Dudalu celebrates love in a musical trilogy that comes full circle with the release of “Our Love Story”, the duo’s new single and music video. The new song concludes a triad of emotionally charged singles, transforming affection into inspiration and passion into narrative, reaching its climax. Like the third act of a film, the story of encounters and disagreements previously told finds its resolution in an engaging MPB pop track, allowing the listener to reflect on their own loves and dislikes.
The journey of this new phase of Dudalu – formed by the couple Dani and Luiz – began with “Te Quero Como Nunca Quis Antes”, representing the calm and early stages of a relationship. Later, “Pro Lado de Fora” introduced conflicts and turbulence, preparing the ground for the grandiose outcome. “Our Love Story”, the third and final chapter in this saga, offers a story of reconnection and reconciliation, in which love triumphs over everything.
The track broadens Dudalu’s scope, now with the participation of composer Lucas Vasconcellos. The lyrics of “Our Love Story” delve into the complexities of romantic relationships, weaving a narrative that explores the duality of being a couple and the choice to share life with someone else.
Dudalu’s artistic journey in this series of singles goes beyond music; it’s a complete narrative experience. The music videos have been carefully crafted to tell a continuous story. The final scenes of each video subtly lead into the next song. Even the single’s cover draws inspiration from nostalgia, evoking the early 2000s and the classic romantic films shown on TV. Dani and Luiz pose in front of a vintage VW Beetle, in a visual homage to a bygone era.
With the trilogy complete, Dudalu demonstrates its intention with a work that already stands out for its consistency and boldness, presenting a glimpse of what the duo is capable of achieving in the next chapters of its career. At the moment, the singles and clips released are available on all the main platforms and on the artists’ YouTube channel.
“Our Love Story” completes a musical trilogy that explores the ups and downs of a relationship. How did you come up with the idea of telling this story through three songs?
The idea came about before we launched Dudalu. We always wanted to put on a performance, create an EP where there was continuity between the clips and songs. In 2021, when we started with the idea of creating our own work, we began to search for references and inspirations to take us in a different direction, and it was while searching the internet that we came across the duo Mar Aberto, from S ã o P a u l o , who had launched a project in this EP Série format! We fell in love with the couple, the energy they transmitted and began to learn more about their work.
Each of the songs in this trilogy seems to capture different stages of a relationship. Can you share a little more about the evolution of the narrative in this series of singles?
When we created the EP, we thought about situations and moments that every couple has experienced. The encounters, disagreements and conquests. Living as a couple isn’t as simple as it often seems. We, for example, despite being very similar in some ways, there are days when nothing feels like it’s going to “get married”.
“I want you like I’ve never wanted you before” was the first single in this trilogy, and tells the story of a couple who have been together for many years, and with each passing day manage to reaffirm and increase the admiration and love they feel for each other. But as not everything is a bed of roses, they fall out and end up separating at the end of the clip.
The song “Pro Lado de Fora”, the second release, comes at a more introspective moment, when the couple are separated and taking a break to understand what the next chapters of this relationship, which until then had lived in perfect harmony, will be. And finally, “Our Love Story” shows this reunion and how they would rather be together than apart in this life.
“Our Love Story” is about reconnection and reconciliation. Can you tell us more about the meaning behind this song and how it fits into the overall story?
The song goes to show that a love story isn’t as perfect as the tales and soap operas we see out there. For us, a love story is built every day, through its ups and downs, always based on respect and dialogue. We’re very close friends and partners, and although we have our traumas and issues, we’re learning more and more to deal with and heal them over the last nine years of our relationship.
The music video for this trilogy is a fundamental part of the experience. How did you plan the visual connections between the three videos and what did you want to convey visually?
We had a few meetings with the team from our label, Urban Pop, and with Marcão Abreu, from Gringa Filmes. We thought of a different location from the clips we’d already released in the last year and a half. So we came up with the idea of recording at Dani’s aunt Lourdes’ house. She, as always marvellous, didn’t hesitate and agreed on the spot! We arrived early at her flat and used practically every room! We recorded the music videos “Te Quero Como Nunca Quis Antes” and “Pro Lado de Fora” in one day, taking advantage of the privileged location, 5 minutes from the beach in São Conrado -RJ, and we also shot some sunset footage.
In the post-editing of the clip we chose a language to bring in the format of a series, so the end of the previous clip is always the beginning of the next video. Because we have a lot of video content (we’ve released more than 30 videos in the last few months) we also put in some takes from clips we’ve already released to make reference to songs that are already out there. We received a few messages from people commenting that they had realised this “coincidence”, lol. For Our Love Story we recorded it in half a day at the Urban Pop office. It was great fun, the people who work at the label took part in the party, we made an organised mess, improvised the sets and brought a more “mixed” language.
The addition of composer Lucas Vasconcellos brought a new dynamic to “Our Love Story”. What was it like working with him and h o w d i d this collaboration enrich the song?
We met Lucas Vasconcellos at a Legião Urbana concert, a band he also plays in today as a guitarist. We fell in love with his performance on stage and after the show, exchanging an idea in the dressing room after being introduced, we became even bigger fans of him as a person too.
Lucas is a genius, and he’s also generous. That same day we agreed to take this friendship forward and he came to our house for dinner. It was incredible, we exchanged ideas on various subjects and it came up that we should write a song together and see what we could come up with. On the day we wrote the song, we went to Lucas’ house, where he has a home studio, wanting to use a specific instrument for this track: Handpan.
We started writing when we questioned the labels that society imposes on us (and that we often impose on others too) and from there we started writing. We left with a recorded guide. We then took it to our music producer Mayam Rodilhano and arranged to produce the final version at Montanha Records.
The single’s cover evokes a sense of nostalgia, referring to the early 2000s and classic romantic films. How important is nostalgia in your art and how has it influenced the aesthetic of this trilogy?
I’m a very nostalgic person, Luiz not so much. He jokes that he thinks the best moment is today, the best girlfriend is his, the best mum and dad are his… I’m someone who loves reliving photos, videos, moments that have already passed… it ends up being melancholy a lot of the time, because we’ll never live that moment, even if we’re with the same people, in the same place.
Too much nostalgia is bad in my opinion, it makes us cling to a past (which is often not in the present we live in) but at the same time it brings that “delicious” nostalgia, that silly smile and a warm feeling in the heart.
Dudalu have already made a name for themselves with this trilogy. What can listeners expect from the duo’s next steps in their musical journey?
Dudalu has been presenting this new musical approach since the release of Sinta-se em Casa in July. This year we’ll also be releasing a feat and remixes of songs we’ve already released. For next year, we’re already hard at work on our compositions and will soon be heading to the Montanha Records studio to record. Listeners can expect lots of unreleased singles and feats, in the language of the new MPB and incredible music videos.
How do you balance the dynamics of being partners in life and in music? What are the challenges and rewards of creating music as a couple?
We’re both very work-shy. But really working together was during the pandemic (when life was already in chaos). We argue a lot when we’re at work together, lol. But every day we fit our thoughts and ways of doing things together. Nowadays we know exactly what each other’s role is at Dudalu, and we manage to divide up and deliver all the demands without either of us getting too overwhelmed. Dani is more in charge of the artistic side, directing and producing the clips, songs, marketing etc. and Luiz takes on the bureaucratic side, financial planning, INPI registrations, accounting etc. We have many daily challenges working together, but nothing beats the rewards of seeing a dream come to life that was built and created by both of us, with so much dedication and love.
If you could describe the essence of Dudalu in a few words, what would you say?
Dudalu is love, respect, drive and pulse. It makes us wake up every day and believe that together we can realise dreams we never imagined we’d have.
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