Rogério Skylab

Rogério Tolomei Teixeira[1] (born September 2, 1956), better known by his stage name Rogério Skylab, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, lyricist, classical guitarist, poet, essayist, record producer, actor and former television presenter. His unique musical style is characterized by minimalism and eclecticism, and his lyrics are permeated by acerbic allusions to popular culture, pessimism, scatology, nihilism and black comedy (he has, however, always denied that his songs have humorous purposes).[2] Some of his most recognizable compositions are "Motosserra", "Fátima Bernardes Experiência", "Dedo, Língua, Cu e Boceta", "Eu Chupo o Meu Pau" and "Matador de Passarinho".[3]

For other uses, see Skylab (disambiguation).

Rogério Skylab
A sketch of Skylab by Denis Mandarino
Born
Rogério Tolomei Teixeira

(1956-09-02) September 2, 1956
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Alma materFederal University of Rio de Janeiro
OccupationSinger-songwriter, lyricist, classical guitarist, poet, essayist, record producer, actor, former TV presenter
Years active1991–present
Notable work
Debaixo das Rodas de um Automóvel
"Matador de Passarinho"
Spouse(s)
Solange Venturi
(
m. 1983)
AwardsPrêmio Claro de Música Independente (2005)
Musical career
GenresProgressive rock, experimental rock, noise rock, garage rock, art rock, acoustic music, minimal music, MPB, comedy rock, electronica, samba rock, bossa nova, acid jazz
InstrumentsVocals, classical guitar
LabelsOutraCoisa, Psicotropicodelia, Discobertas, Coqueiro Verde Records
Associated actsSetembro Negro, Zumbi do Mato, Robertinho do Recife, Fausto Fawcett, Arrigo Barnabé, Luís Capucho, Jorge Mautner, Lívio Tragtenberg, Maurício Pereira, Marcelo Birck, Rômulo Fróes, Michael Sullivan, Jards Macalé
Websiterogerioskylab.com.br

Biography

Rogério Skylab was born Rogério Tolomei Teixeira in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 2, 1956, and is of Italian and Portuguese descent. He has degrees in literature and philosophy from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro,[4] and also began attending a law course, but never finished it.[5]

Prior to his musical career, Skylab worked for 28 years as a public servant at a Banco do Brasil agency in Maracaju, Mato Grosso do Sul.[6] After a brief stint as the vocalist of punk rock band Setembro Negro in the mid- to late 1980s,[7] in 1991 he participated as a solo artist in a music festival in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais; he won the first-place cash prize with the song "Samba do Skylab", from which he took his stage name.[7] Rogério used the prize money to finance the recording of his debut album, Fora da Grei, which was released the following year; it was very well-received by the critics, and awarded him many appearances on Jô Soares' late-night talk shows Jô Soares Onze e Meia and Programa do Jô in the 1990s.[2]

In 1999 he released his second album, the first one in a series of ten self-titled albums, Skylab. It was produced by Robertinho do Recife, but Skylab was slightly unsatisfied with the final result, saying that it had "too much keyboards" and that he was not too creatively involved with it. His third album, Skylab II, was his first live release; commenting about it, he has stated that "this is 100% Skylab. The other was 80% Robertinho".[8] Skylab II counted with a guest appearance by Löis Lancaster, vocalist of avant-garde group Zumbi do Mato – Lancaster would return for Skylab's second live album, Skylab IX, which also had guest appearances by Maurício Pereira (of Os Mulheres Negras) and Marcelo Birck (of Graforreia Xilarmônica).[9] Zé Felipe and Marlos Salustiano, respectively bassist and keyboardist for Zumbi do Mato, collaborated with Skylab on his 2007 album Skylab VII, which was nominated to the Prêmio Dynamite de Música Independente in the "Best Rock Album" category;[10] two years later, Felipe and Skylab made a collaborative album, Rogério Skylab & Orquestra Zé Felipe. In 2005, Skylab won the Prêmio Claro de Música Independente, in the "Best MPB Album" category, for Skylab V.[11]

After the release of Skylab X,[12] Skylab put aside his experimental sound to work on the "Trilogia dos Carnavais" ("Trilogy of the Carnivals"), which focuses more on traditional Brazilian genres such as samba, bossa nova and MPB.[13] The trilogy comprises the albums Abismo e Carnaval, Melancolia e Carnaval and Desterro e Carnaval, and included the guest appearances of many musicians, such as Jorge Mautner, Jards Macalé, Rômulo Fróes, Arrigo Barnabé, Fausto Fawcett and Michael Sullivan.[14][15] Between 2016 and 2018 he collaborated with Lívio Tragtenberg on a further trilogy of albums aptly titled Skylab & Tragtenberg.[16]

On March 7, 2018, Skylab officially announced that he began work on a new studio album, entitled O Rei do Cu, released later that year on May 17.[17] On a Facebook post he further elaborated that O Rei do Cu would be the first installment of a new trilogy, the "Trilogia do Cu" ("Trilogy of the Ass");[18] the second installment, Nas Portas do Cu, came out on January 1, 2019,[19] and the third, Crítica da Faculdade do Cu, on December 20, 2019.[20]

On March 19, 2020, he uploaded to his official YouTube channel the single "À Sombra de um Horizonte".[21]

Outside music, Skylab authored the sonnet collection Debaixo das Rodas de um Automóvel, published by Editora Rocco in 2006,[22] and was the host of his own talk show, Matador de Passarinho, on Canal Brasil from 2012 to 2014.[23] In 2017 he debuted as an actor, portraying a history teacher on the Fabrício Bittar comedy film Como se Tornar o Pior Aluno da Escola, based on Danilo Gentili's eponymous book.[24] He also runs and owns the blog "Godard City".[25] In 2020 he published the essay collection Lulismo Selvagem through Kotter Editorial, who also re-issued Debaixo das Rodas de um Automóvel after many years out of print.

Personal life

Skylab has been married to photographer, record producer and plastic artist Solange Venturi since 1983; Venturi has designed the cover arts for many of the musician's albums since then. He is a self-described agnostic[26] and has stated that "religion is a non-issue: it doesn't exist" in a 2003 web interview.[27]

Skylab is known for his extensive and varied musical and literary influences. Some of his favorite writers are Machado de Assis, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Clarice Lispector, Jorge Luis Borges, Rubens Figueiredo, Milton Hatoum and Cristóvão Tezza.[5] Musically, he cites Arrigo Barnabé, Os Mulheres Negras, Graforreia Xilarmônica, Zumbi do Mato, Frank Zappa, Jupiter Apple and Damião Experiença as influences;[4] his 2002 album Skylab III was dedicated to Damião.[28][29]

A life-long fan of Fluminense,[30] he has even recorded the club's anthem on the 2016 collaboration album Skylab & Tragtenberg, Vol. 1.[31]

Skylab has expressed admiration towards former Governor of Rio de Janeiro Leonel Brizola (dedicating to him the song "O Preto do Brizola" off his 2018 album O Rei do Cu) and former petista President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.[32][33] As of February 2019 he has a column in the left-leaning news website Brasil 247.[34]

Discography
Main article: Rogério Skylab discography

Bibliography
  • Debaixo das Rodas de um Automóvel (Editora Rocco, 2006; re-issued by Kotter Editorial in 2020)
  • Lulismo Selvagem (Kotter Editorial, 2020)

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
2017 Como se Tornar o Pior Aluno da Escola History teacher

Television
Year Title Role(s)
2012–2014 Matador de Passarinho Himself (host)
gollark: Oh no, imagine doing good things and having a system reward you slightly for it via tax writeoffs?
gollark: I mean, Bill Gates is good, he's donated lots of money to philanthropic causes.
gollark: You could actually do something about homelessness or whatever. Most people could. Capitalism mostly aggregates people's preferences into results, ish. But most people do not seem to care about poverty/homelessness enough to act on it, beyond sometimes saying that if you go along with [DRASTIC CHANGE TO ENTIRE ECONOMIC/SOCIAL/POLITICAL SYSTEM] the whole problem will magically evaporate.
gollark: Produce a thing people like, sell it, and obtain cashmoney.
gollark: Or you can just offer a thing people like.

References
  1. Dicionário Cravo Albin de Música Popular Brasileira (in Portuguese)
  2. "Sempre fui contra a imagem cômica que Jô Soares me deu, diz Rogério Skylab". UOL (in Portuguese). July 15, 2014. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved December 28, 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. Bate-papo com Rogério Skylab | Bate-papo UOL (in Portuguese)
  5. Omar Godoy. "Rogério Skylab, um filho da adversidade" (in Portuguese). Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  6. "Ex-bancário, Matador de Passarinho condena Felipão: 'Falou besteira'" (in Portuguese). November 30, 2012. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  7. Entrevista / Skylab (in Portuguese)
  8. Sílvio Essinger (April 19, 2001). "The strange world of Rogério Skylab". Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  9. Rogério Skylab – Skylab IX at Discogs
  10. Prêmio Dynamite da Música divulga classificados. A Notícia, September 9, 2008 (in Portuguese)
  11. Marcos Bragatto (May 11, 2005). "Lobão sai como grande vencedor do Prêmio Claro". Rock em Geral (in Portuguese). Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  12. Marcus Preto (June 7, 2011). "Skylab 1999–2011". Folha de S.Paulo (in Portuguese). Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  13. "Aos 25 anos de carreira, Skylab segue 'bloco do eu sozinho' na folia de DVD". G1 (in Portuguese). September 22, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  14. Mariana Peixoto (September 27, 2015). "Sem qualquer ressentimento, o irreverente Rogério Skylab segue criando e provocando polêmicas" (in Portuguese). Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  15. Júlio Maria (September 22, 2016). "Crítica: Skylab, mais profundo do que o humor" (in Portuguese). Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  16. "Rogério Skylab navega por novos caminhos em seu novo projeto, 'Skylab + Tragtenberg Vol. 1'". Crush em Hi-Fi (in Portuguese). May 30, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  17. João Luiz Azevedo (March 7, 2018). "DIA 25 DE ABRIL 2018: ROGÉRIO SKYLAB LANÇA SEU NOVO ÁLBUM 'O REI DO CÚ' NA SALA BADEN POWELL". Portal do JL (in Portuguese). Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  18. Rogério Skylab – Facebook (March 7, 2018)
  19. "Rogério Skylab, o gênio do politicamente incorreto". Diário do Rio (in Portuguese). June 15, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  20. Thales de Menezes (December 20, 2019). "Palavrões surgem de forma natural em obra que fecha trilogia de Rogério Skylab". Folha de S.Paulo (in Portuguese). Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  21. "Rogério Skylab – 'À Sombra de um Horizonte'". Retrieved March 19, 2020.
  22. Ricardo Silvestrin (November 26, 2011). "Um autêntico lírico". Musa Rara (in Portuguese). Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  23. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 7, 2013. Retrieved November 15, 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  24. Juliana Góes (July 26, 2017). "Danilo Gentili assina o cartaz oficial de 'Como se Tornar o Pior Aluno da Escola'". Blah Cultural (in Portuguese). Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  25. Godard City (in Portuguese)
  26. Lista fiável de ateus, agnósticos e afins (in Portuguese)
  27. UOL (2002). "BATE-PAPO COM ROGÉRIO SKYLAB" (in Portuguese). Retrieved October 24, 2003.
  28. Leon Carelli (December 13, 2016). "'Só os mendigos salvam o planeta'" (in Portuguese). Retrieved January 14, 2017.
  29. Marco Antônio Barbosa (2002). "Rogério Skylab em 'Skylab III'" (in Portuguese). Retrieved April 11, 2017.
  30. Pedro Logato (September 30, 2013). "'O meu coração tricolor': Skylab é diferente até no seu amor pelo Fluminense". O Dia (in Portuguese). Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  31. Panorama Tricolor – Skylab & Tragtenberg, Vol. 1 (in Portuguese)
  32. "Cantor Rogério Skylab: 'Meu candidato é Lula. Não importa se ele está preso'". Diário do Centro do Mundo (in Portuguese). June 1, 2018. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
  33. "Fora da lei". Helena (in Portuguese). November 20, 2018. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
  34. Rogério Skylab – Brasil 247 (in Portuguese)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.