David Fonseca (; born in Leiria, Portugal, in 1973) is a Portuguese musician, singer-songwriter, and plays several instruments, including acoustic guitar and organ. He is mainly recognised because of his successful music career, as member of Silence 4 and as a solo singer. Besides playing various instruments and being the author of almost all of his lyrics, he is also responsible for the graphic designs on his album covers. From 2004 to 2006, he was also part of the Humanos project.
Beginnings
David Fonseca studied cinema at Escola Superior de Belas Artes de
Lisboa between 1992 and 1994, where he obtained a degree. David began his professional life as a
photographer, working for various fashion catalogues. He participated in many exhibitions, both group and individual. He also worked in a
radio station for a while. David Fonseca has dedicated his life to his love of music choosing to become a pop/rock alternative musician. He has multiple musical influences by names such as
Sérgio Godinho,
Jeff Buckley,
The B-52's,
Pixies,
Roy Orbison,
Aphex Twin and
Ryan Adams, all of whom had a huge role in his musical creativity and individuality. He also mentioned in an interview with radio station “Antena 3” that he has an addiction to the group
Yeah Yeah Yeahs. David is married and has a son and a daughter.
Career
Silence 4
Fonseca's musical career started with a band called
Silence 4, formed by a group of hometown friends. They first released the unpredictable
Silence Becomes It, in June 1998 that was a huge success at the time, selling 250,000 copies (the equivalent to six
platinum records). This was a remarkable achievement in the Portuguese musical scene, where it is usually difficult to sell these many copies. The album has only two songs written in Portuguese. One of them is
“Sexto Sentido”, featuring the popular Portuguese singer,
Sérgio Godinho. To complete this great year for the band, which played at most of the Portuguese Summer festivals, they closed the world famous exhibition
Expo '98 in
Lisbon, playing for about 50 thousand people. Later in the same year, in December, Silence 4 was the first national band to sell out at
Pavilhão Atlântico, performing to an astonishing 18,000-strong crowd, only 6 months after the release of their first album. Two years after the “phenomenon” the second album was released,
Only Pain Is Real, in July 2000, selling approximately 100,000 copies to this day. The respective tour ended in a double concert at the legendary stage in the Portuguese capital of
Lisbon, the
Coliseu dos Recreios, which sold out completely and was released later on in CD and in DVD format. Throughout 2000, Silence 4 went on their last tour. In 2001, the band entered an undetermined hiatus, that still remains.
Solo career
With the 21st century, David’s solo career kicked off with a different sound from what it used to be while in
Silence 4.
Sing Me Something New was recorded in 2003. In this first solo work, in addition to singing, he played nearly all instruments, now exploring a totally new environment of sounds all by himself. The album was recorded in the studios of producer
Mário Barreiros, and later in the
Sterling Sound Studios (in
New York), by the well-known sound engineer,
George Marino, who is connected to some works of
Coldplay,
Rollins Band,
The Dandy Warhols and
Sepultura, among many others. The first single was
Someone That Cannot Love which debuted on about 150 Portuguese radio stations in a unique way: they were all played on March 10 at midnight. And it soon reached #2 on the National Sales Chart and was certified Gold.
The tour of this first record was extensive; it included many big music venues and large festivals across
Portugal.
Our Hearts Will Beat As One is said, by David himself, to be “scarily personal” and was only released in the fall of 2005, because of the other projects that David was involved in between his two solo works. The second album includes
Who Are U? as the first single, described by David as “the song I always wanted to write”. It reached #3 on the Portuguese airplay charts.
Our Hearts Will Beat As One was critically acclaimed by the media and was considered pop album of the year in Portugal, even before the end of the year. The album went straight to #1 on the National Sales Chart and reached Gold status on its first week of sales. In October, 2007, his third original album,
Dreams in Colour, was released and the first single was Superstars II, a song that obtained substantial airplay due to a cellphone campaign that adopted the single.
In July 2009, the first single ("A Cry 4 Love") was finally released to the public. The new album, Between Waves, was out in the stores on the 2nd November 2009. On the same day, David's online community, Amazing Cats Club started working.
Humanos
In 2004,
David entered a new project called
Humanos. The idea behind it was to bring to light some unpublished songs by the famous Portuguese artist, a singer-songwriter, from the 80’s,
António Variações. David Fonseca,
Manuela Azevedo (the lead singer of another Portuguese music group,
Clã),
Camané (one of the most famous Portuguese “
fadistas”),
Sérgio Nascimento (a member of
Sérgio Godinho’s band),
Hélder Gonçalves (also from
Clã),
Nuno Rafael and
João Cardoso are the seven members of a group responsible for what would become a huge success, something unseen in the Portuguese music scene. The homonymous album scored impressive quintuple platinum, staying for weeks in #1. “Muda de Vida”, “Maria Albertina” and “Rugas” are just some of the group hits.
All this culminated in three sold out concerts, two of them in “Coliseu dos Recreios” (Lisbon) and the other in Porto. There was also another memorable performance, in front of a crowd of 40,000 people, at the “Sudoeste” Portuguese Festival, in the year 2005. This was always intended to be a short project, because there were few unpublished Antonio Variações’ songs. Thus, the CD and DVD with the recorded Coliseums’ live concerts, which was released on November 2006, marked the end of the Humanos project.
Live concerts
David Fonseca is known by his powerful dancing on stage, equipped with his pair of
Chuck Taylor All-Stars. He plays different instruments during the show and he is accompanied by his band, which includes:
Sérgio Nascimento (drummer),
Ricardo Fiel (guitarist),
Rita Redshoes (ex-
Atomic Bees in the piano and also voices; the second record single
“Hold Still” it’s a David and Rita’s duet),
Nuno Simões (bass player) and
Paulo Pereira (hammond). David doesn’t just play his solo-career hits but also lesser-known tracks. He also plays (in most of his live concerts)
“Angel Song”, the first music he wrote, composed when he was only 18 and which was included in Silence 4’s first album. This theme is perhaps the one most loved among fans, of the group or of David. In the middle of the show, he usually leaves the stage to return wearing a white suit, to announce that “dancing time” has begun and that the “moonwalk” move is near. Then the crowd laughs.
Discography
Albums
With Silence 4
*1998 - Silence Becomes It
*2000 - Only Pain Is Real
*2000 - Only Pain Is Real: The Remixes (EP)
With Humanos
*2004: Humanos
*2006: Humanos ao Vivo (Live album)
Solo
DVDs
2004 - Silence 4 in Coliseu dos Recreios (recorded live by Silence 4 and David Fonseca)
2008 - Dreams in Colour: Tour Edition (recorded live 12 April 2008 live at the Coliseu)
Singles
With Silence 4
*1998: "Borrow" (from Silence Becomes It)
*1998: "My Friends" (from Silence Becomes It)
*2000: "To Give" (from Only Pain Is Real)
*"Only Pain Is Real" (from Only Pain Is Real)
Solo
Collaborations
David Fonseca has also collaborated with many other artits. Among them:
Trovante, Phase, Sérgio Godinho
He took part alongside many other Portuguese artists in the music video of "Encosta-te a mim" by Jorge Palma.
References
External links
David Fonseca's official website
David Fonseca YouTube site
David Fonseca Blog site
David Fonseca's Hi5 Profile
David Fonseca LastFm (in Portuguese)
Humanos' official website
Category:1973 births
Category:Living people
Category:Singer-songwriters
Category:Portuguese musicians
Category:Portuguese male singers
Category:Silence 4 members
![Aqua - Back To The 80's [HQ]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110603054258im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kw5s3CB_1pE/0.jpg "Aqua - Back To The 80's [HQ]")
