Interviewed By ZeeZee (Staff Writer, Reviewer) Myglobalmind Webzine
Myglobalmind: Hi Andres, firstly thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for My Global Mind webzine…
Andrés: Hi ZeeZee I would like to thank you very much. It’s my first international interview promoting our debut album. I’m happy cos it’s a great chance to talk about my band Madgator, the great reviews that we are receiving around the world and talk to My Global Mind readers!
Myglobalmind: For our readers that are yet to discover MADGATOR. can you tell us a bit about the style of music the band plays and what people can expect from the album?
Andrés: We play songs that comes from our hearts trying to do a new and different work for the current concept of the rock scenery and adding up all energy of the 70’s. We use in all instruments, elements of Brazilian music, the inspiration of our Masters from great rock bands like Queen, Van Halen, ACDC, the power from the great Metal Bands of the 80’s and the highest instrumental world-wide level without frontiers! Here in Brazil some people say that our music it’s a “New Classic Rock” very intricated and quite Heavy! I believe that it’s very near of what we feel and this happens very naturally!
Myglobalmind: MADGATOR is actually a sort of reformation of a band from the late eighties called ALLIGATOR, can you tell us a bit about what happened back then, and what have you been doing with all the time in between?
Andrés: We start like ALLIGATOR playing in local bars in São Paulo city. We had a great support and fastly we recorded our first album but with a bad contract this album wasn’t finished. With the great disappointment and without motivation to continue, it would be very difficult to recommence at that time, so we decided to do a long pause! We started to play in gigs with great stars of brazilian music, in bands of TVshows, playing covers in pubs… I worked and I still work with dubbing of voice to video games, radio and TV jingles and teaching vocal techniques too.
Myglobalmind: As you already know, your new album is very well liked over here at My Global Mind, what has the overall feedback been like and are you happy with it?
Andrés: We are very happy with this feedback. It’s very interesting because the album was released only in Brazil and in this moment we are searching a label to release our debut album out of our country. We had some “specials” in radios in U.K., Greece and other countries. In Hungary we placed on top 3 in the HRMagazine website. In our country we are playing in festivals with great brazilian bands like Korzus, Angra…opening shows to Richie Kotzen, Tim Ripper Owens and our guitar Hard Alexandre had the chance to be part of the Tim Ripper band. We actually signed with two brazilian manufacturers: Snake Amps and Eagle guitars and basses, and we were participating of the biggest market of music of our country, the Expomusic 2010. So now we really need to spread our music to our new fans and friends around to world in a professional way and with the original CD to finally start with an international tour!
Myglobalmind: Do you have any favorite songs on the new album, or is there a certain couple of songs that you think show what MADGATOR is all about more than others?
Andrés: My favorite songs are those that make me feel the emotion that I had when I was singing the songs of my idols. Songs that don’t demonstrate clearly those influences but the sensations really exist inside of me! It’s a very personal satisfaction. “Hypnotize Her” is a song where I can feel the passion I have for Freddie Mercury. I love to sing “The Brave” and “Eternal Fire” and this mix between that Heavy Metal I heard when I was young with, Accept, Metal Church, Judas Priest and naturally going to the same new style of great “new” artists like Jorn Lande and Russel Allen. I think that all our songs have deeply our identity.
Myglobalmind: I’m always interested in hearing about the different ways bands work in the studio, so what was the recording process like?
Andrés: We start to record the album with all songs ready and finished. The only production that was done in the studio, I did for the choruses and choirs of voices, the keyboards, some guitar solos and some improvised parts like a drum solo that substitutes a guitar solo in the song “Hypnotize Her”. Our first thought was record the album live, playing together at the same time, but we don’t find a studio that had necessary conditions for this.
Myglobalmind: Have you guys been playing live much since the release of the album? Any big upcoming gigs or festivals that you tell us about?
Andrés: We have lucky because even before of the release of our album, we’ve been playing in some big festivals but we have in Brazil a sentence very similar of “No one is a prophet in his own country”. We have some upcoming gigs with Andre Matos band but we need to make concerts out of our country to have the right recognition, play with bands with our style of music, walk show after show and join more friends and fans. It’s only our first album and we have five new songs of the next album ready. Just the time will bring this recognition. We are walking with our hearts, we don’t do songs as if we will open a snack bar and wait for the profit or invest on stock market! I feel that some bands are facing the heavy metal in this way today! Certainly it wouldn’t be the kind of music that we are doing if we think in the same way!
Myglobalmind: Thinking way back now, is there any particular album that started the musical fire burning inside you? Or was there a certain moment that you realized that music was what you wanted to do?
Andrés: I remember when I was 10 y.o my father gave me a disc with the greatest hits of Little Richards was fantastic hear this guy singing Tutti Frutti, Lucille… My life has changed and the musical fire inside of me was born with the first time I heard Queen group, the album Live Killers was for years my lunch and dinner.
Myglobalmind: Can you tell us a few of your all-time favorite Albums?
Andrés: My classics – Queen: The Game and A night At The Opera. David Lee Roth: Eat’m and Smile. Van Halen: F.U.C.K. AC/DC: Back in Black. Glenn Hughes: Burn in Japan. Heavy Metal Albums – Metal Church: Metal Church, Accept: Restless And Wild, Iron Maiden: Piece of Mind. Hard Rock – Badlands: Badlands. Lynch Mob: Wicked Sensation. Howe II: High Gear. Winger: Pull. Dr Sin: Original Sin. Actually – Jorn: Out to Every Nation. Symphony X: Paradise Lost and Chickenfoot.
Myglobalmind: Are there any current bands that you are a fan of?
Andrés: Queen and Van Halen are definitively in my heart!
Myglobalmind: Is there any certain bands that you would really like to do some live shows with?
Andrés: I would love to do live shows with great Classic Rock bands or Hard Rock bands. I think that our music is so varied that there’s no band with a specify sound that we would like to do some shows due to his fans. To be in the same stage of any great band it’s always wonderful.
Myglobalmind: Any memories of your best gig, or your favorite gig?
Andrés: My best gig til now was play with Madgator in Araraquara city with my friends of Korzus band and Angra. Now I’m dreaming with our first show out of South America.
Myglobalmind: Any memories of your worst gig, or your least favorite gig?
Andrés: My worse gig was to see the show of a puerto rican boy band called Menudo on Morumbi Soccer Stadium, the stadium of my team São Paulo F.C. so I was convoked to accompany my little sister… it’s hard but it’s true!
Myglobalmind: Do you have any funny stories from the road that you can share with us?
Andrés: I remember when we were contracted to play in a party. What we didn’t know is that would be a Jewish party! I don’t know how and why but when we start to play and we look that people with those hats and their faces I saw that we wouldn’t play the second song… I asked to Hard Alex if he could play “Hava Naguila” but before we tried something they cut the sound and the lights of the stage heheheh
Myglobalmind: Andres, Thanks so much for your time mate, we wish you and the rest of the band all the best for the future. In closing is there anything you would like to say to your fans that might be reading this?
Andrés: Firstly I would like very much to thank you for this opportunity to talk to your readers, it’s very special to me! I hope that all our fans and all who are enjoying our music around the world give us support, spreading our name, adding us on twitter, facebook, on myspace, asking for our shows in your cities. We did a true work, very professional, respecting our roots and I think that it’s possible to hear this listening to our album! I see you soon my friends!
For more information please visit http://madgator.com.br or http://www.myspace.com/madgatorofficial
All images courtesy of http://madgator.com.br
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