interview with ThemalefiK
Have any of you played in other bands? Themalefik --- Yes, most of us played in other bands of the same genre, except the vocalist, who has always played in ThemalefiK
How is it that you started playing music? Themalefik --- When I was 16 years old I felt that there was something wrong with the religious belief and miserable catholic religious fanatics. That bothered me deeply and even today, the hipocrisy of people and the falsehood of the Bible’s scripture is what lead me to make music and have a black/death metal band in a country where 61,6% of the population is catholic. It was a challenge that I faced since 1993 when I founded ThemalefiK. The other day a Brazilian website noted that ThemalefiK had become global reference in black/death metal, that was a very good impact for us, because we know how hard it is to achieve international recognition.We are just so grateful to all of you.
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?
Themalefik ---(Cláudio Monteiro – Vocals ) ( Fabio Falco - Bass ) ( Lucas Oliveira - Guitars )
( Fernando Tropz - Drums ) How old are we? hehe, we are as old as metal.
Have you had other previous members? Themalefik --- Yes, ThemalefiK had many different members, I won’t say any names but throughout the last 23 years, we had 4 guitarists, 3 drummers and 4 bassists.
Did you make music even when you were young? Themalefik --- We are still young heheh but only after I was 16 when I found out about the true Bible’s falsehood and it’s fanatic and discredited followers waiting for something imaginary created by men.
Where are you from? Themalefik --- We all live in Brazil.
What year did the band form? Themalefik --- Cláudio Monteiro founded ThemalefiK in 1993 when we were still teenagers, in his garage.
What's your style of genre? Themalefik --- We play music that makes people reflect, for something to awaken within. Something like: cold, blood, everyday problems, religion, unfairness, fanatism, death, spiritualism, war, the black metal and all that shit the world is involved in.
What inspires you? Themalefik --- The world, the scoundrels, the religious, lies, greed, disdain and evil.
How often and where do you reherse? Themalefik --- Once a week for tree hours.
How have you developed since you started with the music? Themalefik --- We always had a distinct black metal style, in Brazil it is very common to be known as a black metal band, due to our roots. We always embraced it, but tem years ago we started to sing about more varied matters.
Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Themalefik --- We all work outside the band. I’m a computer scientist and the band also has a lawyer and a systems analyst. We consider the band a glorious and fantastic feat we were able to achieve throughout these 23 years. We only want to keep doing what we love to do and show the world that there is something to belive in and spoken of because music is universal.
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? Themalefik --- We never looked for anything like that, we have the band because we really like it, we were never the type to chase agencies or labels. We have partnerships with distributors and event promoters in Europe and already received lots of invitations to play there. The band thinks that everything happens through our work. And if we get future offers we’ll study them, no doubt.
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Themalefik --- Not exactly, but if we casually find one, we would probably think about it. In Brazil, musical culture is very different, due to the rich brazilian criativity, but there are lots of genres in Brazil that need to be eradicated, killed, crushed and erased, because they end up ruining our country’s image worldwide. I won’t say what the genres are, but sometimes I am absolutely sure I was born in the wrong country.
What made you decide to make this music? Themalefik --- The delight to get up on the stage and expose my thoughts to the world.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Themalefik --- Most of them are done by me, the vocalist.
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Themalefik --- The lyrics, then the music.
What language do you sing in? Themalefik --- Brazilian Portuguese and English.
What ages are most of your concert attendants? Themalefik --- 16 to 40, on average.As long as they could stand the guitar tones.
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? Themalefik --- No, we are always varying, because our fans need to listen something different.
Do you have a regular place you play live often? Themalefik --- Yes, we do. We played twice at Mineiro Rock Bar – São Paulo.
What was your first gig like? Themalefik --- Our first concert was in 1994, when I puked blood, cause I was drunk as hell.
What was your latest gig? Themalefik --- It was eight months ago. We had to stop to focus on recordirng our new album, Gates of Hell, coming on 2016.
Have you had to cancel a gig? Themalefik --- Yes, several times. I’ll tell you a story: There was a time, when my brother, Francisco Chagas, used to play the guitar on the band, and we were going to have a concert at Fofinho Rock Bar, and he had to work, because his motherfucking boss didn’t let him participate in this event, so we had to cancel.
Where have you played live this year? Themalefik --- Mineiro Rock Bar - São Paulo/Brazil.
Where do you plan to gig the coming year? Themalefik --- This year we intend to finish the recording of our new álbum, and for the next year, we still don’t know. Let’s wait and see.
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? Themalefik --- The band’s merchandise started started being sold around 1999. We never wanted to sell anything, we initially intended to give it away for free. On our concerts we used to always bring around 150 to 200 cds, both singles and demos, and give them away to the public, never selling them. The same year, we got an offer from a Polish label to release a new album everywhere but Brazil, which was bullshit. They claimed Brazil was full of pirates and it wouldn’t be wise to release it in Brazil.
Where can people buy your merchandise? Themalefik --- They can find our merch anywhere in the world by accessing metalarea.org, darkworld.ru, metal-tracker, soundcloud, amazon, itunes, playstore, eMusic, Onerpm, Microsoft Store, through the UK distributor Darkened Arts and many others.
Do you have any role models or idols? Themalefik --- Our inspirations are Rotting Christ, Venom, Celtic Frost, Behemoth, Dark Funeral, Marduk, Carpathian Forest, Immortal, Gorgoroth e Belphegor, Death, Slayer, Testament, Dream Theater, Rush, Old Man’s Child, Judas Priest, Sepultura,
Why do you think that they exist? Themalefik --- For the same purpose that ThemalefiK exists, to bring the truth and destroy the state of miserable hypocrites in the world.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? Themalefik --- We never did it, but we think people should colaborate more with the bands they like. If you downloaded it, at least go to the band’s concert.
What do you think of my work? Themalefik --- Good work, congratulations, keep it up, because the world of metal needs more people like you giving oportunities for bands all around the globe.
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? Themalefik --- We don’t really care about that, we care about the partnership and information exchange.
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? Themalefik --- Older bands, since we started in 1993, but we are always evolving with the day to day learning. Things change and rock changes as ideals and music changes too.
What have been your biggest obstacles? Themalefik --- The lack of suport in Brazil. Bands, labels, magazines, radio stations, TV channels, culturally speaking, Brazil is a great county, what ruins it are those sons of bitches who live in it and all those idiots and hipocrites that are only interested in taking advantage of others. That’s a very typical brazilian issue.
What advice would you give other bands or artists? Themalefik --- They should unite to keep metal strong because metal is global and it is something that is inside of us like boiling blood and the pulsing heart.
Do you have any new material? Themalefik --- Yes, our most recent material is our single Against the Nazarene, preview of the new album Gates of Hell, coming soon.
Do you have any youtube video or some song you made? Themalefik --- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzL4G6hbEwZsubrVWdZRz7A
What are your web sites?
Themalefik --- Brazilian São Paulo Black /Death Metal
The Official WebSite
https://www.facebook.com/themalefik
http://www.reverbnation.com/themalefik
http://www.youtube.com/themalefik
http://themalefiknet.blogspot.com/
https://soundcloud.com/clau_themalefik
https://plus.google.com/111426687234212093875/posts
http://www.myspace.com/themalefik
https://twitter.com/ThemalefiK
How can people reach you?
Themalefik --- Through our e-mail [email protected], or facebook Cláudio Monteiro or ThemalefiK
What are your plans for the future? Themalefik --- We don’t know about the future, but we intend to keep doing concerts and record and release a new album every year.
Do you have something to add? Themalefik --- We hope you get to know way more about our work and know that we have boiling blood in our veins, and that we exist for you, metal lovers. Thanks you guys very much for the atention and we hope you liked the interview and the band.