Interview with Phrenesy
Interview with Phrenesy
Interviewed by Victor Augusto
Back in 2014, when I went to another underground concert here in Brasília (Capital of Brazil) and I had the good pleasure of discovering a killer Thrash Metal Band playing. This band was releasing their debut album and I immediately bought the CD. It blew me away! What a killer band! The band: Phrenesy! The album: “The Power Comes From The Beer”! The best album from that year! It played in the old stereo in my old car for months.
I went to so many of their concerts that we became good friends. They really take the utopia of “Underground Union and Support” very seriously. All the guys are very nice and friendly people. So let’s talk with the guitarist Tiago Teobaldo about the band’s history so far and their importance to their local music scene.
I hope you all enjoy it!
Victor Augusto: The band started in 2003 with the guitarist Tiago Teobaldo and the drummer Josefer Ayres when you were very young. What were your dreams or pretensions and what was going on in your head at the time?
Tiago Teobaldo: When Josefer and I put together the band, I believe that the initial idea was to make some very satanic Death Metal, but as we probably wouldn’t be able to sustain that, we decided to make Alcoholic Thrash. I believe that our goals remain the same, and that is playing shows and making friends around the world.
Tiago Teobaldo – Guitars
The first album “The Power Comes From The Beer” was released in 2014, more than 10 years after the band’s creation, and it features such good compositions and recordings that many bands can feel envious of it. How confident did you feel to release such a high-level debut?
We had total confidence in our songs because we had been working on them for several years and as we were already playing them before the recording, we had a great response from the public and, certainly, the work done by Caio Duarte, who did all the recording and production. He helped a lot.
“The Power Comes From The Beer” (2014)
Phrenesy comes from the capital of Brazil, famous for the country’s controversial politics and also for the exuberant architecture of the postcards, but we know that the life of the common worker in the city is not easy at all. We also know that Phrenesy is a band that lives this reality. How much does this influence the band’s lyrics and music?
The harsh reality of our people. We live for work and to pay taxes that sustain those motherfuckers (politics). I believe that in a way this routine of ours contributes to our compositions since wouldn’t hatred and everyday difficulties be one of the best ways to express yourself in Heavy Metal?
In the beginning of the band, was there any disbelief or people putting you down, that influenced the band to play as well as you do today?
There was a period that yes, especially before the release of our debut album “The Power Comes From the Beer”. I always had the idea to play a more Thrash/Death line on Phrenesy, it’s what we’ve always liked, but we’ve heard a few times in order to diminish the band that our sound was too modern to be Thrash and that the band wasn’t good enough because we play wearing shorts… Can you believe it? It’s okay not to like our sound, it’s part of it, but defining the band based on that, it is absurd.
The second album “Fears Apocalypse” came in 2022 and has a completely different recording sound from the first album. In my opinion, it sounds much more like what we hear from a live concert, especially for the drums. Was the band or the producers planning it?
In this post-production, Thiago Bianchi (the producer) had total freedom, so sounding more ‘live’ was his idea, which pleased us a lot.
“Fears Apocalypse” (2022)
The name of the album and the song “Fears Apocalypse” was changed in the studio, as the band had been playing it as “Beer Apocalypse” for years prior to recording. Could you detail how this change was and what made you change it?
We decided to change the name and theme of this song already in the recording when Wendel Aires (vocalist) went to do the vocals. As we were going through a pandemic where in Brazil thousands of people were dying every single day, we thought it was better to change. It was a dark and very difficult period and as this song would also be the name of the album, so we chose to do something more serious.
Phrenesy is one of the few bands that practices the famous unity of the Underground. You are very nice people, and you are always hanging out with the bands and with the families of the musicians from these bands. How did you create this culture in your local scene?
These things were happening naturally, it’s been 22 years seeing bands coming and going and consequently we ended up living with several people and creating several friendships, but we practiced this union because we do believe in it.
Speaking about union, I cannot fail to mention the band member’s wives. They are together with you, participating in the events and helping the band. How is their relationship with the band and with the fans?
They are part of our lives so there would be no way to exclude them from that to their sadness (laughs). Our wives/girlfriends are always present at rehearsals, shows and helping in whatever way they can, this is very important to us.
Since we mentioned the wives. One of them is almost one more member of Phrenesy, which is your wife, Jacqueline Sales. She was responsible for the cover art of “Fears Apocalypse”, in addition to illustrating several concert flyers of the Brasília scene and being an excellent photographer. How is her participation in the band?
Jackie is fundamental for us; she has total freedom in this creative part and several times she helps us with promotion and giving ideas to improve some concepts in the band. I really don’t know what would become of us without her presence.
Jacqueline and Tiago
The promotion “Fears Apocalypse” seemed to have fewer shows, but the few ones had a better structure, such as the shows they did in São Paulo. Could you tell us about these shows?
We really had fewer shows for the release of “Fears Apocalypse”. I believe that because the schedule of our jobs hinders us from scheduling more dates and also another reason is that we try to do more shows outside of our town and consequently we get these in São Paulo. In São Paulo we went on 3 occasions, the first we closed with a show promoter who was a big son of a bitch with us. We were supposed to do 3 shows but when we got there, we had nothing, and we only did one show that only happened because the organizers took pity on us. Shameful! But fortunately, on this trip we had the pleasure of meeting Renato, lead singer of the band Vazio, and Rafa, who has a very cool project in SP called “Sinfonia de Cãos” and they were the ones who welcomed us, and we ended up being presented with some great friendships.
On the second trip we went together with the band Macakongs 2099 (also from Brasília/DF) of our friend Phú, this time we had no problem with the production of the shows but unfortunately, on the day we arrived in São Paulo, it rained and that practically devastated the city and we couldn’t do the first show which was very frustrating for the band, but fortunately once again we were welcomed by our friends from “Sinfonia de Cãos” and the other 2 shows took place normally and were very awesome!
Our last trip to São Paulo was with our friends from Terror Revolucionário and Xarope. This time we managed to do all the shows according to the plan of Captain Thiago Barbosa, guitarist of Terror Revolucionário, and one of them was at “Master of Noise”, a fest with more than 25 bands a day and which was sensational.
The band still keeps the beer theme in the songs, but it looks like you’ve been focusing more on important themes related to the issues we live in this world. Would this be a natural consequence of the maturation of musicians, as a person?
I believe it is a consequence of the world we live in where every day we are shot with devastating news showing how humanity is a pit of endless evil and this ends up being an influence on our lyrics. But fortunately, we have beer in our lives, and we probably won’t stop addressing this subject as well.
I reinforce that in addition to being a fan, I do admire the friendship and affection you have with everyone around the band. Even my wife Priscila (that is not the best Thrash Metal fan in the world) loves you.
The space is free for one final message and for the band’s future plans.
You and Priscila are our brother and sister, Big Victor! hahaha
We thank you for the opportunity once again here at Ever Metal that does a sensational job promoting this world of Heavy Metal, you are to be congratulated! Phrenesy is in the process of composing for the new album, but we decided to take a break to re-record our 1st demo “Do You Like Mocotó?”, which commemorates 20 years. This demo is so rare that no one in the band has it LOL. So that’s it, we’re going to re-record these songs and soon we’ll have the material.
Phrenesy and Victor Augusto after a concert that you can check out here
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Victor Augusto and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this interview, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
