São Paulo duo Aldo have just dropped their new single ‘Papermaze’, the second teaser from their upcoming ‘Trembling Eyelids’ EP, due 30th August via Full Time Hobby. Currently “finishing our new album and composing a special Nike soccer film soundtrack” (oo-er), it’s a packed time for the brothers, and it’s only set to get busier from here. André and Murilo Faria tell us about their band.
When did you realise you wanted to make music, and whose idea was it to form a band together?
André: I realised it twice. First, when I was a kid and listened to Van Halen’s 1978 and bought my first guitar. Then I got a normal job and sold my stuff, but years later I got really sad and depressed… this time I really really realised that I need music in my life, so I quit my job, re-bought my stuff and formed a band with Mura, who was also completely lost, spending days locked in his bedroom creating some beats. I showed up one day at my mum’s house, listened to the beats echoing from his room, opened the door and said, “Mura, I quit my job yesterday. What do you think about adding a bass line in that beat?” We started jamming and remembering our uncle Aldo (who was at our mum’s house stealing a sandwich) crazy stories, surreal stories…
Mura: I realised it when I saw Chemical Brothers live (Surrender’s tour). It was 1999, and I was 15. The next day I asked my dad to buy me a couple Technics SL1200 and a mixer. I spent years practising till I decided to study production, beats and stuff… I also quit my job at a bank at the time (I hated it) to keep practising and investing all my time in music. I was in my bedroom someday when André showed up with his old bass… We started a couple of songs together that day. And we also started writing stuff about our cool crazy uncle from the ’90s who was also there having dinner with our mum.
Did you have a musical upbringing?
André: I had really good professors, one of them (Índio) was the guitar player of Hermeto Pascoal, an old Brazilian music guru genius. But years later I broke my left arm and almost lost the moves of my hand… so I had to re-learn how to play again from zero, with half of the movements.
Mura: I had DJ classes with Irai Campos (a local legend from São Paulo), a few years of piano lessons and lots of years collecting vintage gear. Oh, I also have a degree in music production at IAV (Audio Visual Institute).
What’s the dynamic like between the two of you when it comes to making music?
André & Mura: We tried everything, but immersion and isolation works better to us. Despite our own studio here in São Paulo, we love to rent a loft or a house in other São Paulo’s neighbourhood, turn off our gadgets and jam together, listen to music, show each other some new and old ideas… We also have a house in the mountains, three hours from the chaotic downtown. We put our synths and basses and pedals in our car, isolate ourselves and come back with some tracks and lyrics… and more fat.
What would you most like to achieve during your music career?
André: Get married in a castle in the south of France just like D-Edge from U2. I saw it from the castle wall! And do at least one festival in Japan.
Mura: money for synths and studio gear. And meet Jay-Z again.
Congrats on signing with Full Time Hobby, how did that come about?
André & Mura: Thanks a lot. We are happy and excited, and Charlie and Nigel rocks a billion. It all happened because of Henning Dietz, our great manager. Two years ago we did a gig in Paris and invited Justine Debicki from Boogie-Drugstore PR company… as she didn’t answer the email, we went to her house and left some stickers and demos at the door. Of course, she never showed up at the gig, but a few months later she answered the email. She asked for more tracks and also asked if she could introduce us to a great manager if she likes the new tracks. We met Henning a few weeks later who introduced us to FHT and here we are.
Tell us about your new EP, what’s ‘Trembling Eyelids’ about and how did you put it together?
André & Mura: It’s about insomnia, that both of us suffer. We were watching the movie Insomnia (2002), and there is this quote from Robin Willians: “It’s too late to sleep, but too early to wake up…”. We were jamming in the mountains by the time and decided to invest in a kind of lazy-groove synth-bass driven stuff.
What’s the music scene like in São Paulo, are there lots of opportunities for up-and-coming bands?
André & Mura: São Paulo has one of the craziest nightlife in the world. There’s a lot going on right now… festivals, underground parties and small-medium new venues, what’s really great to the emerging scene. Maybe the city is in its best shape. We remember a few years ago when there were zero stages and zero venues.
What other acts from there should we check out?
André & Mura: The guys from Balaclava (@balaclavarecords a label-magazine-venue crew) are rocking the garage-indie scene a lot. There’s always a cool gig with an emerging talent (check out @brvnks, for example) at their club Breve @brevepompeia and besides that, they bring some cool names to shake the city such as Connan Mockasin and Slowdive. When it comes to the electronic scene, you have the cool performers from Teto Preto @tetopretofisssial and their producer @zopelar. The Brazilian afro-beat horns from @bixiga70 are awesome. All the 90’s DJ such as Renato Cohen @renatoc and Marky @djmarkym who put Brazil in the map of electronic music keeps grooving. You can also check out the mantra-drone-groove girls from Rakta @seitarakta and Deaf Kids @deaf_kids. Don’t forget to check out the work of Recosynth @arthurjoly, one of the coolest modular synths builders (the guys from Tribe Called Quest just bought one) in the world created a few blocks from our studio!
Music aside, what do you both do for fun?
André: Cook, Negronis, gardening, and create Boston Terriers.
Mura: I love to draw (by the codename Eva Gimenez) and demolition derby.
Aldo’s EP ‘Trembling Eyelids is out 30th August.
