Ep. 104-The Byte: Tiago Arrais
Tiago is many things-musician, songwriter, and pastor among them. With 360,000 subscribers, he could be too cool for school. But no. With humor and grace, Tiago relates how a childhood accident in a tree set him up for miracles later on.
Transcript
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the podcast Bite-Sized Blessings.
This is episode 104 where I get to interview the insanely talented and also unequivocally nice Tiago Ahais.
I first met this incredible songwriter performer during my internship at the Interfaith Leadership Alliance.
Tiago is now the co-president along with another podcast guest,
Reverend Tiffany Curtis.
I ran into him at my place of work and asked him if he'd like to be on the podcast and because he's such a wonderful human being,
He said yes.
Tiago's story is fascinating.
One of the stories that he tells in this episode is about how he and his brother were discovered by Sony Music.
That alone is quite a magical event.
At the time,
Tiago and his brother could have had no idea what was coming for them.
Their success,
Touring in Europe,
And a YouTube channel with over 360,
000 followers.
Their music is beautiful and at the end of this episode,
The song The 17th of January is included.
I'll make sure to put a link to his YouTube page under the episodes show notes.
Now,
Tiago did grow up in Brazil,
So the album titles and song titles are indeed in Portuguese.
I don't think I'm brave enough to pronounce the names on this show,
But I trust you,
Dear listener,
To click on that link and listen to Tiago and his brother's music.
So now,
Without further ado,
Episode 104 of Bite-Sized Blessings.
I'm going to climb my tree and contemplate from the top.
So I went up there,
Climbed my way up,
But as I was getting to the heights there,
Fairly high,
I stepped on a sort of a dry little twig there and it broke.
And then in a matter of like seconds,
I found myself like falling headfirst,
Like deliberately,
Literally falling headfirst in a bunch of construction stuff.
I was going to ask,
How did you feel?
Were you compelled to study music or was it kind of just something to fool around with?
Was it a deep passion when you were a child?
How did that evolve?
No,
I never studied music.
I had my mom plays the piano,
So she always like tried to get my brother and I to study instruments.
And we did study like instruments when we were kids.
We played in school bands and things like that.
But later on in high school,
I realized that playing the flute wasn't exciting.
I remember a particular story that sounds awful,
But I'll tell it anyway.
I'll count on the generosity and the mercy of the listeners.
You're a teenager and you're trying to figure out who you are in the world.
In my head,
It was sort of blossoming into that area of sort of looking at girls and trying to see,
Am I going to be an insecure person?
Am I going to be secure?
I mean,
Who am I in this whole dynamic?
So I was very insecure about all of it.
So I went to this camp and then I saw that around the fireplace,
These two guys are playing acoustic guitar.
And everybody was singing and the girls were singing.
And I went back home from camp and I said,
Dad,
I need a guitar immediately.
So he took me out and bought me like the cheapest guitar.
So I went into it for the dumbest reasons,
Just to be seen,
I guess,
Out of my insecurity,
Just to pull the attention.
Which is the opposite,
I think,
Of where I am in life right now is music is sort of a way to serve,
A way to connect with people,
A way to point outwardly to others so that they can find areas of their life that they're not conscious of or sensitive to.
So yeah,
That was a full circle there.
But originally,
That's what it was.
I just picked up a little guitar,
Tried to play a few tunes,
Never studied it.
I do not consider myself a musician in the sense of having artistic or being a phenomenal professional guitar player.
I'm a singer songwriter,
So I write songs,
I play them.
And that's sort of what I do now.
So years later,
Then we got signed.
My brother and I,
We had a band in Brazil,
Got signed by Sony Music.
We did that for several years.
We toured the country several times,
Went to Europe once.
And that was nice.
And now all these years in Santa Fe,
Started a solo career.
So without the band anymore,
And I put out a record last year called The Trail Back,
At 3 da Default,
In Portuguese.
So I'm still with Sony Music,
But now I'm sort of in a solo deal.
I'm sure when you were sitting around that fire noticing the boys playing the guitar,
You never thought it would take you on this path.
No,
I did not.
I mean,
You don't think in those categories,
Right?
It's like,
Okay,
I'm going to pick up a guitar,
Maybe to get a girlfriend down the line.
But you don't think career,
You don't think of writing songs.
That was not in the picture,
For sure.
And then I think it ended up happening.
I was older,
I was in my mid-20s,
Maybe,
In graduate school in Michigan in the winter,
Writing songs by myself.
And then in Brazil,
The song,
Then we got.
.
.
It's a long story.
We got signed by Sony in the most unexpected way.
We didn't go after it.
A friend of ours took songs to the guy at Sony,
And the guy said,
Hey,
We want to sign you.
And I said,
Sure,
Whatever.
I was in Michigan studying.
I mean,
You know how that goes.
You're in a little student apartment,
Writing songs and singing to washing machines at the washing machine room,
Because it has nice acoustics.
And then I just know that a few months later,
We just started getting a bunch of emails,
My brother and I,
To go down to Brazil and play shows.
I was like,
I think something's happened.
This was before social media was a thing,
And streaming services were a thing.
So we're like,
This is weird.
So we went down to Brazil and discovered that we had a bunch of people were listening to our album after Sony signed us,
And put the CD all over the place.
So it was in a moment in life which I think it needed to happen.
If ever it had to happen,
It wasn't a good moment in life where I wasn't taking myself as seriously as back in the day when I was trying to play guitar to get a girlfriend.
So I was,
I guess,
More down to earth,
More balanced,
More conscious of the role of music,
And going through so many difficult things in Michigan,
In graduate school,
In my marriage at the time,
And writing about them.
So I just felt at that time that if songs are connecting to people in that meaningful way,
I mean,
What a beautiful thing.
The sense was not like vanity or pride.
It was more just gratitude for being put in a position where you're able to help people.
And yeah,
So I'm very grateful for the whole journey.
I was going to ask,
Are you and your brother still working together?
No.
So we had a band for several years.
We put out four albums.
One live one.
I think that was the fifth one.
Yeah,
So a live one,
Big one.
So we ended sort of the long season of albums and tours with a live recording in Sao Paulo that you can find on YouTube.
So if you put our band name there,
Os Ahais,
O-S,
Space,
A-R-R-A-I-S,
Which is my last name or our last name.
The Ahais,
Os Ahais in Portuguese.
You'll find it there.
Yeah,
Us playing for some people in Sao Paulo to sort of celebrate the career that we had no idea was going to happen.
And that was 2018,
17,
18.
And then we moved here,
Or I moved here to Santa Fe around that time.
And then he moved,
He was in Albuquerque,
He moved to Maryland,
And then we sort of took our different paths.
He's working in music in his context there,
And then I'm writing songs here on my end.
And then I just decided to go back to Nashville,
Where I normally go to record albums and do a solo one.
So that was last year.
It went well.
And I think now in March,
I'll go back to Nashville to do a second one,
A solo one.
So yeah,
To find our music,
Just go to any streaming service that you like,
Apple Music,
Spotify.
Yeah,
And type in my name,
And you'll find my music.
But I don't know.
I mean,
I grew up asking for many miracles as a religious kid that never happened.
So I have a lot of stories of miracles not happening.
So there's that angle.
But there is one story that I remember that went,
It's funny,
Yeah,
About miracles.
I always,
I don't know why,
My brain just takes me back there every time I hear the word miracle.
And it's a simple little story.
I mean,
I was,
My dad was a pastor,
As I said before.
I was in church and got bored.
And I was doing whatever,
Singing songs to the gods.
And I said,
I'm going to walk outside.
So I walked outside by myself.
And there was some construction happening beside the church.
And there was a tree I like to climb there.
I said,
I'm going to go climb a tree.
I was,
I think,
Eight,
Something like eight or nine.
I'm going to climb my tree and contemplate from the top.
So I went up there,
Climbed my way up.
But as I was getting to the heights there,
Fairly high,
I stepped on a sort of a dry little twig there and it broke.
And then in a matter of like seconds,
I found myself like falling headfirst,
Like deliberately,
Literally falling headfirst in a bunch of construction stuff.
And this is very high,
You know.
So it was quick,
But then it slowed down because you have time to like think,
Like,
I'm falling right now.
And I don't think this is going to end well.
We had a guy thought,
Did we have a good run?
You know,
Eight,
Nine years old.
I don't know.
Could have lived a little more,
You know,
You're thinking as you're falling down to your demise.
And then what happened was that I just something just stuck my foot just got stuck.
And then I looked up and literally as I was coming down,
By some means,
My foot got stuck in the middle of two little branches.
And I just was literally like dangling head down.
I don't know,
Maybe two feet from the middle thing that I was going to hit my head on.
So I'm dangling and saying,
Wow,
Sort of like Ron Burgundy.
That escalated quickly.
I don't know if we can do Ron Burgundy quotes here.
And anyway,
So as I was dangling there,
You know,
I tried to get up again,
Got down and in my childhood innocence,
I said,
Oh,
This is a magical,
Miraculous thing.
Maybe the gods have a purpose for this life.
But then I think by the time I was 12,
That faded away.
There's no purpose.
We're all going to our deaths.
And we're always trying to make a good life out of it.
No,
I'm missing.
But anyway,
It was that sort of the story I go to,
To think about the miraculous and I'm great.
I guess I was great.
Got out of there,
Hug my mom,
You know.
And I'm like,
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I said,
What happened?
I said,
No,
It's all good.
Just hugging people right now.
I said,
I'm grateful.
Just survived.
But anyway,
Yeah,
That's a little miracle,
Little childhood miracle that happened.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I'm going to go to the hospital.
I also need to thank the creators of the music used for this episode.
Alexander Nakarada,
Winnie the Moo,
Frank Schroeder,
Otis Galloway,
And of course,
Osa Heiss.
For complete attribution,
Please see the Bite-Sized Blessings website at bite-sizedblessings.
Com.
On the website,
You'll find links to books,
Changemakers,
And music that I hope lightens and brightens your day.
Thank you for listening.
And here's my one request.
Be like Tiago.
Live for the mystery.
Live in the mystery.
And wake up every day excited,
Never knowing what could happen.
We'll have dinner together.
I won't give up who you are.
Who you are not.
I looked sadness in the eyes and smiled.
