“Toda Forma de Adeus” represents an album marked by dualities: it celebrates goodbyes while inaugurating a new talent on the Brazilian music scene. Jotadablio, the musical project by journalist, composer and musician Jorge Wagner, finally releases its long-awaited first album after a series of singles released over the last two years.
This album marks the beginning of an already vast musical journey for Jorge Wagner. Originally from Paracambi (RJ), he has successfully organized online tributes in the last decade, such as those dedicated to Raça Negra (“Jeito Felindie”, 2012) and Belchior (“Still We Are the Same”, 2014), which brought together talents such as Letrux and Lucas Vasconcellos (at the time members of the duo Letuce), The Baggios, among others.
Now exploring his side as a composer and performer, Jotadablio presents himself with experience. The album “Toda Forma de Adeus” brings a repertoire matured over years of unpretentious compositions. Musically, he seeks inspiration from American alternative music, citing influences from artists such as David Bazan and Bon Iver, while incorporating elements of MPB from the 70s and independent bands such as Transmissor and Harmada.
In this debut album, Jotadablio invites you to a journey through compositions that explore themes such as the end of cycles, maturation and mortality. The opening track, “Even from Longe”, takes us back to 2005, when the artist composed it as a writing exercise, inspired by the lyrics of Beto Cupertino, from the band Violins. This ballad with an engaging melody skillfully hides the character’s questionable statements in its lyrics, making subtle references to Wilco’s verses. Another song, “Livro na Estante”, transports us to a “suburban indie country” environment full of memories and reflections.
“Hidden Stars” explores the duality between optimism and pessimism, going back to May 2005, when Jotadablio was just 21 years old. The track reflects on hope and disbelief, culminating in an arrangement that plays with empty spaces before reaching the chorus.
The track “Cicatriz” follows, with the special participation of Vivian Benford (one of the highlights of the cult collection “Jeito Felindie”). This song promises that no suffering will surprise you after the experiences you have had.
Other tracks, such as “Sobre Pertencer”, “Cartão de Embarque” and “Colecionando Rins”, continue the album’s narrative, each with its own nuances and references. While “What I Expect” is a profound reflection on maturity, frustrations and mortality, shaped by the personal experience of a heart attack by Jotadablio’s father and his strange feeling upon receiving the news while following songwriting partner André Lemos’ updates about his newborn child. Finally, “Back, Again” closes the narrative cycle, exploring the idea of a return to an old relationship, comparing it to a soldier returning home after the war.
With a repertoire enriched by songs composed over the years, “Toda Forma de Adeus” represents the affirmation of the artist’s artistic maturity. The album is now available on all major music platforms.
The album “Toda Forma de Adeus” celebrates goodbyes while also representing the beginning of his musical career. How do you see this duality reflected in the compositions of this inaugural album?
This issue of writing about goodbyes, heartbreaks and grudges in general has always been reasonably easy for me, even in the best moments of my personal life, lol. This idea of putting my songs out on the streets has been around for a long time, and I had already thought about the concept and the name Toda Forma de Adeus back when Jeito Felindie was released in 2012. The duality, although unintentional, ended up being quite natural. .
You have a rich history in music, including successful tributes to artists like Raça Negra and Belchior. How did these experiences influence your creative process for this album?
The tributes put me in contact, or strengthened ties, with people who inspire and influence me a lot. The mastering of the two works mentioned, for example, was done by Manoel Magalhães, who took over the production of my album. Vivian Benford, with whom I share the vocals on Cicatriz, re-recorded Cheia de Manias etc. There was also Lucas Vasconcellos, who I consider a little genius, and he even recorded a beautiful solo for a track on Toda Forma de Adeus that ended up not making it onto the album.
On your debut album, you draw influences from American alternative music and MPB from the 70s. How did you manage to merge these distinct styles into a single cohesive work?
This question of influences and references is something curious. I can tell that the album wanted to take something from alt-country, but I’m aware that it would never sound like Jay Farrar, not even if I tried really hard. When writing, if I do it naturally and spontaneously, I know that it is much more likely that I will write verses more similar to something by Paulo Sérgio than by Jeff Tweedy. So the way to this cohesion is just not to think too much, just execute.
Each track feels like its own journey. How would you describe the theme or overriding emotion you wanted to convey to listeners through these songs?
Despite the disc’s guiding thread, the comings and goings, each song is, in fact, independent, even if one or the other dialogues with each other – Even de Longe and Cicatriz, for example, or Cartão de Embarque and Colecionando Rins. So, there isn’t exactly one predominant emotion. About Belonging, in the middle, has a more natural optimism, completely distant from the ironic effort of Estrelas Encoverdas to talk about better days. It’s kind of like life, right? If everything is going well, we will hardly go through so much time seeing and feeling things exactly the same way, lol.
“What I Expect” is a composition that carries a strong emotional charge, shaped by personal experiences. What was the process of turning this experience into a song like and how did it affect your relationship with the song?
I wrote What I Expect almost as a rant, with that feeling of “we’re here, soon we won’t be, and what do we do in the meantime?”. I joke that it is a surface existentialism. I don’t live in the same city as my family, so, in the days following that feeling of “damn, my father really almost died, all of a sudden”, I found myself humming the first verses of the song, already with melody. Even the parts where I outsourced my emotions in that moment, writing from the point of view of a character who isn’t exactly me, came easily. It was a song that was born ready.
Some songs date back to earlier periods in your life, like “Even from Longe”, from 2005. What was it like revisiting and adapting these older compositions for this album?
The repertoire was taken from a very long period, between 2005 and 2018. And of course a lot changes in a period like that – what affects you, how you deal with things, your influences, references, composition methods, etc. We had the job of selecting songs that, when seen together, sounded cohesive with each other, and then we worked carefully when arranging and producing the tracks, to make them well tied together in that sense. The JW who wrote Além de Longe is certainly not the same as the one who wrote “De Volta”, “Outra Vez”, but he was the same one who arranged and recorded both for a single album.
Vivian Benford’s guest appearance on “Cicatriz” adds a special dimension to the song. Can you share a little about how this collaboration unfolded and what new it brought to the track?
I’m a technically limited singer, period. And, despite the cute melody, “Cicatriz” is a lyrically heavy song. From the beginning I was afraid that I wouldn’t interpret it well enough to convey the necessary impressions. Then came the idea of female vocals. At first, I thought of Fernanda Marques, who was the lead singer of the extinct Rio band Columbia, but she no longer sings, she lives in Spain and things ended up not working out. Vivian was the only name I thought of besides that, because I was sure of the quality of what she would deliver. Obviously, it met all expectations.
You mention that the album is a declaration of your artistic maturity. What specific aspects of this maturation would you highlight in this work?
That’s my press office’s job, lol. I’m very honored that they saw it that way, and I think that’s largely due to the clarity we had in conducting the project – what we wanted to talk about, how we wanted it to sound, etc.
Now, with “Toda Forma de Adeus” released, what are your plans or expectations for the near future of your musical career?
Firstly, I intend to not take 18, 20 years to release a second album, laughs. I want to work a little on promoting Toda Forma, try to do something on video and some presentations, try to take the album a little outside my bubble. But I already have the separate repertoire and even a provisional name for a second album and I’m super excited to start thinking about the pre-production of these songs, perhaps from the second half of 2024. When it will come out, I have no idea. But it won’t take almost two decades, that’s for sure!