MusicAdriana Calcanhotto talks about Partimpim’s return with the album ‘O Quarto’ and the character’s 20th birthday celebration [ENTREVISTA]’If we don’t see children as people who feel all types of feelings, we run the risk of continuing to underestimate them. And that’s not fair.’ today at 6:14 pm

After 12 years since the launch of Tlês, Adriana Calcanhotto returns with his childish heteronym Partimpim on the album The Room. The work marks the celebration of 20 years since the character’s first release and includes new songs and reinterpretations by artists.

Adriana spoke with Rolling Stone about the process of reconnecting with the character, her inspirations and the playful universe that surrounds the project.

The artist explained that the idea for the new album came from the desire to celebrate Partimpim’s 20th anniversary not just with a retrospective celebration, but with something new for the fans. The Room was launched this Thursday (10), and is now available on all platforms.

Check out the full interview below.

Rolling Stone: This is Partimpim’s first album in 12 years. What was the process of reconnecting with the character like and what inspired you to return to this playful universe now?

Adriana: It was a conversation about the celebration of Partimpim’s 20th anniversary, the first one, which is when it was born, when it appeared… And I thought it would be interesting to celebrate with a new album, and not just celebrate… celebrate, yes , too, but with a new album, with something new.

Rolling Stone: The name O Quarto is a very interesting play on words, both because it is Partimpim’s fourth project and because it refers to the child’s space. How did this idea come about?

Adriana: This came up a long time ago, because as soon as I did Tlês, the next one would be the fourth. And he being the room, he already has that in him, he is the room, which is where the children go when someone says, ‘get the children out of the room’.

Therefore, in theory, the bedroom is more fun than the living room, contrary to what I thought when I was a child, that I thought the adult world was more interesting…

So he was born with this thing, he is the fourth. So I knew I would have him, I wrote the song for him, I was putting together songs. Marisa [Monte] She gave me an unreleased song, she showed it to me and I said: ‘This song is Partimpim, I want it, but I have no idea when the fourth album will come out, but I want it’. She said: ‘No problem, stay with her’. Atlantis [canção de Rita Lee e Roberto de Carvalho] it was on the list for the first album, since the first one, 21 years ago. And it also had to do with the loss of Rita Lee, which was interesting, because the basis of the song was recorded exactly on the day that Rita became a star one year ago. It was very moving in the studio recording the song.

[“Boitatá“ — a canção inédita mencionada, é uma parceria de Marisa Monte, seu filho Mano Wladimir e Arnaldo Antunes.]

Rolling Stone: Is there a song that has special meaning or that you are particularly excited to release?

Adriana: Each song has its own story. I am fine appeared when we were recording the album, I heard it on social media and said: ‘I want this song’. When I say ‘I’, it’s a listening, it’s an ear, this listening belongs to Partimpim, it’s that ear that hears something and understands that it speaks to, if it doesn’t speak to the children, it speaks to that child, which is Partimpim .

I took a song to play I am fine… Star, Star entered due to the rains that crossed Rio Grande do Sul during the recording.
I went to São Paulo to record the High Hours by Serginho Groisman, and the production asked us, artists from Rio Grande do Sul, to sing artists from Rio Grande do Sul. Star, Star It came to me as an enlightenment, and after I sang it on the program, many people from Rio Grande do Sul asked me to record this song. This had to do with the moment the album was going through.

It was difficult to make the album when you leave home and see that horror on television. An image that gave me a lot of hope was that caramel horse on a roof, the way he was rescued. That moved me a lot, so Star, Star It’s on the record because of that.
Each song has its story, and the repertoire is dynamic. If we had two more weeks, the repertoire might have been different.

Rolling Stone: The album launch takes place close to Children’s Day. Was this intentional?

Adriana: Yes, it has to do with the fact that in October the office is full of requests for Partimpim. Everyone asks about her, if there will be an album, if there will be a show, where is she? So, I thought it would be interesting to release it in October to celebrate 20 years with a new album.
I’m from October, so I understand that Partimpim is also from October. It is a month that brings this joy.

Rolling Stone: You manage to bring up serious themes, such as the climate crisis and figures like Malala, while maintaining the childish tone. What was it like working on these issues on the album?

Adriana: Children are in the world. I remember when people said: ‘What horror, the children are dancing Claw Mouthfan‘. But it’s obvious, they are watching television, which at the time was more TV, now they are on social media… They are in the world. Of course, now things are more niched, you can control more what children see.

But children don’t just experience joy. Enough of this idea that they don’t have sadness, that they don’t suffer, that they don’t have anxieties about the future or the planet. They will have to deal with things that my generation was unable to deliver to them.

If we don’t see children as people who feel all kinds of feelings, who have hopes and despair, we run the risk of continuing to underestimate them. And that’s not fair.

Rolling Stone: How do you see Partimpim’s relationship with time? Does the character evolve with him or does he remain timeless?

Adriana: Partimpim lives in the present. It protects spontaneity and the ability to move between styles and do what you want. This keeps her connected to the public.

She doesn’t do things thinking about whether it will work, she simply does it, and her fans are complicit in that, in what she’s inventing. I think that’s why she has so many fans.

Rolling Stone: How does the Partimpim persona influence or relate to your work as Adriana Calcanhotto?

Adriana: Partimpim stays in a corner because she demands a lot from me. It exhausts me, so when I allow it to show up, the adult part of me needs to lower the ball. She keeps things, like drawings, pacifiers and toys, everything is very valuable to her. I’m the opposite of that.

So, there comes a time when I need to let one of the two take over, because it’s too much for me to handle both at the same time.

Rolling Stone: QWhat message would you like the public, both children and parents, to take away from this new album?

Adriana: The message is in the invitation she makes in the first track: ‘Let’s invent the world’. Because it is possible, it is within reach. As Rita Lee says in Atlantis: ‘The world belongs to those who dream, that every legend is pure truth’.

When we say this to a child, the power is enormous, much greater than when we say it to an adult. This is the message that Partimpim wants to convey.

Rolling Stone: Would you like to add something?

Adriana: I’m really excited about the show and I’m thinking about it now. The show will be done with the repertoire of the four albums and it’s already a lot of music, I say that because I probably can’t include the songs that are exclusive to the shows, which are on the two DVDs and which will be a delicious work, which is very hard, actually, leaving songs out, that’s the difficult part.

But, anyway, I think that everything we’re talking about, how it fits together, the different generations, this spectrum of two-month-old babies, great-great-grandparents who go to the show, all of this will be the time to bring the four together albums, which now is, we can now say that it is a discography. Until the TlêsI think it was considered, I considered it a trilogy, now you can call it a discography, so I think this show, it will have its own style, it serves to promote the fourth, but it also serves to celebrate others.

(This interview has been edited for clarity.)