Introducing: Som De Calcada

Who is Som de Calçada... We're a fresh, young collective of Brazilians (and an Aussie), living in Brisbane/ SE Queensland playing an acoustic mixture of old and new MPB (Música Popular Brasileira), Forro (a more tropical, folkloric sound originating from the poor north east of Brazil, which has a similar feel to reggae and popular with dancers) and samba (the most well known rhythmic style). We use acoustic guitar, accordion and Brazilian percussion, plus guests on horns, flute, violin, harmonica and anyone else who we ask to play along.

We sound like... Acoustic samba, MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) and Forro,

Our first gig was... We met jamming on the sidewalks of the Davies Park West End Markets.

When did you settle on the group’s name, and was it a unanimous decision... The name translated into English means ‘sounds from the sidewalk/ footpath’. The meaning not only reflects the music we make, but actually represents how the group formed — on the footpath at the West End Markets!


In the studio we usually... We have just finished our first venture into the studio, and will have a little EP coming out soon. We've tried to treat several different stylistic songs with a raw organic approach (authentic, but also with some of our own inflections and additions)... news soon. 

If we could tour with anyone... It would have been back in in the early ‘90s with 5 No Palco, an incredible project involving some of our favourite musicians: Lenine, Marcos Suzano, Chico Ceasar, Zaca Baleiro.

Social media is... Helping us spread the word of our music.

To date, our most embarrassing moment was the time... No embarrassment, only fun.

If you’ll have us on your bill, all we ask is that our rider contains... Pinga/ Cachaca (Brazilian sugar cane rum).

Som de Calcada play the Saideira Brazilian Festival at Club Greenslopes Sat Mar 15; from 12.30pm till late.