mute sounds music

ABout us

bio

Mute Sounds: Sonically, their music is instrumental post-rock, but to truly understand the passion of its fans, it’s best to see Mute Sounds as a tale of strength and tenacity. 

In the winter of 2015, Rui Pedro, a Portuguese multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, was building a life in Toronto, Canada when a terrible pain in his throat forced him to seek medical treatment. Doctors soon gave him the bad news: he had throat cancer for the second time – and this time, he would be fighting for his life. 

Rui was forced to return to his home country to receive treatment, leaving behind his new life and new friends. As his treatments began in the summer of 2016, he was told that if he survived, he would lose his ability to speak. Most people would have been devastated by this news, but for Rui, it was a chance to turn his pain into something beautiful. 

Over the three months that he received his chemo- and radiation therapy, he picked up an old guitar he had been given years before and learned how to play. He quickly became a source of inspiration for the doctors and patients in the hospital, as he spun his grief and pain into soulful acoustic movements. As his old voice faded, Rui Pedro trained himself to speak through music – and a new chapter of his life began. 

Rui wasted no time after he was cured. He began pursuing music as a full-time career, joining musicians and bands on any stage he could reach, collaborating with artists and ghost- writing several successful songs in the process. Even with this newfound passion, however, he felt that there was something more waiting for him in his second home of Toronto. 

He returned to Canada in 2018 and immediately got to work assembling a band. The goal was to bring together a collection of musicians that matched his talent, passion, and desire to succeed, and take his new voice to the next level. Several years of auditions, practices, and live performances coalesced in 2022 into a four-piece project: Ralf Caetano, guitarist extraordinaire with roots in both Portugal and Canada, and talents in many different styles and traditions; Luis Barcenas, a living metronome and rock-solid bassist with strong prog influences; and Ben Cook, a dynamic percussionist who refuses to stick to a genre. The alchemy of personalities and styles has produced a sound as unique and defiant of category as Rui Pedro himself, a voice of strength and joy that remains open to each listener’s interpretation, but still carries a singular message: music is a force of unity and love that can heal any wound.

services

book mute sounds now

Live Performances

Our talented musicians have been in the music industry for years. Mute Sounds is confident and eager to showcase their sound at all venues including live shows, charity events, festivals, and showcases. Being an instrumental act, Mute Sounds will elevate your senses though the melodic rock songs expressing the feelings of someone who dramatically lost one of the most important senses: the voice.

Film & Television

As an instrumental act, Mute Sounds is able to create the perfect song for any specific movie or TV production.

& More

For other services such as songwriting or producing please click here

Lead Guitarist
founder
song writer

Rui Pedro

LEAD GUITARIST | SONGWRITER | FOUNDER

Rui is a self-taught musician who was born in Portugal and his first contact with music, was at the age of 7, learning keyboards with his father. At the age of 22, he formed his first band, playing Peruvian Cajon at that time. In 2016, he started to write he’s own songs which lead to the opportunity to write songs for some well-known Portuguese and Canadian musicians. Between 2016 and 2018, he played in a lot of different bands, either as full-time member or a special guest to gain more experience has a guitar player. In 2018, he founded Mute Sounds and by the end of the same year, he decided to immigrate to Toronto, Canada. He brought Mute Sounds with him and he also enjoyed joining a few cover bands to collaborate and keep growing as a guitar player.

Guitarist

Ralf Caetano

ELECTRIC GUITAR | PORTUGUESE GUITAR

Ralf was born in Toronto in 1992 and his first contact with music was during elementary school when his teacher asked him to join the school children’s choir. He was offered a scholarship to St. Michael’s Choir School at the age of 7, which he rejected. At 12 years old, he moved to Portugal with his parents, and 2 years later, he tried the guitar for the first time. In Portugal, he played in a lot of different bands, focused in Folklore and Portuguese Traditional Music. His focus is Portuguese music, which lead him to learn more string instruments such as mandolin and Portuguese guitar. In 2016, he came back to Toronto joining Mute Sounds in 2021.

DRUMMER

ben cook

DRUMS

Ben Cook started to play drums when he was 18, but he didn’t really get serious about it until 2010. Since then, he’s played prog rock, post-grunge, garage surf, cowpunk, acoustic hip-hop and a bunch of other silly words smashed together, all over the GTA. A student of the jam session, he likes to explore every inch of a rhythm’s territory, taking heavy influence from bands like The Mars Volta and Mastodon – but he still loves finding the pocket in a good hip-hop beat, or just holding it down for a sexy guitar solo.
He’s currently playing in two projects (Mute Sounds and Pioneer Anomaly), recording live shows and giving interviews wherever they tolerate him (with Primal Note Productions), and writing indie comics and stories to keep the demons at bay (Mohini Eats).

BASSIST

Luis Ramirez

BASS GUITAR

Born and raised in Costa Rica, this amazing six string Bass Guitar Player known as Luis Ramirez, has been playing Bass Guitar for more than 10 years. He is always learning different techniques and music theory. He played with some local bands back in Costa Rica, but he wasn’t that much into the music scene until he moved in to Toronto in 2018 where he got started getting more into the musical life. In the GTA, he has already performed in many renowned venues. Those experiences helped Luis to grow as a musician, explore many more styles of music and he decided to join Mute Sounds to (and I’m paraphrasing his words now) “continue playing with even greater musicians.”

Katy Alves
manager

Katy Alves

BAND MANAGER

Katy was born in Pombal, Portugal and then immigrated with her family to Switzerland, where she spent her childhood. Katy’s not a regular band manager. She started to learn keyboard and to sing at the age of 5, and when she was only 6 years old, she was sharing her talent at numerous shows. Shows for the Portuguese communities in several different countries, including Switzerland, France, Canada, and of course, Portugal. With 15 years’ experience preforming and with 1 cassette and 2 albums launched, Katy decided to take a break and focus on some other things.
In 2020, after helping our Lead Guitarist in some songs by doing some keyboard parts, she embraced this new role, the role of being the Manager of “Mute Sounds”.