ABUSO SONORO INTERVIEW
Interview with Angelo(bass):
1-Hello Angelo,how are you?
i’m fine! and I hope you too.
2-Can you tell us a little Abuso Sonoro biography?
Well, Abuso Sonoro started in 93. We had a lot of line-ups in this 6 years, and recorded some stuff too, like you know. In the begining I played guitar and Arilson played the bass, but now Arilson plays guitar and I play bass. We had a lot of changes in the line up, in the begining we had just one vocal (Beto), but after Prisões 7”, we call Elaine to sing one song (Buraco Podre) because we wanted a female vocal on it, and since then she kept with us, after Já Basta we put one more guitar, because we always recorded two guitars in studio, but at live presentations we just played with one guitar, so we called Rui to play with us. After Beto left the band, Arilson was the easier choice, because he always did the backings, so we kept a male and a female vocal from that moment up to now. The line up today is: Arilson guitar & vocal, Elaine - vocal, Rui - guitar, Juquinha - drums and Angelo - bass.
3-Why you choose Abuso Sonoro for the band name?
It’s just a name, it doesn’t have a political reason or something like this, we throught about changing the name several times, but we throught better, and forgot it. The name is just to you know the band, for example: like my name is Angelo and your name is
4-Tell us what you think about each release:
-Jogo Sujo 7”EP: It was our first ep, in reality it was a dt called Não Capitalismo, we were invited by Low Life rec. to release this stuff in ep, and once we didn’t have money to re-make it, we put the dt songs on this vynil, 2 songs were out from this, one went to AYF compilation ep, and the another was released in Não Somos comp. LP a lot of years later, (it was a Tervet Kädet cover). We like this record a lot, this songs are more known by people here, in the gigs always someone asks us to play a song from this one.
-Prisões 7”EP: Well it was our second record, we got into the studio and recorded 19 songs in 8 hours, I think. I sent the tape for a lot of labels around the world, and the Panx rec. from France answered saying that they were interested in all stuff, they wanted to do a full-length LP with the whole stuff, but we wanted to do only ep’s, because we could spread better our songs around the world. So we started to plan this ep, at this same time Carandiru’s massacre completed 3 years without a solution, the policemen that killed 111 people weren’t arrested, so we wrote about it on song called Prisões (Prisions) and we put the same name in the record, this ep was very important for us, because it was our first release in another country.
-Abuso Sonoro/Detestation split 7”EP: This split ep was a good surprise for us, Jeff from Six Weeks invited us to do it, and told us about Detestation guys, we had never heard about them, so I asked Jeff their address for me to write and know them better. When I received the Unheard Cries dt, I loved it, it was powerfull, with a excelent female vocal, good riffs, etc... So we decided doing it, and for me this is one of the best stuff released by us.
-Abuso Sonoro/Amor Protesto Y Odio split LP: and after, Já Basta!!! Ep. We spent a lot of time just practcing and doing new songs, and some gigs. So we would do a tour with Rot in Europe, and we wanted to do a new stuff to bring it, for more people know our songs, so Josimas from Amor Protesto Y Odio asked us about doing a split LP, because APO had recorded some weeks ago, so I talked with the guys and said ok! We recorded it like a rehearsal, in one take, we just got 4 hours to do it, and this was the best record in studio up to now for us, it has heavy and clear sounds, with a good sound from drums and a cool sound from the guitars, really cool. But the split had a lot of problems with the covers, were made 500 copies from the record, and just 150 had cover, and this 150 are sold out, a lot of labels helped us to do it possible, and this labels don’t have this stuff to sell/trade up to now, this LP was released in september 98. The labels are seraching for a solution, maybe to do a alternative cover, but I don’t know what’s going on now. This record have a second version in Europe, by a italian label called Agipunk, it got a new layout, all stuff in recycled paper, cover with 2 colors, and includes a booklet with all lyrics in english/portuguese and texts too.
Just a observation: we also released Já Basta!!! ep, after AS/Detestation split ep, it was released by Bomber records (Italy), and this ep was very important for us, the European tour happened because of this one. We also released Revolte-se!!! ep, by Sin Fronteras (USA), it just contains a lot of stuff from compilations on ep, Lp, CD that we took part on, and because some compilations became very rare, we throught about putting it on a ep. After the tour we released another split LP, in this time with Wojczech from Germany, they supported all our dates in Europe, they are great guys, this split contains live stuff from us, recorded in Rostock/Germany in ocotober 98, just 500 copies were made and it’s sold out now!!!
5-What is the next Abuso Sonoro release?
We’ll release a split ep with Autörithar from Germany, I think maybe in the end of August this will be out. We also take part in 2 compilation LP’s, one only with Latin American bands, called America es bella... Para vivir resistiendo!!, in this compilation we have only bands from countries like Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia and Brasil. The other compilation is called Aftermatch and is benefit to Profane Exisitence colective, it’s a double LP, and it is comming soon in a Cd version, 28 bands take part on it, most of them from USA and some countries from Europe and Brazil, bands like Doom, Força Macabra, Sein Red, Sin Dios, EOM, and a lot more.
6-What inspires you to write the great socially aware lyrics?
A lot of things, only turning on the TV or opening a newspaper or looking on the streets, it’s enough to get the inspiration. Exist a lot of things to express our angry and anguish, now we are writing more about the new world order, the neoliberalism and its consequences, a lot of people dying to give more money to the rich ones. The economic situation is fucking bad for us in the 3rd world, with a lot of people dying of hungry, or children on the streets stealing to live, to eat. Our lyrics have a point of view more revolutionary, we believe in the revolution, but not in a revolution for the next 4 or 5 years, we believe in a revolution based in a real social struggle, a class war, where we’ll put the rich ones in their places. A lot of guys involved with punk and anarchism, think about doing a revolution, but don’t really work for it, just dress a revolutionary stereotype, and nothing more. We say fuck off to this guys, we need people with real interest about taking part in a real revolution and we need to build all this process, because this never was a serious topic, just a word in a punk rock song. I’m speaking about Brazil situation, I know that in other countries, a lot of punx do excelent things, and it’s great, because it can be a real example for us, and inspire us too, but we need to give the first step, to start it, and make it become real.
7-Have you played gigs?How are there?
In 99, we played few times, just 3 times up to now, the first was in march with Wojczech(Germany), Cut Your Hair (Germany), Desecration (Guaruja/SP) and Antikorpus (Santos/SP) in Cubatão/SP, it was not a good gig for us, because the amps were fucking bad and the vocals very low, but it was good because we can see our friends from Germany again, and it was a great party for us. After it we played one more time with Wojczech and Cut Your Hair in São Roque, but we weren’t included in the gig, just played 3 or 5 songs, because some friends asked for it, Arilson our guitarrist/vocal didn’t was on this gig, so just played like a quartet. After this we played with Execradores, Vala Negra, No Prejudice and Septcemia, it was a good gig, we hadn’t played in São Paulo since 97, and it was good see a lot of friends again, I think there were 100 people inside the place, and a bunch more out, the most were punx and anarchopunx, some sxe and grinders. It was really great! Soon we‘ll play in Guarulhos and maybe in some other state.
8-Abuso Sonoro played in Europe with ROT,tell us something about the European Tour.
It was in september ‘98, and was pretty good. We played for 30 gigs in a month, we have just one day off. We played in 6 countries: Germany, Belgium, Chech Rep., France, Holand and Italy. We played in a lot of squats and youth centers, a lot of them are anarchist centers, just in Italy we played in some comunist centers. There a lot of activities exists, full time, and it’s cool, we talked with a lot of squatters and people that work with zines or radio shows. We can see like it works well in Europe, some squats have 15 years old or more, working with the comunity, etc... About the gigs, they were great, we played with good bands all time, like: Agathocles, Cripple Bastards, Intestinal Disease, Oi Polloi, Detestation and a lot more, a lot of bands were on tour in the same time, like Detestation, Drop Dead, or Submission Hold, a lot of bands go there to play and know the european scene, because it’s a great scene, some times we played for 20 people in a sunday and in the next day for 200 or more, but each city has its own scene and squats or other places for gigs. We live a very different situation, with a lot of problems in the brazilian scene, and not having places is one of them, because the brazilian scene don’t have its own clubs or squats, it allways has a owner with a lot of capitalist ideas about gigs, and it never brings nothing of productive to the scene.
9-We can expect a full lengh CD from Abuso Sonoro?
Well, we are planing to do a full lenght CD/LP for this year, maybe we record it in october or november, it will contain 15 or more unreleased songs, and will be released by Six Weeks/USA. Some songs are old for us, because were did in 97, and would be in our CD/LP released by Low Life, but it never happened, so when we recorded for the split LP with A.P.O, we had choose some songs, and now we’ll record the others songs, but most of this stuff is new, for most of people it’s inedit, but not for us.
10-What are your fave bands?
We hear a lot of bands, from Europe, USA, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru and Brasil, it’s very difficult to say what we like most, but I think that the most heard are: Detestation, State of Fear, Masskontroll, Heresy, Larm, Disrupt, Sin Dios, Doom, Força Macabra, Sentimentos Oprimidos, Deadmocracy, Rot, Dischord, Regeneracion, Civil Desobedience, Discarga Violenta, Crudos, Arma Contra Arma, Dropdead, Autonomia, Charles Bronson and a lot more.
11-Why the lyrics are in portuguese?
Because we believe that singing in our idiom can do people think about what we say in the songs, it’s more near from our reality. We aren’t against bands that sing in english, but I think that I’m not a american citizen, so I don’t need to sing in english. We put always the translations in english in our records, because I know that a lot of people around the world can’t read in portuguese, but always that is possible, we ask to be included in the other idioms, like Italian, French or Spanish, because people are not obligated to know english too. I think that the brazilian hardcore loose a lot of places and people, because of being sung in english, a lot of people show no interest about this, because they can’t understand what the guys are saying in their songs, and it keep a lot of poor guys out, that don’t speak english, it remembers me the fascists from SOD with Speak english or die!!! Imposing their imperialism with their idiom. The punk /hc always speak about its comunity, social problems, and views about a lot of political themes, like the rap, but the rap scene grown a lot more than hardcore scene, because the guys are interested about understanding what the bands sing, because it is part of their life, of their comunity, etc... You can see that the politization in the hardcore scene falls day by day, because people are on it just for the music, and not for the change, so if you sing in english ok, because nobody cares for what you sing, it’s just fun, it’just rock’n’roll.
12-What is your view about brazilian underground?
Like I said before, there are a lot of problems in the underground scene, like having no places to play, etc... Another problem is that there isn’t a underground culture, like in the punk scene per example. In the underground scene the bands want to be rockstars, want to be on MTV, etc... You can see all of this in the metal scene, it’s pathetic, a lot of bands trying be Sepultura, Sepultura was one in a million, never it will happen again, but a lof of guys try to do the same. For me it makes no sense, I see the underground like a resistance, not like the first step for the success. In the underground we have our own media, fanzines, radioshows, etc... We don’t need MTV or a big major, we have small labels and distros, I don’t need to be on MTV Awards, it’s a fuckin bullshit. (Fabrício:Yeah,fuckin right answer!Underground it`s pure resistence against rockstars!)
13-How can you describe Abuso Sonoro music?
Well, we play hardcore, some people say “Abuso Sonoro play crust core”, yeah we play crust, but it doesn’t have importance for us, we just play what we like, and this is what has importance for us. We never try to play something without sense for us, we have punk /hc in the veins, and we’ll always play it. All people in Abuso Sonoro come from of other bands, grind core bands, hardcore bands, death metal bands, but the hardcore have always been in our lives, because it doesn’t mean just a extreme music for us, it’s a life style for us.
14-What are Abuso Sonoro merchandise avaible?
We never had a merchandise, we have some T-shirts and some records to sell, but we sell it on the gigs, or when we have money to do it, we don’t have a merchandise list, but if you wanna a Abuso Sonoro T-shirt or other stuff, write for us, maybe we can do a trade, we love trade, records, t-shirts, etc...
15-Thanx a lot Angelo,any last comment?
Was a pleasure talk with you, and I hope to hear from the people some comments about this, so write for us: a/c Angelo Bruno, Cx Postal 2098, Santos/SP, 11060-970 -Brazil or send a e-mail: elephant@centersoft.com.br or visit our home page and sign the guestbook: http://www.Geocities.com/Arena/Sunsetstrip/6325
