Portuguese Sound Database: OqueStrada

Bio :

OqueStrada is born from the vision of Marta Miranda and Pablo – both coming from the world of entertainment, she as a theatre actress with experience on the hidden fado houses and Cape Verdean taverns, where she began to sing, he coming from France with a suitcase full of experience in urban intervention and show design – to create a portable musical project with the shape of a small neighbourhood orchestra ready to travel, where the personality and uniqueness of each one is the key point.

They invited João Lima along with his Portuguese guitar, to join the voice and the “contrabacia”. The trio always assure that the orchestra always kept the door open to other road lovers, accordionists, trumpetists and classical guitars.

OqueStrada set its base in the city on the other side of river Tagus, a lookout for Lisbon. In this suburban reality, they tackled the destiny and hit the road, building, year after year, their own circuit. “They left in search of a country and went on building a cult. From village to village, from town to town, they took by storm the capital city where they sold out venues while singing about a hidden and migrant Lisbon, about the suburbs as charmed places. Copies of home demos were circulating the country, making them a well-kept secret for many. “Their simple music grew on this adventure between small village fairs, “tascas”, festivals and city venues. In OqueStrada an adventurous and independent song was created out of few resources, assuming the acoustic sampling, the DIY and a well orchestrated musical vagrancy. Some of the instruments, like the “contrabacia”, the percussion chair and the tiny Yamaha keyboards came in and were saved from a sad end in the junkyard. They are now key parts to the compositions. To do the world with what one finds in the way is something the OqueStrada appreciates.

In 2009, seven years after the first concert, “TascaBeat – O Sonho Português”(“TascaBeat – The Portuguese Dream”) was released in Portugal, to wide acclaim, both from critics and public. It stayed for four months in the Portuguese charts (Top 30) for four months and in 2010 it will be given international release.