Band member and the man behind the greatest thing to come out of Brazil since Giselle! Adriano from CSS talks to Analogue.

So 18 months on the road and over 5 concerts in Ireland alone, you must be the hardest working band today!

Yeah our agency, since we have been through a lot of bad things made this little frame or picture saying “Most Hard Working Band Of the Year”. We played like a 180 shows last year!

When you were leaving Brazil 18 months ago you were just getting big. You went back recently for the first time since and now you’re huge. How was that?

It’s weird as a lot of people didn’t like us and then they wanted to interview us but we didn’t do anything we didn’t want to. Like we didn’t speak to Globo Television (Brazil’s largest tv company). They wanted us to go on the like the David Letterman of Brazil and we said “no way we’re not doing this”. We don’t sell that much records there, we don’t have a record label there. So there’s no point in doing those things. We were wasting our time rehearsing and recording and we didn’t want to waste our time doing those things for people who didn’t like us. Just because we were famous in Europe and America. It’s really boring.

But you did a few shows in Brazil when you got back. How was that?

Yeah we did. We were at a festival and 6000 people were there watching us, which was cool. We were on at the same time as Lilly Allen and people left her to see us! That was emotional. For a moment I thought people were there to criticize us but they were all there singing and dancing. It was really beautiful.

The first time I met you guys was when I was living in South America and you were on a bus, a normal bus from

Sao Paulo to Rio in November 2005. Then I see you less than two years supporting Gwen Stefani on her European tour. That must have been weird, that quick rise, that trajectory from local band to world tours.
Yeah we played the Wembley Arena 4 times! Like 12,000 people each night! Ok they’re not there for us but to see Gwen Stefani.

But you must get people who go to those gigs to see Gwen but come back to you and say “Wow, I didn’t know you guys before and you’re really good!

Yeah! I never thought of the marketing aspect of touring but when we do tours like that our sales increase tremendously after. Of course there’s a lot of people who have never heard of us. You know if we play in front of those 12,000 people and only 10% of those like us and buy our record that’s 1200 people buying our record. So they are in HMV or Virgin and they see our record and go “That’s the band that opened for Gwen Stefani!” and they buy our record. That’s really cool.

How do you come about nabbing these big names to support? Is it a question of the record company coming to you?

Nah, it’s the agent. It’s the people who schedule our show. Like Gwen Stefani is from Primary, our agent. Primary, they have been really good to us. Our agent, he’s brilliant.

You’ve supported over the past year or so Ladytron, Basement Jaxx and Gwen Stefani. Which one was the best?

Ladytron. We became really good friends with those guys. They are the sweetest people ever. Like Daniel from Ladytron, he lives in Milan so everytime we go there we meet up. His wife is Brazillian. She’s really nice and we really became close friends. Like Helen from Ladytron always goes to our gigs in London. And Gwen, she’s really, really cool. She always went to our dressing room and she brought her kid Kingston and she is so down to earth. But she’s also kind of unapproachable as she’s a big star, you know. So we didn’t get that close so I don’t have her email or her phone number so I can’t ring her up and go “Hey Gwen, how are you!?”. Basement Jaxx, we met them 3 or 4 times in the catering area at the gigs and they are really nice. We had the most fun supporting Gwen. Basically we had a show and a day off, a show and a day off. Her show is also amazing. Watching that show every night it was amazing.

So you’re working on the second album. How is it different in sound from the first album?

I think it’s gonna sound more like a live show. It’s going to be less electronic but still sound very pop. When we recorded the first album we weren’t a band. We didn’t play that much and I didn’t know what we would end up doing. I have been working on this album since we started touring. I work on it on my computer touring and I am a workaholic so I am writing all the time. We already have 13, 14 songs so the album is all done. Man, at the beginning we didn’t even have songs. We would have maybe 4 songs and we would do one song twice and move on. And everyone was so shocked we had the guts to do that. But now the girls have gotten way better. I really trust them as musicians. I know I can make a bassline and Ira would pick it up. At the beginning they couldn’t. But now we play every day and we’re practicing. I still write all the arrangements for the instruments but now when we’re playing they’d change something as maybe it’s easier for them or they discover it’s better. Although I’m not really happy as we won’t be able to rehearse all the songs before we record and that’s something I really wanted to do. I wanted to go somewhere like a farm away from things and play the songs for almost forever but it’s not gonna happen. It was funny we were thinking about songs in ways like how it would sound on the main stage of Glastonbury or we would go “let’s make a break here so Lovefoxx can jump into the crowd” and stuff.

What goes on in Lovefoxx’s head when she thinks of things like “Music is my hot hot sex”?

She’s really unique. I think she’s a little genius. Her first thing is not music. It’s drawing. She’s an amazing illustrator. She’s more graphical than musical. I think her lyric writing is very visual as she is so graphical. She’s one of the best artists I have ever met.

So how did you two meet up?

It’s all Ira’s fault. I used to have another band called I Love Miami, which was the worst band. It wasn’t a proper band . It was me with like 10 other girls and we would just go on stage and make loads of noise. Then Ira saw us play one time and said “ I would love to be in a band like that” and she called me and said “lets make a band” and I said ok. She invited the girls. I never met Lovefoxx before the first rehearsal. She said we met once when I was in my other band but I don’t remember.

Did you get on well from the beginning?

Yeah! Ira was thinking when starting the band about who would be the best people to party with so she thought it would be cool.

With touring and the stress, do you still get on well?

Yeah we do. I think it’s because were a lot of people. I get along very well with Ira. Yesterday we went for dinner and I live very close to her in Sao Paulo. Lovefoxx hangs out with Luiza. Its not that we are jealous of each other and we have two gangs, it just seems natural.

So what is it like as the only guy in the band?

I never really thought about it. Most of my other bands had girls. I was in one band with all guys. The difference when you
have a band with girls is that people tend to treat you better. In Brazil they would put you in a better hotel as they would think they wouldn’t put a girl in certain hotels.

Have the girls rubbed off on you? Have you developed an appreciation for good shoes and make up?

Ha, and astrology too! We speak a lot about astrology too. I don’t know how they do it but they guess the star signs of everyone. They go “ Oh you are a Virgo” and I go “Yeah!” They are always right. And it’s good. They always have creams like when my hands are so dry….

So what do you think of today’s fast moving world where people come and go and more specifically bands form, go global and break up in such a short space of time?

Since we get along so well and we had a lot of shit together and we didn’t break up or fight I think that if we want we could be a band that could last 10-15 years. This idea of brief famousness is so new now. I think our fans are not those trendy people looking for trendy bands. They like our music so if we get smaller or become less famous we would do well.

Are you the beginning of something new, a wave of Brazilian bands to come over here and make it big?

Nah. There are a lot of bands that suck. There are a lot of bands that sing in Portuguese. Bonde do Role kinda work cause they have this different funky kind of sound. But they’re not big in Brazil because their lyrics are so filthy. Like if you understood what they were saying you would freak.

What is it with Brazilians? You guys and Bonde do Role.You seem to be overtly sexual? And your lyrics are too?

Well it’s when we sing in English and its not our first language. Like when Lovefoxx sings Art Bitch she would be ashamed to sing it in Portuguese.

But why sing in English and not Portuguese?

Well because I was listening to bands singing in English. I’ve been that way since I was in bands at 14 years or age. I’m a terrible Portuguese writer. In English the words are very small.

And so you’ve been on the road almost 2 years non stop. Are you going to take a break?

No! All New Year we are recording the album and then we are back in March. Actually in January we are going to Australia from Brazil for three days, which from Brazil is awful. We have to go to Chile, then New Zealand and then Australia. Its gonna be awful. Then we will be back. In February we have 2 or 3 shows.

And this year you’re making the big move to London. Are you apprehensive about going to London?

I don’t think about it much. We stay so much there so don’t think about it. Once I have my own house Ill be fine. I hate hotels. I’m paranoid to the point I travel with my own pillow! I keep thinking about who has drooled into that pillow. I was even thinking about bringing my own sheets but I thought that was too much!

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