Toronto-based singer Bruno Capinan is originally from Bahia, Brazil, and grew up in a community bursting with music and culture.
“Music is in my DNA,” Capinan told Cabin Radio in a recent interview, looking ahead to July’s Folk on the Rocks music festival in Yellowknife.
Capinan, who is non-binary, began their music career after moving to Toronto in 2002.
“I could just be myself” after moving to Canada, they said. “I was able to fall in love with the people I wanted to fall in love with.”
Capinan’s music combines genres such as bossa nova, pop and rock. Their discography is colourful and vibrant, like the marvellous outfits they wear on stage.
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Me Leva, Capinan’s latest single, is a love letter to Bahia. The single is inspired by Bahia’s sunsets as well as Capinan’s personal growth.
“By the time that I go to Brazil, it’s always different. I’m never the same person,” they said.
Capinan’s 2022 album, Tara Rara, was born of a dream they had of two enslaved men who fell in love on a slave ship. Out of that dream, Capinan said they considered “the possibility of love during the Atlantic slave trade.”
To Capinan, Tara Rara, which translates to rare desire, means “the possibility of loving yourself first in order to love other people.” The album, they said, is about “seeking the desire you always have when you meet someone new.”
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Capinan sings in Portuguese, but says that should not discourage people who aren’t fluent in Portuguese from listening to their music.
“If you can relate to a feeling in a song, even if you don’t speak the language, if you don’t understand what I’m singing about, it’s fine. Music is a universal language, and emotions is also a language,” they said, promising a performance that is “very Brazilian, very queer, very extravagant.”
“My outfit is stunning,” Capinan said, adding that the Folk on the Rocks audience is “going to see something unique, and hopefully they’ll leave my performance feeling like they can just be whoever they want to be.”
