After Brooklyn’s Nello Luchi saw Sao Paulo’s Nana Rizinni featured on the Soncibids homepage she took a listen to the music and liked it so much that she reached out to Nana. After 6 months of connecting over social networks, the two have now co-wrote a song together, shot an incredible video, and created a lifelong friendship. “Sao Brooklyn” is the fusion of two artists who came from completely different backgrounds and musical styles, but the finished product is an undeniably cohesive effort. Check out the video for “Sao Brooklyn” below as well as an interview with Nana and Nello along with some behind the scenes footage of how the video was made.
Sonicbids: How did this whole project come about?
Nana Rizinni: It was around June this year. Nello and I both are on Sonicbids, and Nello wrote me an e-mail through the Sonicbids website saying she liked my music, and sent me the link to her EPK. When I heard the music, and saw some videos of hers, I thought “Wow. This girl is for real, she’s got the attitude, she knows what she’s saying, and she is just so real.” That is what gets me going in music, so we started chatting once in a while on the net and became virtual friends.
Nello Luchi: It was pretty interesting to me you know, I never really listened to anyone’s music from Brazil. I don’t know too much about the Portuguese language, but it just so happened that Nana speaks English and I thought oh cool, so I hit her up and she actually liked my music and the rest is history.Sonicbids: After you guys had begun talking, who had the idea to record a song together and what was that process like living in separate continents?
Nana Rizinni: I asked Nello if she would be down in doing a song with me, and she liked the idea, so we started talking about what would be cool to write about. I had a friend from Sao Paulo, Andre Henrique, who wrote the song with me. The parts that I sing, I wrote and Nello’s parts, she wrote. Since my style is more electro pop rock, and hers is hip-hop, I wanted to find the right producer for the song. Felipe Vassao was the guy. He produced the top Brazilian hip-hop artist Emicida, and also a few rock bands. We didn’t know each other, but I found him, and explained our idea to him. He dug it so we made it happen.
After that the process itself was pretty simple-- I had the instrumental part ready, I sent it to Nello (via Dropbox), and with my vocal parts as a guide, she recorded her vocals. Then she sent us the file with her voice and Felipe finished it here.
Sonicbids: And the concept for the lyrical content of the song, how did that come about?
Nana Rizinni: Nello and I would chat on the net, and talk about life, and what it is like to be an artist here in Brazil and in NYC, and so we decided to talk about that in the song. It was pretty natural, since it was actually what we were talking about as a conversation. Since I was going to NYC to film the video, we thought it would be nice to get Nello to show me around her neighborhood, her life... The video starts with me getting in a train in Sao Paulo and then ending up in Brooklyn (how amazing if that were possible!), and experiencing a little bit of Nello’s life. Even though we are from different countries, with different cultures and tons of other differences, there are so many similarities, and one of them is the struggle to make it as an artist.
Sonicbids: What was the most enjoyable part of creating the song and video together?
Nello Luchi: We are on different sides of the world so as Nana mentioned, she recorded her part in Brazil and I recorded my part in NYC and we actually heard the full finalized track maybe about three days before the video shoot. The most enjoyable moment of the video was that I introduced Nana to my world, my city, my borough and it was fun. We had a great time, we hung out with the kids at the park, did a brownstone scene, did a rooftop scene and just hanging out with everyone from Brazil was a great experience.
Nana Rizinni: It was fun from the beginning... The idea of doing a song with someone you have never met, and then going to her hometown and shooting a video! Sounds crazy, and it was! It was pretty wild, but everyone put their heart into this project, so it couldn’t go wrong. We didn’t have much money for a big production, but when you have friends, you have everything. It was amazing, one of the best trips of my life!
Check out the making of "Sao Brooklyn" right here:
