Cris Barulins is a singer, composer, and percussionist who performs for children, and who also teaches music in schools and daycares. She has recorded albums such as Abre a Roda Tindolelê by Lígia Hortélio and Pé com Pé by Palavra Cantada. Sarah W., an 11-year-old member of Clube do Joca, spoke to the artist about her career in the music world.

I am very honored to be able to talk to you. My cousin loves your songs; he’s four years old. And what did you like to listen to when you were a kid?

How cute, thank you! You see, I had a record player at home, and I really liked the Turma da Mônica album. I also have fond memories of my grandmother teaching me music. For example, the song Miriscof from my 2023 album starts off with her voice. She is 94, and I remember her teaching me this song, which has diffi cult words.

It’s really cool when we learn a song from someone who is part of our family. How old were you when you decided to be a musician?

I don’t know exactly. I started capoeira and singing lessons when I was 12 years old. I already had that dream, but it wasn’t something defi nite. Then, at 19, I started architecture school. At the time, I was already playing percussion and attending the Escola Brincante theater. I could already tell that I didn’t want to be an architect, but since there were no musicians in my family, it was a little harder to fi gure out whether it was possible to make a living from music or not. So it was hard to convince my parents. When I was around 20, I decided I would go for music: I dropped out of architecture and went to college for a degree in music. Since then, I’ve been either teaching or on stage.

Which children’s artists are you currently inspired by?

Wow, there are many. As for children’s music, I like Hélio Ziskind, a composer of children’s music from Brazil; Palavra Cantada, which represents a watershed moment in Brazilian children’s music; Bia Bedran; João Bá, a composer from Ceará who told stories and has beautiful compositions, and Luiz Gonzaga. There are also the ones that I grew up listening to, such as Elis Regina, Marisa Monte, among others.

Do you remember your first performance?

The first time I stepped on stage to perform was in the school theater, as a pre-teen, in the Shakespeare play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. I remember the excitement of being on stage, under the spotlight… It was really nervewracking, but at the same time it was so much fun to face the unknown! I think that whenever pleasure speaks louder than nervousness, we have to keep on doing that again.

How does the songwriting process work? How does an idea come to you?

It really depends on the song. During the pandemic, I composed together with other artists from different regions of Brazil. For the song Fogo Pequenino (Small Fire), for example, which I composed with the trio Sonatina, Música e Movimento, Eric Brandão sent me the melody for the acoustic guitar, then I came up with the idea of including fi re, nature, fi res. I sent it back with the lyrics, and we finished it together. Now, there are songs where I do it all together on the guitar, like Lambadinha. And there are also songs that already have lyrics, and I just write the melody.

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