How far can fan expectations go without harming bands? Felipe Andreoli , bassist for Angra , discussed how part of the audience is resistant to inevitable changes in any artist's career, whether in lineup or sound.
In an interview on the Colisão podcast , the musician found a great analogy for this attachment to classics like Angels Cry (1993). “It’s like the guy who hugs so tightly he suffocates,” he defined it. “When I joined Angra, the internet was more embryonic, but forums already existed. I feel that fans today have a kind of thing, something that, in English, people call 'entitled'.”
The word can be translated as "entitled to" something, but the musician offers a concept focused on the relationship between band and audience. "It's about the guy thinking he has rights over something that he doesn't necessarily have," he explained. "If you don't make the album that guy wants, the band is crap and it's dead. There's no longer that thing of waiting for a band's album and seeing what they're going to present to you to see if you like it or not, but you have an open mind.".
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In Andreoli's view, it's not about not expecting criticism and eventual disappointment, which is natural when launching a new project. The problem with this segment of the audience lies in not allowing time for absorption and understanding of new material because they immediately seek out classics like "Carry On," "Nova Era," or "Spread Your Fire," without giving them a chance.
“Where is that story of the artist proposing new paths, reinventing themselves, growing and changing? Fans talk about this as if they agree among themselves what the ideal Angra is, but they disagree,” he continued. “If you please one, you displease another. Angra suffers a lot from this kind of whining, but every album is very diverse and caters to all these styles, but if you don't lean towards what the guy wants, (…) you get labeled that and that's it. The fan is very spoiled in that sense.”.
To conclude the conversation, the bassist explained that he finds it natural that some people stop following the band after the death of Andre Matos or the departure of Edu Falaschi , for example. "There's absolutely no obligation to like the guy who took his place," he pointed out. "What I don't understand is the energy spent by these people who continue talking about the band and being a nuisance; I don't understand this hate. The feeling, that's fine. But the hate 20 years later is hard to understand."
