Ahead of their performance at the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project on November 27th in Sydney, we sat down with Laura Taylor and DJ Gorky of Bonde do Rolê – the “Funk Carioca-influenced electropop group from Curitiba, Brazil”. For you see, for one night only, we were switching nightlifes with Brazil! We chat about the show, the changes to the lineup between albums, and what we can expect from the new one…
Welcome back to Australia – I understand it’s your first visit since 2008.
Laura: Yeah. It’s good to be back!
DJ Gorky: It’s only for one night though. Last time it was for the We Love Sounds tour, but this time it’s just for the one show with Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project.
Laura: One night only this time!
Does that give you more energy for the show?
DJ: Yeah, definitely. And we’ve prepared a lot of surprises for it. For the first time, we have a proper costume for the show.
L: Because we’re swapping cultures with Australia, this time we made sure we were doing a very Brazilian show. Because usually we just wear our own clothes, but this time we’ll be wearing some more traditional Brazilian outfits…
DJ: People are going to think Pedro is Little Red Riding Hood though…
L: ah, I don’t know…
DJ: Or like a Superman with a black cape.
L: Yeah he’s got a cape. It’s got a context behind it. You’ll just have to see it.
DJ: It will be a surprise!
In terms of the music, I understand you’ve been hard at work on new material yet to be released.
DJ: Yeah that’s actually why (our visit is so short). Right after Sydney we’re off to LA to spend two weeks finally finishing the record. And the good thing about this show is that we’re going to test a lot of the songs that we’re going to record. So if people in Sydney don’t like one song or another – we’re just going to cut it off the record! And if people like it we’ll make it a single and rename it Australia…. not so many people have written songs about Australia. That would be nice if a band from Brazil wrote a song about Australia. We would be here all the time! Would we do it in Portugese?
L: No we’d do it in English!
DJ: No! We have to do it in Portugese. Then Australian people have to sing it in Portugese! It would be amazing.
And how are the new tracks developing? How have things changed since 2007’s With Lasers?
L: Well they’re very different. We’re going in a different direction because it makes no sense to do what the band was doing before as the band has changed.
Indeed – you went from a three to a four piece (Laura and Ana Bernardino replacing Marina Ribatski in 2008, following an MTV Brazil competition, just before they toured Australia with We Love Sounds).
L: And so yeah, half the band is new. So it’s very different. Still very Bondey, we’re not a new band, we’ve just got a new thing going on.
DJ: Laura is half New Zealander, and the reason we never sung in English before was that our English wasn’t good enough. It was really heavy on the accent.
L: And now it’s a really heavy Kiwi accent! It’s terrible!
DJ: Not if you sing the new Australian anthem in Portugese!
It will no doubt help Australians get behind you at the shows though!
L: I can’t help but feel a little Australian actually. Because in Brazil… or anywhere in the world that isn’t New Zealand or Australia really… they seem to think that New Zealand is part of Australia. So people are like – oh you’re from New Zealand, are there Kangaroos? And I’m like no, I’m not from Australia! But then two minutes later they’re asking about Australia again. They just can’t understand it.
Have they not seen Flight of the Conchords!?
L: I think even if they have seen it they still think that. They just don’t understand that New Zealand is not a part of Australia. But when I say “well if I’m Australian then you’re Argentian”, then they get the picture.
So how long have you lived in Brazil for?
L: 9 Years. Well I was born there, so I spent the first 6 years of my life, and then moved back 3 years ago.
You certainly came into the group in unique circumstances, via an MTV reality series. How different are things for you now?
L: Well I’ve certainly come into my own now. At first it was really scary because I’d never really been on stage before, and then all of a sudden there was all this pressure on both Ana and I to fill someone elses shoes. So people would come expecting to see someone (Marina) and instead would see us two – and we’d have to make up for that. So it was a tour of not really feeling a part of anything. But now this is my band, two years onwards, and I can’t wait for the new CD to come out.
Going back to your first widely released record, With Lasers, was there any surprise on your part Gorky at the success it had in English speaking territories?
DJ: When we (Laura and I) were talking about the new record, I was saying how I though this new record was already 10 times better than the old record because we’ve had so much more time to work on this one. But as Laura told me, the old record was the right record at the right time with the right people.
L: It just happened to take off.
And now with the new record you very much know where it’s going to go, and the sorts of ears that will be listening to it…
L: Because the first one just happened – and now this time we’re trying so much harder, it’s hard to say whether it will work or not this time. I mean I’m loving it and I think the songs are great, but it just depends. We just have to release it to see how it will go!
DJ: It’s weird. The scene is already so different to when we appeared in 2006 and 2007. Klaxons were really big, and Muscles was huge with Ice Cream, the Gossip… and now these bands have all had their second albums and they’ve changed so much. It’s good to change but (it doesn’t always mean it will work).
L: But it’s going to be great. It’s just nerve wracking right before you release something so new. Because like we were talking about before… the first album just happened without even trying!
Well we’ll find out on Saturday night, when of course you’ll be waving the flag of Brazil. How would you define the Brazilian music scene and how does it compare to that of a place like Australia?
DJ: Well for the past two years, it’s been a discovery for me every single day. Every day I’ve been researching more and more of Brazilian music, and there’s so much stuff that doesn’t get on any radar at all. Crazy drum tracks, weird violins… so much weird sounds mixed with religions. It’s such a culturally rich country for music.
L: It’s massive! And then each district has its own type.
DJ: For example, if you have a samba band in Rio, it will sound completely different to a Samba band in just about any other city. It’s amazing. There’s so much to listen to in such a short time! I’ve been trying to get up to date on all that, but it’s so difficult.
L: And Brazilians are naturally such rowdy, happy people. So it’s so different to go out and a have a dance in Brazil, everyone gets really into it. And it’s not like you don’t go out and dance in London or Sydney or New Zealand – but from my experiences it doesn’t have the same soul. In Brazil everyone goes out and gets wild. I can’t really explain it! But I hope I can bring some of it to the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Program on the 27th!
Well we look forward to the show, and do you think we’ll see you back here in 2011 for a national tour?
DJ: Hopefully, yeah! We’re aiming for it. We were just talking about some of the festivals we would want to play.
L: But we’ll definitely be back.
DJ: With proper time!
L: But we love being here to swap nights with you.
DJ: The Australian bands who are over in Brazil right now are loving it too. Muscles, Bag Raiders, Van She…. It’s almost like a festival there. All my friends are completely psyched about it! And here there’s us and an amazing samba band and there’s going to be palm trees on the stage!
