During their stay for the first semester season of UK music festivals, attending highlights as The Great Escape, that took place in Brighton, and Liverpool Sound City, that happened in the city that gives name to the event, Brazilian producers had the opportunity to discuss, together with different British cultural institutions, new ideas to promote Brazilian music on the UK and improve the communication and exchange between both regions.

BME talked Iuri Freiberger, one of the producers that attended festivals and meetings in the UK during the first semester, and he explained what are the future plans to improve the relationship between Brazilian music and the British audience.

Freiberger is a musical producer originally from the South of Brazil, which has dedicated himself for the last few years to projects on the Northeast of the country, concentrating his efforts on the capital city of the state of Pernambuco, Recife – known for its huge cultural production. For the past three years, Iuri was responsible for the implementation of an audiovisual studio, with a program of courses, specialized crew and structure, on a space called Nascedouro de Peixinhos, a poor area, surrounded by favelas, but with a considerable cultural production. He is now studying the possibility of taking the same project to other regions in need, in other states of the country – Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro.

When did you decide focusing on the British audience?

It all started with a recommendation of Leo Feijo, one of the main partners of Matriz, a group of theaters and cultural spaces in the city of Rio de Janeiro. He invited me to participate on a mission of Brazilian producers that would head of to The Great Escape Festival, in Brighton, to experience the festival and participate in meetings with producers and directors of British cultural institutions. Their goal was to bring British and Brazilian cultural relations to a closer level, promoting the exchange of artists and cultural agencies, all focused on music.

And how exactly did this group of producers act during the event?

We were there to watch the shows, see the kind of artists that interests the British audience. We also had, during the festival, a few business meetings with British agents and producers. We also headed to London after that, where we met with specific cultural institutes, to propose real possibilities of business, and to get to know more about British programs of incentive to production, distribution and promotion of music in the UK. The British Council is developing a program focused on exchange, not only for artists, but mainly, paying special attention to events and producers that could bring Brazilian artists to the UK.

In your opinion, what’s the importance of these exchange programs and events for the Brazilian music and the British audience?

I guess that the main advantage we take on these programs is the understanding that international ways of promoting music is now more possible than ever. To make music today, in Brazil, requires a bigger effort than it did 10 o 15 years ago. The masses consume bigger events, but do not pay to see new, less known artists. The big groups, musicians, have been the same for the past 20, 30 years. A big amount of Brazilian cultural production survives only by incentives promoted by the government. On the other hand, popular music has never earned so much money and space in the country, in a way that it’s now possible to create massive international promotion.  If we analyze these concepts, of more openness of the the paths, and the needs of the international market, we can clearly understand that it is possible to invest on an international promotion, on a larger scale, with better quality of results with a better reception from the international audiences. I believe that the exotic tone of the Brazilian production is not the main lead that draws the attention anymore, that phase is over, of the fascination for caipirinhas and Havaianas – that are now only a drink on menus and a global shoe company, like many others. Thetime has come for Brazilian artists to do the reverse path than what they’re used to doing, to create their work locally and then promote their music on a worldwide level.