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Could you first introduce your band to the readers?
Scream: Embrioma is the junction of insane minds with brilliant ideas. It exists out of six members: Me (Scream) - Vocals; Luiz Portinari – Guitars / Vocals; Leandro Figliolia– Guitars; Denis Azevedo - Bass; Bob Smith – Drums & Dektri – Insane Keyboards, synthesizers, programming and samples.
Dektri: Since the first day, we've been moving forward with the idea to cause uncomon damage inside our Brazilian "scene", musically speaking and, now, we want the world! Hello, world!
Now a practical question - what on Earth does 'Embrioma' mean?
Scream: I joined the band two months ago. Ask Dektri. His mind is the creator of this craziness.
Dektri: (laughs!) The name Embrioma came up on the second week after myself and the bassist Denis started the band, and we wanted a name that would be something organic and, at the same time, worked as a metaphor for the style of "mixed" music that we already wanted to make. Embrioma is a medical term in Portuguese which literally means "a type of tumor built by a variety of different tissues, improper from the place where they develop and these tissues can have an embrium aspect or very different characteristics, and be either benign of malignant; a celular aberration equivalent to the musical aberration that we develo, be it for the good or not of the people who know us around (laughs). In Portuguese, at least, this name sounds "sticky" and easy to remember, and it represents well what we are inside Brazil.
How did things get started?
Scream: Denis and Dektri had another band called "The Worman" which dismantled and so they decided to create Embrioma. Basically, that's it.
Dektri: It all started the day after the last concert of this ex-band, where I played with Denis, and we realized we didn't want to stop playing. It was a concert where everything ended in destruction, fights and blood, and we knew we were stronger than that horrible day and we still had a lot to do with music, still, and we went around looking for band members from other bands around ABC Paulista. In the first months, we had problems with "coming and going" of guitarists, we had a female vocalist (also from our ex-band) who left after 4 months and even I, myself, had a moment where I drifted apart from the band around this time, a decision which I soon realized was stupid and then i came back. We had guys come in like Bob (ex-drummer for Seventh Seal among other bands) two months after the band started, then Leandro Figliolia (plays/played for many ABC bands) six months after. One year ago, Luiz Portinari (producer and guitarist for bands of a diversity of styles around São Paulo, like Pensilvania, Temblor, Soulhost and he was in Monster) substituting Danilson Farisato (guitarist who was part of the first demos and the first EP), and now, in August 2008, we had Scream join (ex-Endrah and ex-Stun), substituting the singer Andre Rival.
What are your main influences? And how would you describe your music?
Scream: Personally: Hatebreed, Pantera, Slipknot, Fear Factory, Korn, Biohazard and Machine Head. The band had a great diversity of influences, and we were able to "mix" all of this to find the sound of Embrioma.
Dektri: In the beginning (when I was a little boy), it was soundtracks for electronic games from the 8btis and 16bits eras and then, bands like White Zombie, Fear Factory, Metallica, electronic and experimental music in general, and a lot of German industrial, but I pay attention to everything. The last thing I heard that really touched me was the Filarmonic Orchestra São Paulo, however, that is a world completely different from the world of Brazilian music sold to the mass from here, or even from the metal/rock worldwide. Lately, I write Embrioma's music "metastasis" or a shot at starting something beyond what pos-modern rock was in the last few years (though I recognize the size of the possible fall behind this pretension). Or it can be the soundtrack that will come after apocalipse, though I don't believe in that. I think we are condemned to exist on Earth, and this "condemnation" describes Embrioma, from my point-of-view.
As probably most readers of our zine, I completely missed the release of the debut six-track EP. Could you give us a few indications of what we might have missed?
Dektri: (laughs!) Basically the EP "The.Demention.Frequency.Projekt"represented what we used to be as a band between 2004 and 2005, a new band still, with big pretensions and little experience. We only had six songs, we excluded two of them that didn't make much sense with what we saw as Embrioma back then, and we composed two more, while we were recording them in the studio. The base and string work was simpler; we used only one tune, the electronic side was simpler (because of the lack of equipments and knowledge I have today), and our notion of production was still developing (not to mention the new band members we gained, like the guitarist Luiz Portinari and the singer "Scream", who helped us a lot with the evolution of the band). However, it is undeniable that this first work, which was released along with the music video for the track "Dementia [bullets]" opened lots of doors and brought us many fans all over Brazil, which was then our initial target country... Creating a "strong" name inside our country (as many difficulties as here existed) to then introduce the band to the world (and that started now). If you have curiosity to get to know this work, you can download it for free through the link http://ep1.embrioma.com . Send us comments after checking it out at info@embrioma.com =p
Scream: Insane and rotten. The first EP is an experimental mix that pulls Fear Factory a lot. I like it a lot. So much that we still play some of the songs live. Curious? Download it now!!!
You're currently busy recording songs for what should become a full-lenght called 'Post-Industrial Metastasis'. How is the progress going so far? And what can we expect of the release?
Dektri: We are starting to record the vocals, while we finish some of the 20 songs that we are working on. From these 20 tracks, we will choose between 11 and 13 of the best ones to release. I believe that this album will show a huge evolution of Embrioma as a whole, if compared to our first EP. I think we can already feel that a little bit with our single "29" and this will be even more noticeable when you hear this new work. We are working with different afinities in this same album, new ideas, and musical tenuities along with "the Embrioma style" of making music; it's more technical on one side, more industrial on the other, and I believe we have been able to make a bit of marking music without leaving the insane and weird side aside. We are still discussing the possible titlte for the record (though we openly mention "Post-Industrial Metastasis" as a possibility), though what really matters is the music, I feel like we are going beyond what we have made before and I can't wait to see the time when the crowd goes nuts on what we are making.
Scream: "THE WORST IS YET TO COME." That sentence represents the insanity and ferocity that the new Embrioma tracks will represent. I can only warn you that the record is caos. Beware.
Last year you've opened for a wide variety of bands such as Biohazard, Sepultura, Suicidal Tendencies, The Misfits and Kittie. How was the experience to be able to open for them? And since all the bands have such different styles - how did the crowd reply on your music?
Dektri: All these experiences that we had last year were fantastic! We consider them like a crowning for the hard work that we had before, through playing underground and promoting the band, especially because in every case, we were invited (without being charged) by the producers to open for these international events. Because the audience itself was very diverse, they reacted from surprized (and we gained new fans) to the more closed-minded that obviously stuck their noses up in the air for us. I believe that's how it is anywhere in the world, when they see a hibrid band like Embrioma , which has the mobility for a diversity of segments of hardcore music; we have fans in various segments and also, people that won't pay attention to Embrioma because they only like one "flavor" of music.
Scream: Unfortunately I wasn't the singer then! Hahahaha! But I was in all these concerts; oh, but I was...
In Europe, Brazil is more known for its Rio de Janeiro carnaval and brilliant soccer players in stead of their music scene (besides Sepultura and Rot maybe). How is the (industrial) metal scene in Brazil?
Scream: It doesn't exist. What you see abroad is what Brazil really is. After Sepultura, nothing else "happened" internationally. We are the virus which tries to last and dominate this country! But it's hard.
Dektri: Truly, the industrial scene itself doen't exist in Brazil. What we have are a few groups who make that, regardless of what fashion dictates and bcause they are crazy about this type of music, however, they don't find the response or an audience big enough to "go around" a properly said scene. They're rare, the industrialized music events and, normally, if you have a bigger foot on industrial, you are lost in other electronic music scenes, and if you have a band structure like Embrioma , and don't only focus on being industrial, then you have to expose yourself and find yourself in other niches of rock/metal around here which, for us, has to do with that original proposition of the band: not to limit yourself to one segment and to follow the metaphor for the band's name: "a type of tumor which is built of many different tissues" (or many scenes, if you prefer (laughs). Industrial music, and especially any type of music we make with that influence, still scares a lot of people here. Unfortunately, also in Brazil, lives the thought that music (in general) is only leisure, or something for vagabonds, when really, music is something as serious as other jobs... So, on top of this stupid vision that lives here, we see concert venues that a lot of time are bad, bad or unmotivated audio professionals , some pseudo managers of music that are more concerned taking money from the bands and disappearing of the face of the Earth after a few years, and so we have a viscious circle that spins the negative way with everything that has to do with the musical scenary we are a part of (who would take a business that persists on mistakes serious?). Of course there are many professionals who are serious at their job but, they still aren't in suficient quantity. That's why, outside of Brazil, you will hear more about soccer, Carnaval, and Rio de Janeiro than the musical scene itself, because soccer, Carnaval, and the turism in Rio are what are taken as serious business; brans that are exported to the rest of the world. Sepultura even, if they hadn't rebounded with an international career, would most likely not have the space that they now find in the big ways of the Brazilian media, in my opinion. It's "easy" to get confeti thrown at you after you are obligated to leave your country to prove your value. Sad, but true. PS: Damn, I do talk a lot (laughs)!
What are, next to music, your other passions in life?
Scream: Videogames, technology, soccer, and girls, of course.
Dektri: Technologies and security in communication nets, philosophy and science in general. I'm a nerd-freak! ;] I'm also married, but I'm not gonna talk about my personal life here, not that it is scandalous, or anything; it's actually pretty normal lately. And people on the streets sort of give me dirty looks here, because they're not used to people who have a bunch of piercings on their face, like I do. They call me crazy also because of things supposedly nonsense that I love to do at the most unexpected times, things that at times almost killed me... Anyway, what was the question again? =p
What can we expect of Embrioma in the near future, next to the planned album release?
Scream: We are making contacts overseas for the opportunity of a tour around the US and Europe, with the intention of promoting our first full-length album. If you're interested, just contact the band!
Dektri: Things are not that "simple" for us here in Brazil like they could be for other bands that were born in countries that have culture and history inside rock/industrial. Also, there are many other ideas but, most of them are secret until we're able to introduce them.
The end of the interview lays here, thanks for your time answering the questions. If you got some final words to add, you can do it here.
Dektri: Thank you so much for the space here at IndustrializedMetal.com and I thank all of those who support us and are getting to know us! Sometimes strange bands come out of unkown places, and some non-believers try to step on them like they are insects but, they find out that these insects can be very dangerous... Too late! Listen to us and keep track through www.myspace.com/embrioma and www.embrioma.com (English version coming soon).
Scream: Thank you, thanks a lot for the supoort! Embrioma doesn't exist without you guys and without the fans. And that's what motivates us to keep working hard and to always keep evolving. I hope I can shake hands in person with everyone who follows us around!
Interview by: Gerardo - November 2008
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