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| Interview by Burt Wolf with Alex Zeraib gutarist for the band SCARS. Interview done May 14th, 2006. |
| SCARS GOT IT'S OFFICIAL KICK OFF IN 1991, CAN YOU PLEASE GIVE A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BAND UP TO THIS POINT? HOW DID YOU GET TOGETHER? ANY PREVIOUS BANDS MEMBERS WERE IN BEFORE? Well, as you said, SCARS had it's official kick off in 1991, in Sao Paulo/SP, Brazil & is currently composed by Regis Frederico on vocals, Alex Zeraib & Eduardo Boccomino on guitars, Andre Sterzza on bass & Patrick Leung on drums, all of whom had already been members of this very band. Along it's history SCARS has already played with ANTHRAX, KREATOR, RATA BLANCA, DESTRUCTION, KRISIUN, VULCANO, among others. It has got a back pack with over 500 concerts in it, done mostly in Brazil up to 1998, year when the band split up. In April 2004 the band got together for rehearsals & recordings. WHY WAS THE NAME SCARS CHOSEN AS THE BANDS NAME? This came particulary from DARK ANGEL's masterpiece "LEAVE SCARS". But the idea around it is that we've all got scars, be them physical or spiritual. And they are not all bad, we've got good scars, like Thrash Metal which is one of my many scars. Which are yours? WHY DID THE BAND SPLIT UP IN 1998 & WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO GET THE BAND BACK TOGETHER IN 2004? Brazil was going through a lack of identity phase as far as music & Metal go & due to the country wide cultral aspect of following the American market & waiting for the new trend to come up, Metal started losing space, like radio, concert houses, media, the press... For some idiotic reason, Pop music discovered distortion on their guitars & some even more idiotic Metal bands thought they could be or already were Pop & started losing it. So the whole scenario here from around 1998 to 2003 was really not helping, especially Thrash Metal & some more underground Metal branches. 2004 was a year where underground came up again & many bands started appearing & re-appearing. That's where we came in. So all over Brazil there's now a movememnt of consolidation where bands are launching albums & doing shows. With all this, Brazil is undergoing a very rich phase right now. There are also many international first line concerts every two weeks here, which motivates the scenario. But to make a long story short, I met Eduardo at a DESTRUCTION concert they put out to 200 VIP's & by the time we met, we had already been thrashing & moshing & remembering deeply the old times. So we actually settled we would come back & from there we got to Regis who most excitedly accepted it & so on till today. YOU GUYS MIX TOGETHER ELEMENTS OF DEATH METAL & THRASH METAL TO CREATE YOUR SOUND. HOW WOULD YOU BEST DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE & SOUND TO SOMEONE WHO HASN'T HEARD YOU GUYS? I would first go for the Bay Area reference. Then I would cite some of our main references as FORBIDDEN, VIO-LENCE, EXODUS, POSSESSED, DARK ANGEL, SLAYER, KREATOR, DESTRUCTION & also, if I may, SEPULTURA, SACRED REICH, TANKARD, DEATH ANGEL, OVERKILL, NUCLEAR ASSAULT, ANTHRAX, M.O.D., METALLICA, BIOHAZARD, ASSASSIN, VENOM, NAPALM DEATH, DEATH, TEASTAMENT, IRON MAIDEN & on & on & on. Then I would have the guy blend all that & try to picture it. Honestly, I'd rather take the guy for one of our gigs & after the show as him, "So, what is it like?" YOUR NEWEST RELEASE "NETHER HELL" CAME OUT LAST YEAR. HOW WELL HAS THIS CD BEEN DOING FOR YOU GUYS? WHAT HAS THE RESPONSE BEEN LIKE TO IT? For a little EP, it's making quite a bit of noise. The sound could have been better, though. We'll seek to avoid & be very well prepared for the next studio session. The artwork & concept came out outstanding, as far as I see it. It feels like a scary comic book. The literal Hell. People bought into the idea. Everything we wanted to put across with this CD has been seen as we saw it. It's been very fulfilling to us. We're eager to get our next CD out a.s.a.p. |
| WHAT IS SOME OF THE LYRICAL CONTENT IN YOUR SONGS? WHO DOES MOST OF THE LYRICAL WRITING? All themes in the EP "THE NETHER HELL" are of Dante's Hell, the first of 3 parts of the Divine Comedy, from 1310. The Nether Hell is the lowest part of Hell, whose main punishment is to be frozen, thus deprived from movement. It's also what Satan calls his home. It also talks of the schizophrenic similarity between good & evil. Of the infernal reality of the 20th & 21st centuries. Of the truth that tomorrow shall be worse than today. Of the cruel fast that we're subjected to confuse, selfish & cruel leaders. The lyrics are usually composed by Regis, Andre & Alex & have a mission report of the hell that has settled on Earth. An example is "Return To The Killing Grounds", which describes what a child sees going back home, finding it's been bombed, family murdered & lives the atrocities of war. |
| CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE COVER ART CONCEPT & WHO DID IT? I read dante's Hell in English some years ago & freaked out with the whole thing to such a proportion that I started collecting everything about it. When I had compiled all of Dore's pictures, I gave them all to our art producer, Alexandre Ache, who laid out the whole thing. Then I found a setence that would best describe the pictures & placed it at the bottom of the lyrics of each song with the CANTO's number. The CD came out really educational, allow me to say. And from my behalf, I was very happy that the band accepted my ideas & to on his Hell for our CD, it's a way I can leave in history another tribute to Dante's memory, but this time recorded in Thrash Metal. I'm still midway the part 2, Purgatory. But it's not half as fun as Hell, so I'm dragging myself through it. This is my cue to say that our next album is NOT going to give sequence to the trilogy. The Nether Hell is unique. HAS THERE BEEN ANY LABELS SHOWING INTERESTS IN SCARS? We've signed up with ENCORE RECORDS for the distribution of the EP. But for the next album we're still on the look out. IS THERE ANY NEWER MATERIAL IN THE WORKS OR ANOTHER ALBUM ALREADY AVAILABLE? Not really. We're going on studio late this year to launch a new album early 2007. We're currently on tour for "THE NETHER HELL" & working on new songs, which add up to 7 already. DOES SCARS PLAY OUT A LOT? WHERE ARE SOME OF THE PLACES YOU'VE PLAYED? WHO ARE SOME OF THE BANDS YOU'VE DONE SHOWS WITH? We already done a zillion shows all within Brazil. Most of them were done up to '98 & we did really well. Recently, we've been doing opening acts for main bands such as ANTHRAX, DESTRUCTION, KRISIUN, to name a few. We played in the past with KREATOR, ATTOMICA, SARCOFAGO, etc... HOW DO YOU FEEL THE BAND HAS PROGRESSED SINCE YOUR START BACK IN THE EARLY 90'S? We've progressed into deeper rooted Metal. We tried going into slower stuff in the late 90's, but that just didn't work. Now we seek riffs that take us back to early 80's, but shaped for 2006. We can't overlook the technological benefits of our time & not bring them to our aid. So we look into modernizing the quality of the sound of Metal, but not so much Metal itself. WHAT DO THE MEMBERS OF THE BAND DO WHEN NOT DOING ANY WORK FOR THE BAND? HOBBIES, JOBS, ETC...? I have a language school, with teachers & everything. Regis runs a mid sized company of marketing. Edu & Andre work at admistrative & technology offices & Patrick is finishing up his engineering colleg & also works at an office. All in Sao Paulo/SP. ARE YOU INTO ANY OTHER STYLES OF MUSIC BESIDES WHAT YOU PLAY? WHO ARE SOME OF THE BANDS YOU HAVE CURRENTLY BEEN LISTENING TO? As far as playing goes, we just play Metal. Eduardo is the lead guitarist in the Official Brazillian METALLICA Tribute. Patrick has another band called REDSIGHT, which is also Metal. Now for stuff I've been listening to recently: DIO ("THE LAST IN LINE" & "HOLY DIVER"), PRIMUS ("THE ANTI-POP"), MOTORHEAD ("INFERNO"), SOULFLY ("THE DARK AGES") MACHINE HEAD, CELTIC FROST, SLAYER ("HELL AWAITS") & the eternal "TWISTED INTO FORM" from FORBIDDEN. We used to play "Through Eyes Of Glass" from them. |
| WHAT IS ONE THING YOU THINK PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO FIND OUT ABOUT YOU? How much each one of us in the band are first & foremost, fans. We love Metal. We breathe & bleed Metal in our everyday life. Secondly we are musicians, but firstly headbangers. |
| WHAT DO YOU FEEL ARE SOME COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS OF LIFE IN BRAZIL? Brazil is being more & more exposed world wide through politics, sports, music, arts in general & those misconceptions of Brazil have pretty much died out. I feel. In short, we're more than just an Amazon & Rio De Janeiro. WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE NEXT FROM SCARS? Upcoming from SCARS will be our full length album. WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE THIS INTERVIEW? WHAT WILL YOU DO NOW THAT IT IS DONE? I went to Burger King for breakfast (if you consider a double bacon whopper breakfast), & I'll have dinner with my mum afterwards for today is mother's day. I got her a gift & everything. THANX A LOT FOR TAKING THE TIME TO DO THIS INTERVIEW. IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO ADD FEEL FREE. Thank you Burt for the opportunity & let's hope to see you soon in your homeland backstage with us. CHEERS!!! |
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| ALL PHOTOS & GRAPHICS COURTESY OF SCARS INTERVIEWS MAIN PAGE |
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