Nando Reis releases album with songs by Roberto Carlos

The notes of the guitar and the flute come out sweetly while Nando Reis harmonizes his voice with the instruments to make a statement – ​​to people, to his wife, to his children, to the world, to all that is good around us – in of so much loveone of the tracks from their latest album, I’m No Roberto, But Sometimes I Get Close.

The music is by Roberto Carlos, like all the others in the repertoire chosen by the São Paulo native for his most recent work. “He’s a renowned artist, with whom I wanted to associate my sound”, he says. “But the reason for the choices is always mysterious, a bit like life.” From enigma to enigma, Nando builds a plot that includes friendly shoulders, burning flames, memories, the plants on the balcony, distances, destroyed plans, longing and great love, territory already known by the King. Nando modulates his voice and goes on about human pain, attachment, absences and hope.

Is life. Well lived, in the case of the composer, who met Vania Reis, now his wife, at the age of 15, at school. He admits he was smitten as soon as he saw her; and they are together to this day. “At first we were friends, but I had already fallen in love with her.” A few years later, they were dating. At the age of 20, they got married.

Children were being born. Separation came. And the reconciliation. Nando and Vania, psychologist and writer, spent almost eight years apart. “But we never stopped talking. There was always something he wanted to tell her – something he’d seen or thought or felt. We also talked about the children.” Then they came back.

The composer doesn’t like to give too many details about the subject, he says it’s a matter of respect. Vania is more averse to the spotlight, she doesn’t like to show off. She leaves that space to her husband. “I value fraternity and love relationships, all of them, with friends, with nature, and all the bonds that we are able to create”, continues the singer. He claims that this is above any bump along the way.

Nando has already worried a little. At the time of Titãs, one of the most resoundingly successful bands in the country, which he helped found in the 1980s, pain and love were absorbed, in almost equal gulps, with drugs, alcohol and, of course, rock’n’roll. In 2001, Marcelo Fromer, guitarist for the group, was killed by a motorcycle in São Paulo. In the same year, he lost his friend and singing partner Cássia Eller. The load was heavy – of longing, pain and poison. Diving into drugs impressed his daughter, Sophia, 28, who is now an actress. But she passed. The wounds healed and affection prevailed. “I suffered seeing myself destroying myself without being able to stop myself”, recognizes the singer in Just for Sodisc composition Nando Reis & Os Infernaisalso from 2001, when he left Titãs.

A lot was left behind, including the crazy life. Today, at the age of 56, José Fernando Gomes dos Reis, the son of an engineer and a speech therapist, looks at his children with a mixture of gratitude, love and admiration. “I don’t like to praise myself, but I observe how much my children share a worldview in which feelings of justice and generosity prevail”, he says.

There are five of them – in addition to Sophia, there is Theodoro, 32 years old, Sebastião, 24, Zoe, 19, and Ismael, 13 years old, the latter fruit of his relationship with his ex-girlfriend Nani, when he was separated from Vania. “They are very loving”, adds the proud father. Theodoro and Sebastião are musicians; and Zoe is studying fine arts. “I can’t say exactly what the influence of parents is on their children’s upbringing, but they all embodied the respect I feel for them,” she says.

a question of balance

Nando has faith in human evolution. He knows how to recognize the flows of feelings inherent in us. The negatives too – anger, envy, competition, rivalry. But he sees confidence, admiration, care and perseverance to move forward with one eye on the stars and the other here among us. “I’m not skeptical, I’m hopeful,” he explains.

maybe the Second sun, which gives title to one of the composer’s best-known songs, recorded by Cássia, may arrive after all. The song arose from a disagreement between Nando and a friend who believed in the hidden forces of the firmament. “I was thinking about my reaction, which was a little aggressive towards her belief, and I came to the conclusion that there is no single truth.” In times of intolerance, the phrase is an act of love.

Nando sees complementarity as the key to happy love relationships. With Vania, at least, that’s how it is. He is more idealistic, she not so much. The differences bring them closer together almost as much as the similarities, in an emotional bond that changes, grows, expands, reaffirms itself and blossoms again, clearer and stronger.

The new album sprouted from a moment to two. Nando and Vania went on vacation for two weeks at the family farm in the interior of São Paulo, in 2016, taking a guitar, a box with 12 Roberto Carlos records and a suitcase with some clothes. There, in nature, he listened to the songs and noticed some connections that melodically brought him closer to the King. Nando has been with the leader of Jovem Guarda since childhood. The lyrics packed part of the story with Vania as well. “So many people forgot that love only brings good”, she sings Nando in Everybody’s Deafs, another one from the new album. Now, it’s listening and remembering.

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