Mônica Pinto da Silva Driscoll, known professionally as Mônica da Silva, is a Brazilian American singer-songwriter and musician, performing both as a solo artist and as a member of the indie duo Complicated Animals. Da Silva's sound can be classified as International Fusion, as it is influenced by Brazilian music, namely Bossa Nova, but also incorporates elements of

Lounge Lounge may refer to: Architecture * Lounge, the living room of a dwelling * Lounge, a public waiting area in a hotel's lobby * Lounge, a style of commercial alcohol- bar * Airport lounge or train lounge (e.g., Amtrak's Acela Lounge), a premium ...

Electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

Indie Pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

, MPB, and

Worldbeat Worldbeat is a music genre that blends pop music or rock music with world music or traditional music. Worldbeat is similar to other cross-pollination labels of contemporary and roots genres, and which suggest a rhythmic, harmonic or textural co ...

. Da Silva has released two solo albums ''Miles From Nowhere'' and ''Brasilissima''. Her compositions have been featured in TV & Film, such as the Golden Globe Award winning film Lady Bird (2017), and the Paramount Network series

American Woman "American Woman" is a song by Canadian rock band the Guess Who, released January 1970, from the album of the same name. It was later released in March 1970 as a single backed with " No Sugar Tonight", and it reached number one for three weeks ...

(2018).

Early life

Monica da Silva was born in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...

, to a Brazilian mother and an American father, who met while her father was in the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an Independent agency of the U.S. government, independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to communities in partner countries around the world. It was established in Marc ...

in Belém, Brazil. Because her mother is Brazilian, da Silva has dual Brazilian-American citizenship. Da Silva grew up living back and forth between the United States and Brazil. She is fluent in English and Portuguese. She started singing and playing piano and flute at an early age.

Career

Early years and Nectar

Da Silva and her siblings

Erica Erica or ERICA may refer to: * Erica (given name) * Erica (plant), ''Erica'' (plant), a flowering plant genus * Erica (chatbot), a service of Bank of America * Erica (video game), ''Erica'' (video game), a 2019 FMV video game * Erica (spider), ' ...

and

Bruce Driscoll Bruce Driscoll is an American record producer, songwriter, guitarist, film composer, and vocalist. He is one-half of French & American indie pop, Folk music, folk duo Freedom Fry and co-founder of Alternative rock band Blondfire. His other writi ...

formed the band Nectar in their teens. The siblings performed heavily in their hometown of Grand Rapids, later embarking on national tours of colleges and venues. In 2002, Nectar won Runner-up in the Pop Category for the UK Songwriting Contest with the song "Life Out Loud". Nectar performed at Chicago's premiere music conference and showcase Mobfest, and as a result, landed a development deal with

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

Publishing. Although there was some label interest, the band was never signed, and eventually the siblings parted ways.

''Miles From Nowhere''

In 2004, da Silva moved to Chicago, and met guitarist and songwriter Brett Ratner. The duo met with Grammy nominated producer Rick Barnes, who agreed to record their songs at his studio Rax Trax. ''Miles From Nowhere'', da Silva's first studio album, was released in 2007. The second song from the album was featured on a promotional video for 3M.

''Brasilissima''

In December 2007, da Silva met drummer

Chad Alger Complicated Animals is an indie pop, indie band consisting of Brazilian American vocalist and songwriter Mônica da Silva, and musician and producer Chad Alger. The duo perform in their signature, self-coined "indie nova" genre, which mixes indi ...

, after responding to an ad he had posted on

Craigslist Craigslist (stylized as craigslist) is a privately held American company operating a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services, community service, gigs, résumés, and discussi ...

. Alger's ad, searching for "someone to start a Brazilian project with", intrigued da Silva, who had been wanting to steer her music toward her Brazilian heritage. Da Silva and Alger formed a quartet, which performed regularly around Chicago. The pair also began writing original songs, featuring Alger on guitar. The songs they wrote were heavily influenced by Brazilian Bossa Nova. Da Silva later coined their sound Indie Nova. Da Silva's album ''Brasilissima'' was released on 3 December 2010. It was co-produced by Alger, and

(

Freedom Fry Freedom Fry is a Los Angeles, California based indie band, composed of Parisian-born Marie Seyrat and American Bruce Driscoll. Career 2011–2014 The duo first met in April 2011 when Seyrat was the stylist on a video for Driscoll's other ba ...

Blondfire Blondfire is an American indie pop band from Los Angeles, California, United States. It started as a duo of brother and sister Bruce and Erica Driscoll, under the name Astaire, and since 2015 has been a solo act with Erica Driscoll. Early life E ...

), who is da Silva's brother. The first single from the album "Aí Então" was featured on the

Putumayo World Music Putumayo World Music is a New Orleans-based record label that specializes in compilations of world music, jazz and blues. History Dan Storper founded Putumayo in 1975 as a retail store in New York City featuring handicrafts from around the wor ...

compilation ''Brazilian Beat'' in 2012. The song "That’s Not The Way" was included in the programming of the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

Mr. Pauer collaboration

Da Silva met Latin Grammy Nominated producer and re-mixer Mr. Pauer (Toto Gonzalez), while living in Miami. They cowrote a song called "Vou Voar", which was released on Mr. Pauer's 2015 album ''Orange''. Following the release, da Silva showcased the song on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic with

Jason Bentley Jason Bentley (born July 27, 1970) is an American DJ, Producer, and music executive who has played an influential role in the evolution of dance and electronic music in the US. Having hosted music programmes on a variety of commercial and public r ...

Santa Monica, CA Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

, and also performed at the 2015 Latin Grammy Official Afterparty at MGM Grand (Hakkasan nightclub) in

Las Vegas, NV Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-larg ...

''Walk on the Wild Side''

In 2016, da Silva released a reimagined cover of

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

’s "Walk on the Wild Side". The song was arranged and produced by

in Miami, FL. The video for the song was featured in the in-flight entertainment of French Airline

Air Austral Air Austral is a French airline that is also the flag carrier of the Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of Réunion. The airline is based at Roland Garros Airport. It operates scheduled services from Réu ...

in 2018.

''Soldado de Amor''

Da Silva's single "Soldado de Amor" was released on 31 March 2017. Written by da Silva, and her brother

(

), and mixed by

, the song was featured in the 2017

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

series The Replacement, and in the 2018

Paramount Network Paramount Network is an American basic cable television channel and the flagship property of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global, who operates it through the MTV Entertainment Group. The network's headquarters are located a ...

series

Discography

Studio albums

*''Miles From Nowhere'' (2007, Socialite Fiasco Music) *''Brasilissima'' (2010, Socialite Fiasco Music)

Singles

* ''Walk on the Wild Side'' (2016, Socialite Fiasco Music) * ''Soldado de Amor'' (2017, Socialite Fiasco Music)

Collaboration

* ''Vou Voar'' on the album ''Orange'' by Mr. Pauer (2015, Fabrika Music)

Compilations

* ''Aí Então'' on the compilation album ''Brazilian Beat'' (2012,

) * ''Aí Então'' on the compilation album ''Ibiza Beats vol.9'' (2016, Silver Angel Records)

TV and film placements

* ''Back To His Girl'' in the tv series '' Heartland'' (2008, SEVEN24 Films) * ''That's Not The Way'' in the ''

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

'' (2014,

) * ''Soldado de Amor'' in the tv series '' The Replacement'' (2017,

Left Bank Pictures Left Bank Pictures Ltd. (stylised as LEFT BANK Pictures) is a British film and television production company owned by Sony Pictures Television through its International Production division. It was formed in 2007 and was the first British media c ...

) * ''Back To His Girl'' in the motion picture '' Lady Bird'' (2017,

Scott Rudin Productions Scott may refer to: Places Canada * Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec * Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380 * Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Sas ...

) * ''Soldado de Amor'' in the tv series ''

'' (2018,

) * ''Vou Voar'' in the tv series '' Vida'' (2019, Big Beach, Chingona Productions)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:da Silva, Monica Brazilian composers Brazilian women singers 21st-century Brazilian women singers 21st-century Brazilian singer-songwriters Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women singer-songwriters Brazilian women composers American bossa nova singers Música Popular Brasileira singers Musicians from Grand Rapids, Michigan People from Belém American people of Brazilian descent Record producers from Michigan Singer-songwriters from Michigan 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singer-songwriters American women record producers 21st-century American women composers Portuguese-language singers of the United States