(Karen Gimenez, Rock Brigade #102, Jan. '95)
Hailing from the same city as Sepultura (Wagner was even the band's first vocalist), the guys of Sarcófago trailed a different path. Even playing in Europe, they're still kept away from the big arenas, walking through the narrow alleys of the underground. After nearly choosing to make a more technical sound on The Laws Of Scourge ('91), the band nowadays is resumed to the duo Wagner (G) and G.G. (B) and returned to the old days, to the deafening rotness with Hate ('94). They explain everything on the interview below:
RB - What
took you to the old times when recording Hate,
after choosing a more ellaborated sound on The
Laws Of Scourge?
WAGNER
- Back on the days of Laws Of Scourge [Editor's Note:
when the band was composed of four members], since we're
democratic, the album ended up without the identity that we
wanted. But back on these days we were allowed ourselves to be
influenced by other people.
RB - What
people?
WAGNER
- The other band members who wanted to make a more well done
music. They are way better musicians than we. I think that's the
problem, they knew how to play and we didn't.
G.G. - From this album on, since it's just the
two of us, we decided to make a very violent work. Reduced guitar
work, something more impressive.
WAGNER - We weren't satisfied with the result of
that album. Not regarding sales, 'cos it sold much better than
the others, but with the path that the band had taken. So we
decided to make the new album as a return to the true spirit of
Sarcófago.
RB - Are
you satisfied with the result this time?
G.G.
- Definitely.
RB - Two
years passed between Laws
and Hate. What happend
to Sarcófago during this time?
WAGNER
- We were touring, making gigs in Europe - Spain and Portugal. We
also played in Chile and Peru. We promoted Laws a lot,
also in Brazil. It's the album we promoted most. And there was
also the re-structuring process of the band. It's just the two of
us. The rest was fired.
RB - On Hate
you recorded only you two and with several electronic facilities,
mainly regarding the drums. Is this the band's future, a duo
followed by technology?
WAGNER
- Regarding the electronic drums, everybody uses it nowadays, all
drums are triggered. It's a computer which creates the drums'
sound in studio nowadays. But instead of using a drummer, we
created the sound on a keyboard, but the drummer who records in a
studio records this way. There's no drummer who's able to play
the kind of sound that we wanted to make. Drummers usually are
incompetent beings. At least for our kind of music. They always
complain that it's too fast.
G.G. - We like to work with the absurd. When it's
slow, it's really slow, but when it's fast, it's really fast. We
enjoy dealing with exagerations.
RB - How
is the promoting campaign for Hate?
Everybody knows that you don't like to have your pics taken,
making interviews and stuff like that.
WAGNER
- We really didn't want to show up.
G.G. - No pics, no talking about the new look,
small promotion, small press, all that stuff. We want to be
completely underground, not rocking too much. We just put the
record on the stores, without pre-promotion, nothing of that.
RB - But
people and up knowing...
G.G.
- (interrupting) Only what the label does and we can't interfere.
The only interviews that we're giving are here [on RB] and MTV.
And that's because the owner [of the label] insisted a lot, 'cos
we didn't want to. We wanted to let it roll without keep talking
to mags and newspapers.
RB - Don't
you think that the fact of "hiding" yourselves may
affect the album sales?
WAGNER
- But we don't care if the album will sell or not. What we wanted
was to record an album interely the way the desired.
RB - But
do you at least have an idea of how much is it selling?
WAGNER
- It's being a surprise, selling more than we expected. We don't
know about numbers, but we've been receiving a lot of mail,
mainly from the foreign. Seems that the people here in Brasil
seems are not getting the message we wanted to spread
RB - How
about the release tour?
G.G.
- We decided to have a break. We won't make shows for a while.
WAGNER - First we want to make a tour outside
and then play here. [E.N.: no dates were scheduled when this
issue was released]
RB - But
what about Brazil?
WAGNER
- Making shows in Brazil causes a big headache, 'cos the guys don't
give the deserved value to home bands when it relates to
sponsorship, all that stuff, specially in São Paulo.
RB - Will
you record any videoclip?
G.G.
- We're not thinking about it. We don't intend to, but if we have
to it will be done as long as our faces are not shown.
RB - Why
such a big worry about not showing your faces? Is it related to
the look change?
G.G.
- That's because we explored the visual stuff too much and we don't
want that anymore. We want to explore the sound more. That has
nothing to do with the looks 'cos when we started we had short
hair [E.N.: Wagner's hair is short now].
WAGNER - We got tired of having long hair. Every
playboy who's a fan of Pearl Jam is letting his hair grow. W're
alaways wanting to go against the trend, against the tendencies.
RB - How
were the album's writing and recording processes?
G.G.
- We scheduled the recording day, got in the studio and recorded
it. We wrote the songs in the studio. There were no rehearsals,
nothing at all. We recorded in two different studios.
Wagner and G.G. end this stating again that they're not worried with the money they can or can't earn with the album. They make it clear that they play as a hobby, for each one has a different job. Wagner is an economist and G.G. works on the jewelry business.