DeezMag #6

Nr 6 July 2013

The Exploding Boy house of trees ash is a robot Soundmaker VĂŠnus Raiva and many others

Deez nr 6 Editorial The Freak Effect Lady Gaga was elected by Forbes the “most powerful celebrity 2013”. My first thought when I read that was “What the hell does that mean?”. That she can power the state of New York single handed? That she can blow up Syria? That she can jump tall buildings in a single leap? That she can light herself up like a Christmas tree at will? (actually, I could believe that one).

Don't get me wrong here. I'm happy for her. I have nothing against Lady Gaga. And I'm not even going to make any kind of comment about the quality of her music. Music is a question of taste. The fact that she has none, doesn't make her a bad musician. The fact that her songs suck, does. Of course this is just me. I guess 60 million fans can't be wrong. Although a lot of them are probably under the influence of some drug. And the rest are just plain stupid.

Of course the reason Forbes gave her this award was basically because she makes a hell of a lot of money. They are not actually saying she is a good musician. Just a “powerful” one. And the super power of this super hero is money.

Lady Gaga is a great example of what is wrong with the music industry today. She churns out a few sub-quality, rehashed songs and she makes a lot of money, because she looks crazy. Her costumes are becoming so ridiculous that I'm actually afraid she is going to hurt herself. No I'm kidding, I'm actually looking forward to it. She acts crazy too.

And that makes her millions. And if she makes money she must be a great musician, so people throw more money her way. People worship her because she is eccentric, but she can afford to be eccentric because people support her life style. If she had no money she would be pathetic. Because she has money she's a role model (just writing this sent a shiver down my spine). And in the end, and I'm guessing this will come as no surprise to anyone, what people worship is rich people. A scientist is no more than a nerd, even if he has come up with a way to travel faster than light. But if he is a rich eccentric scientist, he is a God, even if his greatest accomplishment is the invention of a new Internet app. And no, I don't hate rich people. I actually want them to be rich. Some day I might be able to blackmail some of that money out of them. Hey, you never know. What I'm pointing out is that we keep worshiping the wrong people, just because they have more money than we do. And time and time again, they end up being these addicted, broken down, psychotic, perverted creeps. And people still don't learn. They just trash their former heroes, and move on to new ones. Most of the time I don't care about this. But when it comes to music it pisses me off. There are thousands of great artists out there trying to make a living. But we keep throwing our money at these... cartoons. We are going to wake up one day and the only thing that we will have to listen to are the Lady Gaga's, Justin Timberlake's and Justin Bieber's of this planet. It will happen. And I have no idea how to stop it. No matter how many people support quality artists, it will always be a drop in the ocean compared to the millions that throw their money away at shitty untalented artists, just because they are “pretty” or “cool”.

There is a positive point about this award being given to her. Since she copies her songs, ideas and eccentricities from dozens of other artists, they are actually the ones being awarded. And they probably deserve it more than she does. I for one will keep ignoring her, and supporting quality artists.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to swap the Justin Bieber CD I was listening to for the latest musical train wreck

by The Queen Monster. Peace.

IVO CAIRES BELLO Editor

“Music . . . can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.�

Leonard Bernstein

Deez mag

Botequim

Botequim Fantasma, a band from the North of Portug rock band can create such a strong intimacy wit DM - How was this project born?

Paulo - We, the four instrumentalists, (Tony Lopes, Filipe Lopes, João Calvo) already knew each other for a long time, we studied music together and we even started some musical projects.

We were together for almost five years and we decided to create a solid group, so we started looking for a vocalist.

We did some experiments until we met Cristóvão and by unanimity, he stayed!

Cristóvão: I sent them a few covers, curiously in English ... But we decided to stick to Portuguese.

DM - What changed with Cristovão's entry in the band?

P. - The big difference came when we all decided to take advantage of the fact that Cristovão wrote poetry. We started using some of his verses in our songs and discarded the idea of singing in English. It all started to get interesting, the words and the phonetics acquired importance in the style and musicality of our instruments, giving clearly a new dynamic to our compositions. We think, for now, we are in the right direction.

DM - You have already published an EP, and it actually has a very curious name,''Guarda-Nuvens’’ (Clouds’s Umbrella). What does it means?

C. - It's what defines the good and the bad. Our lyrics talk about love in its various aspects: the polished love and the less polished love. We can say that

Fantasma

gal, spent a little time with us to show how a modern th the public by putting reminders in our hears.

‘’Guarda-Nuvens’’ concentrates all of this.

It's like a hat that includes all aspects of society. Everything turns around love.

DM - Cristóvão, you are the one who writes the lyrics, right? Where does your inspiration come from?

C. - It comes from my experiences or from some combinations I make with the verses. I write (I think I write!) poems, and then I adapt them to music considering the metrics and phonetics that are essential to take into account, to fit the music. As I said, I make combinations of some verses to use in several poems, but we also have songs with lyrics created from scratch, like '' Lembrete'' (‘’Note’’).

DM - What about the preparation of your EP, how was the experience of recording at a studio?

P. - We, the musicians, already had some experience at the studio, and for recording our EP we decided to work with Carlos Matos as our producer, because we already knew him. So it became an easy process. Obviously, some of our initial ideas were remodeled but everything went well.

DM - Did the final result of ‘’Guarda-Nuvens’’ correspond to your expectations? Were you able to carry initial ideas to the final songs?

P - Yes, however, as it is normal, as we are constantly evolving, today we look back and there are things that eventually we would have done differently. This is our first presentation to the public, we're still testing ourselves as musicians and seeing the reactions from all of you.

We are still trying to define some things.

But it is really interesting to combine our musical influences to the poetry of Cristóvão, because we all have very different backgrounds: Heavy-Metal, Jazz, Classical Music…

This EP is also a way for us to feel we are on the right way (or not). (laughs)

DM - How it has the reaction of the public been to your music and shows?

P. - It's been very good, mainly because all of our influences allow us to satisfy

different audiences and musical preferences (we hope!). I think we can expect both an audience that likes a heavier rock but also a public looking for nuances and details, which are more hidden in our music. Lately, we've been playing at the North, because it is where we come from. In general, the reactions have been really, really positive!

DM - I think we can say your project stands out by all the expressiveness and creativity you all put in your music, and how you relay it to the audience.

C. - In fact, there is some drama, at least in live concerts. We try to give it our best, which perhaps is not so evident in ‘’Guarda-Nuvens’’ because it is studio recorded. But when we are on stage yes, it works: we create an intense relationship with the public.

DM - With this project, what do you intend to transmit to all who hear and appreciate your work? What is, for you, the meaning of being on stage?

C. - We want to transmit good things (laughs). First, we want to take pleasure from it. Then, we worry about people, if they’ll like it or not. I think in the first place we need to like it ourselves and battle to promote it. It is a pleasure, but is also a product and we can not forget that. We have a song called ‘’Lembrete’’ and I think its lyrics can show exactly what we want to say: Our mission is to put reminders in the ears of people, for them to think and to experience what they heard. It's true, we want to share, these past two years were to record and test, but now we are ready to show and share our music.

P. - I believe that face-to-face contact is what unites us, the'' live'' is the consummation of the technical work!

DM - Botequim Fantasma, where does the name of your band come from?

P. - I never had much aptness to choose band's names, but it was time to decide and then I start looking and thinking about every rock on the sidewalk, I was always doing connections between images and words, it was a constant brainstorming.

And precisely because we have a sound that meets and brings together all of these styles, I realized that our music creates a link to something past. I look at us as a modern band but with much of what already existed, such as the lyrics, which are transversal to time and space, or even love, which is something hard to define. Thereafter, emerged the word ''botequim''(1) and almost immediately appeared the word ‘’fantasma''(ghost) related with something that exists in our subconscious, the forces, where things happen. I liked it and the rest of the band accepted!

DM - How do you characterize your sound?

C. - The Burlesque, Sarcasm.

P. - I think we can see ourselves as a rock band with multiple influences. We try to do something a little different and leave our mark, but our sound is alternative rock, it simply has other inspirations.

DM - Do you have any future projects in mind?

P. - For now we are promoting our EP but we also have some things scheduled in the North. The perspective is, perhaps in 2014, to record more themes and try to consolidate what we are doing.

DM - Would you like to leave a message to our readers?

P. - Today, we are witnessing a phase of change which obviously takes time and it is costly for people, so, I think it is crucial for everyone to be united.

I believe that traditions, culture and contact face-to-face are all that defines us and what can bring us new directions and new beliefs. Of course, the ones who are more powerful need to start seeing things a little beyond cash and wealth.

C. - I subscribe it all! We all must do our best to erase from our heads this wave of problems. Culture is an escape!

Thanks to DeezMag! INÊS GALVÃO TELES http://www.facebook.com/ BotequimFantasma (1) – Type of grocery store where sometimes meals is also sold.

DM - Your are called House of Trees because you started recording as band in a wooden house in the middle of the woods. Is that right?

Rob – That's exactly right. We moved to Sweden 8 years ago and we bought a house of trees in the middle of the forest, away from the city. And there we made music, and record, and live.

DM - Was that a choice, or you just found the place and thought it was a great place to record?

Djamila – Kind of both. We studied music in England for 3 years, and learned how to work in the music business, be in the thick of it. But we decided that's exactly what we don't want to do. So we moved out. My mother is Swedish and she said we should move to Sweden because they have really nice people and cheap houses.

DM - Do you think that brought out what you really wanted to do as a band?

D – Absolutely. I can just sit at home in silence, I have space. I don't have to go into stressy studios and have, like, two hours to record something. As long as you have Internet you can do it anywhere in the world. We are much more animated now than we were at the beginning I

think, we were much more careful and kind of inwards. I guess we were testing it out, finding our way to express. We don't have many humans around. I guess we sacrificed humans to make music (laughs).

to Kate Bush when I was a little girl. She was maybe my first idol. Today one of my favorite singers is Yukimi Nagano from Little Dragon. But you hope that you grow into your own style, so you don't just try and sound like someone else.

DM - Who writes the lyrics, and where do you get your inspiration?

DM - When you started as musicians what kind of music did you do?

R – I write the lyrics. I always really liked stories. And I always really liked fairy tales, dark things in the woods. I always liked the dark forest magical stuff, and then when we moved into the forest it just made sense. The lyrics are about everyday things and people we know, and our lives.

D – I grew up in a classical family, so I played violin since I was 3 years old. But I never had a band before I met Rob, and we did this electronic thing. That was my first experience as a singer.

R – I started off learning classical guitar, and then for quite a few years I played in a lot of prog-rock bands, and then I started playing bass and I went into jazz.

When we moved out to the forest I put my bass away, picked up my guitar.

DM – Your songs have a lighter side to them, but the lyrics aren't exactly light...

D – That balance is kind of important. To make it kind of fun and jokey, no matter the theme.

R – It's a bit clowney like. There is a serious side to it, but it's all about telling stories and having fun.

DM - Djamila when you sing, where do you get your inspiration from?

D – There are a lot of artists, but I guess I'm inspired by older singers, like Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald. And I'm also into Goldfrapp and Bjork. And I listened a lot

DM – Last year you released your third record, “Painted Gold”. Tell me a little about the evolution from the first record to this one.

R - A lot of things have changed. I think at the time we were doing it as a hobby.

We did “Come to the Woods” just for fun, just writing songs, and it was just like a side project. And then on the second record it evolved a little bit more, we had a better idea of what we wanted to do. But then again, we weren't very

Djamila and Rob make music in the middle of the woods. The fantastic spirits of the forest haunt their music, as do the troubles of man. But for them it’s all about having fun and telling stories.

And being free.

active then either. It was just with this last record that we decided to take it a bit more serious.

DM - So you feel that when you made “Painted Gold” you really reached the concept you wanted for the band?

D – It definitely feels more the way we imagined it to be. The sound, and the songs, and the energy. But also from touring more you really change your music and your energy. So the more we

tour, the more we change.

DM - Do you feel that sometimes bands that try to do a different sound have a hard time in this huge ocean of music, specially nowadays on the Internet?

R – I think it's really difficult, because like you said there's such an ocean of stuff and it's hard to get yourself heard.

So I think we decided we would do the Internet thing, Spotify and I-Tunes and all that, but we concentrate on playing

gigs, that's our profession.

D – I think we knew what we kind of had to do if we wanted to become mainstream. We would have to shape ourselves in ways we don't really want to. But I think the most organic and natural way, and the most true way is for us to just go out and gig.

DM - So stage is the way to build the band.

D – I think so. At least for us. When you go to see a band live you get this

It's unknown, it's part of our charm. It's a moment, a thing that maybe people aren't going to experience that many times.

D – It's like a peep show but without the nakedness (laughs).

DM – And what's the reaction of the public been like?

R – We've had a really great response.

Specially in England and Northern Europe where we toured the most, and that's where most people know us.

D – Here in Portugal it's our second time, and the great thing I found about it is that, no matter who was in the audience, metal-heads, rockers, they still appreciated the music and came to talk to us. People were very warm and open listening to the music.

DM – Is all this touring giving you a new perspective on how you are going to work for the next record?

R – That's a good question. Yeah, I would say so. I think we are learning a lot about what people like about us. But at the same time not wanting to just do it because they like it, but learning what we want to do that they like. Because if we just did what everyone liked about us then we wouldn't be true to ourselves.

And we're still really early in the career of this band so we're still finding our way.

I think the work we are doing for the next record is getting darker and I think the stories are getting more evolved.

D – You always want to push, always try to find the precipice of what exactly you're doing, put your finger on it.

DM - It's dangerous to tread around the edge... contact, this experience, that you can't get from just buying music online. Live is the way forward for us, I think.

R – Before you used to do gigs to sell records, and now you have your records online and that's promotion to get a gig.

People used to take a loss on doing tours, but they hoped they would sell lots of records. But I think now that everything is out there, and everything is available, people want something real, something they can experience.

DM - You've been mostly playing small venues? Is that something you find is in tune with your sound?

R – Well we've played with bigger bands with a violin player, and double-bass player, and that works in festivals. But we really like playing this smaller gigs, with 200-300 hundred people. It's really good for us. Because it's still intimate, but there's enough people to make it an event. We obviously want to make money and survive, but there's something about our thing, kind of like a secret.

D – If it's not dangerous then it's not exciting! (laughs) You have to go there.

It's helpful to have the audience, to see all that feedback and energy.

R – But it's also what we enjoy playing.

When we're on tour we go into the more story like side of our work, that animated dark forest stuff. But we have a lot of very heartfelt songs as well.

Although not really about love, mostly about death (laughs).

DM - Just right now you were talking about death. Is that an inspiration?

Do you feel death defines life?

R – Absolutely. You know, life wouldn't be as beautiful if it wasn't for death (laughs). I find it a fascinating thing, because generally we all avoid that side of stuff. We know it's there and we all know we're going to die, we know it's coming. But we kind of want to push it aside, because we don't want to be reminded of it. But I think being reminded of it can make us feel more alive. And also, someone once said that if half the world's songs are about love, the other half should be about death.

And I think there are far too many love songs, so we're writing some death songs (laughs).

DM - Putting bands into genres nowadays is very complicated, you end up with things like “dark gothic moody jazz folk”. Do you identify with that label?

D – I guess we identify with it, because we listen to folk and jazz. We are not very gothic I think, so we are not dark in that sense, but maybe in terms of lyrics.

R – I think it's more for other people.

They want to put a bracket on it so they can understand what it is. For me it

doesn't really matter. Yeah we have jazz influences, and we've got folk influences.

But we also have blues, contemporary classic music, world music, trip hop, everything really. There's so much we listen to that it's hard for us to say where we take inspiration from.

DM – Does blues influences you when you write?

R – I think in terms of pop music, blues is the beginning of all pop music. So it's not easy to get away from having some blues influences when you're writing songs. But I don't think we write particularly bluesy stuff. I guess people like Tom Waits and Robert Johnson influence me. I love their songs and I love their lyrics, and I love their ability to tell a story, which is what I think blues is about. We're not blues players but the influence is there.

DM - What about the future, do you have something you would really like to do as a band?

R – I think we want to keep going on the same way we're going, but get a little bit more stable, grow a little bit more, and built up an audience to come and see us every time.

D – And also find venues that we feel will fit our music, and that's always a hard thing. The right venue, with the right audience. And this is so much extra work, and you just want to play really.

R – Because we're completely independent, there's no management, no record company. We're doing all the leg work. We decided that we wanted to do it, rather than wait around for someone to pick us up and show us the way. We just quit our jobs and booked a bunch of gigs, and we've been on the road for six months now.

DM - Do you want to leave a final message for our readers?

R – Stop accepting what you're fed and start searching what's out there.

Because if you're just gonna eat what's given to you, you're gonna have a shit cultural life. There's a lot of great stuff out there, support it.

IVO CAIRES BELLO http://www.houseoftrees.net/ h t t p : / / w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / houseoftrees

I am tired of wacky people

I am tired of wacky people. Seriously.

I am aware most artists tend to be labeled as being a bit different: some a tad more than that, and a few as quite deranged indeed. Dealing with artists on an everyday basis - and being an artist myself - I can perfectly understand what drives people to rise that flag, and I can actually agree.

Nevertheless, in case you are not personally acquainted with so many artists as to take an educated guess, let me tell you: most of them may seem perfectly normal people. Most artists, actually, regardless of more or less exuberant tastes, flamboyant apparatus or dandy behaviour (or the extreme opposite of all this - some artists are curiously shy and try their best to pass unnoticed) lead a rather normal living and may surprise with the most humble, down-to-earth attitude.

Of course, however, there is a catch to my apologetic speech: some artists are indeed nuts, arrogant, stupid, obnoxious, wacky. Yup. What really bothers me is that less than seldomly some magical cocktail provided by the universe generates a couple of artists which compile the best features in creativity and the worst ones in regard to personality traits. Whenever possible, I do prefer to work with creative people with a good sound mind, but that is not always the case: art comes first, even if it sometimes means you'll have to work with unbearable creatures.

I've had the chance and the blessing of working with dozens of wonderful artists in the last few years: some innovative and fresh, others less than that. Some became friends, others enemies. That's life for you (and for everybody, artist or not). But I want to speak my heart out to you now: once in a while I come across scoundrels you'd wish to permanently keep at bay from your existence. Once every couple of years I tread upon some venomous serpent which knocks your socks off, in a really nasty way.

There is no such thing as bad art - whatever rings your bell may do nothing for the next person, something which passes you by may shake the entire existence of everyone else - there are bad artists, though. Being a selfish son of a bitch won't get you far in life (in any occupation, let alone in art) and what you are and what you do are inseparable. So, for as much as I love, live and breathe art, I give you a humble tip, dear reader: should we ever cross paths, should we ever get together for a painting, a song or even a cup of tea - leave your poison at home.

Sometimes bitterness is good (try some angostura on your bloody mary) so I decided to share mine with you.

I am obviously not dedicating this decadent moan to none of the wacky fuckers I have met in my life, but if the shoe fits we'll build a full closet.

by CHARLES SANGNOIR

ASH IS A R

©Copyrigth - Fotografia Treuze «» Tiago Pereira

Ash Is A Robot are one of the most energetic and brutal scene. They really know how to grab an audience and se faces. Let’s find out what makes

ROBOT

live bands in the Portuguese music end them home with a smile on their s them tick.

DM – You all been in other bands, but not exactly in this genre.

Ash – Yes, this really is the more hardcore band we all have been in. I (Renato) had actually played with Francisco and Gonçalo before. I was out of Portugal for a year, and when I came back I had this need to have a band, and I wanted to do it with these guys, and then we invited Cláudio and Bernardo. We didn't really discuss what kind of sound we were going to do.

We kind of just let it roll. The thing with this band is that we are all working on the same direction now. Before with the other bands there was a lot of concern about the sound, but not much about promotion.

You can be the best band in the world but if no one knows you... We have more experience now and we know how to do things so we have results.

DM – Your sound is more influenced by what you guys like to hear than what you where playing before. But you all have very different tastes.

How did you put it all together?

Ash - We really didn't think to much about it. We had some songs stashed away and we just went into rehearsal and started working on them. Obviously, influences like Refused and At The Drive In are noticeable. But we never wanted it to be a clear-cut thing, we wanted to have our own sound, the Ash sound. So there's a taste in there of everything we hear, even from genres very different from our own.

We have more direct influences and more marginal ones, and those are the ones that add that special touch.

DM – Is that what makes some of your songs more melodic, and others more “wham, bam, thank you mam”?

Ash – I guess you could say we have two sets of songs. Some are more spontaneous, more direct. Others take a lot more time being refined. The band started less than a year ago, so we're still experimenting, still searching. But I think our sound will always be very diverse. The sound you're going to hear in the album we'll be releasing in September, is the sound of a band trying to find itself.

DM – Like you said, you're still looking for your sound, and you're mostly

©Copyrigth - Fotografia Treuze «» Tiago Pereira

doing that live. You built your songs live, and now your taking them into the studio, instead of the other way around, right?

Ash – The songs were tested a lot live, yes. The song “Ariadne” for instance, has change a lot since it was first written.

Some things work, and some things don't. But I think that Ash in the studio and Ash live are two different bands.

There is a lot of interaction between the two, but we are never going to be one of those bands that sound exactly live as they do on record. When you listen to the recorded songs, you can't see the physical component, our energy. Of course we had to find ways to bring that energy into the record, but they are two completely different experiences.

DM – Was that a difficult process?

Were you worried that it would be hard to bring all that energy into the recorded songs?

Ash – We would have been more worried if we had actually gone into a studio.

But we are still to attached to our work to trust anybody else to work on it. So we did all of the work ourselves, from recording, to production and mixing. It was a process of trial and error. It was not easy because we are our greatest critics, but we were able to keep that live energy. I think the record is very strong in that sense. We were not restricted by dates, so we could really work on it, get it right. We didn't want to release just another album. We wanted to look at it in a few years and be able to say we're still proud of it. Yes, it might be a little green, but the main thing is to do our very best. That's what every good band should do.

DM – Your new record will be made up of the songs you've been playing live. Are you writing any new stuff already?

Ash – Now we are. We stopped writing for a while so we could record. Otherwise we would keep changing the line up of the album (laughs). In terms of sound we are already finding the way we want to go. We are more focused now. The new songs will show an even greater fusion between the more melodic, and the

more hardcore elements of our sound.

The song format is very important to us.

I think in the future we will be a kind of singles band.

DM – Your live show as always been the thing that set you apart as a band, and has been widely praise by the specialized press, as both energetic and professional.

DM – Your clips focus very much on that live energy.

Ash – We wanted the videos to focus on us. We are selling ourselves. It's what people go to see live. Being the type of band that we are, doing the sound that we do, it makes perfect sense to use and abuse our image. Our image is essential to relay what we are all about.

Ash – It's our thing. We still don't have a record out but we've been doing a lot of gigs. We really feel our music, and we want to get that across to the audience.

We want to grab them from the first song to the last. We want people to go home and say “that was a great concert, those guys are amazing”. We want them to want to follow our work. And because most of the times they don't know our work, that takes a bit of extra effort.

We looked at other bands that also have

DM – You've always said since the beginning that you wanted to tap into the international market.

How's that going?

this brutal impact on the audience, and that's what we wanted to do. And it's what makes sense for a band with our kind of sound, otherwise you're just listening to a CD. And having that kind of attitude also helps us not get tired of our songs (laughs).

our homeland, but the international market was always our great objective.

If we want to do this full time it as to be sustainable, so we want to get our sound to as many people as possible. We know it's not going to be easy, it will take a lot of persistence. But a good part of the views in our videos in the Internet is international, so the prospects are good.

DM – And are you getting good feedback from the audiences?

Ash – Well, some songs have tremendous feedback, others not so much. But in general people are singing along by the second chorus. I think that what sets us apart from other post-hardcore bands, both in the studio and live, is that we are very song oriented. We don't have much experimentalism, we know that what we want to do are songs. We want to be a strong, solid band, with a straight forward sound that is not afraid to incorporate more modern elements.

We want to make songs that people remember. Some of the things that work great in the studio, sometimes just don't work live. We have to adapt. We make up for it with energy. If we have to take a synth element out because there's no one there to play it live, one of us just jumps a little bit more (laughs).

The songs just keep changing, and they will surely be different when the record comes out. We are not afraid to take chances.

Ash – We've done a concert in Spain that went really well, the public was very receptive. And we are preparing an European tour to present our new album. We already have 10 dates set, the objective is to make it 20. We will release the album first abroad, and then in Portugal. We will never forget about

DM – What about the near future?

Will we see Ash Is A Robot at the summer festivals?

Ash – Yes, please! (laughs)

DM – Are you comfortable with big stages?

Ash – We're comfortable in both small and big stages. We don't even need a stage.

But of course we have this ambition to move to bigger stages. It's going to take time, but we are not going to give up.

Like we said, nothing would give us more pleasure than to be able to live from music, to have artistic freedom and to get people to know our work. And we're going to fight for that with all we've got.

IVO CAIRES BELLO http://www.facebook.com/ AshIsARobot

With a soul full of colors, harmonies and messages, Orlando Santos presented us his recent album, “My Soul”, proving that love, strength and belief are the key to be happy and improve the world.

DM - Orlando, you are also known as Aka Lion, where does this nickname come from?

O.S. - Aka can be seen as an introducer for Lion. Lion came from the area where I lived. My hair was too big, I didn’t talk much because I was new there and suddenly, people started calling me the Lion, and I kept it, until today.

DM - Seeing that you have a vast experience as a musician, what took you so long to release your

first album?

O.S. - Until now I hadn’t yet completed the whole process of writing songs and had to do it gradually because my songs weren’t created to make an album, they have been written over these past ten years. I never forced anything in my writing or in my music, all I do reflects who I am in each moment of my life, that’s why it includes all my changes.

DM - ‘’My soul’’ is the title of your first and recent

album. Does it reflect you? How do you characterize it?

O.S. - Yes, it is me! And it is also my soul, I’m conscious that I may not be the strongest at it, but I did my best to create and to reflect my own soul. This album is basically reggae and soul with, perhaps, a little rock. Well, it is a tropical salad! (laughs)

DM - I noticed that most of the themes of this album show a great concern with our world, particularly with the relationship between humans and the environment.

O.S. - It’s true, it is a subject that interests and worries me, and that's why I feel and write about it. I know I'm a grain

of sand in the middle of it all, but I will continue this fight to improve the relationship between nature and the human being, the same way I also try everyday to better myself as a person!

DM - What are your main influences?

O.S. - Everything. I am very impressionable; everything around me is an influence. You, He, They. Even the most horrible thing inspires me. I am a real human sponge (laughs).

DM - ‘’My Soul’’ incorporated the participation of several artists, who had (almost all of them) previously worked with you. How did this work? Was it easy to integrate all of them in your own project?

O.S. - It was not easy, but it was really good. It meant

returning to the studio with Kika, the opportunity to meet Peter Morgan of Jamaica, to be with him in the studio, talking, sharing takes, words and friendship; it's been amazing. They were all guests and for free, only from friendship, they contributed to the final result of my record.

DM - How has been the reaction from those who hear you?

O.S. - It's been good, honestly I've had no offensive or destructive comments, but we are, of course, waiting for it, it’s also important!

DM - Over these past ten years of music, can you tell

us what enchants you the most? Writing, composing, playing live?

O.S. - I like everything. But I’m tempted to say I prefer playing live, because it is the moment to share, to feel and see emotions: to see people laughing, crying and jumping.

But honestly, I love the whole process, I like composing, I even love to sleep in the studio! (laughs)

DM - With this sharing, what do you want to transmit?

O.S. - I want to get my music to people so they can make their own interpretation, I don’t want to drawn conclusions for them. But of course, I want to share peace, love, freedom, the union of people and the constant demand to be better. It's a stereotype, but I won’t stop fighting for it.

DM - And this is strictly connected to your way of life, right?

previously played by other generations in your family, right?

O.S. - Yes, yes, no doubt! I always lived like that and I won’t change or rearrange my own way!

O.S. - Yes, and I can say that the tradition came from my family, although my grandfather, who played the slide guitar, unfortunately, didn’t teach me how to play it. But yes, they already played in Angola, all of them were musicians, my grandfather and the father of my cousin and that’s why we have the music and the African rhythms in our blood!

DM - I also know that you are one of the few musicians in Portugal playing a very peculiar kind of guitar, which I know was offered to you by Ben Harper! Tell us a bit about this episode!

O.S. - It was a wonderful moment. It all happened on a Ben Harper’s concert in 2003, here in Lisbon. I went to the concert with some friends who had won the Meet and Greet with Ben Harper and then, at the end of the concert, by chance, I could get in with my friends. I started by congratulating him for his show, I asked for an autograph and then I commented that, in Portugal, there wasn’t ‘’that’’ kind of guitars (slide guitars) for sale. Admired, he said something like' I can not give you the case''and I asked him to repeat because I couldn’t understand the meaning of it. Instantly he said '' I can not give you the case, but I can give you the guitar’’.

At that moment I started crying and I hugged him. It was a quick and simple moment but it had a lot of meaning to me.

DM - This instrument, if I am not mistaken, was

DM - What are your plans for the future? Where and how can we listen to you?

O.S. - For now I'm still developing the album, because it took very long to build. But, in parallel, I’m also developing projects with Valete, with Orelha Negra and with Branko.

DM - Do you want to leave a message for our readers?

O.S. - Sure! All of you need to have strength, patience, you can’t drop the ball. I’m saying it because it seems that everyone wants to give up but you have to keep it up and be patient. It’s the plan that I will follow!

INÊS GALVÃO TELLES http://www.orlandosantos.pt/ http://www.facebook.com/OrlandoSantosOficial

“Music touches us emotionally, where words alone can’t.”

Johnny Depp

Deez mag

The Swedish post-punk band came to Portugal for a live concert and DeezMag caught them before the show. Nicolas, Johan, Stefan and Les talked with us about their musical journey in a relaxed but funny interview.

Tack killer !!

DM - Can you describe yourselves to DeezMag, who are The Exploding Boy? TEB – Our music has a kind of dark, good pop feeling, it´s kind of inspired by the Nordic atmosphere. But you know… it has always been a problem for us to categorized our music, we haven´t figured that out mostly because the four of us are so into different things…we all come from different backgrounds and genres of music. For example, Stefan is more Punk, I´m more Gothic\ Indie Pop, but always with this dark edge to it. Bands like The Cure, Placebo …it´s a mixture of Indie, Goth and Punk.

DM - The weather and the Swedish way of life have influenced your music?

TEB

-Yes,

it´s

the

Scandinavian

mood. The darkness, the weather, the drunkenness, the way we live up in the North. You are from Portugal right?

Well, the snow in Sweden disappeared a weak ago, we have minus degrees for six months and it´s depressing. But we´re still happy! (laughs). The sun disappears in five hours...we don´t just crash into the darkness, we live into the darkness.

DM - Your sound and lyrics are melancholic, somewhat gloomy... taking us, in a way, to Joy Division´s universe. Do you agree?

TEB - It´s the same mood probably.... as we have the same mood as The Cure, The Sisters of Mercy, Interpol and the Clash...but no particular band. We don´t have that much of an influence from Joy Division, maybe a bit. We just make our own sound and sometimes it sounds like The Cure but not in the songs themselves.

DM - Where do you get the inspiration to create the lyrics?

TEB - It´s a mixture between wine and beer (laughs). It´s a mixture of everything...love stuff, political stuff.

For example, I (Steven) can take a great line from something I read and it can be a great beginning to a lyric. And then you go into yourself...What´s this all about? Is this about my love life? Is

this about me drinking too much? Is this political? Usually it´s like that.

DM - Why do you feel the need to communicate through music?

TEB -To be part of the eternity (laughs).

It´s nice to have a band...When I see a painting I don’t cry but when I hear music I feel something... It’s a combination of listening, you get words, you get music, but painting is in two-dimension...In music there´s a lot of other factors. You go on stage, you meet people...

DM - You began as a band in 2006.

Throughout the way, you have three albums recorded, tours all over the place, how has the path been so far, for you guys?

TEB - It has been amazing but very hard.

Well, so far, we´ve done everything ourselves, we´ve started to book shows in Germany and we´ve recorded everything ourselves, no record companies helping us, no manager, no promoter, we´ve been doing everything so far ourselves. It´s been a struggle, it´s been hard, but it´s a lot of fun along the away, traveling around, seeing places, countries, people, cities...We kind of like doing things on ourselves.

Sometimes when we come to concerts, we´re just getting off to have a beer on our own.

DM - Post-Punk continues to fascinate many bands in the present. Why so in your opinion?

TEB - It has a nice rhythm, nice darkness, a combination of a nice groove and melodies. Nowadays modern music is more about beats...If you see on the 90´s they were doing this funky\ hip hop thing and when the electronic music came in on the last ten years the music is based more on beats and harmonies...The darkness in the genre it´s like this good darkness, this good feeling of darkness.

DM - Do you think there´s any relation b e t w e e n t h e Post-Punk revival and the actual economic crises we´re liv ing in? People being more nostalgic in a way?

TEB - Yes maybe. Everything goes in

http://www.facebook.com/theexplodingboysweden cycles, and that´s about economy and politics as well...The economics and depression can be a part of darker music getting popular in a way. Most people, especially from the gothic scene, are outsiders...a lot of them have been bullied in school and now they are being bullied by the government, it´s the same thing. And it´s so much easier now for every old band to be heard again because of this Internet thing ...

DM - What are your plans as The Exploding Boy, what kind of success do you expect to achieve?

TEB - Our goal it´s not to be successful, just keep traveling around...we feel so successful just traveling around Portugal. That´s success for us. That’s pretty much enough for the moment.

We´d like to earn a lot of more money, it would be nice to reach a wider audience because we deserve it but it´s not our priority. I think we have a lot people out there that might like us but don´t know us yet.. And so many people say that our albums and songs really touch them so that’s the best thing for

us actually.

DM - Do you think that due to the globalization and the democratization of music by the Internet, it´s harder for bands to find their own identity, due to the proliferation of more groups?

TEB - It´s easier for the bands now. If you´re good enough, and you're a small band, you have the Internet, you can reach a much bigger crowd. Bands like Metallica, who haven´t done a good record in twenty two years, they feel intimidated by the internet. We mean, they feel intimidated because they hear so much better music now. Internet today, it´s a like an old record shop.

Before, like ten or fifteen years ago, you´d stay in a record shop looking at the records, listening to this, listening to that, now you just click, you just surf on the internet and you find new bands.

It´s a new way to find music. Music on the internet is the closest you can get to democracy, in a way. Since we´ve done everything ourselves, Internet has been our biggest promotion tool to reach new people in different countries

like Portugal. And major labels, they were so late going into the internet.

They couldn’t adapt to it in time. The downloads thing, for example, it´s a problem for the record companies, but for the artists it´s good. They lost sa l e s , c d s . . . but they gain a lot of people coming up for the shows, buying merchandising and stuff. So more people come to the shows because they find music more easily on the internet.

DM - You are preparing a new album that will come out this year.

What can the fans expect of it?

TEB -The thing is that we´re quite lucky because we don’t have to develop; we have our little gap that we filled up, and people want us to sound like we do, and then we mix it up, a little bit darker, slower, faster ...we´re not like Metallica (laughs). We´ve worked quite hard to have the audience we got, so it wouldn´t make any sense to change our sound dramatically now. It´s a bit more mature and diverse that´s what we can say.

ANA FILIPA CARVALHO

The Portuguese production of BalconyTV is part of the world's greatest independent music platform. We are the greatest exporter of Portuguese music – over 250 artists a year. Through their presence in our balconies several artist have already secured contracts with foreign record labels, they were interviewed by international publications, and all were able to show their talent to an average audience of millions of viewers spread across all continents. This is a work of passion and persistence, but we feel everyday the difficulties inherent to an activity largely ignored by national public agencies. For example, from the over 40 cities presently involved in the BalconyTV universe, ours is the only production with no local support. We have never asked for any money from either Lisbon's or Porto's City Councils, but we would definitely appreciate some type of governmental support that would allow us to be better known in the internal market.

After all, we bear the name of two of the most important tourist destinations in Portugal, and that serve as backdrop for our artist's videos. Unfortunately, it seems that what does not generate free dinners or commissions, and has as it's only purpose the promotion of Portuguese music in the international stage, is of no use to the deep pockets of good will of our government. BalconyTV was considered the best music channel in Europe in the 2011 Lovie Awards, and has recently been featured in Time Magazine. In Portugal? Well in Portugal, not even Blitz, the countries best selling musical publication, has written a single line about what we have been doing. Culture is in its death bed because of these kind of people, that have ungoverned this country and that live of the Arts but do nothing for it. Nevertheless, we make you this very simple pledge – We will continue to fight for Music, despite the fact that this battle is often fought at great personal cost to those involved in the Portuguese production. For Art, for Music, for Portugal.

Balcony TV Portugal, MIGUEL TEIXEIRA Executive Producer

WWW.BALCONYTV.COM

They are probably one of the best sta Ash is a Robot and they rocked the fo out of the ordinary for anyone familia

“Bowling For The Double Cheese� w after being elected one of the best ne

http://balconytv.com/v/ash-is-a-robot

age bands in our country – they go by the name of oundations of BalconyTV Lisboa at CCB. Nothing ar with this quintet from Setúbal.

was the theme that marked their return to Balcony TV ew projects of 2012.

t-bowling-for-the-double-cheese

Naked Affair are Manuel Salvador’s la the revelations for 2013. They have tal tread, and “Melon Ice Cream” proves

Naked Affair, to watch in HD and with Lisboa.

http://balconytv.com/v/naked-affair-me

atest dream. A project that as everything to be one of lent, quality, and are very sure of the path they wish to just that.

h volume all the way up. Another bet from BalconyTV

elon-ice-cream

Melgazarra came from Tejo’s south sid Portuguese Rock came back to our ba

http://balconytv.com/v/melgazarra-a-q

de to present “A Quem Não Tem” at BalconyTV Lisboa. alcony and it proved yet again that it’s better than ever.

quem-nao-tem

Killa Monkey visited BalconyTV Lisboa

“Dança” was the song they offered u rock, it did not robbed them of the trademark.

http://balconytv.com/v/killa-monkey-d

a to present a more muscled musical side.

us to demonstrate that although they have embraced insatiable energy that as always been this project’s

danca

In Hugo Claro’s return to BalconyTV, w grow and mature. The theme “Capítu do Tempo”, the best work yet from th our attention.

http://balconytv.com/v/hugo-claro-cap

we became aware that is talent and artistry continue to ulos� marks the release of his brand new album “Rua his excellent Portuguese artist, and that deserves all of

pitulos

BalconyTV Lisboa welcomed African i sound that that merges percussion a serves as a weapon for a project that

Verbal manifestation allied to melody major part of Lindu Mona’s musicality

http://balconytv.com/v/lindu-mona-ng

influenced World Music by the hand of Lindu Mona – a and Portuguese guitar, and where the power of words is a remedy for the human heart.

y is a very powerful thing indeed, and this is where a y lies.

gana-ngungu

“Blues em Mim� was the splendid the Lisboa!

A lot of talent and the proof that expe one indifferent.

http://balconytv.com/v/paulo-brissos-b

eme Paulo Brissos and his band brought to BalconyTV

erience counts, in a performance that should leave no

blues-em-mim

PORTU

MUSIC A VI

WWW.BALCO

UGAL

LISBOA PORTO

C WITH IEW

ONYTV.COM

Considerer the best artist of BalconyTV extraordinary performance. Dan River for the world in general, and it’s up t Balcony TV will make its contribution “Took me To War”.

http://balconytv.com/v/dan-riverman-t

V Porto for 2012, he returned to our balcony for another rman is surely a top artist, not only for our country, but to the world to discover this this musical diamond. A to help this discovery by presenting the quality theme

took-me-to-war

They are Days of July and came from Br Porto. “Stole it Away” was the fantasti no doubt go way beyond a few sunny

http://balconytv.com/v/days-of-july-sto

raga to show their talent to the world through BalconyTV ic song they left us, in anticipation of a career that will y July days.

ole-it-away

A good shot of madness, a lot of tale performance at BalconyTV Porto with

http://balconytv.com/v/blackjackers-ru

ent, and energy. This sums up Blackjackers musical the song “Russian Rat�!

ussian-rat

We were honored to welcome at Balco Kilpatrick.

“The Age of Anxiety” is a Balcony TV the international success of “Redemp

http://balconytv.com/v/sandy-kilpatric

onyTV Porto the Portugal based Scottish artist, Sandy

exclusive, in a glimpse into Sandy’s next album after ption Road”.

ck-the-age-of-anxiety

Barbara Brin

Barbara Brin is just like her music: honest and direct. She still feels nervous talking about herself in interviews, but has no trouble pouring her heart out in her songs, through different languages and styles.

DM - You're from Porto but spent most of your life in France. Is your return to Portugal for good?

DM - And the musicians that work with you, do they find it easy to understand your lyrics and turn them into songs?

BB – I hope so, but it's hard to be sure. I wasn't expecting to move here so soon, I did it for personal reasons, so you never know. My life can change again.

BB – Yes, I'm very lucky with that. The person that worked with me in Paris was a great friend of mine, so there was a lot of empathy. Since he already knew me very well it was very easy from him to turn my writing into music. With Kiko Brandão that worked with me in this last record, we've known each other for four years, but we realized very quickly that we clicked.

He would write a song for one of my lyrics and it would just fit wonderfully. It was all very natural and easy.

DM – You studied acting. Do you still act?

BB – Not really. I took up acting because it's something I like, but mostly because I thought it would help me with stage nerves. To learn how to be on stage, build a character, that sort of thing. I'm very reserved in my personal life, but didn't want to be that way on stage, so I wanted to train that, and acting helps a lot, so it made sense at the time. But it was never really a career that I wanted to follow.

DM - The first songs you wrote were inspired by entries in your diary. That makes your writing rather personal.

BB – Yes it does. Everything in my songs is based in something that happened, my experiences, things I've been through. I write everything down. That's why I usually don't say when I've written them, so that people that know me have a harder time figuring out what they are about (laughs). The truth is it's the only time I feel comfortable talking about myself. I'm usually very reserved in my personal life. Interviews in particular are very hard (laughs).

DM - Your first song “In my room”, was written in English, and you've also written in French. But right now you are singing in Portuguese. Why the change?

BB – It was something of a challenge by several people. I had never written in Portuguese because it didn't come out as easily as French or English. It's harder to write in Portuguese.

But what I loved about it is that when I started writing, I found that there was still a lot to be said. I had written so many songs in English and French, that I sometimes had the feeling I was repeating myself. But in Portuguese I had written nothing, so a lot of stuff came up. It was very easy to write the whole album, a matter of a couple of months, although it took two years to polish it and release it. The truth is that I had never tried it because I thought it was to hard, and then I realized it really wasn't that hard.

DM – Why do you think that is?

BB – According to them, it's because they feel my writing is very true and pure, so it's very easy for them to pick up their meaning and turn into music. At least that's what they say (laughs). Anyway, I'm very happy with the result. We are very in tune.

DM – What musical idea did you have for your latest record “A vida não vê”. (“Life does not see”) BB – It really changes from song to song. The truth is there are a lot of musical styles represented in this record, not just one.

I like and listen to all kinds of music. I guess it depends on the lyrics. Some songs turn out more reggae, others more soul or blues, there is even a country song. I don't want to be pinned down by just one genre. I just want to record it as it comes out.

DM – And you feel equally comfortable with any of those genres?

BB – Well I work a lot on the technical part. But like I said I'm not really thinking in a particular style to start with. I'm not trying to sound like anything, there's no right way to sing them.

They're my songs so my way is the right way. Usually it's only after they are done that I notice that they sound more like this or that. I just sing as it comes out, and things just fall into place.

DM – That gives you a lot of freedom, but don't you fear that could make your records very eclectic?

BB – No, for one simple reason: I'm not thinking about their commercial success. I just want to sing, to put out all that I

feel inside. On the other end, exactly because it uses various styles, it may actually attract more fans (laughs). I guess I hadn't really thought about that.

DM – Your music has been called girly soul blues pop rock.

BB – Well that description was made at the time I was still singing in English, so it's been a while. But it doesn't bother me because it's pretty vast. I don't feel it's a label that restricts me. And they were written by a girl, about girly stuff, so... (laughs).

DM – Since this a recent work, have you had the opportunity to gauge the reaction of the public?

BB – I've played the older songs a lot, but this ones in Portuguese we're only just starting. I'm very eager to see how the audiences react. But we've had a good feedback so far.

Our video had almost 30000 views in a week which was great, I wasn't expecting that. It gave me a certain level of comfort.

DM – The video itself relays the same type of honesty you put into your songs.

BB – I had already seen work by Paulo José Pimenta who directed the video, and I really liked it. They were all very different, and I felt he would adapt to the music and the people in the project. So I gave him the freedom to do what he wanted to do. And he understood exactly what I was looking for. I didn't want a thing that was overly produced, I wanted to focus on the music and not the image. I wanted the simplicity of the songs to come through, and I'm very happy with the result. I always tried to get away from that cult of the image. I like the way I do things and I don't think I could do them any other way.

If I did them any other way it wouldn't feel natural. That's why I started my own label, so I could do things my way, without restrictions.

DM – Now that you're back, what are your feelings on the Portuguese musical market?

BB – I have the sense that more people are trying to write and sing in Portuguese. I've noticed that even in artists my age. I even have the feeling that the listeners don't really like when Portuguese artists don't sing in Portuguese, that they want more people singing in their language. Of course there is still that idea that if you don't sing in English you won't succeed abroad. But succeeding in the international market depends on a lot of other factors. Being at the right place at the right time, having a label and a strong team backing you up and promoting you, even a little luck. Nowadays with the internet it's easier to reach other markets, but to really succeed you still need a lot of support.

DM – What have you been listening to lately?

BB – Lately I've listened a lot to John Mayer, I really like his albums. And Sara Bareilles, because I love her lyrics, I really connect with them. And I recently started to appreciate Fado, which was a genre that I didn't really enjoy. But I started listening to a friend of mine who sings Fado, and the way she relayed the emotions made sense to me. So I started listening to it more.

DM – Is there any dream you have as an artist?

BB – I'm am living my dream. This is exactly what I wanted, to be able to be on stage, to sing, to transmit my feelings to people. This is the dream. Where it will take me I don't know.

IVO CAIRES BELLO http://www.facebook.com/bbrinmusic

SoundMaker

DeezMag met with Samuel Coelho, the mentor of the SoundMaker’s band, a very exciting trip-hop project from Portugal. Join us in this very interesting interview.

DM - How did it come up, the idea to form a Trip-Hop band?

SC - Basically the idea came up with other music projects I had, where I usually used to do everything by myself using loop stations and electronic gadgets. I made some live performances until the moment where I felt comfortable playing alone. The main reason why this project went ahead was a matter of solitude. So I put together some people to play along with me: the vocals Saphir Cristal, later the drummer Sérgio, my brother Nanou, and Carina on the cello.

DM - The music transports us into an oneiric universe. Putting together instruments like violins and cellos, with samplers, triphop characteristics, you create soft melodies with huge intimate elements but at the same time the music is very visual. Do you agree?

SC - I completely agree, that definition is our intention. Nowadays people make

a lot of music for the body, know what I mean? And we wanted to make music for the mind and for the emotions. No doubt that it is a visual music, it´s like a canvas and each one has his own interpretation.

We make music for that state of mind.

DM - Tell us how was the composition process of your first homologous 2012 EP. SC - When we recorded the album we already had all the songs composed, we were just missing the vocals. I recorded all the instruments. The first EP was like a laboratory process in terms of being the first step for us to realize our music style.

DM - In Portugal, Trip-Hop doesn´t have much visibility. In your opinion, that fact can be an advantage for the band or a handicap?

SC - I think it can be an advantage if people have the amiability to hear music. Listening to music requires sensibility, time, and attention. Nowadays

everything is so accelerated that people don’t have time to enjoy it. And when I say “listening” is not listening to one song, it´s knowing deeply the sound of a band. For us it´s an advantage, in the sense that I do not know any band like us in our country, and I'm not trying to be pretentious here. Our music is original. For example: we have such a good feedback abroad, international producers want to work with us...and here we don´t have that yet.

DM - You guys have been playing live in Portugal. How has it been?

SC - The concerts have been amazing; we played in very good places with all the necessary conditions in terms of logistics and ambient. And the feedback from the public has been cool because we're somehow different. People need some fresh things.

DM - What do you think about the way new bands are treated in Portugal, namely new bands who want to

perform live?

SC - It depends on your attitude as a band. In the 90's having a band was something almost religious. The gigs were in the most disgusting places on Sunday afternoons. We had a little demo recorded in a little garage which would become our treasure, and we used to hear the tape over and over till it broke (laughs). Today it's not like that, there´s a beauty cult. Being in a band is cute, nothing wrong with that.

But it´s necessary to go on a stage and know how to do the stuff. Sometimes I think bands are not very well treated because they put their expectations a little bit high...and they deal with critics in a bad way. When you expose yourself you must expect good and bad reviews, which helps to improve yourself as a musician. I speak like that because I study music since I was fourteen, it´s my life. I do not want to have a band for two months...have a huge success and then disappear. Have you noticed clearly how many bands appeared and vanished this year? They vanish, because they do not have the necessary “baggage”. Some

bands nowadays are like those machines that you use and throw away after some time. Music is a supermarket business today.

DM - What are the future plans for the SoundMaker project?

SC - Our main goal as a band is not exploding, you know. It's to develop, not to play a lot, but to play in the right places. It's to handle it in a way that allows us to consolidate. My objective as a musician is to wake up in the morning and make some difference in the world.

I don’t mean to be the most viewed or spoken of musician. I want to be heard.

I want people to hear our music; I want people to be identified with our sound.

I want a band to live that emotional process. In a short time, it´s to spread our work, to find someone that supports, respects and understands us. The internationalization is indeed in our plans because we feel that our market is out there. A very known producer, for example, is interested in producing us.

Someone that is recording bands in China listened to a SoundMaker´s song and wants to work with us. It can happen.

Those are our plans for the moment.

DM - Do you feel sorrow about that indifference in our country?

SC - It´s not sorrow. I just get a little bit sad because people are so blind.

Portuguese bands in those big Portuguese summer festivals are few, they are not “boom” bands otherwise they wouldn’t have those conditions. But I have a very interesting question to make: Are there a lot of bands with the required posture to play before big line up bands? I have my doubts. You put us in a small stage and we play as good as in a huge stage.

Because we have experience...I have played throughout the country, I made tours with Luís Represas for example and I do not shake. It's not a question of arrogance, it´s the truth.

ANA FILIPA CARVALHO http://www.facebook.com/soundmakerofficial

TRESPORCENTO

Many would not consider their sound to be indie. But TRÊSPORCENTO are as indie as they come. They started rehearsing in an abandoned building, they financed all their records themselves, and they have very strong opinions about the music industry. I met with lead singer Tiago Esteves to know more about the band.

http://tresporcento.pt/ http://www.facebook.com/Tresporcento DM - You got the idea for your name out of a bank add, right?

building at some point.

Portuguese from the beginning?

TPC – Yeah, we did. We used to drive in front of that bank every time we went to rehearsals, and it had an add for loans at a 3% interest. When it came the time to choose a name, we just looked at it and said “we could be three per cent”.

It was a joke at the time, but it sticked.

TPC – It was a condemned building in Avenida da Républica, it has been demolished since. The only person that lived there was this old guy on the last floor. It was one of those old buildings with a lot of rooms and hallways. We just chose one of the rooms and made it our rehearsal room.

TPC – Actually no. One of the first songs we wrote was in English. I think it's harder to write a good song in English than it is in Portuguese, at least for me. Besides, I'm a total wreck singing in English, so Portuguese was the natural choice.

DM - You rehearsed at an abandon

DM - Did you start singing in

DM – Your first record is more raw than your second. “Quadro” seems a lot more produced.

TPC – Yes, “Hora Extraordinária” is definitely more raw. We went through a process in this latest record that we didn't went through in the first: we played the songs a lot before we went into the studio, we put more work into them. We worked intensely with our producer, Diego, who was in London, and he ended up having a lot more influence in this record than he had in the first. He gave us his opinions and effectively built the songs with us, which is something he didn't get to do in the first album.

Maybe the songs lost some spontaneity in the process, but the instrumental part became stronger, we won more solid songs.

DM – You guys are blatantly against labels that are put on bands, namely yours. So how do you define your sound?

TPC – Well, I guess it's hard for us to label our sound because we have many influences.

We obviously like everything in the independent sphere, from Bon Iver to The Walkers. But we also like Radiohead for instance, which has a completely different character.

And I also like Sérgio Godinho very much, that can't really be called an independent artist. We have moments where we turn more to indie, others that are more pop, rock or post-rock.

DM – Do you feel this latest record is more pop?

TPC – No, I think the first one was more pop. In this one we tried to create more points of interest, more layers. It's not so immediate, so pop as the first one.

The songs need to be digested, so you start to listen to things you might have missed the first time around. It takes a little more time for the melodies to settle in. I think the spirit was not to

reveal to much the first time you listen.

DM – What influences your sound, where do you get your inspiration from?

TPC – I think influences are like the place where you live. You pick up what's around you. When we started in 2006 we listened to bands like Block Party and In Rainbows, and also American rock and indie. And it's obvious that the music you like ends up seeping into your own sound. Nowadays, Portuguese bands like Linda Martini, Capitão Fausto, and many bands we play with from our agency, Azáfama, end up seeping into our sound.

Everything you listen and see does. But we don't make a conscious decision to sound like this or that. It's a mix of all that excites us. Right now we are very

up with a lyric and a few chords and we work from there.

DM – Did you spend a lot of time in the studio polishing details, or was it a quick process?

TPC – We were a pain in the ass (laughs).

It was a long summer of listening sessions.

Diego had a really important role in everything. He is like the sixth element of the band, and we pay a lot of attention to what he has to say. As a producer he has notions that we do not have. He's been with us since the beginning, and he always understood us and our music very well. He actually had a lot more influence in “Quadro” than in our first record, because in that one we pretty much had the songs ready. In this album he built the songs with us. We recorded in a live room because that really helps to keep that band feeling. It's the energy that's created by the band's members that creates a band's sound, and you can only relay that if you record together in the same room, otherwise things get lost along the way.

At least that's the way it works best for our sound.

excited with post-rock, and have been jamming a lot during rehearsals. We are working more on the instrumental part, and that will show in our next record.

DM – And your lyrics?

TPC – Not all of it has to do with sentimental issues, or things in our lives.

They are images, stories. Anything can inspire me, like a book or a movie. Other people's experiences also help with the writing process. To put ourselves in the shoes of characters that surround us in our daily life. Usually the lyrics will come after we've already made the instrumental part. Other times I show

DM – Your career has been basically self-financed. You did everything yourselves.

TPC – Well, no one stepped forward, and we really wanted to do this. So we invested our own money and did it our way. We became independent by necessity. But I think this lack of interest is normal. Labels are broke, they don't sell records anymore, so it's very complicated for them to invest in anything unless they're sure it will sell.

I mean, CD's are pretty much dead.

Albums nowadays are calling cards for bands, to get people interested in the

band and into the gigs. We financed our records with money from our concerts.

We can't live off this, but it's enough improve the production of the records, and evolve as a band.

DM – You had a project to release a live album, which you recently fulfilled.

TPC – Yes. We recorded it about a month ago at Teatro Aberto theater, to a crowd of 136 people. We wanted to create an environment where the audience had a decisive influence on the outcome of the songs. The audience is an important element when you play live, if things work you get an amazing energy from them. We wanted the audience to have that role on the recording, it was almost like a studio recording but with an audience. We haven't heard it it yet because it's still in mixing, but it was a great concert. It should be out by the end of the year.

DM – You're going to be at Super Bock Super Rock this year, but you have a pretty strong opinion about the Portuguese music festivals.

TPC – I believe that the promoters that organize the festivals have a role that they sometimes forget they have. They

have a role to educate society. I mean people in festivals listen to what you present them, and if you don't create listening habits...I'll give you a very practical example: a couple of years ago at Super Bock Super Rock, Capitão Fausto gave a fabulous concert, way better than Bloc Party that played after them. They got their chance and they proved they could deliver.

Only by giving bands a chance to play for 10000 people do they evolve. But the promoters don't do these nearly enough. They spend 3 million euros to hire Radiohead, and have virtually no Portuguese bands playing. And soon enough promoters won't have enough money to book Radiohead. And then what will they do? Book all those bands they never cared about, and that because of that, nobody knows?

Portuguese music has a lot of quality, what it doesn't have is an audience.

And you create an audience by creating opportunities.

DM – How do you see the future of the band?

TPC – We don't think much about that.

As long as we keep doing things, we're alright. Like you said we're going to

SBSR this year which is something we've been talking about for a while now. We were getting a little depressed because it was taking so long. Playing a big festival is always good to show your work to a lot of people, although we're pretty happy playing the small gigs we've been doing. We wanted to record a live album, and we've done that. Soon we'll start working on the next album. So I guess we don't have any long term plans. There may come a day when we decide to slow down a little. Our families are starting to complaint (laughs).

DM – Any final message for our readers?

TPC – Show up at the festivals, at the smaller concerts, or do whatever you feel like. This world only really works if nothing is imposed upon us, and we keep that independent spirit alive.

There is a lot of music out there right now, and it's born from this spirit of independence.

IVO CAIRES BELLO

“Music is the universal language of mankind.�

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Deez mag

Little Friend

John Almeida was born in London and he has Portuguese ascendancy. His newest music project, Little Friend, has been claimed as one of the most exciting projects in Portugal.

DeezMag didn’t miss the opportunity to get to know him and his music better.

DM - You were born in London where you developed many projects. Why did you choose Porto for this specific work?

JA - It was not so much chosen for this specific project...In my last two years in London I didn´t come to Portugal. I used to visit my mother and my father here, in the summer and at Christmas, like real emigrants do. I grew up in Porto, in that really important adolescent phase, and I consider Porto a little bit like my hometown. Meanwhile I went two years to Vancouver for studying and I was really missing Porto. So I thought: the first thing I´ll do before I start my work as a screenwriter is relax a little bit in Portugal. And I stayed. In the next year I started to write some music. I never thought about going to Porto to make music , it just happened.

DM - How did the Little Friend project come to life?

JA - In part it happened because some friends of mine had a band, they heard me playing three songs in a party and they forced me to play the first part in a gig in Passos Manuel Bar. I had never played alone on a stage.

Meanwhile I had some songs in a hard drive and a friend of mine (Andre Tentúgal), told me that I had to record that and so I spoke to other friend, a producer, and we finished the single “Sunken Low”. Then a radio got interested and we decided to record an album with Nuno Mendes. A couple of weeks later we had the album finished.

DM - You have just released your first solo album “We will destroy each other”. The single “Sunken Low” is an intimate song that whispers to our ears. Is it in this folk style among indie ramblings that you feel more comfortable?

JA – Yes, comfortable indeed. These songs were made due to a hangover of many years playing in rock and alternative bands. When a band that I had in London finished I was down...

I dedicated myself twenty four hours a day to that band and suddenly that genre of music started to be meaningless to me. I heard a Cat Power song, which was a Bob Dylan version, and I started to investigate the catalog of Dylan. Obviously I knew who he was (laughs). But at that time that sort of music was old man's music (laughs). I met Elliot Smith too, I saw him live and it was amazing...It was incredible to see a punk

musician playing with an acoustic guitar. I feel comfortable in this acoustic register but it´s not the only musical path I want to explore. This album is an influence and a reflection of many years listening to that trinity: Neil Young, Dylan and Leonard Cohen. I think I left many open doors in case I do something different. That way people won't find it odd to listen to some new thing, and think that it's not Little Friend.

DM - The theme of the lyrics has much to do with melancholia, delusion...for you this darker side of life is artistically more seductive?

JA - There is a sort of romance for that dark side of life, the existentialism, but I´m not really like that. What I meant for example in the single, “Sunken Low”, has much more to do with ends and beginnings. When you are so down that suddenly you become high again. It´s better to forget and put yourself up because you have been in the lowest possible state. There are limits. Sometimes you trade all the new dangerous possibilities in life for security, and it´s not that secure you know.

Sometimes I think the introspective side is more seductive but the main thing I want to say in my lyrics is: there are difficult situations in life but there is always hope, and something better to come.

DM - The clip of the single is a very accomplished cinemato graphic piece. How did this conceptual idea arise?

JA - It came from the director Lewis Arnold. I told him what the lyric meant and it is not about romantic relationships. It´s when you give up on e v e r y t h i n g and suddenly an opportunity appears. It has happened to me a lot in many ways through my life. He had all the freedom to do what he wanted, he had the means and he had the personal contact of Jo Hartley, an amazing actress. I didn’t want a supermodel on the video, or a clip in a party...I didn’t want a cliché, and the video and the music complemented each other very well. It turned out very well.

ANA FILIPA CARVALHO http://www.littlefriendmusic.com/ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Little-Friend

Venus Raiva are a Portuguese Rock & Roll trio from Barcelos that have just released their first homologous Ep. DeezMag interviewed them after an exciting performance on Balcony TV Porto.

DM - You got together four years ago and formed the Green Atmosphere band. Meanwhile you became Vénus Raiva. What trigger that change?

VR - When we came together four years ago we didn’t actually have a

defined sound. When we were the Green Atmosphere we had our lyrics in English but we started composing some lyrics in Portuguese, so it didn’t make any sense to have an English band name and to sing in Portuguese. So we chose to make

just music in Portuguese and to change our name to a Portuguese band name.

The Green Atmosphere were somehow a younger band a little bit different from what we do now. We matured along the way, because nowadays we worry about

doing things better and more carefully.

DM - “They chase in the night, the moon of the brightest star and they live lost in the dazzle of the goddess who emerged among the sea´s foam “. Tell us the meaning of this poetic sentence written in your biography?

VR - Back in the time when we were writing the biography we knew we had to write something a bit philosophical, but when we say “They chase in the night, the moon of the brightest star” we are talking about Venus which symbolizes the Woman and a certain light that we want to chase and to complete us.

It’s a metaphor in a way, where Venus symbolizes Woman, and Raiva ( Rage ) symbolizes Man. But the idea is to antagonize that aspect...Both women have a rage\male side and men have a feminine side too.

DM - You move on post-rock, psychedelic rock...is it the result of many influences that each member brought to the band or it´s simply what the three of you really like to listen?

VR- No, each one of us has their favorite bands and their favorite sound. For example: Miguel likes to hear Daft Punk and I haven´t even heard it yet, I look forward to hear other bands. We have different musical tastes and when we put that together we create a special sound that converges from those differences.

DM - Vénus Raiva are solely three elements. Do you like that theory that defends the less people a band has the more intense the sound is, I mean, simplicity sometimes is the best option?

VR - The most important thing is the empathy between people not really

if a band has three, ten or a hundred elements. It depends on the relation and the chemistry you create within the band and with each element of the group.

DM - We are in the “golden age” of the summer music festivals. Will you be doing a tour around the country? Where can fans see you?

VR - We don’t have a tour yet but the idea is to fill our schedule on the summer and play as much as we can. We certain will do it. Right now, the main idea is to spread our EP, our work and then we will put our ideas together again, we´ll go to a studio and make an album.

ANA FILIPA CARVALHO http://venusraiva.net/ http://www.facebook.com/venusraiva

TECHNICAL SHEET FOUNDER MIGUEL TEIXEIRA EDITORIAL COORDINATION IVO BELLO ART DIRECTION / PAGINATION SÓNIA FERRO LISBON OFFICE IVO BELLO | INÊS GALVÃO TELES PORTO OFFICE ANA FILIPA CARVALHO

FOREIGN OFFICES INDIA OIJO! MEDIA

RUSSIA BORIS BORSKI

POLAND MARCIN GRZESZAK | PIOTR WIŚNIEWSKI USA LITHUANIA REBECCA FINLEY SUNNY AGGARVAL SPAIN GERO COSTAS | ROMINA DOCE IRELAND JO COLL | JOHN HOUGH TURKEY CENK HASDAL | KUBILAY ÖZLER

Deez mag