ANDRALLS

At the end of 2013 Alexandre Brito, one of the founding members of the legendary Brazillian metal acts Andralls, left the band. The disbandment of the group soon followed.
It was really difficult to find any official information or band’s statement addressing the reasons for the  aforementioned split-up.. Personally, Alex is my really good friend, so when I had an occasion to meet him, I  decided to ask him couple of questions about the band and his current plans.

Q: So, let’s start from the most important question in this interview. There have been a lot of rumours about your  departure from Andralls, splitting-up of the band, but yet there has been no official statement from the band. Thus.  I would like to ask you, why did you left the band?

AB: Last year my mom died, so it wasn’t easy for me to deal with my own feelings and I started to drink a lot, taken some drugs and had some personal struggles with the rest of the guys in the band. After that we had a  problem in one of the festivals held in the south of Brazil, because I drank a lot and I fell asleep just before we were about to play the gig. The guys decided to leave me on the festival and come back to our hometown.
After coming back to my home I talked with my family, with my brothers and I saw clearly that it was the time for  me to put my life with the band on hold. I don’t know whether it’s will be just for a while or forever. Me and Ed  played together for a long time - about twenty years - so we had our own personal struggles and became really  difficult for us to live on the road. We have our own lives, and we just had to take care of them. I think that this was the time to stop. I don’t know if we ever come back, or not. I would say yes, because Ed is like a brother to me, so maybe it’s just a break.
All these rumors are caused because I’ve just left a message on the internet, on my personal facebook, but a  band decided not to put it out. We had a conversation after that, so the band just decided to stop.

Q: So you wanted to keep it all personal, right?

AB: Yes. Eddie, as I told, is like my brother, so he came to me and told me “Hey, look, the band is me and you - so I play in the band without you”. Thus, they’ve decided to stop the functioning of the band, even when I protested and said “Come on, you can continue the band, with or without me”.
Q: Do you think of any side-projects or another band to replace Andralls?

AB: No.

Q: And do you know whether Eddie or Cleber are thinking about such things?

AB: Yes. Cleber started a new project. I don’t know a lot about it, I just talked with him some weeks ago and I asked “Hey, how are you? How is your life going on? How is your family, your daughter?”, etc. And he replied “Yes, I’m OK, I work a lot and play with some guys”. But that’s all I know. I don’t know if we can come back to playing together. I hope yes, but at the moment, this is all I can say.

 

Q: Assuming that Andralls’ reunion would actually happen, do you think it would be a matter of months or rather, years?

AB: Personally, deep in my mind, I believe we could come back even next year. Right now I’m here, in Europe and I’ve heard a lot of people saying “come back, we want to see you again”, etc. So when I’ll be back in Brazil I’ll arrange a meeting with the guys and just ask them what they want to do - to finally decide whether we call it quits with Andralls, or come back.
Q: Right now, you’re focused on running the On Fire Booking Agency.

AB: Yes, I’m focused on it and I’ve been doing it for more than ten years. Andralls experienced many ups and downs so as the time ran and I grew older I decided that it’s high time to take care of my personal life and secure myself a job, which is now the On Fire Booking Agency

Q: So, right now you try to keep an eye on younger bands?

AB: Yes. I hold a big opportunity in my hands to bring good, young Brazilian bands to Europe. I’m just checking out what bands want to come, so I can sign a contract with them, allowing them to play here. And it’s working very well, which makes my really happy.

Q: You’ve toured with a lot of bands, Astafix, Andralls, Woslom, to name only the few.

AB: Harllequin, Drauggard, Forka, Desalmado.

Q: Yeah. And few minutes ago we’ve seen a great Chaos Synopsis gig. So, if you have to pick one, best band, that you ever toured with - which band would it be?

AB: Well, it’s difficult to tell. I liked each and every band I’ve every worked with, but a different way - I never work with a band that I don’t like. It’s the most important thing in my opinion, i.e. - I don’t do it for money, I do it for the feeling, the passion. One of the bands that I really like is Chaos Synopsis, but the one I will always keep in my heart is Woslom. Woslom’s tour was the best I did. Since then they have grown up as musicians, and came back here last year - without me this time - and they’ll be in Europe once again this year. So if I had to pick one, it  would be Woslom.

Q: Did you start On Fire, because you had previous experience with booking the tours for Andralls, or have you started to book Andralls tours thanks to experience that On Fire gave you?

AB: It’s a long story. My brother is a producer, he works within metal scene - well not only metal but even with mainstream - for more than twenty years, so I’ve grown up looking at my brother’s work. When we started to put Andralls on the road- I was always the guy to book and manage the band. It helped me to acquire a lot of “know- how” experience. Then we played some tours here in Europe, and I’ve met a German girl (who is my ex-girlfriend, but we’re still friends )- and she and Eddy told me - “why you don’t start to work this way? You feel it and it’s easy for you”. So the idea basically came from Eddy, but I held to it and started to make it a reality. I think, that I’m following my own way- I like to do that, I like the rock’n’roll way of life, the lifestyle that road gives me.

Q: Coming back to Andralls- you’ve just released a new DVD. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve read a lot of good opinions about it. How do you feel about this new release?

AB: I’m very proud that we realised that because we had to work really hard for it. We recorded a gig in north of Brazil, in the city of Belem, something like three thousand kilometers from Sao Paulo, our hometown.We chose Belem because for us the crowd there is simply the best in the world. So it was fucking amazing. And  we were really, really happy to play there.

Q: So if Andralls don’t come back – you can rest assure that you’re final work is a really strong piece of material, right?

AB: Yeah, but I think that there will be an Andralls reunion. I’ve already talked with our previous singer and guitarist, Alex Coelho.

Q: So you think that, if Andralls reunion takes place, it would be with or without Cleber?

AB: I really don’t know. I don’t have an answer to this question. The final decision is not mine to make - it’s Cleber’s choice. Before we disbanded Andralls, we were thinking to brining back Alex [Coelho], but along with Cleber; to come back to being a quartet. So I really don’t know, it’s all a sort of mystery to me.

Q: Thanks for an interview. The last word goes to you - do you want to say something to readers?

AB: Yeah! Keep strong everybody, keep listening to metal! We all have to deal with many problems and I also had  my share of the hard times. However, I’m not done yet! Right now I’m here, working with metal bands and I hope to come back and play some fasthrash for Polish people in the near future.


Wojciech Michalak

 

Poprawiony (czwartek, 19 czerwca 2014 07:38)