Arne:
Hi Renato, can you tell a bit about the foundation of Amazon, members, location ++?

Renato:
The band was created in Valinhos, our current hometown. It's a small city (100.000 inhabitants), 70 km north from Sao Paulo. Amazon got together in the middle of 2002. I had some songs that I wanted to work on, and so me and Sabrina started to compose some stuff. Then, when the songs started getting shape, we decided we were going to need a drummer and a bass player, so I got my brother Danilo into the band, and we invited Newton Godoi, a drummer I had already worked with in a former band. Some time after that, we had some problems with the band's schedule and Newton's personal schedule, and we decided it was time to move on, so Marcos Frassão got into the band. Then we got a record deal, and recorded our debut album, Victoria Regia - which is still unreleased.

Arne:
Your debut album Victoria Regia is still unrealeased, and you got in some disagreement with the label who should have released it, can you tell us something about it, and what is happening with your debut now?

Renato:
We were working with a label who works with many bands of different styles, so they have this problem to stick to deadlines and to keep promises. That's why our website hasn't been updated in months. We are waiting until something is defined to update it, because we don't want to pass wrong information to the visitors. About 40 days ago, we broke the deal with this label and now we're negotiating with a new one, to release the first album and to start working on the second one right away. We hope everything turns out all right, because we are very anxious to release the album and we think it would be nice to work with this record company.

Arne:
Can you tell about the recording of the debut, the time it took to record, funny stories etc.?

Renato:
It was very pleasant to work on this album. We had a pre-production ready, so we didn't have big problems during the record sessions. We had most of the ideas of the songs, and then it was easy to expose them and discuss them with the producer Rildo Velloso - this guy is great! - who gave some clever tips and came up with different things. It's good to have an outside point of view when you're working on a new album, because you get conditioned to your closed ideas, and the producer plays a very important role of bringing you back to the real world. A very funny thing happened when we were recording the end of "The Phantom in the Mirror". I was playing the first take of the guitars, and when we got to the end, I just played as we had rehearsed. Rildo stopped recording, looked at me and said with great conviction: "Now, this ending is totally crap! Where did you get it from?", and all of a sudden, the whole band was laughing from my ending... so we got together and composed a new one. I hope it sounds better!!

Arne:
Describe your music to those who don`t know you yet?

Renato:
Well, I don't know exactly how to describe it. I'd say that we play heavy metal with female vocals, but that's the obvious. We like to work with orchestral elements, but we wouldn't like to lose the metal part of the band. Maybe you can say we play melodic metal (?), but I wouldn't dare. And the most important, is that we like to work on brazilian/south american themes, even though Victoria Regia is not a concept album. If you listen to, for example, Seven Suns&Seven Moons, you'll find out some indian-like elements. The drums, the harmony, the lyrics, etc. But if you listen to Dawn, there are none of these elements. I don't know. It's metal!

Arne:
How do you work when you write new songs, is the whole band participating or do you work individual?

Renato:
Generally, we work the idea as a whole individually, then each one arranges for their instrument, except the vocals, which I usually work together with Sabrina. And then, we exchange opinions during the rehearsals, like "Let's add something here, let's take this out", and so on.

Arne:
Amazon played support for Nightwish in São Paulo, can you tell about the happening?

Renato:
It was great. I mean, the 24 hours before the concert were the biggest agony of our lives, because when we got to the venue (Via Funchal) on december 4th, there were 3000, maybe more, people in the line waiting for the concert. Some of those guys were there for two days already, under sun and (a lot of) rain. So far, it was ok, we played with Shamaan before and it was very good too. Of course this was bigger, we were very enthusiastic about playing for all those people and support Nightwish, a band that I like very much. But then, something happened: Tarja Turunen got sick with some breathing problem, and the concert was postponed for the next day, December 5th. Of course, the audience went crazy about it, after two days exposed to weather. So we went back home, and returned the day after. We checked about Tarja, and fortunatelly she was better. But now, we were a bit worried about the anxiety of the audience for the Nightwish concert. We had no time for soundcheck, and when we got onstage, the audience was about 7000 people in the house. They were anxious and nervous, but when we started playing, they started headbanging to our songs and we got a little more relaxed. Then it was great, after the agony of the expectation was gone. It was a great concert, with a great audience, we enjoyed it a lot, and it seems the crowd also did.

Arne:
Is there a message you want to tell the people with your band name and the title of your debut?

Renato:
No, it's just a reference to this very important place in the world. It's also one of the biggest marks of Brazil and South America as well, and it is easily understood anywhere around the world. And so happens with the name of the album. If this attracts any attention to the problems we have here, we're glad about it. South America is a very nature-rich place, and with very developed cities like Sao Paulo, but we have a bunch of social problems here, that the world should pay attention. Kids starve to death every day. The nature is being slayed and it's fading away. We are the only water source left in the world big enough to kill the thirst of people around the globe, and mankind is destroying it. We are concerned about it, of course. But what we want to draw attention to is not this, but to the beauty of Brazil and South America and Amazon itself. It's very common to meet europeans here on vacation, on our tropical-paradise beaches, and this is the image we want to be associated to.

Arne:
Say a few words about each song on the debut from 1- 11?

Renato:
1. Dawn - is a metal song, with metal lyrics. We like to play it live because it's good for headbanging. It's a rythmed song, not too fast, not too slow, guitar riffs, strong chorus. I like it a lot. 2. Destiny's Revenge - This was the last one we wrote for the album. It tells a story that happened here in Brazil with a big press repercussion. Check the lyrics, you'll remember it. 3. The Shadow - One of the heaviest songs in the album, I like this one a lot. It is about a ghost, and we South Americans/brazilians like this ghost/phantom/spirits stuff a lot, because it's something present in the local indian culture. 4. The Phantom In The Mirror - This one is like Dawn Part II. It's a more melancholic song, and the lyrics are the sequel of Dawn. It's my favourite song live, because has a great impact in the chorus. 5. We Were All - It's one of the ballads of the album. It is a dedicated song in memorian to someone. Personally, I like this tune. 6. Growing - This is a fast song, symphonic blasts, keyboard solo. We don't play it much live because we chose some voice effects in studio that are hard to work with live. But every once in a while we put it in the setlist. 7. Seven Suns and Seven moons - This song is the legend of Zabele, and indian girl that fell in love for a boy from a different tribe and they get punished by nature because of that. It's somewhat Romeo and Juliet, but 600 years older. We decided for some indian like elements in the song, and the harmony is worked i a very Brazilian way, except the metal influences. Although it's a "love song", it's not a slow one. 8. Surrender - This is the second slow song from the record. We couldn't make a record without having a metal/hardrock ballad in it. 9. AngelWolf - This one is Danilo's favourite live song, I think. Something happened when we made this song, because it's different from the rest of the album. It's more like traditional Heavy Metal, and it turned out to be a song that works very well live with the audience. 10. Fate of Glory - It's about a gipsy queen. It was written by a good friend of mine, and we worked on it together. We don't play this one live, though. Not yet. 11. While There Is Time - This is the first we wrote, and it was not going to be on the album. It's more a hard rock/traditional metal song, with social critics lyrics. Then we decided it would be a bonus track, and then, when we recorded it, we decided to put it in and so what?... It's a song we play live sometimes, because we enjoy playing it, and it's a good song for concerts with lots of bands.

Arne:
How is the music scene where you are from, and do you get to play live often?

Renato:
Metal in brazil is not a popular genre. But the fact is that we have a metropolis right beside us, so even if a small parcel of the inhabitants likes metal, this small parcel means a lot of people. So it's nice. We have had the oportunity to play to somewhat big audiences, like supporting Nightwish (7000), or some other concerts with 2000, 3000 people. Brazil has a good potential for metal, because there is a lot of people here. We are 170 millions, so it's possible to find, maybe, 5 or 10 million metalheads in the country. There are underground bands playing everyday, and we have big venues for international/national bands, like the one we had recently with Tristania and Kreator. Our city is a very small city with very few entertainment options, so if we put up a gig around here, we can certainly get a reasonably good audience. We're not playing live often, once we don't have the album ready to sell, but we hope we can play more often very soon.

Arne:
Plans for Amazon in the future?

Renato:
We want to release our Victoria Regia in Brazil and Europe this year. Maybe Japan too, but we don't know yet. And we are already composing for the next album, so, probably, in a two years time, we'll be releasing the second.

Arne:
Thanks for taking time to answer my questions, and I wish you and Amazon all the best in the future . Is there any last message for your fans out there and to those who haven't yet checked out Amazon?

Renato:
Check our site, check our songs, we hope you like it. If you want to get in touch, email us. We will answer. Critics are welcome, help us make a better work! We're totally open to listen to your opinion. And for all those who already know us, a very big THANK YOU for the support and for headbanging with us.