Despite the decision for recording this album has appeared recently, to make this “sound” presented on “Universo Inverso” with influences of our music is a very old dream. I have always been through this musical universe of MPB, JAZZ and latin music.I made some friends in this universe, took part in some jams, events. Etc.
5 years ago, in a bar called Blem Blem in São Paulo I met Yaniel Matos. He had arrived from Cuba a day before. He was there a little lost without knowing anybody. We became nice friends and a day after he went to my house to play together with me. I have always been interested in cuban music and the wonderful musician from there. At that time he started a group of “latin” to play at Vila Madalena.I had ever been playing this style of fusion with a trio which had Douglas Las Casas on the drums and Ximba Uchiama on the bass. Yaniel invited me, together with Douglas to be in the group. Our friendship got closer. That project went on for just a little Just for months and not often I could be there as Angra was really demanding time from me at that time. When possible, we tried to meet each other to play.Yaniel performed on Temple of Shadows of Angra playing cello. He was amazed after seeing a Metallica concert in Europe. In the year of 2006 when I had already written the songs to Angra´s new cd called “Aurora Consurgens” I decided to look for Yaniel to make a dream come true:Record something together.
As usual, at least for me, the compositions are written without any criteria of style, among Angra compositions I wrote other ideas which were more brazillian and jazz.The most of them was written on the piano,instrument which has always challenged me, But it is really good to compose.
I talked to Yaniel and he obviously liked the Idea of recording.I had already listened to his songs, so I asked him to cooperate with 4 songs. I knew which songs would sound better to the album.For me, this cd would be a celebration of carribean latin music with brazillian music.He as a native cuban a lover of jazz and me, as a native brazillian as a lover of rock.Being like that we would have lots of styles to mix and to get through.
To get together with the quartet I thought immediately in Cuca Texeira.He is the best drummer in Brazil nowadays.I knew that I needed a great, musical and super experienced drummer who would learn everything fast and would record in a high level without worrying. I went to his house, took the scores and talked about the project. He accepted immediately. We had known each other for 15 years , but we had never done a work together. So, that was the time! I asked Cuca to suggest a bass player, because it’s important the harmony of the drummer and the bassist.He suggested Carlinhos Noronha. With Carlinhos I had already played with in some jams.I always got impressed with his precision and grooves.He has a huge experience and has already recorded and played with lots of artists from São Paulo.I called Carlinhos on the same day, and two days after he was into the project, with the scores on his hands.Up to that period, I was ok, because I didn’t know when it would be the time to put all of that in practice. I only knew that soon I would start rehearsing with Angra for the Aurora Consurgens album...
Something that made me get happy for this project was also the fact of receiving good critics about my brazillian music with acoustic guitar which I recorded on my first solo album,”No Gravity”.The recording label in Japan that works with Angra and which released “No Gravity” motivated me to show to people an entire cd with this style. For this reason, I knew before starting to record the album that it was going to be released in Japan, which made feel more confident to produce that cd.
The problem or maybe the great motivation was that the label told me that maybe that would be better to release my cd together with Edu Falaschi’s solo cd (Angra – Lead vocals) and with Karma (Felipe Andreoli – Angra). This way would be better to the label to do all the promotion of those 3 cds together.The question was about I had just one month to record, to mix, to do the cover, photos, to register the songs, contract and all that stuff which involves a production of a cd. Moreover, I would have to do some rehearsals with Angra. I had two options: Face that or give that up...I decided to face that. I called all the guys and we started to rehearse. It wasn’t easy because all of them are great musicians and have their busy professional life.I did just 5 rehearsals. It’s important to say that when we are talking about this style of music and this level of musicians the rehearsals are not that much necessary. Songs go well the very first time it is played. It is all about a matter of getting the right atmosphere for each song and it is done.
During all this time, I had to look for a studio where we could record this live.Usually new studios don’t have this kind of thing, besides that, I needed to find a studio with a good piano,which made the things get a little more complicated.The most recommended was “Nosso Estúdio”.A studio that has been used to recording this style for decades. They recorded all the cds of Hermeto Pascoal and other famous MPB artists.I booked 3 days for using the studio. It couldn’t be more, because Cuca had to go to the USA with Maria Rita.So we had to record all of it in 3 days, what is not easy.To make things more difficult, Angra had a concert in the first day of concert.The show was in São Paulo, at Playcenter, so in the middle of the recording I would go out, would play the concert and would come back.Madness, but there wasn’t another way.
I also called a big friend to be the sound technician,Guilherme Canaes. He worked on Angra’s Holy Land tour and Fireworks tour.I trust him totally. I could say that everything was really stressful, but music always pays back. The rehearsals were great.I did it at my home, and called some friends to watch. I let the things get calmer and the music go nicely and natural. An interaction of four musicians of different experiences and different backgrounds. That is why it is possible to find on the cd, the recycle symbol changed to 4 arrows. An exchange of ideas and musical comunication among the four musicians.
A day before the recordings we took the whole guitar equipment tar to the studio. May 1st, Labor’s day, holiday and it was a Sunday. It would be a really tense day with a lot of work. Everyone got there early with Rodrigo Fantoni and Marcos Limone (Angra technicians) to turn on all the equipment. Everyone was sat down on chairs in a circle in a way that we could see each other playing, but avoiding our sounds to get mixed up. The studio is really good and has nice equipments, with a nice SSL added to Canaes’ experience, so it was really easy to find the right sound.The problem was about the piano microphone getting the drums.After doing some recording tests we started recording.
We chose the song “Samba da Elisa” which had been the first we had rehearsed and is the one Yaniel really loves For all the songs we did the same.We played the song for 3 times and after we went to technic room to listen to the result.If we liked one of this three versions, it was done and we started playing next song.Sometimes in some songs, we played it once. After hearing we could always know what was missing.Then in the next time we tried to solve that. Actually, if anyone made a huge mistake we stopped in the middle of the song, because there wasn’t any way to correct that. All the song which were recorded were played from the beginning to the end, even because the recording system of the studio wasn’t practical to correct.
To the ones who don’t know, this way of recording is totally odd compared to the ones nowadays. Today we have the possibility of using the computer to fix anything. But the intention of this cd was to keep being 100% spontaneous.Totally inverted in a Heavy Metal recording or other kind of music.Really an Inverted Universe.
Going out for Angra’s Concert was really uncommon.I got out the studio in that mood that you can see on the pictures, went straight to the dressing room, changed my clothes, went to the stage, played about one and a half hour of heavy metal really loud to 8.000 people at Playcenter, went back to the studio and I got there before the guys who had left for some food. It was really a shock of different styles.It was when I lived the maximum of these both styles.And for me, it’s really good,because these two sides get me as a musician.I think this journey through these different styles makes me get motivated to play over and over again.
The days after were like the first day, without the madness of going to a concert. It was quite tranquil. The period of recording was 8 hours.Nothing else after that,because after certain time our head stop working to create good music.On the third day when everything was over I asked Yaniel to play a song called “Recuerdos”.This song finished the cd and all the anxiety of the recording.It wasn’t on my plans to record that. I hadn’t even brought my acoustic guitar to the studio. He turned on the metronome and started playing the harmony picturing the acoustic guitar melody...by the way, this was the unique song we used a metronome. Cuca counted the tempo and we started playing.It makes much more difficult to correct a song.
After the third day I had a preview of the recording.Somedays after I went to Via Musique studios to listen to the result and to record again some guitars that I hadn’t liked. Listening to the result of the recording, I thought it was sounding too jazz, because I didn’t record all the songs with distortion.”Anastácia” and “Arcos da Lapa” I recorded with clean guitar, and listening to the result I thought it would sound better with distortion guitars,so at Via Musice I put some guitar distortion. When I was recording it again I tried to get into the same mood of the day. At Via Musique I also recorded the acousitc guitars of “Recuerdos”. It was one of the hardest songs. I could not get into that mood of finished work, calm and tranquil when Yaniel had recorded. I remember this was the week of PCC attack in São Paulo. Going to the studio that night in that heavy mood and record this song wasn’t easy.I tried but I couldn’t do that. I was always playing faster and anxious when compared to the piano.After two days, I came back and I did it.I got the same spirit condition and calm.Some things were done with Thiago Bianchi and others, with Amauri Chamorro.Yet in that week I recorded some percussions .I felt that it needed some percussion effects.I called Maurício Alves (Mestre Ambrósio).He is a big percussionist.I liked it so much that we called him to do Aurora Consurgens as well.
Thiago Bianchi took all the material and started mixing.First of all, he did it by himself, because I was playing in Europe at a festival called “Gods of Metal”. He was doing some samples of mixing and he sent through e-mail. Poor one! He received the longest e-mails of history.The idea was about doing the biggest part by himself and when I came back we would finish this to send it to master.
Before going to Europe I went to Memorial of Latin America Latina with Marcelo Rossi on a Sunday to take some pictures to the cover of the cd.I chose this place because this means that the cd is a celebration of Latin music based in São Paulo. All the pictures were taken there. Even the picture with the red bottom which is the door of the Latin-American Parliament. I took the pictures and went to Europe.
I sent the preview to the japanese label.They heard the sound and asked me where the bossa nova played with the acoustic guitar was. Then I said: It doesn’t have! But is it necessary? They have this idea of Brazilian music. Well, I had to write a song to be played on with acoustic guitar. I went to the studio and I wrote right that time an idea which was something like a Brazilian choro. Thiago helped a lot to write this song, because we needed to rush with that. He called Henrique to play mandolim and the legendary Bocato to play mandolim and trombone.This way the song would be totally Brazilian. I couldn’t watch Bocato’s recording, because I was already in Europe. As this song was out of quartet context,it was released as “ bonus track” in Japan.The song is called “Espera ai” (Hold on), because everything was finished when it wanted to be in the cd.
I thought problems were over...Of course not! With everything ready I sent the audio to German to do the master and with the same guy who does Angra’s cds, Jurgen. It needed a totally reliable guy, because I would not have time to change this in case I didn’t like.When I received the cd to approve the master, I noticed that on the song “Recuerdos” it was possible to hear the metronome.This song is really soft and calm and on the breathing moments the metronome of the phone of Yaniel was caught by the piano microphone.
I had just one day to solve that problem. I called Cuca and we went to the studio to put some effects of drums,cymbals,broom etc. This way the metronome would be impossible to be heard. Once we had recorded the drums, Thiago mixed it again and we sent this to remaster.It was done. After being mastered, it was sent to Japan. Now only the art was missing. It was the week of Brazil games and people here got crazy for it and stopped everything to watch the games and I was running against the time , because in Japan nobody would wait.Marcelo and Edu Carranque did and finished the art in a record time. I stayed in front of them helping to decide what would be done and giving some ideas at the same time.I think it’s really better to work like that, under pressure.I really like their work.It became a really nice art,the way that I wanted.Out of heavy metal idea so where people who know me like rock guitarist, would notice by the cover and by the names that this cd would be different of expectation.
I remember the last scene of this cd production was me at Fedex at 10 P.M. a day before a holiday begging to the guy not to close the office because Edu was bringing the cd with the art.It had to go to Japan on that day. If the fedex guy didn’t wait (what he really didn’t do...I had to take him at shopping mall parking), it would miss the premier date.As a matter of fact, any cd producer has a million of histories behind it.It is always a hard thing to do.It takes energy, concentration, hard work and a lot of organization.Mainly when we are talking about a solo cd, which is not possible to divide tasks with other people...
I am really happy with the result, with the sound, with the songs and with all the respect that “true metal” fans have been receiving. Everybody has understood that a musician has to be obligatorily much more than what they play in their band. A musician has to go deep in music to be creative and innovator for many years.It’s what I have been looking for... always get my truth.
Great Hug
Kiko Loureiro |
