Interview с Andre Matos : DARKSIDE.ru

How did it happen that your first solo album was released first in Japan, why in Japan?

Ok lets start then, well normally I must say that Japan has a very strong fan base and they are always very hungry for metal music they are all die-hard fans and they are already following the whole process of the album since the very beginning so basically the Japanese record label was already approaching it even before the album was finished and they wanted to have the album right away. So we delivered album first of all to Japan and they released it there so I went to Japan for a promo trip..for some interviews and stuff and not much later my band came to Japan with me for playing in festival .. in very big festival called “loud park” which headliners were “Marlin Manson» and “heaven and hell”. It was a great experience .. So basically everything happens first in Japan..you know..they are always a little bit a head of the world I think technological wide and also regarding the music they are very fast doing things so we basically played first in Japan it was our first international concert, the album was first released there, they also have a reason for that because Japanese releases, the Japanese market for CDs, you know CDs and DVDs in Japan they are very very expensive even for the Japanese people and its pretty like this if we would have released the record in Japan and in Russia at the same time they would probably get the Russian import first and that would ruin their own market because they would have it for a half of price than Japanese product so that’s also why they request us to release first there and then at the rest of the world but to be honest for Russia its not so bad because you are one of the first countries to release the album after Japan its gonna be released now in Russia and Brazil

You signed a deal with Universal Music why did u chose Universal Music and which variants did you chose from?

Well I signed a deal with Universal Music for Brazil only, for my own country because I have already worked with them in the past They released the first “shaman” album when we were still together with Shaman but that was only for the first album and for the DVD then the second album was already released by another label but it was a great work together because they are major company and they were able to put our music on the radio they were able broadcast our music on TV We had one of the songs, one song of mine called “fairytale” was on TV, a show soap opera that was on TV every day and very big audience.. So there were some advantages to be released by a major company over here, I mean I was lucky that they liked the album again and want to invest in this album so I’m very confident that we’re gonna have a very good distribution and good promotion because of the label because apart from that there are only very small labels in Brazil there’s no like medium size label its either you go to a major company or you work with underground sort of label, small labels and of course distribution and promotion are not so effective

And who is responsible for releases of your album in other world countries?

-As you might know in Russia its CD-Maximum.

Yes I know

You are, yes. Its very old partner of mine also we were working together in the past with Shaman albums and they are doing a very good work in Russia and Russian countries so I think that was definitely the right choice for your territories. Because I always prefer you know to give it somebody who really knows what they are doing and who do it with some passion, with some love... Its like if they like a music, its like if they like album and they’re gonna fight for it and I think CD-MAXIMUM was a great choice for Russian countries. The album is already being released by other label partners in Asia, such as in Korea, Thailand and Taiwan and there are other releases to come now I’m just dealing now the offers for Europe so still I can’t say who’s gonna release the album all over the world but its very close to deal and also South America there’s another partner working for South America countries and in the future we also have the plans to release album in South Africa and North America, so basically in the nearest future i really hope to cover all over the world with this release

How difficult it was to find musicians for your solo project and from what bands did you invite musicians?

It was actually very easy because its the same musicians I always worked with (laughs) to give you an example Luis Mariutti is the bass player we’ve been together with me since Angra times, then we formed Shaman together and his brother Hugo Mariutti- guitar player joine

d the band and he’s also playing now in my solo band, Fabio Ribeiro- the keyboard player is the same keyboard player we used to play live for both Angra and Shaman and Andre Zaza Hernandes is another guitar player earlier he was former guitar player for Angra, he left the band in a very beginning so we met again and we had a chance to work together now and again so I’m very happy because I’m still working between friends and people that I know for a long time.. And in spite of being the name of band, you know, its been called Andre Matos. For them it makes basically no difference we still have pretty much of friend relationship, we do everything together, we compose together, we do arrangements together so we have very healthy sort of relationship and everybody faces it as being in his own band and I’m very happy to have created this sort of confidence between us and for me its very important that’s why I always say that this period in my career now is not to be called as a project, its a band.its a solo band instead of solo project because a project is somehing that you could finish next year or you could change all the musicians,. Somebody records the albums, somebody goes on tours, some different persons compose songs that’s not case here its basically the fixed-steady band that’s doing everything together all the time I’m very happy for it, it make me feel more comfortable

The next question deals with cover art work for your album what does symbolize the figure o f a man standing in the field and holding some light in his hands, what did you want to say by this art work or it was entirely the idea of artist who pictured it, who painted it?

Ok, first of all, I must probably I must tell a little bit of the concept, you know, because it also has something to do with the album title so, first of all, the man in the cover is me

Yes I know I noticed it (everybody laughs)

But it was a very tricky situation for me because everybody was saying its your solo album so you must be on the cover, I was a little bit against this idea since the very beginning as I didn’t see myself so much in the cover of the album, in my condition to be on the cover of the album, front cover of the album was ok I can be there but I can be there if I am characterize such as a character I mean it could be me, it could be somebody else, it could be a model, it could be an actor or something else..Coincidentally its gonna be me but I must be inserted inside of the complex that’s my condition to be there we’re starting to working out this idea and of course it has a lot to do with album title “time to be free” which is title that I actually choose together with the producer, with Roy Z because I had already written song under this title and you know “time to be free” means a lot of things I mean this whole album its a sort of a concept album because I normally write concept things because I think its easier to have a deadline into..You know, write different things about same kind of a subject, so all of the songs in this album are basically talking about the same kind of thing which is basically freedom its basically talking about liberty nothing like common sense, I would say for me a very big concern nowadays its that I feel the whole world its pretty much oppressive, its pretty much hectic and chaotic, you know we are all living in a sort weird weird weird period of history where basically everybody’s lost in a their belief on politicians, their belief on the religion or anything like that and everybody is trying to find their own reason to live so I believe that music is still the only thing that gather the people together, that can reunite people and can make them to think about some more elevated things, so “time to be free” means that maybe now its time to be free, time to get released, time to get free yourself from fears, your problems or whatever, but its a sort of double sense meaning as well because it also could mean “time to be free» or that means you need time to be free, you ain’t free until you have time for it, so you need some time to work it out, you need some time to invest your effort to work hard for conquering your liberty so when I said liberty of course I mean something like internal , something from yourself , from your inner self and I think this is daily conquest that’s why I think this album title is a sort of double sense meaning, so in one hand you need time to be free, but once you have this time and you have worked it out then you conquered your freedom then its time to be free, its the right hour , the right time that you’re gonna be released from your troubles , you know... So this is all represented in the cover art work...you know this light, that character or myself carrying on his hands its sort of a basic time or energy so to s

ay and this is representing liberty, this is representing the freedom that everybody has inside but you have to let it out

Does this title have anything to do with a fact that you’ve begun a solo career? Actually it was a first association that came to my mind when I saw cover art work “time to be free” that now you’ve begun a solo career?

Yes of course this is obvious association but its not wrong one its correct one, you know because this is the first thing that also right, Roy Z, you know, producer he said: “now its your time and now you are free” it also makes sense for me as now I’m really free to do the sort of music that I want to do and I don’t have to be tight to any kind of fixed style of a certain band, you know, I took part and I found three of some very important bands in my country: Viper, Angra and Shaman and now when I’m not part of any of them any more I probably can use a little bit of everything that I had already experienced in the past and of course always looking in the future and doing something caring, something actual but its very important to be free from everything so you are able to do it.

You’ve just mentioned three bands: Viper, Angra and Shaman. You took part in all of these bands but you stopped playing, stop singing in them, does it mean that you are searching for something; you are searching for your style? Why do you change bands?

Some people don’t really understand when split happens cause they are not inside, they really can’t feel what really happening with the band, when such terrible moments happens cause to be honest its not really nice moments to be experienced, but I’ve been to this three times already for different reasons, each one of these times were for a different reasons, but basically what I can tell you is when I’m not satisfied with something – I don’t force it longer, don’t stay in the situation just because it’s might be more profitable, money wise or just because I’m afraid of the future or anything I just take the risk and I trust myself, you know I believe I can do it better next time so openly it was my very last movement because now and on I can’t really split from myself and my solo career is something really definitive forever and this is about to be my main activity from now and on and I’m very happy with it I think it came at the right time I developed it what I needed to develop with previous bands but when I felt that something was going wrong, that creativity was being harmed and harmony inside of the band was not for 100%, I never thought I was fair with the audience, with the fans or neither to myself or to my band mates in tricky situation like this and I think I’m kind of proud that to always have taking the risk and always have succeeded by taking those risks, that’s how probably career is made and I’m doing my one

And could you tell a few words about new album, what it would be like musical wise and lyrical wise?

Well musical wise I bet this album is a very big mixture of lots of influences and elements from the past so if you take a little bit from what I did in Viper, Angora and Shaman and mix it together and put a little bit of Virgo which was my side project with Sacha Paeth also, mix it together and try to present it nowadays with nowadays face, with a modern sort of a presentation, I think its what the album is about, its all like brand new songs they will remind here and there from things I did in the past but its basically a big summary of my personality, of my music personality from the very first moment up to now and of course I was trying to create something original , cause something that really disturbs me nowadays is the fact that actual current bands they don’t come up with some original things, most of the bands they try to repeat again and again some old formula whatever reason was successful in the past and they try to repeat it again just because its a guarantee of a success but I’m always looking for originality and try to bring some fresh things inside of this metal steam cause I’m somebody who believes that metal fans, metal public, metal audience is very intelligent and I think they deserve a little bit more that just the same kind of repetitions, same kind of formulas that’s why I was trying to.. Besides moving back to some elements from my history, from my past, try to present something more fresh nowadays and probably I have succeeded in a way that this album has being very well accepted in Japan so far and other countries, I know from the people who already listened to it and I’m pretty sure that everybody is gonna be able to understand what it messages about

And in your opinion how much has the Brazilian metal scene has changed throughout the last decade so to sa

y? Are there any new bands which could compete with European bands in your opinion?

Yeah I see what you mean I think the most graphical change was the fact that now we have internet so everybody is able to check what’s happening all over the world and everything came closer in a way, in the past Brazil probably such as Russia, we were very isolated from the rest, we were latter than the rest of the world like in the late 80th when I raised up and I had my very first band it was very hard for us to find records, it was hard to find some news about bands, we were waiting forever till the new record came, even to buy musical instruments was not that easy, so we were a step behind always so in the last decade I think that Brazil and Russia and all the rest of the world are much more connected and what really happened that basically all of European bands and American bands they’re now playing in Brazil, Brazil is steady part of a rock sacred of shows and concerts so we don’t have to wait that long time anymore to see some sort of new thing or band, famous band- so that kind of changed a little bit of the behavior of Brazilian audience , now people are a little bit more used to what’s going on all over the world but if we talk about the domestic thing the Brazilian bands there would basically just a few bands that made it to go abroad and to play outside the Brazil and to have some success I mean I was lucky I was taking part and I found three of those bands. There are some very big talents in our country that feel like to be discovered and I bet the Brazilian rock bands will be known in the world in a short period of time cause there are a lot of new talents coming up and I really trust them

You just mentioned your project with Sacha Paeth “Virgo” what has become of this project, are you going to return to this project and record some CDs or will it just remain a one CD-project cause as far as I know you released only one CD with this project

Yes we always had the idea to continue, to do a second Cd and to be honest; we even have already the songs proposed for it. But the problem is I was always involved into something and Sacha also, I mean he’s very busy producer so it’s very hard for us to also find some time again as we had in the past to dedicate to produce a new record because it’s not only about recording the album its also. We have to compose and to arrange but we have plans we want actually to find proper time, maybe we take some vacation and we’ll dedicate it to new Virgo its something that we have planned for a long time.

Why do you think what were the reasons why this project was not appreciated by fans properly maybe in the best they could, do you think that public was not ready for such music?

Yes that’s probably one of the reasons because we came up with this idea with this project we had very clear in our minds that it would not be metal record at all, that’s a record that was about to show different side of us, but maybe the record wasn’t very well marketed because it was basically advertised and promoted for metal audience and I know that a lot of metal audience love the record big part of the fans really love Virgo record, knows the songs and everything but actually the main aim for this record was sort of cross over audience and it wasn’t probably marketed the right way that’s probably that’s why record wasn’t a bestseller as it maybe could have been

You were invited to different metal operas in which of them did you like the work best of all?

Well I liked the work in all of them actually because they are different, different kinds of characters, different kinds of challenges for me but I think Anastasia was the very first one and still in my opinion probably the best one because they have such great songs and I really love the parts where I was singing in the opera, it was a very funny story because it all went down to the time when I was doing a tour in France with Angra I think it was the year 98 or 99,yeah probably between 98 99 and we were on tour in France again and Angra was headliner, the opener was a very young unknown band called Edguy. So I met that funny singer from Edguy–Tobias for the first time he was a very nice person, a very nice guy but I found him a little bit crazy cause he came to me and said: “you know what? I’m writing a rock opera I want to have you in and I want to invite many other famous singers and I’m very big fan of yours so it’s honor for me to have you in my opera”. And I said to him: ‘ok if you really manage to make it, if you really afford it of course you can count me in but I thought to myself this guy is crazy he’ll never can accomplish this crazy idea and I was wrong cause he really made it and not even that h

e made the great one and I’m very proud for him that he was able to put this thing out, to be able to invite all of people he was planning to, specially cause he wrote a very nice record and I really like the songs I really like Avantasia, it’s one of the best metal records for the last years

And soon the third part of Avantasia will be released also

Yes I will be part of it

How often do you agree to take part in different projects, what should be there in the project for you to agree to sing on this or that CD?

Ok well to make it something really clear I’ve never made it for any money so that’s always something that had to do with friendship and I’ve got invited by many different people I knew on the road, I knew from my tours, my friends, musicians and sometimes pretty much unknown bands ask me for some special appearance I try to do it cause I believe if we try to help in a way but I need to get identify with it, I need to feel myself completely inside of the project, inside the character I’m singing I need to like what I’m doing otherwise I probably don’t do it . That’s the basic condition if it’s good music then I will try to do my best to make it even better

Is the material for your solo Cd is completely new or maybe you left some songs from your Shaman time or Angra time?

-The material is basically completely new yes, except from “new moonlight” which is song from Viper time, that time it was called only “moonlight”, then I decided to make a new version of the same song and that has very symbolic reason cause “moonlight” was the very first song that I wrote in my life and it was in an album, I wrote this song when I was 17 years old and now when I’m coming up with my very first solo album for me it was very symbolic to have the same song in an album again, but on the other hand it’s not really the same song because it’s the song reinvented, I wrote some new parts, I wrote some new lyrics for the song and I put them together with the old ones, there’s different parts in the music, the music itself is completely different rearranged, it has more like sort of the Queen influence it sounds a little bit like Bohemian Rhapsody from Queen its more into disapproach with voice and piano and for me it was very important to do song it’s like as if I would have gone back in time and now many years later I’m about to tell the story again but with today’s eyes so for me it was very interesting experience to compare what I did in the past and what I was able to do now

I know that for Japanese addition you had a bonus track- cover version by the band “Journey” –“separate ways” why did you choose this band? What is special about them and will there be any bonus tracks on European addition?

No first of all European addition comes without bonus track Because it was already work enough to record one for Japan and I didn’t have spare time for recording more than one bonus track in Japan it’s very important also to avoid piracy over there and the reason why I choosing Journey song ... for a long time I wanted to record Journey song its because many people came to me during my career and they said to me that I had sort of similar voice to Journey singer- Steve Augeri I like his singing very much I think he’s one of the best singers from 80th, from hard rock scene, really love his emotional way of singing and to make it clear to me that I was singing sort of similar to him I should try Journey song one day but I never thought about recording “Separate ways”, actually the song I wanted to record before was “Don’t stop the living”, but of course this song wouldn’t stick too much in this record, then Roy Z coincidently came in the studio for the production and we were talking about the bonus track and so on then he proposed to himself, he suggested himself that we would record “separate ways” and I told him that its not a bad idea cause I had in mind already recording Journey song but I didn’t have in mind this specific song and he told me you should do this song cause this is the most heavy metal song out of the “Journey» set and you should try this one and then we started like trying a sort of heavier version of “separate ways” and I think it worked out really cool, if the Russian audience is not really able to listen it on CD , at least it’s gonna be available on the internet I think that everybody can take a listen and we gonna play this song always live definitely it sounds really great

Are you going to should any videos for your new CD?

Yes we are already planning this and first of all we are planning to shoot a video clip, still didn’t decide about the song but it’s gonna happening pretty soon probably

until the end of year we gonna shoot it and also we are always shooting many things live cause we’ve already played live we started in Japan and now we’re playing in South America and there’s big tour planned for next year so after we got all this live material we gonna add it together and I believe that next year I’m gonna release DVD with many different things from all over the world and also something about my history which would be cool
Then you’ll be able to see many video shootings neither live and video clips as well

In the last interview to our site you said that you wanted to use the material which didn’t get into DVD of Shaman but as far as I know this wasn’t used anywhere so will you include this material into DVD of your solo project haven’t you thought about this?

Yes I think as long as it appears only that people I’ve involved into this new band there’s gonna be no problem to use some old shootings from Shaman times so unfortunately we didn’t have the time to release any new thing with those shootings but still I have some shootings, at least some scenes as long as it doesn’t appear anybody that doesn’t show anybody that doesn’t belong here that’s gonna be absolutely no problem to include some of those shootings in my new DVD

I asked this question because I think that many fans of yours would like to see the song “breaking the law” performed by all the guests on stage when you performed it all together so I think it’ll be good idea to include it maybe as a bonus material

I see what you mean but there’s a big problem with this song actually the problem is we couldn’t really fix the sound that’s why it didn’t go to the DVD because one of the guitars and I think it was actually Sacha’s guitar by accident it was not in tune it was pitched like half step down while all the rest of the people were playing the regular key and that made really impossible to fix it later on when we were mixing the stuff unless we have some technological possibility to fix it I think it’s gonna be very weird to be listened but it’s gonna be released one day

Which song from new album turned out to be the hardest for you in turns of recording or maybe composing it?

Well, in turns of recording I think “new moonlight’’ was the biggest challenge for me because I had to readapt myself, I had to relearn how to sing and it was completely different thing from everything that I’ve already experienced on studio and Roy Z was somebody responsible for that cause he came to me and said: well you now have to forget about everything you know and have just to let it out, you have to try to sing the same way as Freddy Mercury would do it and for me it was not so easy at the first moment because I always sang in a very technical way while singing I found out completely new way of singing and I’m very thankful to Roy for that cause he taught me to express much more about the emotions than technique or any other thing from that point on everything turned easier during the recording then I recorded the rest of the songs much faster and I understood much better his mentality and his concept about how to record the singer and probably that’s why Roy is somebody who’s so successful on working together with singers such as Bruce Dickenson, Rob Halford or Sebastian Bach cause he knows how to understand, he knows singers souls, how to pull it out in a best way , a new moonlight was a sort of barrier, sort of frontier that I passed and after that my whole way of singing changed

And returning to the DVD of Shaman, could you tell how difficult it was to organize the recording of the concert and to invite all the guest musicians and do you think this idea lift up to your expectations?

Well I think I was pretty lucky then because it was pretty like it was the highest point that the band has reached here in Brazil, our songs was being broadcast on TV, we were very popular all over the country so we had this venue to make a very big show that’s the biggest venue in Sao-Paulo it’s like 12 thousand people-it was full packed, and we had the idea to invite the people who participated on the record, who were Sacha Paeth, the producer, and also Tobias who sang one of the songs on the record together with me and then by accident or by luck two Helloween guys were in Brazil for promo trip and of course we know each other for many years we are friends together so I knew they were coming and I asked them if they would take part in the concert and they accepted it so the whole concert was sort of big party everything was worked out as we planned which was good cause we had one chance to make it right and actually it went right so I think its very good example cause its something that repres

ents the peak of our career when the band were more fits together , more tight , the whole condition was good and after that you know its pity but the things started not to work as good as before and that’s probably the reason of split of the band cause we couldn’t really communicate to each other, couldn’t get along with each other in the same way I mean not all of us of course cause the other three guys still play with me, we still have the same kind of white together

I think you have very tight schedule do you have free time for reading books, for having fun?

(Laughs) yeah thanks for the question nobody really worries about it so much for musician actually I try my best I read books every day that’s one of my main leisure it’s reading and specially I like history books a lot I love to read about the past, I usually make sports as well I do some hanger gliding I don’t know if you know what it is but it’s like paragliding, it’s like parachuting that’s my favorite like hobby but recently I don’t find the time to do it I’m really sad cause I want to go back, I wanna fly more but also I try to attend to some classic concerts orchestra and stuff cause this is my formation , my built up as classical musician and I really love to, actually what really happened and made me really happy last year that I took part in rock opera here in Sao Paulo it was the opera “Tommy” written by the “Who” and I played the main character , I played Tommy in the opera and together with real orchestra, choir and rock bands, this is was an amazing experience this is was for me the same as having being on holidays, on vacation or something like it because this was such wonderful experience, this kind of thing I would try to repeat again and again and I just try in my spare time to do normal thing such as going to the cinema I love movies, books and stuff like this, this is always very good. So when I’m on tour if possible I’d like to take some spare time for getting a little bit deeper into countries cultures, try to visit some places, not only touristical ones but some very specifical and special places and I already succeeded in some places to see some pretty different things and that also helps me to get inspired, to write new songs, to talk about different things

What kind of literature do you prefer?

I like historical moments I also like books about history for instance books about royal families, the conquests and everything like this I’m really affectionate about history I really try to research a lot about it, so main kind is history, this is very fascinated for me. So this is one of my favorite subjects when I read books I like to read about history.

What do you see your future career? Will you continue to perform under name of Andre Matos or will you form some band?

Yeah that’s probably what I have told you I don’t really face this period in my career as the project only, this is not to be called as project, this is to be called the band and for me definitely makes no sense to form a new band this is absolutely out of question because I already found three important bands and for me it was enough I mean there came a time when I had to take decision and to put up my own solo band, that’s something that have being asked all over my career, everybody was always coming to me and asking: “when are you gonna release your solo album?” and I always thought to myself “I don’t think it’s about the time yet “ but after my third band basically split then I thought it was the time it was the right timing for putting up a solo band and solo band is my main activity its what I’m gonna dedicate myself from now and on
My future is gonna be Andre Matos for sure because from this band I can’t get split anymore because it’s my own name I can’t split from myself and I don’t have any wish to establish a new band name or anything like this, I think in many countries probably my own name could be even more powerful than any band names so I think I’m really happy with it I’m facing this new challenge in my life really with honor and with pride

And finally when could we expect to see you in Russia with concert?

Yes like I said before we are planning a big tour for 2008 and hopefully this tour is gonna be successful and I’m pretty sure that Russia is gonna be included cause we are planning world tour like Europe and Asia at the first moment and as far as I know we are planning some concerts in Russia that’s some very old dream of mine to go to Russia, to know you country, I’m really big fan of Russian culture and I dream of going to playing in Russia for many years already and finally with this album release because we have formed very good partners in Russia, such as CD-Maximum and now I’m aware that I have sort of strong fan base in Russia as well and that makes me really happy so I’m really confident that it’s gonna be possible to go to Russia and to play over there and finally to know your country and to know everybody, to know the people, to know all of you personally so I’m happy I can’t promise but I can tell it’s much possible that its gonna happen in first half of 2008

Thank you Andre for this informative and very interesting interview and good luck for you personally and for your band!

Thank you!! Good luck!

Interview by Ksenia "Wolfin" Khorina
Questions also composed by Blindman
27 фев 2008

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