Wagner Pá

Wagner Pa, the brother of the district Wagner Pa and his Brazuca Matraca (Catalan-Brazilian) are here ! The great mystical circus has arrived ! In the streets of Avinyó (Barcelona) the bossanova sounds fill the air in the festive environment. The fact is that " Barcelona no es buena si la Bossanova no suena" (Barcelona is no good when bossanova is not heard). And when it is bossanova sung by Wagner Pa, melancholy is very soon replaced by fiesta.

Wagner Pa, the brother of the district Wagner Pa and his Brazuca Matraca (Catalan-Brazilian) are here ! The great mystical circus has arrived ! In the streets of Avinyó (Barcelona) the bossanova sounds fill the air in the festive environment. The fact is that " Barcelona no es buena si la Bossanova no suena" (Barcelona is no good when bossanova is not heard). And when it is bossanova sung by Wagner Pa, melancholy is very soon replaced by fiesta. The carioca rhythms and the variety of styles (reggae, ska, bossanova, rap...) make the Brazuka Matraca and Wagner Pa concerts sound like carnival. Everyone is invited to come up on stage and very often friends from other bands play with them one or several songs. Such has been the case with Dusminguet, Macaco and Ojos de Brujo. Wagner is the real name of Wagner Pa, not meant as a homage to the Austrian musician, rather chosen because W was a fashionable initial for names at the time.

Wagner says that in his school other children were called Ericclapton da Ricardo, Letsgo da Silva or Undeuxtrois de Souza. Others were named after half the Brazilian national soccer team of 1970. After all, Wagner was not so bad. Wagner decided to add Pa to his name, as an allusion to Pan, the Greek flute-playing god.

This was also the pseudonym with which he used to sign the poems he wrote when he was younger. Wagner arrived in Barcelona when he was 20 to live with his mother, who worked for the Brazilian Consulate. From the start he breaks everything around him (beginning with the hand-dryer of the airport as soon as he arrived). He goes on to play with various bands, such as SuperElvis (bass), then works as a DJ and organizes concerts, at first with Caracola, then with Mestizo. At that time, he takes jobs in production, management and as a DJ. Soon he becomes a DJ at Jamboree, the most famous disco/bar of Plaza Real.

With Mestizo, he is in charge of Macaco. Dusminguet and Sargento. Soon Manu Chao joins the club. Wagner appears in the albums of Dusminguet and Macaco and works for the Sound System with Fermin Muguruza, Dani, El Mono Loco (Macaco), Manu Chao. Stimulated by his work in this environment, Wagner decides to go on stage as well.

He begins by gathering all his friends to organize a large concert in the sala Cibeles (situated in the Gracia district of Barcelona) with the purpose of raising money for an eye operation. This turns out to be a very successful event, even though the eye operation is not entirely paid for. It is Wagner's first major appearance in the media, in the company of Amaparanoia, Color Humano, Dusminguet, Macaco, Manu Chao. Wagner comes out fully motivated from such display of confidence and friendship and surrounds himself with a skillful group of musicians (Brazuca Matraca). Their first album, Brazuca Matraca, is released in 2000. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..