Strangers at Dawn

Collection Contents

#		Title	Length
1		Sound of Pain	3:10	Play
2		Shade After the Light	7:04	Play
3		Gray Red Sky	5:10	Play
4		Here Close to Me	3:41	Play
5		Wishing Star (Make A Wish)	4:15	Play
6		Blind Faith	6:19	Play
7		Name of the Game	3:37	Play
8		I Wait for You to Come	6:57	Play
9		Strangers At Dawn	5:30	Play

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Description

Born just in time for the Halloween night of 1974, Vitor early demonstrated his interested in music. When he was two years old he recorded his first tape on his parents' home tape recorder in which he sang rather corny and popular tunes. His father soon begun to buy him second hand records which Vitor literally devoured. When he was 5, his love to music brought him to piano lessons which, nevertheless, didn't last long.
Despite this, the lessons enabled him to discover what he considers to be the most stunning achievement of his musical education - being able to play the 5 first notes on the piano reading them from a score. Then he felt like a real musician and nothing else could stop him.

Music, his life long companion made him discover by the time he was 13 the fascination for the guitar as a solo instrument and led him to dream of commanding his own band on guitar. Hands out, first guitar bought, a classical nylon 6-strung. One year latter he got his first electric guitar, a black Stratocaster clone.
His teen years are mostly remembered by long hours spent in front of the TV and the home stereo, trying to play the songs.
The idea of imitation was unbearable; he would try to play his own version which soon led him to think of himself as a songwriter. In 1989 he wrote his first "worthwhile" words. His work as a songwriter was something he always claimed his own and never shared until 1995.

After playing in several local bands, he started to perform his own material with the band Citizen's Four, latter revamped and renamed to Big Problem. In the meantime, he continued to work with several other bands of dubious recognition, nevertheless, playing his chops several nights a week with a variety of singers.
After several years doing the bar circuit, in 2002 he started his more than postponed project - the recording of his first album which features the latest 12 years of songwriting. The album is called STRANGERS AT DAWN.

L'aventure commence...

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A FEW NOTES:

"STRANGERS AT DAWN is the least probable album I would release as a debut, I think. It started as a whole different concept which, I think, is quite normal when you have so much material to deal with. I browsed through songs written since 1989 to find what to record, I mean, I wanted it to be one album, one piece of well glued material... The idea of being a stranger at dawn is appealing and romantic but, in a way, that's what life is in fact. Through the course of our lives we often feel like being a stranger at the dawn of something... But it is not an album about love. It is more of an album about the possibilities of love or the possibilities of a life with someone. It goes through a lot of motions including the sweet innocent infatuation to a rather somber mutual coexistence."

"I wanted it to sound like a band. It is very hard to do on a meager budget. Everything I tried previously sounded like crystal clear rubbish with a lot of 80s thin sound. I wanted something more organic so, that's why I ended up working with Abilio Rocha on a tiny little studio in Gondomar. There was a lot of floor noise and terrible ground problems causing the amps to sound like pre-WWII radios but, it kept the spirit of a band playing together. Despite the overdubs we made, everything came from a little live track done for each song."

"I borrowed a few guitars, yes. I still can't afford a decent acoustic guitar. The nylon guitars used bring up a lot of fret noise but that's OK because it gives a rather interesting live situation feel."

"SOUND OF PAIN is not about death, it's mainly about pain. Not grief or loss but dealing with real pain through the process of waiting for it to happen."

"SHADE AFTER THE LIGHT is my idea of epic. Most of it is musical as there's not a lot of words in it. It starts with an idea, tells the listener about it and ends with the feeling that remains afterwards."

"GRAY RED SKY I wrote in 1993, coming home by train. It was quick to write and, one of the hardest songs to get the band to sound right. I gave it another go now, after dropping it from set lists due to overpowering playing."

"HERE CLOSE TO ME is my own idea of what the guy in The Police's Every Breath You Take would say."

"WISHING STAR is a magnificent example of great pedal steel guitar playing. It went very smoothly and it has a very simple arrangement because I felt the pedal steel said everything that was to say."

"BLIND FAITH is a late addition. There was another song at this spot which I thought fitted better another project which is on my mind. I think Blind Faith is the knot that binds the rest of the songs to a single concept."

"NAME OF THE GAME was actually written in 2000 or 2001 and was the song which I played live more frequently from this set."

"I WAIT FOR YOU TO COME is, to me, the best song on the lot. It deals with bewilderment which is also one of the feelings more connected to this album."

"STRANGERS AT DAWN has a magnificent saxophone which is played by an amazing artist from Utah, Patrick J. Murphy. When I asked Patrick to play on it, not only he was delighted as he delivered an amazingly intense performance which itself, is worth the whole album."