Tó Trips | Bio
Lisbon Guitar Player
A discreet but indelible figure in the Portuguese musical scene, Tó Trips is reaching close to four decades of activity, in a rare case of blessed resilience and constant reinvention. After fronting Amen Sacristi in the mid 80s, right after the Portuguese rock boom at the start of that decade, he became a part of the visionary Santa Maria Gasolina em Teu Ventre before founding Lulu Blind. An iconic band from a certain, and by now almost forgotten, sonic youth that blossomed in Portugal throughout the 90s, whose respectable legacy left us with three albums flirting with the mainstream and memories of legendary concerts.
At the start of this century, and after the demise of Lulu Blind, Trips starts to project more succintly his own language at the guitar, leaving behind the electrified angst of the preceding decade towards a sprawling and at the same time singular imagery. Dead Combo, his duo with the late Pedro Gonçalves, was the starting point for such a vision. Assuming themselves as “music with Lisbon inside”, for 15 years – until the premature death of Gonçalves – they created a reflection of that same Lisbon, opened to other cultures, a host of different languages and histories. In Dead Combo’s music, and Trips guitar in particular, the ghost of Carlos Paredes would haunt the wide open spaces of Enio Morricone, the landscapes of Ry Cooder glisten with the heat of flamenco, Marc Ribot’s skewed approach to Cuban moves gives life to a bohemian Lisbon, collapsing different geographies and legacies in an honest and unique manner.
A “guitar with people inside” as master Paredes once wrote, populated with memories and lives, that on his debut solo album – Guitarra 66 – became openly biographical. A raw and luminous record released by Mbari in 2009, Guitarra 66 projected an intuitive multicultural crossing, both real and imaginary. At the same time, Trips expands his own approach via collaborations and projects like Timespine with Adriana Sá and John Klima, in a reflection of a never ending quest for new horizons, to free himself of any tried and true formula.
In 2023, eight years after his second solo venture – Guitarra Makaka: Danças a um Deus Desconhecido – and with the composition of a soundtrack to the movie “Surdina” and the creation of a new band called Club Makumba in between, Tó Trips releases his third album. Titled Popular Jaguar, the record takes inspiration from the animal that gives it name and lurks in the shadows, to conjure a series of instrumental stories, in what is his most autobiographical work yet. An accurate title for Trips life and work, Popular Jaguar cover shows the musician cloaked in the shadows, like a figure we recognize but can quite outline in full. A record filled with mystery, silence and places where we can find geographical references. In 2025 edited Tó Trips & Fake Latinos with a quartet, turn on the heritage of Dead Combo guitar player!