|
The Brazilian band Almah is back with a new album, Motion. With this album they made a step forward and show everybody that they are a band. Time to talk to Almah mastermind Edu Falaschi who came to Europe for promotion which made even phoners easier, no hassle with different time zones.
Fragile Equality was released in 2008, now it's 2011 and Motion is getting in stores. The new album sound modern and vivid. "We were trying to find our own identity. Almah was a solo album, Fragile Equality tried to proofed we are a band, but we were using some Angra sounds. Now we really are a band and we proof that. Motion separates us from Angra, it's more modern and mature." Edu explains. "Modern is a dangerous word when it comes to music. Many times it's used on pop, rap, etc. I have a lot influences from 80's pop like Tears For Fears and Supertramp, so you might find some references when I'm composing, like doing catchy stuff and melodies. We combine thrash, prog, power metal and more, but we don't want to sound like an American Nu metal band", he states. Some songs seem to indicate that Almah were inspired by the Arab spring, songs like Zombies Dictator. "We like to write about what's going on in the world, about the problems in some parts of Europe, the Orient. There are problems with dictators and religious leaders and this is 2011. It's strange that we still have this problems in 2011. It's strange that people are still supporting these dictators. Actually on this album we talk about the reality. We don't want to talk about fairy tales... dragons, etc. Music is a powerful instrument and we want people to discus it. We need people to talk about what's going on in the world. Like the young people did in the 70's! We need to talk about politics. We don't want to spend time writing about fantasy, we try to change things. We are tired of what's happening in the music business, the world. We try to make a difference." One might say that's a bold statement by the Brazilian singer, but it's true, music is a powerful instrument and even if Almah won't change the world, they try to.
Some people might still think that's more a solo project than a band which Edu answered: "We are a real band, it's the same line-up as on Fragile Equality. A band is always the better choice. Music is magic, we are five people thinking in different ways, but making it into one song. That's magic!"
The album was recorded in Brazil, but the mix and mastering was done in Amsterdam, quite unusual and so I asked Edu why this. "We played with Angra a festival in Portugal and this band from the Netherlands was playing there - Textures. We were amazed. After that we looked at the internet to find out more about the band. We learnt that their guitarist is mixing and mastering Textures. We wanted the new Almah to sound more modern and aggressive - and we remembered Jochem. We got in touch, sent him some stuff, he loved it and agreed on it. The mix is amazing, the guitars sound fantastic! And it has a natural drum sound, these days many studios use samples and so it pretty often sounds like a machine. We wanted a more organic sound, and we got it! Nothing is really perfect and that's the magic of music. Many singers sound too perfect, unnatural and there is no way to do it live. We wanted to make it different. We wanted to do it like Maiden, Metallica & co. !"
Music is the best live, so I was curious, if anything is on the way. A tour probably... Edu told me "We'll tour Brazil in October / November. For Europe we need the support of the label. We are trying to find an international tour to get on in Europe and Japan. Hopefully AFM Records will find a good tour for us... We are trying and we are happy with the way things move now. Things happen fast. Sure, touring is expensive, but not impossible!" Looks like Almah and Angra fans can hope to see Almah live outside their home country.
But to get an idea about Almah 2011 you can watch the video Trace Of Trait which has this sepia brown and this effect makes it stick out. Edu stated: "The music sounds dark and aggressive and we wanted the video to reflect this. The next video will be for Late Night In '85 which is a dark ballad. We want to keep the sepia brown look to match the darker sound." As it's the next video we talked a bit more about this song and I wanted to know about what's the story of this tune. Edu explains "Late Night In '85... I wanted to talk about myself, but not in a too personal way. It's about my fathers death who actually died in '84. It's about the sensation after my fathers death and I know many people experienced that. My father died 2 days before Christmas and so it was a very sad Christmas for us. About a week later we had a kind of new year's eve party with the family and we all were happy - for that moment. But then everybody left and we were alone. That's when I realized he's gone, but I had my mom, my brother - and we needed to be strong." Why many would have made this a very sad tune, Edu managed to make it touching without giving it a depressive edge.
I told Edu that in my opinion Days Of The New would be a good pick for a video and Edu revealed the bands plans... "Actually we are intending to do videos for every song of the album! Not at once, but later more should follow. We think about all songs, but we'll see. We think Motion is a strong album, coz it's real, and so we will try to do them all. These days entertaining is everything, but we can't do something crappy, so we try our best to do them justice. We want to show the people what Almah is about. We want them to understand the lyrics and that works better with images." And it gives people the chance to get an idea about Almah even if they don't play in their country... But let's hope they can tour a lot and hit many stages around the world.
|
|
