The Best Songs If You’re Shooting A Video In Brazil And Venezuela

Last October I went to Brazil and Venezuela to join a special expedition for Ibis Hotels to put a bed on top of the highest cliff in the world, obviously. Advertising usually sucks, but it’s hard to complain about a two-week gig building a bed deep in the South American bush. It was my first time on the continent, usually when I travel I find the best way to explore local culture is through the universal language of drinking shit loads of beers with everyone I meet. But as I mentioned this was a work trip, so partying was kept to a minimum; as a result a lot of my social exploration was through the radio. Or to be more specific: through the insane selection of music on Brazilian and Venezuelan radio. Here are my selections of what to listen to if you ever find yourself on a surreal South American work trip.

Title Fight, “Head In The Ceiling Fan”

The first thing you need to know if you ever go to Manaus in Brazil is that it’s super hot, and super wet. When I got off of the plane, I was assaulted with the most powerful heat wave of my life. When I left Paris it was 10 degrees, so it’s fair to say this tropical greenhouse was a change. Also to be fair I can’t go outside without sweating like a pig at the best of times, so you can imagine the t-shirt situation. I’d like to say I totally embraced the change of hemisphere, but I sat in my hotel room with a full power air conditioner blasting me while I listened to Title Fight and tried to stop sweating.

Metallica “Enter Sandman”

After a week in the greenhouse/Manaus, and a 15-hour drive through the jungle we made it to Venezuela. Considering Venezuela’s communist presence I was surprised to find myself cruising the kingdom of capitalism—complete with huge cars blasting arena rock everywhere we went. Never one to break with local customs we got on board and soon our own giant SUV got the nickname “Party Truck”. “Enter Sandman” made several appearances on our soundtrack, although I’m not sure of the legalities of listen to Metallica in a Dodge Ram while driving at 160 miles an hour on the serpentine mountain road.

Stromae “Alors On Danse”

It didn’t take long to figure out our Venezuelan crew loved 90s guitar music, one night at our camp in a small middle of nowhere town called Paraitepuy cemented that. On our way there as the sun was setting an intense rain started to pour as we were driving on a really steep mountain road. As I was preparing for the inevitable fall into a deep ravine “Alors On Danse” came on and several people in the car began to sing. I’m fairly certain at that moment the song was the only thing keeping everyone from totally freaking out.

Sublime “What I got”

Whenever we weren’t working, our whole Venezuelan crew would pass the time blasting loud music from their pick-ups, drinking Gatorade, and kidding around. The whole thing had a summer camp vibe—especially when Sublime was the pick-up blasting song choice.

Billy Joel “She’s got a way”

Although it was a lot of fun, the shoot was also totally exhausting. We’d work from 6AM till 11PM every night, one evening I was so beat I fell asleep while listening to Billy Joel with all the lights on and my door open. Of course I, and my snoring, was noticed; but the whole scene was made more embarrassing by “She’s got a way” blaring in the background. It probably goes without saying that the whole compromising incident was recorded.

Celine Dion “My Heart Will Go On”

When the shoot was over we made our way fromVenezuela to Boa Vista, the closest Brazilian town. Despite my reservations, the Venezuelan roads were pretty decent, and hence no preparation for Brazil’s horrific driving conditions. Everywhere you looked were crazy drivers not giving a shit about anything—especially your safety. I include our driver in that bunch; he wasn’t too fazed by anything, including busses driving straight at us.

For some reason during one of these life-threatening drives the Titanic soundtrack was playing. Although I knew crashing into a bus would have been a terrible way to go, I took some comfort in how dramatic and emotional it would all be thanks to Celine.

Despite all the complaining, the trip was the best and most extreme thing I’ve ever done. I went sailing along the Amazon River, hung out with communists, rode in a helicopter, and ate a steak with ant sauce—not exactly thing’s I get up to in freezing old Paris while sending chain emails and hanging out on iChat. Thank you Ibis, you sure know how to show a goofy nerd a good time.