I was born on December 11 th, 1967 in a city called Porto Alegre, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, due basically to the love of my father Eduardo, an architect, and my mother Sandra, a Portuguese teacher. Therefore I am a sagitarian, a Colorado fan, a skeptic, an anarchist, both disciplined and stubborn. I am wildly passionate about sports, music and amazing women. Of all human activities, music fascinated me the most, more precisely the act of playing an instrument in front of an audience and the interaction between either a small or gigantic group of people, even if only for a few moments. Until the day Diamond Darrell was murdered in a place made to enjoy: a stage. We should act like creatures of sound, art, sports, excellence, thought, and love. But the world is a tough place, a place in which too many mistakes happen.

And what about The Beatles? They changed my mother’s world…  Whereas Motorhead, Venom, Black Sabbath, Dead Kennedys, Rush, Bach and Slayer changed mine.

There were many records in our house.  Almôndegas (the band), Elvis, Peter and the Wolf, Chico Buarque, Elis Regina.    My mother taught me how to read at home. Dad gave me paper and pens which were everything to me until I discovered the outside world, not always very appealing, but which always became fun in their company.
 
When I needed to get away, I drew (something I still do!)… This usually happened in the classroom where I used to pretend I was taking notes on everything the teacher said. I always thought that I´d hunger were I to become an artist but realized that architecture was not for those who hate rulers…

TV was my second musical reference with things such as Super Boing flying on a Flying V guitar, The Monkees, Banana Split with all that freaky psycodelia, The Muppet Show, Star Trek. The sound track of Lost in Space was pure sidereal Stravinsky. I took up acoustic guitar lessons when I was almost 10 and learned basic chords and bad singing. I also practiced judo, swimming, karate, Olympic gymnastics. And then, Star Wars... my first opera. Of course Tommy, Hair, both the AC/DC and Zeppelin movies and The Wall would soon blow my mind. But that would happen later…

In 1977, when we moved from an apartment to a house my new neighbors showed me “new” sounds. They had older brothers and I was first introduced to Stephen Wolf, ELO, Kraftwerke, Supertramp, Jethro Tull, Motorhead, Queen… Thanks Wilson and Wagner, Régis and Sérgio.

I was somewhat of a nerd at Anchieta school and no new wave bullshit surf stuff or brazilian pop rock like Legião Urbana seemed to make me want to party. Too bad, I had no chance with the cute chicks.

It was on stage at the first school festival where I saw and heard HER for the first time: the ELECTRIC guitar. And bass with no drums playing blues on the same amp. Amazing… The festival had gone through an evolution. Richard e Philip Powell brothers and their annual foreign guitars parade and the first “Tripulação Amotinada” gig; Little Sílvio and Solari Brothers and their first gig with Shiva´s and Drakkar…metal was making a comeback during the 80´s. I was fourteen years old when I went to a Van Halen concert in my hometown, in 1983. For good mothafuckn´ bloody Jesus Christ sake… nothing could be more damaging to a kid… What luck! I became a gig addict and I also went to Peter Frampton’s gig back then.

At the school’s laboratory I got closer to a real guitar, a Sank. It was being “repaired” by my great friend and musician Alberto Siedler. My friend Zé Sacks bought the “thing” and we started taking lessons with a great teacher in Porto Alegre, Uruguayan guitar player Enrique Azambuja, the Quique. I also started taking classical guitar lessons at Palestrina´s conservatory with Eládio José de Souza, my first guide in the world of the great music. Thank you both for the infinite patience! I would really like to hear from you both, guys.

In 1984 I was finishing my last year at school. It was time to think about college, but my focus was on the BMX local championship. We had a team partially sponsored by a cram school and I used to practice everyday after school. Until the day I made a great mistake on a long jump… It cost me half a month in the hospital and there I realized how unfair and short life can be. The accident involved lots of blood, pain and a surgery. While recovering, Sabbath and Ozzy kept me company (I listened to that solo in the Bat head’s Soup album, every day in ecstasy!) as well as Venom, specially while having fits of anger. Every single day I listened and listened to Sabbath´s complete discography until I knew the order of all songs of albums, while trying to figure out what to do with my life, that is, if I would ever have a normal life again. I decided to dedicate my life to the only thing that seemed to make sense to me: music. And thus the decision was made.

By the end of 1984 I bought my first guitar: A modified Finch Flying V with customized painting, Michael Schencker style, and only one Gibson PAF humbucker pick up (thank you Siedler!). I also got a Sound pedal effect (and later a Boss Heavy Metal) and a Gianninni BAG 01 amplifier.

We used to hang out with Ricardo Olsen (who would later play bass in my first speed metal band, Panic); in 1985 he had all bands on tape: Metallica, Venom, Exciter, Mercyfull Fate, Anthrax, Jag Panzer, Alcatraz, Hellhammer, Satan, Trouble, Onslaught, Dark Angel, Slayer.

We joined drummer Marcelinho Russowsky, who played as bad as us but had lots of energy and a double 24” drum Ludwig monster kit with all tons of cymbals. That definitely was something at the time! We rented and acoustically isolated a trash deposit in the underground floor of the mall where record store Megaforce was located, and started rehearsing every day. There weren´t rehearsal studios for rent back then. I continued taking lessons and improving. We called in another guitar player and Rodrigo Terra (also Quique’s pupil) joined the gang. At that time I got my first good guitar, a Japanese Aria pro II custom, Thor Sound model, which I equipped with a Kahller tremolo unit. I had a motorcycle back then and sold it to pay for the guitar. We called ourselves Tormentor, later Massacre and then we were baptized by Walcir Challas de Almeida of Woodstock records: we became Panic, and released our first album, Rotten Church, in 1987.

It came about as follows; we had 4 tracks and with the help of store owner, Ademir, we recorded a live demo. Ademir travelled to São Paulo in 1986 to shop for stuff he used to sell us and showed the tape to Walcir of Woodstock Records starting a label at the time. This was after Rock in Rio and a new scene was emerging. When he returned the band´s name had changed, we had a contract and had to compose another 4 tracks to complete the album! Boy, it was crazy! I mean, I was a 19 year old playing in my first band with my friends, none of which were professional, playing doing a totally non commercial sound. Incredibly things worked out! Things never were as easy after that… but for me that was a clear indication that I would be a musician forever. While all this was happening I was taking an economic course at the university and trying to get transferred to a music course, but I had to be first of the class to qualify. That would never happen…

But going back to Panic, there was another very strange fact about us: We had never played live!! And we had a full length album! Our first gig would be as opening act for Venom and Exciter in Porto Alegre, at the same International Sport Club where I saw Van Halen a few years earlier. We were thrilled, but the Brazilian tour ended sooner for Cronos, Beehler and company. The Venom and Exciter Porto Alegre gig was canceled. So the real first gig took place at a club called Madame Satã, and we had a full house that night: October 11 th, 1987. We played everything we knew but the public wouldn´t let us off stage! There was no way to leave the stage from behind, so we played some passages of new songs without vocals, all the stuff we used to play for fun, like TV themes such as Spider Man, Batman, Bonanza, and some shitty punk songs in Portuguese that only had one riff and the chorus. They loved that stuff more than the “real” songs… So we never stopped playing that gig after the gig. The second gig was in São Paulo at the famous Espaço Mambembe a week after Sepultura had played there for 900 head bangers. Man, that was a new stage, but the release of Schizophrenia taught us who was running the show in the national metal scene at the time. That was when Panic came to an end. I started giving guitar lessons motivated by that experience and never stopped. My first pupil was Lincoln, and he played better than I did (I compared his dexterity to mine when I was the same age…)! But I could read music and we both learned a lot. My first professional side man gig was standing in for him in a pop rock band called Razão Social. We toured the whole state acting both as roadies and musicians! But I was already infected by the metal virus and while playing for money I started to revive Panic. I contacted all local drummers except one who contacted me too late. His name? It begins with an A… Aquiles. How strange is fate? We were both at the Iron Maiden gig, thinking about what the future held in store for us and didn´t know each other. One of his bands back then, Ecos do Silêncio, played at a festival at my school and I was there too… In 1988 I finally earned my place at the Federal Music University, becoming a composition student for 5 years in a 6 year long course. During the course I formed a guitar orchestra named OPPA! (Orquestra Profana de Porto Alegre) with some fine musicians and friends; Adriane Simionni (guitar and violin), Zózimo Rech (guitar), Marcos Machado (6 string bass), Cristine Freitas (guitar), Claudio Calcanhotto (guitar), Paulo Grillo (JEM 777), Ayrton Amaral (guitar), Adriana Scherer (keyboard). We played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and other baroque orchestra stuff. We toured a lot and became quite famous, but I moved to São Paulo in 1992 and thus stopped my academic activities and my collaboration with “OPPA!”

So in 1991 Panic made a new beginning with Claudio Calcanhotto on drums, the original screamer Regener on vocals and Rexx on bass. A ten year old story. We played on the same stage with Sepultura, RDP, Korzus, P.U.S., Krisiun, Necromancia, Siegrid Ingrid, Chemical Disaster, MX, Leviaethan, Distraught, De Falla, Nervo Chaos. It was a long road, a long list. After three albums - Rotten Church, 1987, Best Before End, 1992 and Boiling Point, 1995 - the band ended it´s golden age when the fantastic drummer Claudio Calcanhotto left the band to play jazz. We returned from São Paulo pratically broke. From 1992 until the end of the band, Panic played some memorable opening acts and two very special cover gigs: Metallica for All and “Peões from Hell” (Pantera songs), two videos and influenced some guys and bands such as Lápide, a band in which I also played. On the thrash metal road I met and had the support of some special people in both Porto Alegre and São Paulo: Ademir and Megaforce, João and Cogumelo Records, Mara Marli Martins in whose kitchen the band lived for a year! Panic band members and partners who shared the dream for a while will probably be glad to find out that the story continues:

Rexx, Leo Jost, Sandro Schneider, Fabinho Seellig, Paulo Neto, Gustavo do Ypu, Marcelo PT Cougo, Jean Uva, Julio Falavigna, Renato Machado, Renato Jardim, Paulo Cassio and Sandra Slayer, Gordo Miranda, Katia Suman, Marcelo Nunes, Alex Sernambi and Gastão Moreira of MTV´s Fúria Metal.
Among the friends who supported us and whom I still deal with today are Pompeu, Heros, Silvio and Dick of the band Korzus.

The last time the band was in São Paulo, Panic went through a very tough time, and guys like Samuca Samael and Ébano helped a lot loaning us instruments, providing a place to rest and even food.

Back in Porto Alegre, Panic had yet another line up with Zé Madeira, a great and unforgettable singer, partner, friend and brother whose collaboration and gigs together still provide me with inspiration to compose. Unfortunately Zé suffered a serious accident and had serious brain damage while skateboarding. It seems he will never set foot on stage again. Life is unfair, take comfort my friend, and thank you for those wonderful gigs; second place at the Porto Alegre music festival, Skol Rock edition in Curitiba and freezing cold and tired waiting together at the bus station and having good laughs…

Panic ended in 1998 and it was time for me to review my entire life and make some difficult decisions on my own.

So when the dust settled in 1997 I decided to graduate in music and change my major to “Classical” guitar. Actually classical music is only a small part of the music history and the repertoire of an advanced music course is better divided into renascence, baroque, classical, romantic, modern, Spanish authors of XX century, Brazilian composers and contemporary authors. I prepared myself for a year of seminars and master classes. During a memorable master class I had the opportunity to meet Abel Carlevaro, father of the modern guitar technique and a genius composer. During that meeting he played an experimental piece of mine on first sight.

So in 1998 I was back at the music academy preparing myself for an academic career. To be in the music area you must first be a musician. Bands and success come and go and I needed some serious qualification for my self respect. I was alone again; just me and my guitar performing that very complex music. And tests.

I shaved my head and became a “monk”. The Zen phase lasted until I received a strange phone call from a veteran bass player called Nando Mello. He asked me for info as how to contact new talented pupils who were guitar virtuosos to join a new upcoming metal number called “Hangar”. I had already heard one or more songs of the album Last Time and told him that I could try out for the slot. The stuff was difficult and seemed to me more a man’s job than a beginners´ inexperienced gig. And I was right. Those guys were really serious about their music and musicianship, and that is the foundation on which to build something significant in metal music; no bullshit and lots of hard work. I played the songs of the repertoire as best as I could and after auditioning almost all local living guitarists, they decided that only I was crazy enough to enjoy that routine of madness and obsession. I was in heaven again!! It was the time and place to let my hair grow again…

Almost all of the old material I had for a fourth Panic album was used in the compositional process for the album Inside Your Soul. That made me feel very comfortable in the band. We really shared the same musical attitude: we had no rules but a strong musical direction. My comeback on stage was as opening act for Paul DiAnno´s gig in Porto Alegre, on May 18 th, 2000 and all went well. I had already seen a DiAnno gig a couple of years before. He had asked me for a lighter to light his “birthday cigarette“ shortly before the encore!

Soon the tracks were ready and Aquiles moved to São Paulo. We recorded IYS at the same studio where Nomad was recorded and I did everything analogically. I used amazing guitar equipment provided by exceptional guitarist and friend Chico De Hira. I used no Pro Tools but only tape, old school style… Nowadays I don’t give a damn about purism anymore, but I still like the guitar sound on that record a lot. We used to arrive at the studio by noon since traffic was always heavy. I recorded from 4 pm to 3 am the following day. Sometimes Aquiles would pick me up at home but when he wasn’t able to I had to take the 4 am bus. I would arrive at Aquiles’s house at 6 am, have breakfast and pick up my Roberto Gomes acoustic guitar to prepare for my fifth semester test.
I played with a piece of cloth covering the strings so as not to wake up little Juju… Then I would sleep at 8 o’clock, wake up at 11 and start everything again. Of course I failed that test. But Inside Your Soul was recorded and that was just the beginning, once again.

The album put Hangar and my musicality on a new level. I had the opportunity to work closely with singer Mike during his sessions and later we did recitals and workshops together. We prepared guitar arrangements for Nessum Dorma, Don´t Stop Believing, and other tenor stuff and played some recitals. Even on a local traditional TV show we played an acoustic version for To Tame a Land… Good luck, buddy!

In the year 2002 I was voted as one of the 10 favorite musicians along with Mello by Roadie Crew magazine and had an interview published by Guitar Player magazine for the first time. Endorsements began coming in and we matured a lot as a band by playing at the Brazil Metal Union festival in São Paulo. We also were opening act for a Savatage gig attended by 4000 bangers at the Via Funchal club, which counted with an exceptional sound by Paul X. We also went on an extensive tour in the northeast of Brazil in 2003.

In 2004 I finally graduated as a bachelor of arts at the university and played my final guitar recital, Hangar style, of course. This took place after a 12 hour long wait for a flight at Recife airport. We played an incredible gig in Caruaru but the return home was unpredictable. So I had a lot of time to think and meditate about the circle that was coming to a close. We can always choose what we want. Sometimes you may have serious doubts, but deep in your heart, your feelings will never betray you. First we must become what we must, by working well. After that we can do what has to be done. If we are lucky, we will be able do it forever. And I tell you, luck doesn’t exist, but I definitely am one of the luckiest musicians in the world.

Among other things, at the moment I’m part of the Freakeys project, that is something of a Masters degree in music. I studied 2 years to finish my part ready and recorded it during Xmas 2005 in Mococa, SP, very far away from home. But I was doing something very special with great friends and recording music of great sensibility. It also gave me an opportunity to work with the outrageous bass player Felipe Andreoli. I also played many gigs with legendary thrash metal band Leviaethan and I hope we can play many more.

Now it’s time to hit the road. While you are reading details that are part of my existence, new facts are happening, and we never know where life will lead us. But right here, right now my life is playing music, and that music is metal… and that’s good…oh yeah, it is very damn good!

LEMMY IS GOD! Thank you, God!


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