I have written a few songs over the years, their lyrics are scribbled down on a personal archive and there are some terrible home-made (phone-made!) recordings of them laying around, stuff that I've shared with friends and family over WhatsApp and the like.

This one is different!

I've written this song while writing a short autobiography, as an existential therapy exercise, and I was trying to remember why was it that when I was 10 years old I asked my parents to be baptised at the evangelical church my family used to go.

The main reason I was pondering that is because I remember very clearly to think to myself in multiple occasions while I was younger than that: "when I grow up, I won't bother going to church!". This thought was a self-fulfilling prophecy from my young self which eventually became true when I abandoned religion in my early twenties.

So what was it that made me change my mind when I was 10? Why did I want to get baptised then?

One reason that I remember and which I wisely didn't mention back then (though my younger brother was totally onto me!) was that I really wanted to try the bread and wine served during the "Lord's Supper", which were reserved to the folks who were already baptised. Oh man, those looked and smelled so good! 😄

But I knew there was something else, something more profound than that. So after much reflection, and discussing the matter with my mother and my sister of similar age (she was 12 at the time and got baptised some time after me), I realized that the main reason was because I wanted to be considered like a grown-up, I wanted to be taken seriously, I wanted to matter!

My first thought after talking to my sister over the phone was the phrase that became the refrain and title of the song: « Tudo o que eu queria era ser levado a sério ! », which means "all I wanted was to be taken seriously".

I said that out loud, sensed that I had something musical, so I sat down and wrote the first two verses spontaneously. That was exciting! Recorded it with my phone, then went to bed, woke up the next day and wrote the final verse in the same way. Never before writing a song had happened so spontaneously, never before I was writing from a place of so much authenticity! It was exhilarating!

I then decided to release it to the world, and for that I had the luck to be accompanied by these great humans helping to make it happen:

• Mariano Telles did the music production. This dude is awesome! An astounding guitarist, a talented musician and a great composer! Mariano: I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project with you, some good fun recording! You rock! 🎶🪄
• Giovanni Piazza, a friend from years back when I lived in Floripa who is an accomplished designer/entrepreneur/artist, did the gorgeous cover art that you can appreciate in this post 🎨😻
• Pricilla Frade, an amazing artist I discovered on Instagram who sings so beautifully, gave me singing lessons and sent many good vibes ✨💜

To the three of you: thank you so much! You folks are awesome! 💗

The single will be released on the 24th May 2023!

It will be out on the very day I'll be 36 years old -- yes, that'll be my birthday present! 🎁

If you use Spotify, you can pre-save the title through this page .

Stay tuned and enjoy the music!