Rodrigo Amarante

In Los Hermanos

Amarante studied Journalism at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro ("PUC-Rio"), where he met Marcelo Camelo and Rodrigo Barba. After a few rehearsals with Los Hermanos, Amarante was invited to join the band.

On their debut album, Los Hermanos (1999), Amarante contributed very little, playing transverse flute and singing the backing vocals. There are only two songs written by him: "Quem Sabe" ("Who Knows"), which turned out to be one of the CD's singles, and "Onze Dias" ("Eleven Days").

On the band's second album, Bloco do Eu Sozinho (2001), Amarante was able to show his real musical quality, playing guitar together with Marcelo and writing more songs. He recorded "Sentimental" (considered by Dado Villa-Lobos from Legião Urbana to be the best song of 2001), "Retrato pra Iaiá" ("Portrait for Iaiá"), and "Cher Antoine" (sung in French). He also co-wrote with Marcelo "A Flor" ("The Flower"), one of the album's hits, and the instrumental part of the song "Mais Uma Canção" ("One More Song").

With their third album, Ventura (2003), came Amarante's national recognition as a great songwriter; he wrote songs of indisputable quality, like "Último Romance" ("Last Romance"), "O velho e o moço" ("The Old Man and the Young Lad"), "Um par" ("A Pair"), "Do Sétimo Andar" ("From the Seventh Floor"), and "Deixa o Verão" ("Let The Summer"). His role as a sideman in the band ended, and he became recognized as one of the band's leaders, which role until then was attributed only to Marcelo Camelo.

On the group's fourth album, 4 (2005), Amarante wrote almost as many songs as Marcelo. Although 4 did not have as much success as the previous album, Amarante's songs are much more distinguished, like "O Vento" ("The Wind") - the only hit in this album - and "Condicional". He also wrote "Primeiro Andar" ("First Walk"), "Os Pássaros" ("The Birds"), and "Paquetá" (Paquetá is a small island in Rio de Janeiro).

In 2006, Amarante won the prize of "Best Instrumentalist" in the Prêmio Multishow (Multishow Awards).

In April 2007 the band announced they were going on hiatus, since 2009, the band has been gathering from years to years for concerts and musical tours.

In Orquestra Imperial

After a hiatus from Los Hermanos (in 2007), Amarante dedicated himself to Orquestra Imperial (a band in which he plays with Moreno Veloso (Caetano Veloso's son), Nina Becker, and the actress Thalma de Freitas) and went to California to record "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon" with Devendra Banhart. There, he started writing songs with Fabrizio Moretti and Binki Shapiro, a trio that would soon become Little Joy.

In Little Joy

In 2007, Amarante joined with The Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti and American musician, singer, and songwriter Binki Shapiro to form the trio Little Joy, a Brazilian/American rock supergroup. Amarante and Moretti had met in 2006, at a festival in Lisbon where both their bands were performing, and the idea came up to start a new musical project unrelated to their respective bands. When Amarante came to work in Los Angeles with Devendra Banhart on his 2007 album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon they renewed the acquaintance and started making music, then Binki was brought on board. Little Joy was signed to Rough Trade Records label.

Solo works

In 2014, Amarante released his first solo album, Cavalo, one of the first releases on the Easy Sounds Recording Company label. The album received strong critical reviews and featured as one of NPR Music's "50 Favourite Songs of 2014 So Far". He performed the album on tour in nearly 30 different countries and live in such outlets as Live Deezer Session, NPR Music, KEXP-FM, as well as jointly with Vincent Moon in IA Take Away Show - La Blogotheque.

In 2015, Amarante wrote and vocalized the Spanish-language song, "Tuyo"("Yours"), as the opening theme for the Netflix Original series Narcos. He was inspired by the thought of what kind of music Pablo Escobar’s mother would have listened to when raising her son. The song debuted at No. 6 on the Latin Pop Digital Songs around the 2015 series premiere and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music.

Collaborations

Amarante composed the song "Olá Rubi" ("Hello, Ruby") on the album Rádio Alegria (released in November 2007), by the Portuguese band Os Azeitonas. The lyrics were written by Mário Brandão, vocalist of Os Azeitonas. The original name of the song was "Tema Castanho".

After in 2008, on the album Maré by Adriana Calcanhotto, as an arranger and instrumentalist. On the album Minor Love by Adam Green as an instrumentalist. In 2012, "NYC Subway Poetry Department" with Tom Zé in his record Tropicália Lixo Lógico and "Azul" with Natalia Lafourcade as a singer in her record Mujer Divina. On the album Gilbertos Sambas in 2014 by Gilberto Gil as an arranger and instrumentalist. In 2017, Rodrigo Amarante with Marcelo Camelo recording producer and engineer, instrumentation the album Vem by Mallu Magalhães. On the album Sinais do Sim by Paralamas do Sucesso he collaborated.

With Los Hermanos

With Little Joy

As a solo artist

Soundtracks