A million good reasons to stay

One Million Dollars, with Robson Santos (centre, with hat) and Richie Setford (centre front, with sunglasses), play at Auckland's 4:20 tonight.

Instead of catching a flight home to Brazil one afternoon back in 2000, Robson Santos was playing football at Grey Lynn Park.

He'd just scored a couple of goals, was having a heap of fun with his friends, and decided to stay. From then on, Santos - who's in 11-piece funk-soul band One Million Dollars - was officially an overstayer.

"There was that Sri Lankan girl, that Iranian guy, Ahmed Zaoui ... and Robson from One Million Dollars," he says, laughing.

But thanks to support from the band, his friends, a few high-profile references and a direct plea to the Minister of Immigration, he finally got his visa in August last year.

Santos, whose first name is pronounced Hobson, or Hobs for short, is glad he stuck it out because, although Sao Paulo is home, the city's high crime rate and poverty make it a hard place to live.

Today, sitting with One Million Dollars' frontman Richie Setford at a Kingsland cafe, Santos looks like a local in his Swanndri jacket. But his T-shirt is in the distinct yellow and green colours of Brazil.

Setford says many of the songs on the band's second album, Soup Kitchen, which came out this week, are inspired by Santos' experiences. Hey Vagabond is about him coming to New Zealand to make a better life for himself.

"I'd never met anyone like Robson. He was a completely new character to me. What a courageous thing to do to go to a new country, a new culture, and make mistakes, fall over, get back up and fall over again. Even when he was learning English he didn't care, he just went, "Blah blah blah blah blah ...", and I wouldn't know what the [expletive] he was talking about, but I'd pick up within it exactly who he was."

Santos - a percussionist, harmonica player and vocalist - admits he doesn't feel as though he physically contributed much to Soup Kitchen because "I was too busy trying to save my arse".

"But I have a big spiritual participation on the album. You know, sometimes you inspire people and I think a lot of my struggle has been very inspirational for Richie."

The album's opening track, Sem Parar (From the Streets of Sao Paulo), is about Santos reflecting on where he comes from and what his homeland is like.

"That song was just a jam, and it's still a jam. It evokes that 70s feeling where you listen and you feel like the police are after you. I still remember [it] in rehearsal and the band was like, 'Hey, that sounds like a black man running from the cops'," he says.

"It's not a song about looking back on Brazil and it not being a nice place, no. I think it's me coming to an understanding of why I left Sao Paulo and came to New Zealand.

"So however long that song lasts for, it gives me time to stop, think about who I am, where I come from and no matter how long I'm in New Zealand, I will always come from a ghetto in Sao Paulo.

"But it's good to be in New Zealand and I know what it is to be a Kiwi because I've been here almost seven years."

Setford says the other important thing about Sem Parar is that it is the first song the band wrote together.

"And that's the whole point of this album, that we wanted to become an 11-piece band rather than Richie's band. So that's why it's a great song to have first up."

The main difference from the band's first album, Energy State, from 2003, is that there's more vitality and a solid foundation.

"And we didn't know what we were doing the first time," says Santos.

"Soup Kitchen is a lot more researched," says Setford, "and we wanted to play live which would reinforce the thing [we have when] we're together, we're looking at each other, we're buzzing off people's eyes and movements, like we do live. This is more of a reflection of what the band are."

One Million Dollars are known for their predominantly funk, soul and samba sound, with a strong Brazilian influence, but a track like Calling In the Light also sees the band branching out.

"I feel like it's a New Orleans track, with a bit of Chicago, and rock'n'roll, but it's made in New Zealand. How crazy is that?" he says.

For Setford the beginnings of One Million Dollars are hazy because it evolved out of him and Santos jamming at a weekly Brazilian night at Khuja Lounge in 2000.

"That's where it started because when Robs came over he not only brought himself, he brought the music he was listening to and the first album had Latin and bossa influenced tracks.

"We had a few tunes. But then I just got my shit together and knew we had to get this band sorted and it got eventually to our current line-up."

This 11-strong line-up is why the band's live show is the best way to check out the One Million Dollars experience.

"I've always said," says Setford, "that to make this kind of music we need the amount of people that we've got. That's just how it is."


Performance

* Who: One Million Dollars
* Where & when: Tonight, 4:20 on K Rd, 10pm ($10 on the door)
* New album: Soup Kitchen, out now.
* Also: Energy State (2003)