Who is Rodrigo Branco?
Born in Porto, Rodrigo started studying music from a young age. After a few years in the Conservatorium studying classical guitar, he made the switch to electric, thinking he'd be the next Hendrix.
[spoiler: that did not happen :) ]
When his high school band went into a studio to record their first record, at the time he decided he could do it better. He could not, but that is beside the point.
Having just bought a cheap interface and a microphone he recorded that record, and friends ended up asking him for help to record their music. Eventually, Rodrigo and Zé decided they should have a studio. And thus, Flying Rat Records was born.
Through the studio, Rodrigo was able to work with loads of local bands, eventually getting a reputation for running his sessions very creatively, focusing on creating new sounds and turning recording sessions into a truly unique experience.
Recently, he has worked alongside producers like Michael League (Snarky Puppy) and Magda Giannikou (Banda Magda), assisted sound engineer Nic Hard and worked as a recording and mixing engineer for the Montreal Jazz Festival.
From demo to master
Sophya & The Sleeping Dinosaur - Devil's House
We had been working together for a while when Sophya came to me with the demo for this song. From the cellphone version with just vocals and keys, we decided we wanted to stay away from the work he had done before. Keeping an "old-school" vibe was essential, but at the same time find a way to make it exciting and new.
Saint Ronnie - The Wall
Gonçalo and I have known each other for a long time through common friends. When he asked me to work with him on a couple of songs it was exciting being tasked with turning some of his singer-songwriter (guitar and vocals) songs into full-band arrangments. With my friends David (drums) and Xavi (bass), we quickly tracked the entire band live over a couple of days. The Wall was my favourite for the fun vocal arrangement.
Tomás Pintos - The Wave Returns to the ocean
Tomás was one of the first artists I worked with fully remotely, I was in Spain and he was on his bedroom in Uruguay. Remote collaboration really does open the door to amazing collaborations that couldn't happen any other way. Tomás's vocal riffs are beautiful, and it was such a fun time building out an arrangement around the singer-songwriter/acoustic guitar and vocals demo he sent me.
You can be next!
Whether you need someone to help you turn your musical ideas into a reality, mix and master your next record, or just want to talk about how screwed up the world is - I'm your guy!
Let's talk about your next project on Zoom!
Other work
In July 2021, the Montreal Jazz Festival gave me chance to fly to a little town in Barcelona, meet and work with a group of a musician who I deeply admire - Michael League (Snarky Puppy), Marco Mezquida, ...and of course the great sommelier François Chartier.
During my time at Berklee, I met my good friend Quinn (Sister James). This song was part of the visual side of his new EP - I Hate It Here, Pt. 1. There's something about loud heavy guitar and vibraphone.