The Brazilian band Tihuana formed in 1999 in São Paulo City. Comprised of Egypcio (Singer), Román (Bass Player), Léo (Guitarist), P.G. (Drummer) and the new percussionist, Fouad, this band is a no holds bar kind of group, offering something fresh to the palate of the rock connoisseur. The band’s music has a great varied array of influences, ranging from Alternative Rock, Ska, Reggae, Punk Rock, Rapcore, Latin Music, and more.
The new RockRevolt Magazine Contributing Writer, Victória Oliveira, had the pleasure to sit down and speak with the band member and lead singer, Egypcio, during the launch party of their new album, Agora é Pra Valer. Check out the interview below!
Why did you decide to change labels?
Actually, we didn’t decide, we left Universal in 2009, and so far we’ve been doing independent albums. We weren’t even thinking of labels. At the end of 2012 though, we met Alain (Building Records Owner), and realized he and his label were really competent. There wasn’t a rock band in their band catalog because their specialty is electronic music, but we saw that they had a great space, a great consultancy, and when he made a great proposal, we accepted right away.
The music scene in Fluminence (Rio de Janeiro) didn’t work for the growth of the band, and the band decided to move to São Paulo. Why São Paulo? What was interesting in the music scene of São Paulo at that time?
The band has people from many parts of Brazil and most of them came from Rio de Janeiro. At the end of Radio Fluminence, we came to São Paulo because at the time, the rock movement was already over, in the late 90s; however, the rock movement was still very big in São Paulo, so we decided to come to São Paulo, where we met, because I’m from São Paulo.
How was Baía’s (previous drummer) departure? Would you say that it affected the harmony of the band?
What we actually lost was a great friend, because of the difficulties of being on the road, because the friendship continues to be as always. He is still like our younger brother, so nothing has changed, even with his departure from the band. As the percussion in Tihuana is very present, we wanted to keep it, and with his departure, we replaced him with a friend of ours, Fouad, who was the percussionist of the band Orbital. He had already stood in for Baía on other occasions, like when Baía had a health problem and was absent for 6 months. So, Fouad was like a brother to us as well, and had already toured with us, so it was like if we had just continued it.
Would you say that the entry of the percussionist, Fouad, changed the band’s sound?
Not so much has changed because Fouad was influenced by Baía, so he kept the roots. Logically, there is a bit of a difference in his way of playing, but everyone has his own way of playing. In the whole context though, it worked perfectly.
The band spent seven years without releasing new CDs. So why come back now?
We returned now precisely because we signed with the label Building Records. We spent all of this time producing and making this new album, which was not easy, but we wanted to make a good album, without the pressure of having a label behind it. So we had time to do this one without having any problems.
Watch “Minha Rainha”
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With the exception of the new album, launched by Building Records, Rick Bonadio and Rodrigo Brown produced all of the other CDs. Why did this happen? Was it by contract or because you all had the same vision of which musical line the band should follow?
This occurred because we always had a partnership, friendship and commitment. We admire Rick a lot; he put us in the music business, like radio and TV, since we signed the contract with him at the time. He launched Tihuana, and we admire him greatly. He produced all the other albums – both he and Rodrigo Castanho, who is also our friend and Rick’s partner. But this new album though, Agora é Pra Valer, was entirely produced by the band.
Where did the idea to name this album Agora é Pra Valer came?
This is the name of a track of the CD. There is even a version of this song on the disc in a DubStep version, and it’s a song that talks about winning, overcoming obstacles and believing. While we were looking at the songs of CDs to choose this name, we all liked the name at the time, Agora é para valer (Now it’s for real), not that it wasn’t before, but now more than ever.
Do you plan to go on tour to promote the new CD?
We’re already doing some shows in Brazil, but we will do a release show for the tour to promote this new album at the end of this year.
What of new can we expect to hear in this new album?
There is a music version in DubStep of the song, Agora é pra valer, there’s the song, Minha Rainha (My Queen), that is being played all over Brazil and has the participation of Digão, from the band Raimundos, and also a song in which we mix traditional Arabic music with rock. I’m of Arab descent and I invited a friend of mine to sing in Arabic in this song, and many other unusual things, like the other albums, because Tihuana likes to do something different on every CD.
Do you wanna send a message to our readers?
A big kiss, a big hug and a lot of Rock n’ Roll to everyone.
Check out Tihuana out on the links below!
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