Rafael Pesce Talks Spiritual Bar, Spiritual Records and More

Firstly I wanted to ask you if you could tell me about yourself and how you became involved with Spiritual Bar in Camden, London and then the launch of Spiritual Records label please?

The Spiritual Bar was an accident in my life, some friends were running a Brazilian restaurant & bar with no music at the time, me as a Brazilian person used to go there sometimes to eat their amazing steak. After two years they were running the place the business wasn’t doing very well, I was offered to take it over, so I did, I closed the kitchen upstairs and started running it just as a bar with open stage at all times. I built a little stage on the corner and people could just come, plug & play. That is how the music started, then I started meeting people and started running a speak easy with poetry and music and it evolved to where we are now, live music 6 days a week, 3 acts per night and open mic on Tuesdays. I started a video channel on YouTube called Spiritual Sessions then in 2015 I realised that there were loads of amazing talents that no one would want to sign or to work with. That is when I decided to start the Spiritual Records.

‘Spiritual Records Live No. 4′ is scheduled for release in November 2023. How did you want to approach the making of this album?

We are actually releasing the album on the 24th November 2023. Also we will be printing 200 copies on vinyl.

The album was recorded in two days at the Spiritual bar’s stage. We made a film at the same time and we will have 11 acts, 1 song each.

Artists on the album include William Poyer, Bandini, Dom Glynn amongst others. Was it a difficult task coordinating the recording with everyone’s schedules and did you have a specific list/idea of who you wanted to play on the album?

For this album I chose the artists that are playing more often in the bar, all these guys in the album play every week or every other week in the bar. It is pretty easy to plan things with them as we are old friends and we are always doing things together. As we are working with loads of artists it is always important to make the plans in advance so we make sure we can get everyone together on the date.

Interestingly, on the Dom Glynn track ‘Every Spare Penny’ you play harmonica. How did that opportunity arise and what type of harmonica did you use and in what key?

I have been playing blues diatonic harmonicas since I was 6, I had loads of cousins and my brother which are much older then me I grew up listening to the blues, I learned everything by osmoses.

I always play some blues with these guys in the album, Dom and I felt that that song needed I harmonica and we went for it.

It is a blues harp I’m D.

Do you have any particularly interesting, funny or memorable stories or moments of your time at Spiritual Bar starting in 2011 to now?

Spiritual bar was a bless in my life I met so many musicians, artists and made a huge amount of friends there.

My favourite story about it which keeps happening all the time is that all musicians that pass by develop their craft mischief faster than if they were working alone, because we have a huge amount of musicians playing in the bar constantly they all watch each other and I believe that they feed each other’s musicality with it. So they develop really fast and collaborate all the time. It is pretty impressive

A funny thing is that we have the worst infrastructure for a music venue, we are so tiny, and we produce more music in the neighbourhood and assist musicians more than most of them. It is sad, but funny too.

The very important conversation about protecting and securing the futures of grassroots music venues across the UK and around the world especially post Covid lockdowns is one that is still fighting on and rightly so. What are your thoughts on the current situation as a venue owner and what would you like to see done to protect the long-term futures of this industry?

I think the only think that can protect it is good work, live music is suffering, we all know that, specially when you are an up and coming musician that no one knows.

It seems that music venues don’t have the power anymore, the power is in social media, at least that is what see around. Not sure if I’m right. Again, even with all these changes happening with live music etc I do believe that good work will always win.

In addition to the album release a documentary film has also been released. What was the thought process behind making the documentary alongside the album?

I always wanted to make a little film and document our processes, this was the opportunity. We had a grant from the arts council and the budget for it.

I wrote this project called Arquipélago, a group of islands which was a film, an album and a festival in a bigger venue. We worked really hard for it, now everything is pretty much done.

 Could you tell us about any future plans for the venue and record label in 2024?

We will keep playing music everyday in 2024, we have 40 tracks to be released and we started this podcast too to talk to these musicians that play Spiritual so people can get to know them a bit better and know what they are up to. All the podcasts will be filmed and they will be in our Channel on YouTube “Spiritual Sessions” also we are planning 2 festivals where we normally get a bigger venue and have 10/15 acts playing the whole day.

If a person were to visit the Spiritual Bar for an evening and ask you to recommend a drink what would you suggest e.g Do you have a signature cocktail or any exclusive beverages for the venue?

Our main drink and most popular is the Caipirinha, a Brazilian cocktail, also we have created a few cocktails in the bar during all these years. Spiritual Blues a whisky based cocktail with mint lime etc, London Blues, a fun based mojito basically topped up with tonic water, Spiritual Island which is a passion fruit rum based cocktail. These guys are very popular in the bar.

What makes Rafae Pesce happy and what makes you unhappy?

All this music work makes me very happy, now the high bills and all the money that is needed to do some good work makes me unhappy, they are very disconnected in my opinion art & money. But we always find a way.

But what makes me real happy is being by the sea and the sun.

Photo Supplied By PR

Spiritual Records Live No. 4 is released on Friday 24th November 2023 with 200 copies on vinyl and Distributed via AWAL. To order the album and for more information visit their official website here: https://www.spiritualrecords.co.uk/