M
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IN A COLD
AND GREY ATMOSPHERE THEY CAME TO MY MIND SOME RHYMES OF GLOOMY POETRY AND
SOMBER HATE. IN THE BEGINNING I WAS AFRAID, BUT AS THE RHYMES WERE REPEATING
AGAIN AND AGAIN IN MY MIND I FOUND IN THEM MELANCHOLY AND BEUTY. I TRIED
TO FIND THE FOUNTAIN OF THIS BEAUTY, BUT WHEN I FOUND THE TRUTH I HAD ALREDY
BECOME ONE OF THEM : I WAS AN EXTREME SOUTH DARK MIND...
1.TELL US IN A FEW WORDS THE MOST IMPORTANT
MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY. WHICH IS TODAY'S LINE UP?
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AML – M-26 was formed in 1996, but
there’s no one left from the first line-up… In 1997 we recorded the first
demo tape called “Outubro”. This DT paved the way for the band in Brazilian
underground scene… In 2000 we released the promo tape “Sentimentos Sombrios…”
and then we made a lot of gigs, like the opening for Incantation and the
show in Montevideo, Uruguay… That promo tape was re-released in 2002 in
CD-R with a new bonus track with the new vocalist and now we are recording
what will be our first album. M-26 is Andre Lisboa (b), Gabriel Porto (d),
Carla Domingues (v) and Jean Gularte (v). Our guitarist Alexandre has left
the band, although he’s still working with us in studio ‘till the end of
the recordings…
2.M-26 REMINDS THE NAME OF A GUN. WHAT
DOES IT MEAN? HOW DID YOU SELECT IT?
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AML – No, M-26 is not a gun… M-26 doesn’t
mean anything! It’s simply the name of our band… it does not make any reference
to anything outside the band. This name does not put a label on us, it
does not let you guess the style of our music, such as that kind of common
band names (Dark Tears Angel Death Pain and something like it…)
3.IN YOUR BIO YOU SAY THAT YOU COME
FROM PELOTAS, WHICH IS A DARK CITY. HOW IS THAT? IT'S A LITTTLE DIFFICULT
TO US TO BELIEVE THAT BRASIL HAS SUCH DARK PLACES.
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AML – That’s because we are in the
extreme south of Brasil… it’s totally different of the rest of the country…
Our state is colonized by Germans and Italians, here we have some old traditions…
Do you know that Pelotas is the second most humid city in the world? The
first is London… Here is cold and foggy in the winter, and there are a
lot of old buildings and old factories in ruins… This city is grey and
sometimes it seems to be dead due to the abandon …
4.CAN YOU GIVE US SOME MORE INFO ABOUT
YOUR MUSICAL STYLE AND WITH WHICH FAMOUS BANDS DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE A
FAMILIAR SOUND, CAUSE I DIDN'T HAVE YET THE CHANCE TO LISTEN TO ANY OF
YOUR SONGS.
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AML – We play a kind of Dark Metal,
with influences like Death, Black, Doom and Gothic… we try to sound original,
we don’t want to sound like this or that band… I’ll tell you some bands
we like and respect, just to give you an idea about our inspiration sources:
Anathema, Moonspell, My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, Lacuna Coil, Gathering,
Amorphis, In the Woods, Tiamat, Death, Samael, Borknagar, Rotting Christ
and a lot of others…
5.WHY DO YOU PREFER WRITING YOUR LYRICS
IN PORTUGUESE? DON'T YOU THINK THAT THIS MAKES MORE DIFFICULT YOUR GOAL
TO APPROACH A BIGGER AUDIENCE?
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AML – Lacrimosa, Das Ich, Rammstein
and Atrocity (sometimes) write their lyrics in German, that is their language…
we do it in Portuguese, that is ours… and we think this is a difference
between us and a lot of bands that sing in English… I don’t think this
is gonna cause us any problem, cause Portuguese is a very beautiful language.
6.SO, WHAT THEMES DO YOU LIKE TO HURT
THROUGH YOUR LYRICS? WHAT INSPIRES YOU AND WHAT TAKES AWAY THE INSPIRATION
FROM YOU?
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AML – Our lyrics come, I think, from
our experiences and feelings about the reality we live… we write about
love, hate, loneliness, pain, fear and death… all involved in a dark and
negative poetry inspired by some poets of the Portuguese language such
as Fernando Pessoa, Augusto Dos Anjos and Cruz e Sousa…
7.WHAT'S CARLA'S ROLE IN THE BAND?
IS SHE ONLY HELPING YOU TO CREATE AN ATMOSPHERE OR IS HER ROLE MORE THAN
THAT?
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AML – She has a strong participation
in the songs, and she writes some lyrics and melodies, in M-26 everyone
is involved in the process of composing and creating dark feelings and
atmospheres…
8.WHY DO YOU PREFER AND KEEP RELEASING
YOUR DEMOS IN A TAPE FORMAT AND NOT AS A CD?
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AML – We are now divulging our second
demo in CD format with a bonus track recorded in 2002… We don’t use tapes
anymore…
9.WHY HAS RONALDO, THE VOCALIST LEFT
THE BAND? ARE YOU STILL FRIENDS?
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AML – He left the band because of personal
problems that were keeping him away from rehearsals… so he decided to get
out… We are still friends and he’s back to the metal works, forming a band…
10.WHAT MADE YOU START PLAYING MUSIC?
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO COMPOSE MUSIC?
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AML – I think we play music because
it’s one of the few ways to create something indeed… Music makes us free
to create… Doing music we know we are doing something that is good for
the people… In music we’re not just some engines of the system, we’re not
supporting the System or helping the World to keep going the way it goes…
If I was not able to make music I would do what I already do: ART! I’m
graduated in Visual Arts and I do contemporary sculpture… All I said above
about music I can say about visual arts…
11.WHICH ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
AND HOW ARE YOU PLANNING TO PROMOTE YOUR WORK?
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AML – We plan to keep recording what
will be our first album… we hope to find a label to release it… And with
that album in hands, we plan to play in Europe, where I think our kind
of music has more acceptance…
12.WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE UNDERGROUND
SCENE OF YOUR COUNTRY? DO YOU FIND IT INTERESTING? CAN YOU SEPERATE AND
NAME SOME GOOD BANDS?
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AML – Here in Brasil we have a strong
underground scene with a lot of very good bands… the problem here
is the monetary conditions… It’s very hard to maintain a band here! And
that’s just because of these difficulties that we Brazilians are so strong!
Some people have no idea of what is playing metal in the Third World… Specially
into Extreme Death Metal – brazilian death metal is unique in the World
– we have a lot of good bands here, such as Khrophus, Krisiun, Mental Horror,
Queiron, Funeratus, Toture Squad, Carcinosi, Necrofago, and a lot of more…
13.WHICH IS THE WORST AND WHICH IS
THE BEST REVIEW YOU'VE EVER RECEIVED?
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AML – We never received a bad review…
just some bizarre comments, calling our music “weird”, but I think it’s
positive cause we look for originality… Some people just love that we sing
in Portuguese, some people not. The best comment is that’s an absurd
a band like this not having a full length album released yet…
14.WHICH IS THE BEST PART IN YOUR MUSIC
AND IN THE BAND IN GENERAL AND WHICH THING DO YOU THINK YOU SHOULD CORRECT?
WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU NEED IMPROVEMENT?
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AML – In our pockets… with a little
bit of more money we would get out of this stagnation… We have the wills,
we have the skills, but we must pay our bills…
15.IF SOMEDAY YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO
MEET THE CREATURE THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE, WHICH WOULD YOUR BIGGEST QUESTION
BE?
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AML – “Are you happy now, you son of
a bitch?!?”
16.WHICH IS MAN'S BIGGEST TEMPTATION?
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AML – Money, power, control. Materialism
has been so far…
17.IF TIME TRAVEL WAS POSSIBLE, WHICH
HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHY? WHAT WOULD YOU MISS
THE MOST FROM OUR TIME?
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AML – I think it’s a very personal
question, so I’ll answer by myself, just like the last two questions… I
think I’d like to visit the end of 19th Century… That modern fever that
inspired people like Baudelaire and Fernando Pessoa… the explosion of the
modern art and literature… the passion for speed… all that changes in the
way the men saw the things… I would miss this motherfuckin’ computer, my
cd’s, my electric bass guitar… But sometimes I think I wanted to live in
the Stone Age, back to the basics!
18.WHAT PROLOGUE AND TITLE WOULD YOU
LIKE THIS INTERVIEW TO HAVE?
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AML – Hey Nick, let’s compose it together?
We can do it the following way: I’ll write some words and you can use some
of them, or just take the general context to create prologue and title,
ok??? EXTREME SOUTH DARK MINDS COLD GREY ATMOSPHERE NEGATIVE GLOOMY POETRY
SOMBER HATE MELANCHOLY BEAUTY AVANT-GARDE… you can also be based in what
I’ve said along this cool interview! I trust in you, man!
19.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK
YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
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AML – The only thing I like to mention
is thank you for the interview and for your support! I also invite the
people who are now reading these lines to visit our website (www.m26.hpg.com.br)
if they like to know something more about us… or just get in touch, it
will be a pleasure to answer! Stay Dark!!!
NIKOS "William_Kidd"
PARASTATIDIS