Rogério Tolomei Teixeira, better known by his stage name Rogério Skylab, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, lyricist, classical guitarist, poet, essayist, record producer, actor and former television presenter. His unique musical style is characterized by minimalism and eclecticism, and his lyrics are permeated by acerbic allusions to popular culture, pessimism, scatology, nihilism and black comedy. Some of his most recognizable compositions are "Motosserra", "Fátima Bernardes Experiência", "Dedo, Língua, Cu e Boceta", "Eu Chupo o Meu Pau" and "Matador de Passarinho".
Biography
Rogério Skylab was born Rogério Tolomei Teixeira in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 2, 1956, and is of Italian and Portuguese descent. He has degrees in literature and philosophy from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and also began attending a law course, but never finished it. Prior to his musical career, Skylab worked for 28 years as a public servant at a Banco do Brasil agency in Maracaju, Mato Grosso do Sul. After a brief stint as the vocalist of punk rock band Setembro Negro in the mid- to late 1980s, in 1991 he participated as a solo artist in a music festival in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais; he won the first-place cash prize with the song "Samba do Skylab", from which he took his stage name. Rogério used the prize money to finance the recording of his debut album, Fora da Grei, which was released the following year; it was very well-received by the critics, and awarded him many appearances on Jô Soares' late-night talk showsJô Soares Onze e Meia and Programa do Jô in the 1990s. In 1999 he released his second album, the first one in a series of ten self-titled albums, Skylab. It was produced by Robertinho do Recife, but Skylab was slightly unsatisfied with the final result, saying that it had "too much keyboards" and that he was not too creatively involved with it. His third album, Skylab II, was his first live release; commenting about it, he has stated that "this is 100% Skylab. The other was 80% Robertinho". Skylab II counted with a guest appearance by Löis Lancaster, vocalist of avant-garde group Zumbi do Mato – Lancaster would return for Skylab's second live album, Skylab IX, which also had guest appearances by Maurício Pereira and Marcelo Birck. Zé Felipe and Marlos Salustiano, respectively bassist and keyboardist for Zumbi do Mato, collaborated with Skylab on his 2007 album Skylab VII, which was nominated to the Prêmio Dynamite de Música Independente in the "Best Rock Album" category; two years later, Felipe and Skylab made a collaborative album, Rogério Skylab & Orquestra Zé Felipe. In 2005, Skylab won the Prêmio Claro de Música Independente, in the "Best MPB Album" category, for Skylab V. After the release of Skylab X, Skylab put aside his experimental sound to work on the "Trilogia dos Carnavais", which focuses more on traditional Brazilian genres such as samba, bossa nova and MPB. The trilogy comprises the albums Abismo e Carnaval, Melancolia e Carnaval and Desterro e Carnaval, and included the guest appearances of many musicians, such as Jorge Mautner, Jards Macalé, Rômulo Fróes, Arrigo Barnabé, Fausto Fawcett and Michael Sullivan. Between 2016 and 2018 he collaborated with Lívio Tragtenberg on a further trilogy of albums aptly titled Skylab & Tragtenberg. On March 7, 2018, Skylab officially announced that he began work on a new studio album, entitled O Rei do Cu, released later that year on May 17. On a Facebook post he further elaborated that O Rei do Cu would be the first installment of a new trilogy, the "Trilogia do Cu" ; the second installment, Nas Portas do Cu, came out on January 1, 2019, and the third, Crítica da Faculdade do Cu, on December 20, 2019. On March 19, 2020, he uploaded to his official YouTube channel the single "À Sombra de um Horizonte". Outside music, Skylab authored the sonnet collection Debaixo das Rodas de um Automóvel, published by Editora Rocco in 2006, and was the host of his own talk show, Matador de Passarinho, on Canal Brasil from 2012 to 2014. In 2017 he debuted as an actor, portraying a history teacher on the Fabrício Bittarcomedy filmComo se Tornar o Pior Aluno da Escola, based on Danilo Gentili's eponymous book. He also runs and owns the blog "Godard City".
