They are a great Wedding band from Faro, Algarve and they are available as an Acoustic Duo, Acoustic Trio and Electric Quartet.

This talented party band is made up of vocalists and guitarists Filipa Amaro and Nuno Gonçalves, drummer Gabriel Illdefonso and bass player João Viera. This unique band is all about quality over quantity, giving everything in any event they do, “we want to give people energy and we build our conditions so we can always be at our best!”.

They do covers of a wide variety of styles, in which they make each song their own, with a twist, adding that “we do not twist every song as some are just perfect the way they are but the ones that we can make our own, mean the most to us.”

“Most people see this as a job but we are all 100 percent doing this for the music, we don’t sacrifice the music because we depend on it. We want to make our audience dance the whole time and make sure we please everyone with a great variety!”.

How the band members got into music

Filipa: “I started playing when I was 17 and I used to live in the Alentejo and I started playing from nowhere and used to see my friends play and I was self-taught and I moved to the Algarve for University and I realised that music was a real passion. I met other people and joined other bands and I was invited to join this international band and we started touring in Europe and the USA whilst I still studied, overall, it was an incredible experience. I did that for two years and then later we decided to stop and we came back to Portugal and we started the Munchies at the end of 2017 and we started playing shows at the start of 2018.

Nuno: “I also got into music when I was 17 in music class where we dabbled in percussion and guitar and this guy from my class really impressed me. I used to take my allowance for eating at school and I used to never use any of it just so I could build a fund so I could buy a guitar and that was what I did. I found that I was just so addicted to the music and I have never stopped since. I had a couple classes with that virtuoso prodigy guy and it really hit me when he died of cancer four years later and it hit me hard and I never stopped playing since. I thought if I was fortunate enough to still be alive and playing that maybe I should do that and I never looked back”.

Gabriel: “I was a very energetic child; I was 7 or 8 and it was a hot day in the summer and my grandmother told me that my dad had an old drum kit from the 50s that they brought over from the States and she told me I should try it out. I never quit from that moment on, I decided I really loved the drums and all the things that music has brought me in my life and the connection you gain from people. It is just pure love!”

João: “My Dad really influenced me especially with the types of music I would listen to, he is a musician and I always went to concerts with him or attended his concerts since I was young. At five I started having music lessons and at 14 I decided to learn bass and I then got jobs in different bands in the Alentejo.”

How the band started

Filipa explained that “We started The Munchies when I came back from touring and it was just myself and Nuno and a different bass player and then we met Gabriel and we decided this is the guy we want to play with, he suits us and is amazing and we started from scratch.” “This year João joined us and we are really happy with him.” It is clear to see that they get on really well and they told me that “We are in unison about what we want to play and what we want to achieve as a whole, we like sort of the same things and we don’t have any doubts about what we want to do as a band. We complete each other as we bring in different styles.”

Types of events that they do

Filipa answered that “Weddings is our main goal, because we love the atmosphere, people are there to party during weddings so that is what we want to give them, which is why we love to do it and we always have fun with them! Our repertoire is mostly English songs and some Portuguese songs because of our audience in the Algarve.”

What inspires you musically as a band?

Gabriel’s response was “Speaking for us a band our goal is to inspire people as other people have inspired us, we just all love music”. Nuno, added “Anyone who is pushing the boundaries of modern music with quality and anyone who is respecting old styles, bringing new ideas in those styles particularly like Bruno Mars greatly inspires us.”

Most excitingly, it is in their future plans to produce their own album, which you can keep eye out for but for now if you need more information, please see www.themunchies.pt. You can keep up to date with the band by following them Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/themunchiesfamily or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/themunchiesfamily. For bookings, please email themunchiesfamily@gmail.com or call 964 115 254.

Author

Following undertaking her university degree in English with American Literature in the UK, Cristina da Costa Brookes moved back to Portugal to pursue a career in Journalism, where she has worked at The Portugal News for 3 years. Cristina’s passion lies with Arts & Culture as well as sharing all important community-related news.

Cristina da Costa Brookes