by Rafael Nery

Hi Rafael, how are you?

Rafael: Hi, my friend. I’m ok thanks.

Thanks for this interview to Guitar Clinic. Following the same we did with the others before you,we’d like to start by knowing your beginning with music. When exactly did you get interested in music?

Since I was born...in my early memories...I love listening to music. Even nowadays, I hardly ever find some bad about music. I like all kinds of music and I love to see people gathering to admire it. I got interested in music at my grandfather’s house. Every Sunday the Bittencourts used to gather and after dinner we had some music sessions, jokes, stories and even poetry. Up to nowadays the family gets together at my grandmother’s house as my grandfather died a long ago. We sang Brazilian such as country, folk, MPB and Bossa Nova. The guitar would go from hand to hand and everyone seemed to know a lot of nice tunes. I stared at that family accoustic guitar as it passed from one to the other and I was fascinated with the power of excitement that those who knew how to play that instrument were able to provide. At that time, from 4 to 10 years and I was always sure that I wanted to learn how to play that instrument and that I loved music.

Who were you influenced by?

I was influenced by guitarrist from the time I was a kid and a teenager, because at that time I used to listen to music with my senses and did not know how to combine the sounds through a logical evaluation. Understanding the music theory brings you a better comprehension but on the other hand it is sometimes worse for the uncompromised feeling of music. I have always enjoyed Angus Young, Tommy Iomy, Blackmore, Van halen e David Gilmour, Brian May and many others.

Who were your teachers?

I have already taken classes with lots of different teachers...some of them, I don’t even remember their names. I started with acoustic guitar lessons with an old woman named Neuza and it took a while for me to finally take some electric guitar lessons. Joe Mograbi was my first rock guitar teacher. He’d come to my place for private lessons and I started to understand better what was rock guitar all about (triads, scales etc). I also attended to some classes at the first IG&T where the good Brazilian names were teaching Faíska, Índio, Wesley César, Mozart Mello and others excellent guitarists. I lived in The USA for a year where I had classes with a man called Ron Bauer who had already played with the Carpenters. I came back to Brazil and started the music course at University Santa Marcelina, in São Paulo. At that time, I was also teaching a few lessons. Meanwhile, I was trying to make a band to perform my songs and I knew I wanted it to be serious and professional. With Angra’s success I got better known. I was always exchanging ideas with other guitar player friends. Like Juninho Affram, Sidney Carvalho, Edu Ardanuy and André Hernandes. I taught Beto Lee, Rita Lee’s son (famous Brazilian rock singer), and some other guys who are nowadays playing very well.

I graduated in Composition and Conducting at Santa Marcelina University. Later I learned some improvising from Mozart Mello and after from Michel Leme two of the greatest Brazilian Masters. As you can see, I’ve had many masters. And what differences can you spot between someone who has recently started and you who started more than 20 years ago? I think that In my childhood, life seemed to be a bit more romantic in this planet. The world was already troublous and there was little expectation of getting better but people used to be a bit more optimist and hopeful. And music was obviously reflection of that. It was common to my generation to learn Brazilian acoustic guitar first and then the electric. It was not different for me. I had been playing for about three years when I got my first guitar, a "TONANTE" brand which did not blow me away since I seldom tuned that and ended up having great fun in my ideas of composition with my Di Giorgio acoustic guitar. My generation has a much bigger knowledge of music. Nowadays people are full of prejudice about many styles and feel like playing always the same stuff. It’s not good for being a high quality musician.

You were quite Young and decided to go to The USA, which is something that is often in national guitarrist’s mind. What benefits did it bring to your carreer?At the beginning, was that difficult to deal with different culture, language and living?

I went to the USA in 1988. There I’ve been to many concerts Deff Lepard, Van Halen, Bon Jovi and many others very well succeeded there at that period like Cinderella, Winger and other Hard Rock bands. It was a golden time for the electric guitar. Yngwie Malmsteen had released Marching Out, Satriani, Steve Vai and many others were at their bests. The best of everything was that I got in the middle of Nebraska and could understand the country side american way of living without the all the fuzz from Holywood or big cities. I studied techniques a lot, bought a new guitar (a red Charvel that was stolen here in Brazil), but what was worth the most was the life experience. Being on my own, facing the language and cultural differences, making friends etc. When we are Young we have no Idea about how good life is when you have nothing to worry about, no obligations or responsibilities. I had my fun and learned a lot too, life was rather pleasant most of the time. Before living there in US, I found Brazilian songs a bit boring. My mother had hidden some cassette tapes in my bag so I wouldn’t feel homesick. Just as said! Listening to Brazilian songs abroad brings a very strong feeling. Nobody cared if I played some arpeggios of Malmsteen there, but any chord similar to Bossa Nova made them impressed. 

After the trip you decided to take up music at University. Tell us why exactly you decided to get through composition and Conducting and how has it helped your skills as a musician?

My academic skills have been very important to my career. I got to understand the scholar way and it gave me a solid base so I could develop my ideas in Angra. I could learn how to see many different focus for the same musical idea and many different opportunities in the area as a Professional musician. As my personality was being built, as a person and as an artist, I had the chance to exchange ideas with musicians from all areas. From an orchestra violinist, a studio session trumpet player, a country music composer, a conductor or a piano teacher. We were all there, together, studying the same subject but on very distinct points of view. It’s very important to get along with other musicians and not only rockers, head bangers and guitar players. The way I think about music nowadays has a lot to do with the time I spent there and the fact that I met those other people.

Within this time, the idea of getting the band came up. We’d like to know how it came to happen. Was there any material already written by you before the band? What was the work of the band at the beginning like?

I came back fom the USA with a pretty clear idea of making a high level band with songs I had demoed and I was really sure about the concept. The band had to get a fusion of all the musical variety we were surrounded, mainly the one coming from Brazilian music. When I was abroad I felt how powerful an Afro-Latin-Brazilian heavy rock could be. And this was the Angra’s greatest secret of the international Success. At the beginning, even the members of the group found quite unusual to mix these styles, but soon they got into it.

Even to go deeper in Kiko’s history in his interview, which he said that recording the album "Angels Cry" was something really hard due to some aspects. Please, tell us your view of how it was to record that album.

The "Angels Cry" was such a hard and painful birth. Right in the first day of recording the producer sent our drummer back home (Marcos Antunes) freaking the fuck out of us all. We started demanding from each other during the recording sessions in a level that hardly ever slowed down. None of us knew how much producers abroad demanded from their artists. It was not an easy job to finish that record. Eventually, all the effort was worth because the record went gold in Japan and had equal excellent performance in most of the countries it was released. And It’s a classic until today among the metal kids.

06- Angra has released many albums that spot different moments. Holy Land for example showed a new Idea for heavy metal audiences and beside it, each albums has their characteristics. Please,define each of them in one word and in your opinion ,which album presents the band as a total?

The titles speak for themselves: "Angel Cry" we were living that naïve dream of being famous, and we also had the melancholic type of melodies inherited from the Portuguese "fado". Holy Land showed the pride of being Brazilians. When we could take some steps forward, experiment a little more and, we were more experienced. On "Fireworks", we felt like making a powerful and heavy Record. "Rebirth" was literally the rebirth of the band with new members. "Temple of Shadow" was about the church and the Middle Ages, also known as Dark Ages. "Aurora Consurgens" means the Rising of the Dawn. The coming of a new day, maybe a new beginning.

What’s the way you usually use to compose? Is there any tecnique developed by you or any rule or system when you write your songs? What was the process of composing in the old Angra, as we’ve seen many of your songs in conradship with Andre Matos, and in Angra these last days? For every song you have a different situation and that’s the hard part of composing.

You’ve got to give your idea what it demands and not what you’re used on doing. You’ve got to be free of paradigms and habits. I guide myself through sensations I want people to feel and through melody lines as a lead to all the rest. I like to sing the melodies when I’m writing to get an idea of what kind of atmosphere I want to create with that song, and then I balance the dynamics in order to get the best effect possible. I try an endless amount of possibilities for each idea until I decide which one is the best. Do you intend to Record any solo job? In case you do, how would it be like as these present days you’ve frequently been singing in Angra’s show? What are your plans for the future? I hope to release a solo Record and I already have some ideas and songs in my computer that I’d like to Record. They are pretty different of Angra’s stuff and I know people could get a little surprised. I’d like to sing some songs and I’ve been practicing and researching my voice so I can do that. Writing songs is what I do the best, although Instrumental songs is not my strongest point as a composer, even though I like it a lot. Maybe this year I’ll record the cd and release it next year.

Regarding to your equipment, please talk about what you are used to using in live shows, at studios, who are your sponsors, etc…

I usually hook my Marshall JMP-1 pre-amplifier in a power-amp (Grove Tubes or Marshall 9200). I can do the same through the power amp of any head (Meteoro MAK3000, Laney ou Peavey), just hook the jmp-1 on the return jack of the loop. The guitar goes straight to my Boss GT-8 from which I use the effects wha, tremolo, distortion, chorus and others, from there it goes straight to the jmp-1 input. I command the changes via midi from this electronic pedal. I create a loop from the jmp to my YAMAHA spx 9002 and back to my pre-amp. I’ve been playing mainly with a custom Yamaha AES920. I have my own signature strings created by NIG (GN I) http://www.nigstrings.com.br/gni/artistas_rafael.htm. My microphones are AUDIO TECNHIKA and my pickups are Di Marzio Virtual PAF and Virtual Hot PAF.

If you could choose five musicians of ever for a jam, who would they be and which songs would you play?

Ian Paice or Keith Moon at drums, John Entwistle on Bass, Fred Mercury (piano and vocals), Van Halen on the guitar, Rick Wakeman on keyboards. We’d play only Beatles and Raul Seixas (a famous Brazilian artist that I’m sure they’d love).

Thank you very much for this great opportunity. Feel free to say whatever you want.

I Thank you all at Guitar Clinic for the invitation. Whenever you want, it’s a pleasure to cooperate with the your site. This site is looking nice and full of material. Keep up with this good job. Success always!

Rafael Bittencourt