As far as its music, Oliveira explains that in Brazil – especially southern Brazil – house music is popular at the moment, with places like the Warung Beach Club, which calls itself “the South American Temple of Electronic Music”, acting as hubs for a thriving scene. “The crowds are really warm at the moment and more open-minded than they used to be like three years ago. Now’s a really good moment for the house scene. I would say that it’s pretty much very similar to playing in Brazil and over in Europe or Asia, not big difference. Maybe in Europe there’s a bigger scene for techno and everything but house I would say it’s pretty similar at the moment.
“I feel pretty comfortable to play either in Brazil or in Europe or Asia, the places I go to now I feel really comfortable. Sometimes I feel more comfortable playing in Brazil. My city, for example, the club vibe I know exactly what I can play and it’s really chilled out, the people are open-minded and they respect the new ideas and everything so it’s cool.”
But right now Oliveira’s not in Brazil. He’s in Switzerland, taking four days off before heading to Berlin, which is the next stop on a touring schedule that will bring him to Australia in June. Although he’s seen plenty of the rest of the world, this will be his first time in Australia. Friends who’ve been here before have given him the lowdown on what to expect.
“They tell me some good things about it especially like the beautiful landscapes, beaches and also some nice parties going on there,” he says. “Like of course Sydney, Melbourne, they’re pretty worldwide famous so I’ve seen some photos and I know a little bit.” That’s not been his only source of information on our country, however. “I’m expecting a warm crowd because on my Facebook page I receive a lot of messages from people in Australia telling they are waiting for me there,” he says. “They’re looking forward, excited to see me playing, so I think it’s going to be nice.”
He does a lot of keeping in touch with his fans through his Facebook, where the unusually kind-spirited comments are equally split between Portuguese, English and the international language of smiley faces and hearts.
“Facebook is a really good tool to keep in touch with people and also the fans. People who like my music sometimes ask questions and I have the potential to answer right away to them and it’s kind of a nice relationship with all the people who like my music. I like to keep that, it’s kind of nice. I love Facebook.”
When Oliveira was a teenager, before house music exerted its pull on him, he was into hip hop and even a member of a local breakdance crew, which he joined after they put on a demonstration at his school. “They were the best crew in town,” he says, “and I started practising with them and started dancing together. I think three years [later] I had to quit it because I started working. I also did college – it became more heavy, more and more tasks, I had to quit it and then suddenly I found myself amongst the music, going to clubs and started to throw my small parties in the city with some friends. Nothing extra special but just for fun, with local DJs.”
What he modestly calls “small parties” were where he first made contact with the DJs who would become the stable of Playperview, and where he first tried DJing himself. It seems like a sudden rise from there to travelling the world with his music. “Just for one year I was kind of under the radar,” he says, “and then I started to put my music up on Soundcloud, looking for some labels and then after that started releasing some stuff. After a year and a half things got pretty big and happened quite fast, but not that fast.”
His own music is built around a nugget of the hip hop he used to listen to as a breakdancing kid – he namechecks Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, Grandmaster Flash and Jurassic 5 – both in the vocal samples he chooses and the breaks. “I would say that hip hop is my background because I’m listening to it such a long time, even before I started breakdancing. I think that the drums of hip hop really inspired me, the breaks inspired me. I like percussion, I like drum grooves, so yeah, definitely the hip hop rhythms inspire me from my position. Sometimes it sounds more hip hop-ish I would say, sometimes not, but definitely I’m always listening to hip hop and just chilling. Or jazz, some blues also. Definitely the percussion – drums inspire me.”
BY JODY MACGREGOR
