Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Edu Falaschi's interview for Darkside e-zine, last part



Here is the last part of the Edu's Falaschi interview from Darkside e-zine !

Interview by Ksenia on Darkside e-zine.
A special thanks to Irina, the Almah Russia's webmaster for the link !

First part

Following of the interview :

"Ksenia : And what about you? What will happen if tomorrow Angra will come back and Almah will again turn into your side project? Aren’t you afraid of this?

Edu Falaschi : Actually I don’t have one main band, and I spoke to the Angra guys, we had a meeting in December, and they said, “O’k, we’re gonna come back in 2009”. And I said, “O’k, very nice, I love Angra, I like to go to Russia again, and then with Angra everything is very beautiful, I love to go to Russia with Angra again, to meet Ksenia again” (laughs). But Almah is growing up, Almah has a future, Almah has objectives in a short time – I want to do it so. The main idea is to work together, but of course Angra is bigger than Almah, it’s natural and moreover Almah is a new band. I am famous, Felipe is famous, but the name Almah itself is new. We rally work a lot to make more concerts, to make more albums, so it would take more time, but Angra is a big band, with a big history, so I can’t compete with Angra and with Angra’s history. And actually I don’t have one main priority, I just have time, for me it’s just a matter of time. So if Angra stops, I will be working with Almah, if Angra comes back and if I need to work more with Almah, I’ll tell the Angra guys to wait, because I have to conclude everything in Almah, and then I will come back to Angra. But actually we released the Almah album in September, and we did some promotions in October, November, in December and January we gave concerts in Brazil. Of course I’d like to play in Europe, but Europe is getting more and more difficult to reach for the new bands. Hopefully I will be able to go to Europe and Japan with Almah. For me this album sounds like the first Almah album, I consider it the first Almah album, because it’s the first album that we recorded as a band. Maybe I can go to Europe in April, because we have some people inviting us there. So I will tell to Angra guys, “O’k, I want to go to Europe with Almah, and then I’ll come back and start working for Angra.”

Ksenia : So, now Almah is your top-priority?

Edu Falaschi : Yes, absolutely, but still when Angra comes back, Angra will be my top-priority. Angra stopped, and I got involved into another thing which became my top-priority, yes, but when it comes back, I will pay Angra much attention. But I wanna say that I have these two bands and I’m not gonna make or create ant other projects, these two are quite enough for me. I have a lot of things to do and I want once to have Almah and Angra, and that’s it.

Ksena : When Angra performed in Moscow in March, 2007, nobody could imagine that there were some problems in the band. Almost a year later we got to know that there were some problems with management, that the setting was iron-hot, and even at the beginning of the tour there was a battle among musicians. In what moment did the situation get out of control? And what steps did you make to get out of this crisis?

Edu Falaschi : I was pretty new in Angra, because I joined the band in 2000, and about in 2002 we were very sad, because of the problems with the manager, but then we said, “O’k, we have a great future with Angra, let’s forget everything!” But in the course of time everything was getting worse and worse. And then finally it was very difficult for us to continue with Angra, and certainly the situation inside the band between the musicians was getting very bad. Maybe because of those problems with the management. Everybody was very nervous, everybody was very angry all the time, very sad, so the situation was not like playing for enthusiasm, everybody was playing for money, like a job you know. But I don’t like that, I am a musician, I play with my heart and I put my voice in the songs with all my emotions, so I can’t play only for money. And actually the other guys, too. They decided to leave the band, they said, “O’k, it makes no sense to play concerts only for business, we want to be happy, we want to be musically satisfied with the band.” We had many problems inside the band, everybody was like fighting all the time. So we decided to stop, to solve the problems with the manager, and solve the problems inside the band. We stopped one year and a half until now, and then Angra wants to come back in March.

Ksenia : In Almah you and Felipe proved your ability to create songs, to be producers, to be big bosses. What role do you see for yourself in Angra when it returns?

Edu Falaschi : I’m very satisfied with my position in Almah, because I created Almah. Everybody fits my voice, I have no comparisons with any singer, because I am the creator of Almah, so for me it’s better to play in a band like that, for me it is more comfortable. But in Angra (I joined the band in 2000) the band was already existing, for about nine years before me, everything was already settled and set there. So it was difficult at the beginning to prove to the people, and one of the main difficulties in Angra for me is that I need to sing very high all the time, and then the composers, the main composers, duty vocal melodies – well, sometimes I need to sing vocal melodies that I really don’t feel comfortable to sing. But in Almah I do everything with my voice, and for my voice. So it’s very natural for me. If we take some change in Angra it will be a possibility to create in every song my own vocal melodies. But it’s impossible, because Kiko (Loureiro) and Rafael (Bittencourt) are great composers, but sometimes it’s difficult for me. But I need to combine, at least to try to combine my style with their styles and then try to find something cool in Angra. But the main difference between Angra and Almah is that in Almah it is more comfortable for me to sing, but of course I like to sing the Angra songs, it’s very nice. But when I need to sing all the songs, from the previous singer, for me it’s quite strange, because the style if totally different from mine. I don’t sing very high, for example. I sing in a different style, my voice is lower, stronger – it’s just different. So that’s my idea.

Ksenia : Almah is not the first band that was created around you, as far as I remember the first band was Mitrium and with this band you came to Sao-Paolo, with this band you went to the contest for the plays of the vocalist of Iron Maiden. How was it like? Why did you have to stop the activity of this band and to have a break in rock career?

Edu Falaschi : Well, it was a long time ago, it was in 1993 or 1994, I don’t know. I was very young, and then I had another band, it was my first band Mitrium and then I was promoting the album, because at that time we recorded a vinyl, because in 1994 we didn’t have CDs, of course. So I recorded a vinyl and I was promoting in here in Sao-Paolo, and then I was invited to take part in this and I decided to be part of this contest, because it would be very nice for my band. And it was really good for my band, because I did many interviews, I did many promotions, here in Brazil and then I became famous here as a singer. And my band was going pretty well. And then it was my career, I started singing metal and this contest with Iron Maiden helped me a lot. And then I had another band called Symbols, until the Angra guys invited me to join them in 2000, so I sang in Angra almost 10 years, until 2008.

Ksenia : I managed to find it out in your biography that you studied law. And how did you learn to sing? And are you going to work at your singing techniques further?

Edu Falaschi : Oh, it was a looong time ago (laughs) I started singing when I was about 16 years old, and I had very many bands and actually I started my career with playing drums. But I was a bad drummer and then I decided to play guitars and I play guitar very well and then I had a band in Brazil playing guitars. But the singing was going very bad. And then the band decided to put me in the vocal place. I started singing and everybody in the band said, “O’k, that’s nice, you are singing very well. Don’t play guitar any more. You just sing!” I started singing and I was singing all the time, after it I started composing and making my own songs. And then I decided to have some classes with teachers here in Brazil for them to help me sing correctly and healthily. I was studying all the time and I still do it, because for a vocalist it’s very important – you need to practice all the time. That’s my life!

Ksenia : On the new Almah album “Fragile Equality” you sing differently. The way you sing on this record differs greatly from the way you sing in Angra and the way you sang on the first Almah album. What is the reason for such a change? Is it due to the fact that you were working much at your singing techniques, or is it just because this time you were responsible for the production and you could do whatever you wanted with the record?

Edu Falaschi : I believe that every album is a revolution. I always try to do many things and develop as a singer, as a producer, as a person. And then I am always trying to improve in everything. And of course making the production of this album “Fragile Equality” adds to this transformation. I was the producer of the first Almah album as well, by the way. For me it’s very good, because when I compose the song, when I composed this album even at the very beginning I already knew which kind of voice I would put in the song. I did everything from the very beginning, I had everything in my hands. I had everything over control. So for me doing the things like that is better as a singer, because I can make everything in my own way. It’s easy, because nobody else can understand more about my voice, than me. It is important to be very deep in the job, and to know everything you gonna do in the future, because you can do it perfectly. And I am really satisfied with “Fragile Equality”, because I think that this is the best album I recorded in my life. And to my mind “Fragile Equality” is the best metal album in 2008. I mean the power metal album. So I am very happy.

Ksenia : Many people consider you voice on the title track of “Fragile Equality” to be strange, it sounds like the voice of the vocalist of Metallica, but not as the voice of the vocalist of Almah (laughs) What did you do with your voice to sound like that?

Edu Falaschi : Yeah, this is a kind of trash metal song, and then I decided to sing with more power, to combine different ways of singing in this song. But the course is very melodic, so I tried to sing very softly to combine with the part. But the main idea was to make a very heavy vocal, vocal line. In Angra it IS good to show this kind of voice, despite the band is totally different. But you we look at my other band, before Angra, you will hear something like that, something more aggressive, more strong. But then, in the first Almah album there is a song “King”, and there you can also hear the vocal like that – very very strong and very heavy. So for me it is natural, it is not difficult. "

Read the all intefview on Darkside e-zine