We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Vinicius Cavalieri a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Vinicius, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I have been involved with music ever since I was 4 years old, when I first started learning to play the drums. My desire to explore and develop more knowledge made me roam through a series of different instruments, like piano, bass, flute, until I found the guitar, which has become my main instrument ever since. I started creating music with my cousins back in the day in a basement of a country house we had back in Brazil in 2007. Ever since, I have been involved in several bands/projects, serving as a co-composer and/or multi-instrumentalist. But it was not until 2020 that I started writing material for my solo career.

I have always written bits and pieces of music, recorded them on my phone, and never touch them again or finish them. I only “knew” how to work with other people, and the crippling factor was low self-esteem. I didn’t think my ideas were good enough on their own, and I was even afraid of rescuing those old crappy phone recordings and trying to developing them into songs.

But, of course, I had a lot of time at home to reflect and thinking about things during the pandemic. In order to keep myself mentally sane and battle anxiety and other things, I thought to myself, “now is a good time to do what I’ve been procrastinating for some many years: writing my own songs and releasing them”. Needless to say that covid was a terrible thing, but it is interesting to notice how that horrible thing turned into something good, and it was the little “push” I needed in order to exercise my confidence and starting a solo career.

All of this to say that whenever I look back, it hurts to think that my own mind, fears and insecurities made me lose so much time and so many opportunities to start writing sooner and collaborating with other artists. It definitely is a regret, as I would (now 31 years old) have a more solid fanbase and connections. However I try not to face it like a regret or with heaviness, instead I try looking at it like: things happened on the right time. I’m glad that I exercised the “not caring” and the “just do it”, and even though those things happened late, better late than never.

Vinicius, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My first professional experience was being hired by renowned Brazilian Gospel singer Samuel Mizrahy as his electric guitar player for live shows back in 2010. A couple of years later I got into Berklee College Of Music, and that is where I truly started building connections. Majoring in Film Scoring, I was hired to score short films and short documentaries, as well as the feature-length documentary “Pebbles, Ripples and Waves: The Life And Times Of Gordon Hunt”, starring Helen Hunt, Jonathan Banks, Larry Charles, among others. Moving to LA, I joined “An Endless Sporadic”, a progressive rock band known for being featured in huge video game soundtracks such as Guitar Hero 3 and Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland. We have played in some venues in Los Angeles and Anaheim, as well as performing at The NAMM Show, one of the largest music product trade shows in the world.
I have also been, ever since, working as a session musician/arranger for several artists, providing services such as guitar/bass/keyboard/voice recording, as well as working closely with influent Brazilian Christian singer Guilherme Kerr, serving as his arranger for a wide range of musical styles, from Christian Pop to progressive rock to acapella arrangements. Even though I draw from a lot of influences, I have heard from some people that the musical work I provide has “soul”, which of course is a hard thing to define (I would define as a very unique “character”). But I like to believe I’m proficient in truly understanding what it is that said artist, or song, need, as well as being able to imprint my character/personality, without driving attention away from the song. I like to think that what sets me apart from others is: being able to write a musical piece that fits the song or serves the film, without dragging too much attention but also containing that “soul”; being 100% passionate about music and open to explore and perform a wide range of styles.
I can say that being at Berklee really expanded my musical knowledge, and performing with several people from all over the world during my time there truly made me appreciate different musical styles/cultures. I carry this with me to this day, and being able to navigate through different styles while maintaining a trademark sound makes me proud of who I am as an artist today.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I want to be able to touch people’s lives with my music. Yes, of course I want to make money out of my music, and of course I want people to know my music. But having an impact on someone’s life with your art is what it’s all about. Whenever I listen to my music heroes, I feel something so special and I think to myself “That’s it. That’s what I want other people to feel whenever listening to my songs”. I have a friend who recently tatooed one of the lines of my song “Becoming”. She said that those lyrics really helped her deal with her own issues and thoughts, and she couldn’t define or explain them to other people, but those lyrics portrayed exactly what she felt, and what she needed to hear at that time. And hearing this from someone is literally the most gratifying thing for an artist, ever.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

The routine of a creative person can be very different from a non-creative’s. Meaning, sometimes inspiration can kick in at 4am and you need to go record that idea immediately. Or sometimes you can have a creative block and spend 2 weeks without being able to write anything. It’s hard finding a balance between forcing yourself to write a little bit everyday and respecting your brain. Sometimes you can try for a whole day, and nothing happens. Some other times, inspiration just flows and you can have an immense amount of work done quickly. One of the factors that make it a bit difficult to stick to consistency and to a discipled routine is: so much has been composed already. We have an overload of things being created all the time, movies, TV Shows, music, etc. More specifically talking about music, there’s just SO much music that already exists. And, nowadays, you always need to stand out, be different from others, so people will notice you. Writing music that will be innovative nowadays is a challenge. And being a composer, you don’t have the luxury of waiting for inspiration to come. It’s not always magical and sudden, there’s a lot of struggling and racking of the brain.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.viniciuscavalieri.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cavalierisa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vinicius.cavalieri
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/viniciuscavalieri
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cavalieri_sa
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ViniciusCavalieriSa