Casa Bonita (PT) on being part of something bigger, coming together despite differences, EU elections, and more

This past June 6th, Melkweg transformed into a vibrant polling station during the European elections. To encourage voter turnout, they organised a mini-festival called sElection, which featured gigs with two promising up-and-coming bands powered by Liveurope. One of these bands was the groovy Portuguese band Casa Bonita.

Check out this chat we had with the Lisbon band on being part of something bigger, the power of music to bring people together despite our differences, the European elections, and more.

Tell us about yourselves and your music.

We've been listening to and playing music together for years. At a certain point in the post-pandemic years, we started this project while playing at a friend's birthday party. We were just having fun, jamming, and realised we really liked what we were playing. So, we started writing songs. We interpret our music the way a DJ would interpret his crowd. We are a jazz-influenced, console and jam-based band in that perspective.

As an artist based in Portugal, what types of challenges are you facing when it comes to exporting your music? 

It is pretty hard to play abroad. With the support of initiatives like Liveurope, we can do this more comfortably. As a working-class band, we try to reach a broader audience and go to different places, and touring is an important part of that.

Liveurope is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and the platform is set to reach 5,000 concerts supported since 2014. Do you have a message to share to celebrate this milestone? 

Congratulations to Liveurope for this amazing goal. It's incredible that these initiatives exist and that we are among the bands supported. Looking at it from another angle, it is also great that we can be inspired by the bands from other parts of Europe that play in Musicbox with Liveurope support. We probably wouldn’t get the opportunity to see them play live otherwise.

sElection is a mini-festival intended to encourage people to cast their ballots in the European elections. Do you think music and culture can be a vehicle to generate excitement for the European project?

I feel that people are not very prone to vote in the European elections. Culture can definitely be one of the ways to shift that because it has the power to inspire change.

Being part of the European Union gives us a voice, and everyone from Europe should have something to say. Tonight, we are sharing the line-up with a Finnish artist and a Dutch band, which is great because it makes us part of something bigger.

Do you have a message to share with the decision-makers who will be shaping the future of EU policy?

Fund culture, fund it even more. Culture has the power of bringing people together despite our differences. We just saw M Lore play on stage and their sound has nothing to do with ours, but it was amazing. The fact that it's different is good and, especially in times of polarisation, we should learn to come together despite our differences.