in creating an ailment to this generational conundrum.

In his refusal to accept the new world order of pop, it was paramount to be rooted in rock while still sounding contemporary. It must sound like a band as opposed to a solo artist backed by session musicians and he must excel at the intricate craft of songwriting on a musical and lyrical level. Consequently, he decided to focus solely on the acoustic guitar, vocals, melodies and lyrics. He delegated the rest to a tight work group of the best musicians he could find, in the best studio he could afford, in order to bring the songs to their fullest potential.

He joined forces with Daniel Aldenmark (drums and percussion), Otto Niklasson Elmerås (piano and guitar), Johan Mörk (bass) and Thom Gisslén (electric guitar) and the recording sessions, engineered by Daniel and Otto, took place at One Touch Edit Studio.

If in the first album he built a bridge to the indie scene by way of his aesthetics, design and production styles, this time he built a bridge back to his country of origin as it was beautifully mixed and mastered in Portugal by highly regarded and accomplished producers João André and Mário Barreiros.

The indie rock singer songwriter spent a lifetime building his artistic universe, by working on his craft relentlessly, for years on end. Korridor 21 is his upcoming album and an indie rock permanent wave door into such universe.

Miraldo

2021