Noturnall - The cross grade - part1/3

About a year and a half ago we began an album... with another band, under another name... and since then we began realizing... that the sound was taking a very different direction... from what we were used to. During these two years of composing and development of the album... many things changed not only regarding the songs... but also as to our thoughts as musicians and as to our careers. When we reached the end of the composing process and had a demo tape... we showed it to many people, to labels... and they liked it a lot. We also liked the sound so much that we felt the need... of having a new face. And this is one of those typical moments when music takes a life of its own... and everything you have to do as a musician and producer... is to let it take its own course. That is exactly what happened at that moment. All of us felt that. We looked at each other and said... "Man, this is a new band. It's different from what we were doing". Noturnall. That is what we felt. There was no return. No turn at all. And in one of the bleakest moments of our career... no turn at all, "Noturnall". It was the perfect name. It was a natural process for everyone. Everyone began realizing that it was different from what we'd been doing. It was different from the concept because we began talking about current issues... we began playing a more aggressive sound... that really wasn't part of the mystic of our other band. There was a new content, different lyrics... many different things that we wanted to include in the new album... that is really very strong. We needed new blood in the band... to bring the modernity and speed we wanted. This process that we've been calling "cross grade"... of everything in fact... we've maintained a standard and had to... find a new way to express what we were doing. The first person that came to mind was Aquiles. In my opinion he is one of the best drummers of the world. He could only add to the sound, to put his mark on the sound... so that we could finalize the sound with a flourish like we wanted... after a two year struggle. I already worked with him in various situations... on other projects and I've known him for many years... more or less 12 or 13 years... and he is a good person, I really enjoy working with him. He has a very strange sense of humor. You never know if he's serious or kidding. We have a lot of fun with him. The songs had a pressure, a violence... and we didn't really know who to call in that situation... who to bring in that situation... who would embrace the project wholeheartedly. I gave him a demo tape. To our surprise he gave me a phone call... because he is a busy guy, always working, doing workshops and playing. He really liked our work and our demo tape. He called and said he wanted to talk more about the album. Right away we sat down together to talk... and this ended up in a wedding during the course of one afternoon. He praised each track, the way we worked... the technical part of each member. We began holding a series of meetings... so that we could get to know each other... because not only is the musical aspect important but there has to be a chemistry... an energy so that the band could reach the level we wanted. Aquiles' biggest contribution to the band... was to bring new slang. Now everyone says, "Party". But I found out long ago that life is a party. One of the things that caught my attention when I heard it... is that the sound had nothing to with the members' former bands. That was cool because I saw it was something new. When I heard the new material I automatically thought... what it'd be like to play that kind of music... that was very different. This kind of music is very different from what I usually play. Now we are finally recording the drums.... not the way we wanted to, that's the part I really like... but in a way that we didn't expect. As amazing as it seems... the last thing we recorded was the drums. That is the inverse process. It is wrong. This ended up creating new things for the tracks. This is one of the things I want to point out... that we were impressed by what he brought to the songs. We saw the tracks in a different light. We were used to seeing those songs in a different light... and he really came along with... not the way he usually played... but at the same time you can tell that it's Aquiles. I only expected a drum sound that would complete the songs... but in this case we ended up completing a band. That was great. I realized it was a challenge. The songs were ready... everything was recorded. I had to play obeying to those rhythmic figures, those arrangements... because they wouldn't record anything again. So it is a big challenge. Usually the drums are the first thing to be recorded in an album. I'd say it the most mature of my career... both as to the instrumental and vocal. The instrumental part was so natural that we began composing... and we reached a level where Leo and I shared the guitars... Leo and I shared the bass line plus many other things. Juninho and I shared the keyboard arrangements. Everyone ended up sharing the instrumental part. No one was stuck to his own instrument. This gave the compositions great authority. I don't listen to anything, I have no influences. I get ideas during rehearsals. I get ideas and begin composing on top of chords. For example, bass and pedal. I play chords until I reach a specific sonority... and then I begin building phrases... rhythmic divisions, changes of tempo. The first part of the process... is always to listen to the songs a lot. When possible, I always prefer listening to the playback... without the drums the people are suggesting. That way I'm not stuck to an initial idea... and my ideas come up naturally. After I have the whole structure in my head... before I practice my own ideas, I listen to it again... and think what people are expecting of me... in that track. In this way I can build something relevant... to their expectations and also to what Aquiles would play in that song. As to the vocals I think it is Thiago's best result... the best ever in his career. In this album we recorded the vocals at least six times... in different demo tapes until we reached this vocal line. We also had great help from producer Russell Allen from Symphony X... who recorded the vocals with us... so the vocals and instrumentals are very mature on this album... which make the songs sound modern, well-executed... with a different instrumental, with a different vocal line... so we had a very good end result. It was kind of funny because I was on an Asian tour... and fortunately I had five days off... at the Mapex factory in Taiwan. Instead of going out to see the city, the tourist locations... I went to the factory one day... got some snares and went back to the Mapex studio.... and set up a drum kit similar to the one I'm using for this recording. That was the first time I used a floor tom on the left side... for the arrangements themselves. Obviously each member added his... personal touch and that lends a lot to the band... lends a lot of amazing influences to the sound. When you listen to the songs you'll hear a lot of low tuning, very heavy. Sometimes you'll hear ten different things... as to arrangements. You'll hear them in some parts and not in others. It is very progressive. Speaking of people we'd like to work with one day... the name Russell Allen came up due to the fact that he's a great singer... someone we've admired ever since we've been musicians. I wrote him... and we decided to meet and talk. This happened during a gig we played here in Brazil when he played with us. He agreed. He enjoyed our gig and said it'd be great to work together. We were really excited about the idea. Soon after we went to New York to record the vocals and produce the songs. Why not shoot a video clip with him? I can't describe what it's like working with Russell. So we recorded the vocals and produced the album with him. He received us at his studio, Chanty Shack... where we recorded a feature for TV Globo. It was great. He did a barbecue for us along with his family. We never thought we'd be so well-received.... by someone who's a heavy metal legend.