Why 79-year-old legend Caetano Veloso decided to make more music

By Sigal Ratner-Arias

Caetano Veloso had written truthful galore songs that helium genuinely believed helium was done creating euphony astir a decennary agone erstwhile helium released the Latin Grammy-winning medium “Abraçaço.”

“I inactive deliberation that I person written excessively galore songs on the years and decades,” the Brazilian legend, who has released implicit 50 workplace and unrecorded albums, told The Associated Press successful a caller interrogation from Rio de Janeiro.

But, astatine 79, helium has much things to say.

Veloso is backmost with “Meu Coco” (which virtually means “my coconut” but refers to the head), his archetypal solo medium since 2012. Released Friday by Sony Music Latin, it includes 11 caller tracks — from the resounding female-driven rubric opus to the thought-provoking archetypal single, “Anjos Tronchos.” There’s besides a caller mentation of his “Noite de Cristal,” a sublime portion helium primitively wrote successful the 1990s for his sister, Maria Bethânia.

“Anjos Tronchos,” released 1 period ago, addresses “the technological question that has fixed america laptops, smartphones, and the Internet,” arsenic Veloso has written successful accumulation notes. The lyrics not lone knock “the crooked angels of Silicon Valley,” but besides the emergence of leaders similar Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro acknowledgment to societal media (“leading clowns sprouted macabre,” helium sings) and the past verse adjacent mentions American vocalist Billie Eilish, who famously created her groundbreaking archetypal medium astatine location with her member Finneas.

Veloso admits that helium doesn’t travel societal media oregon cognize overmuch astir technology.

“As a substance of fact, I started penning that opus and I thought I would ne'er extremity it. At slightest not truthful soon, not for this record,” said the singer, noting that helium doesn’t adjacent person a smartphone and that helium uses his laptop mostly to speech emails, ticker videos connected YouTube and sometimes usage Wikipedia oregon Google.

“But past immoderate verses came and they were added to the archetypal ones and I had a implicit song. It was a astonishment for maine that I had truthful galore things to accidental astir thing that I thought I didn’t cognize thing about,” helium added with a laugh.

Another astonishment was however rediscovering “Noite de Cristal” made him spot his ain euphony with caller eyes. Maria Bethânia, whose signaling of the opus didn’t go precise good known, arsenic Veloso said, called his member saying helium should grounds the aged opus and see it connected the album.

“I said, ‘I don’t retrieve that song!’ It was precise funny, due to the fact that I went to look for it successful the net and it was wrong; nether that title, determination was different song. I said, ‘Bethânia, I couldn’t find it.’ Then she sent to maine a signaling of it and I heard it and I said, ‘Wow! It is beautiful!’”

“I had ne'er been satisfied with a opus erstwhile I decorativeness it. But aft years, immoderate person amazed me,” helium said.

Time has besides shifted his position connected life: “I don’t person that aggravated fearfulness of finitude that I had erstwhile I was 17, oregon 26, oregon 32. No. But I inactive live, the sensation is inactive the same,” said Veloso, who turns 80 successful August.

Clearheaded, good-humored and youthful, helium attributed his longevity to his household genes. His parent lived to beryllium 105 and she was precise lucid till the end. His begetter died astatine 82 of prostate cancer, but otherwise, helium was healthy. Now helium hopes to get to unrecorded to an mean of the two, helium said.

If helium could springiness his 18-year-old aforesaid a portion of proposal knowing everything helium knows today, what would it be?

“Don’t beryllium that afraid, you’re not going to dice now,” Veloso laughed.

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Follow Sigal Ratner-Arias connected Twitter astatine https://twitter.com/sigalratner.