Death from Above hailing from Goiania, Brazil has been turning out D-beat, R@w punk since early 2006. Here guitarist Mingau talks to us about the band and punk in his city. This interview was originally done for Karasu Killer zine in Japanese. Interviewed by Rafael Karasu. Photos: Eder Sales Cave
MRR: Tell us a little about the band’s history, the discography, the first shows. And also, what’s the meaning of the band’s name? The band began in the beginning of 2006. I had become bored, because the two other bands that I was playing in had broken up by then (Neurose Urbana in 2004 and Chaotix in the end of 2005). I wanted to start another band, but this time I wanted to play D-beat! I chose the name Death From Above because of Discard’s Death From Above 7” EP. Besides being one influence in our sound they were the first band to use the Discharge logo declaring thus their total passion to the Discharge. Then I began to think about this new project. So, I called the Thiago that was playing in the Sociofobia, to play bass and called the Ratão (drummer of the Neurose Urbana) to give us a hand as drummer to compose some songs. Since there were no others drummer to play D-beat here in the city he accepted. We did about six songs, played in a gig and he left the band. As a result, we called Hassan who had previously been in Sociofobia and was the guitarist of Desastre. With this new line up we did the demo Lost in the Insane War with him on drums, it was cool because I had already played with him before in the Chaotix. Shortly afterwards he too left the band, but during this time we opened our eyes and realized that our friend Slake had been playing in the bands WCM and a new band Asas Da Vingança. We realized that he had an interesting style and that perhaps he could play with us. We had a few practices, but his drumming didn’t really fit our D-beat direction. I showed him what we were looking for and eventually he was catching the beat and perfecting his own style. We then began to work on new songs and play shows. 2007 and 2008 was very good for us, we played a lot — about two shows monthly. It fueled our sound and helped the band become more cohesive. We also use the “non-stop show” strategy like in the live The Nightmare Continues of Discharge, so it helped us a lot. About recordings, what I can say is that we are a band without much luck! After we recorded the demo Lost in the Insane War in the end of 2006, we recorded three songs in 2007 for a split 7” EP and a tribute to Disclose album. The split never came out because another band, Kandiru from Minneapolis broke up and the tribute to Disclose simply did not include us on the CD. Then in 2008 we recorded the CD digipack Death Comes but it was released in 2009. Also in 2008 we played in Gama-city at the Besthoven gig for the DVD recording. Our set was recorded, mixed by Frango from Galinha Preta, but it is yet to be released. Our CD Death Comes was to be released by the Speed State records from Japan, but in the process they stopped writing, so I gave up and
decided to release in the local label TBONTB (Two Beers or Not Two Beers) and my label Mingau’a Productions. That was much better because we still had good distribution in 2009. We recorded two more songs for another split 7” with Dead Section from Portland who was coming to tour in Brazil. We were to join them on the tour, but in the process Dead Section canceled their whole Brazilian tour. They split up and they give up doing the split. During that time we had already sent our finished recording to them, which they were going to press. At the end of 2009 we did our second tour in São Paulo, Death Comes. We did about six or seven shows and it was a good but very stressful tour. We returned home and Thiago quit the band. We then invited Danny, ex-Desastre, to play bass. We recorded two more songs in the end of 2010 for another attempted split EP with War/System from England. That record was never release because their vocalist quit. Unfortunately, he was my contact for this split. So, we lost heart and gave up. Currently, we have decided to use one song for a four-way split EP, which is still in progress. In the beginning of 2011 we recorded four songs for our debut 4 Trax E.P., that will be released on 7” and as a tape (with two bonus tracks) by Bombs Away records, coming soon. Besides that we recorded a cover of “War’s No Fairytale” by Discharge for the Discharge Brazilian tribute in CD, which is in progress. And finally we recorded three songs last May for “4-Way for Destruction” Vol. 2 that will be out next August. So really our discography is: 2006 Lost in the Insane War demo (7 songs plus Discharge cover) 2007 unreleased recording (3 songs, included Disclose cover) 2008-2009 Death Comes CD digipack (12 songs) 2009 unreleased recording (2 songs) 2010 unreleased recording yet (2 songs) 2011 4 Trax E.P. 7” EP (4 songs) coming in soon! 2011 4-Way for Destruction Vol. 2 (3 songs) coming in soon!