Kid Abelha: in search of the perfect wave
The band from Rio debuts at Universal Music with the album Surf and expects greater promotion for the hit tracks
Silvio Essinger
16/05/2001
Upon the release of Surf 
, the first on Universal Music, the bubble pop band Kid Abelha didn't figure it would dive so deeply into the theme. During the photo session at the beach in Rio de Janeiro, little before the press conference, the rough waters unexpectedly dragged the three musicians - Paula Toller, George Israel and Bruno Fortunato. "We were caught by the wave, instead of catching it", George said, already in dry clothes. The idea was definitely not to drown. "Surfing is the utopian idea of happiness. The surfer catches a wave, challenges the sea and is happy all by himself. The album was originally named Inveja do Surf (or Surf Envy)", reveals Paula.
As the group signed up to Universal for three albums, after 18 years at Warner, the members only knew that they did not want to go unplugged or release any kind of 'greatest hits' compilation. "We were willing to make a full new CD - which seems so unusual, these days" , provokes Paula, who appears to be concerned with the current trends in Brazilian music: "People review their own music so much, and they cover Roberto Carlos, Tim Maia and Jorge Ben all the time, and I guess there won't be any songs left to cover within 20 years."
The band left Warner after the release of Coleção and E-Collection . "We completed a full cycle at Warner", George says. But not everything was that easy. "Warner didn't give us a single copy of the E-Collection", Paula denounces. "I had to read it in the paper, so as to know how it sounds." The band expects a more effective promotion scheme at Universal, which will help sell more copies of the forthcoming albums. "It's useless to record hit tracks if they don't actually become hits", the vocalist claims.
During the past three years, Paula decided to leave behind the lyrics that she wrote right after the album Autolove - the only one that remained was Solidão, Bom Dia!. The rest of Surf was written last year. "My life changed in 2000. I thought it would be best to start it all over again", she says.
Set list
One of Kid Abelha's concerns with Surf, George Israel explains, was to recover the punch of their live sets. "Kid is a road band. One of the reasons why we made this album was to renew our concerts." Speaking of which, the band shall start touring the country in July. While starting over, Kid Abelha also renewed its collaboration list, incorporating artists like Max de Castro. According to George, he was the ideal person to activate Kid Abelha's "soul department". Max produced two tracks: 10 Minutos and Solidão, Bom Dia!
Next year, when Kid will be all over Brazil with the Surf concerts, it will be 20 years since the band's debut recording: the tracks Distração and Vida de Cão é Chato Pra Cachorro on the compilation Rock Voador. "That's a date to celebrate", Paula states.
She is sincere while describing the first days of the band that was then named Kid Abelha & Os Abóboras Selvagens (or Kid Bee & The Wild Pumpkins): "We were a bunch of amateurs. We didn't have any idea of how to make albums or deal with management. We would do things as they popped up in front of us." George adds: "Kid had a strange line-up. There were very few pop bands, back then, as opposed to rock bands. Back then, pop smelled like fake." And the vocalist finishes the nostalgia session: "The fun part is that even the heaviest rock songs today sound fake!"
, the first on Universal Music, the bubble pop band Kid Abelha didn't figure it would dive so deeply into the theme. During the photo session at the beach in Rio de Janeiro, little before the press conference, the rough waters unexpectedly dragged the three musicians - Paula Toller, George Israel and Bruno Fortunato. "We were caught by the wave, instead of catching it", George said, already in dry clothes. The idea was definitely not to drown. "Surfing is the utopian idea of happiness. The surfer catches a wave, challenges the sea and is happy all by himself. The album was originally named Inveja do Surf (or Surf Envy)", reveals Paula. As the group signed up to Universal for three albums, after 18 years at Warner, the members only knew that they did not want to go unplugged or release any kind of 'greatest hits' compilation. "We were willing to make a full new CD - which seems so unusual, these days" , provokes Paula, who appears to be concerned with the current trends in Brazilian music: "People review their own music so much, and they cover Roberto Carlos, Tim Maia and Jorge Ben all the time, and I guess there won't be any songs left to cover within 20 years."
The band left Warner after the release of Coleção
and E-Collection . "We completed a full cycle at Warner", George says. But not everything was that easy. "Warner didn't give us a single copy of the E-Collection", Paula denounces. "I had to read it in the paper, so as to know how it sounds." The band expects a more effective promotion scheme at Universal, which will help sell more copies of the forthcoming albums. "It's useless to record hit tracks if they don't actually become hits", the vocalist claims. During the past three years, Paula decided to leave behind the lyrics that she wrote right after the album Autolove - the only one that remained was Solidão, Bom Dia!. The rest of Surf was written last year. "My life changed in 2000. I thought it would be best to start it all over again", she says.
Set list
One of Kid Abelha's concerns with Surf, George Israel explains, was to recover the punch of their live sets. "Kid is a road band. One of the reasons why we made this album was to renew our concerts." Speaking of which, the band shall start touring the country in July. While starting over, Kid Abelha also renewed its collaboration list, incorporating artists like Max de Castro. According to George, he was the ideal person to activate Kid Abelha's "soul department". Max produced two tracks: 10 Minutos and Solidão, Bom Dia!
Next year, when Kid will be all over Brazil with the Surf concerts, it will be 20 years since the band's debut recording: the tracks Distração and Vida de Cão é Chato Pra Cachorro on the compilation Rock Voador. "That's a date to celebrate", Paula states.
She is sincere while describing the first days of the band that was then named Kid Abelha & Os Abóboras Selvagens (or Kid Bee & The Wild Pumpkins): "We were a bunch of amateurs. We didn't have any idea of how to make albums or deal with management. We would do things as they popped up in front of us." George adds: "Kid had a strange line-up. There were very few pop bands, back then, as opposed to rock bands. Back then, pop smelled like fake." And the vocalist finishes the nostalgia session: "The fun part is that even the heaviest rock songs today sound fake!"