Photo: Conservatório Souza Lima
01 - Hi Lucas. How’s everything? It’s a pleasure to have you for this interview.Start by telling us who were your great influences on guitar and who were you teachers.
I'm fine! It's an honour to take part on this interview at Guitar-clinic.
My early influences on the guitar were always about rock guitarist like Richie Kotzen, Steve Vai, Andy Timmons and Frank Solari. I studied at GTR, a schoolin Brasilia where I give lessons nowadays.Among others, I had Alex Pires and later Marcelo Barbosa as my teachers.
02 - One of your presentation of great impact on media and press was the CD NIG STRINGS. How did it come to happen and how did people react with the song “PHASE”?
The opportunity came up when NIG strings organized a contest. The company's endorsees made a selection of the 10 best guitarists that had signed up for it. Lucky I was one of the winners and "Phase" was included on NIG's promotional CD. Over 31 thousand copies were made! I believe that it was well accepted by people. Curiously, some people have downloaded the song's playback from NIG's website and uploaded their own versions of it on Youtube.
03 You’ve recently released your first album called “Lucas Fagundes”. Please tell us what were the steps to compose the album.
Each track had its own method of composing. Some of them, like Phase, Down on the Farm and Naquela Noite are old tunes taken from my Demo CD. I recorded them again changing some of the parts. The other ones are totally new or recomposed old ideas. 20 Dias is a short track that I've included on the disc that refers to the fact that I released it when I was 20.
My concern was not only about the sound of the album' as a whole - I didn't want to produce a "boring" album - so I paid extra attention to each track as well. I'm pretty happy with the results and it's something I can be proud of.
04 - The álbum also had special participations such as Edu Arduny and Marcelo Barbosa.How did they come in it?
Marcelo has been a friend of mine for such a long time and a truly gifted musician. He knew I'd be happy to have him taking part on this CD.I had already played with Edu some times so he knew me when I invited him. I'm pleased not only for having their musical and personal contribution, but also for the fact that most guitarists are not given the chance to have two of their top guitar heroes as guest musicians on their first CD release.
05 - What do you think of the instrumental music situation in Brazil? Is it difficult to work being a totally independent musician?
The great majority of instrumental musicians in Brazil are independent. The audience for this kind of music is very restricted, but I think that nowadays Brazilian guitarists have been more recognized among the ones from other countries If we get a Brazilian guitar magazine from 10 or even 5 years ago, we wouldn't see as many Brazilian guitarists in it as we do nowadays. I think this is mainly because of the internet, where independent musicians easily get to show their work to audiences. Some musicians believe that the internet can be a bad thing to the music business because of piracy, but I guess that's not just the way it goes. Just find a way to use the web in favor of your business.
06 - What equipment do you usually use and which ones were used to record the album?
The equipment I used for recording the album is very simple. The guitars, I used an Ibanez Jem7vwh for all of the leads and a Fender strato for all of the clean sounds. I also used an Ibanez RG for some heavy B-tuned parts, a Martin acoustic and a Line6 Variax for sitar sounds. I didn't mic the amp, which was a Line6 Flextone III that I set up for direct recording. All of the effects were added during the mixing process.
07 - Beside being a musician you are also a teacher at GTR , one of the greatest school in Brazil. What’s the work around there like?
I became a teacher at GTR as soon as I finished its course in 2003 and I’ve been teaching there since then. GTR is one of the best not only because of its tuition, but also because you're always in contact with great guitar players and musicians.
08 - How has your album been spread all over the country? How can people purchase it?
The CD is for sale to international buyers through the internet, on my personal website: www.lucasfagundes.com . For more information, just send me an e-mail!
09 - Thanks a million for being with us. Leave your message to our visitors.
Thanks again for the opportunity Guitar-clinic gave me, and I thank the readers for spending some time getting to know my work. You can visit www.lucasfagundes.com , my Myspace or Youtube profiles to have access to songs, videos, guitar lessons and CD information. See you around!