Anyone who visits Edu Megale 's Instagram will find the best of both worlds, which are also his greatest passions: guitars and games. Currently working as a CS:GO ( Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ) manager for SG esports , Edu started playing guitar at age 17 and has built an incredible resume with his experiences in rock, being voted the 10th best Brazilian guitarist by Roadie Crew twice (2014 and 2020).
Starting with his first album, Fog of Madness , with the band Nickel , when he was only 19 years old, over time Edu Megale played on some songs by the band RAM , joined Guilherme de Alvarenga in his solo project, DAM , and participated in jam sessions with two guitar giants: Paul Gilbert and Steve Vai .
In 2020, Edu released his first solo EP, Screams of Insanity , as well as the EP Let's Go with the band Loss , and is currently working on new music for the Brazilian heavy metal band, The Mist . He and some friends also run the Facebook page Headbanger da Depressão , which shares memes and recommendations from the world of rock and metal. In an interview with Wikimetal , he talks about his career, his biggest idols, and the main motivation behind his work: helping people.
The first thing Edu Megale says in our phone conversation is that despite the hectic pace of work, being active is very good. And this defines a large part of who he is and what he believes in. Originally from Belo Horizonte, each step of his journey has been taken with great effort and dedication. "I've always been very restless, wanting to do things, I don't really like to lie down. There are days when you rest, but I've always wanted to produce things that I enjoy and try to make a living from them," he says. And this is evident in his resume. Edu studied harmony, improvisation, classical guitar, jazz, fusion, took dozens of courses in entrepreneurship, music education, negotiation, had a marketing company and even worked in football.
“We’ll always encounter difficulties, and we still do today,” he says. “In Brazil, playing metal is like selling sweatshirts on the beach in the summer. What we have to do is first think about what we love. I love playing guitar, I love playing metal, I’ll do that first because I love it, and then I’ll see how to turn it into my livelihood. But it’s all a process that starts with believing in and loving what you do.”
The first guitarist Edu remembers seeing play was none other than Slash . And despite having Adrian Smith as one of his biggest influences and falling in love with Iron Maiden , the name he holds as his greatest example is Jason Becker , for whom he composed the song "For Jason ," featured on his EP *Screams of Insanity *. "He saved my life, even though I never met the guy. He helped me in moments when I thought about giving up," he recounts. "I had a serious wrist injury and even today it's difficult to dedicate many hours [to the guitar]. I've been playing through pain for about 4 or 5 years and I'm doing some alternative treatments to keep playing, and I'm not going to stop at all. I promised myself I'll only stop when I can't open my eyes anymore."
“The first time I saw the Jason movie, I cried a lot,” Edu recalls. “You see the guy’s love for the instrument, you see that he’s still composing today, and I saw that regardless of all the difficulties, he continued, even though he couldn’t play the guitar. If he can’t help in one way, he’s helping in another. He was the guy who really saved me, who made me think, ‘I’m going to persevere for myself and for this guy because if he had the body I have today and the life I have today, he wouldn’t give up at all.’ So I promised myself I would never give up. No matter what, we only give up when we’re down in the ground.”
Edu's passion for guitar and video games stems from his school days, influenced by friends and a teacher named Severino Junior , whom he considers his greatest idol and real-life hero. Severino was a major supporter of cultural initiatives at the public school Edu attended, where he created a radio station and organized his first event, themed around anime. As a boy, he couldn't even imagine that one day he would be personally organizing an event that would help him meet one of his greatest idols: Paul Gilbert . "I thought: 'I'll never have the opportunity to meet this guy through other means. The opportunity I have is to bring him here,'" says Edu. "I didn't want to play with him; my goal was to talk to him. I was at that point where I needed to see my idol there, as a real person. And when I saw him, I became an even bigger fan."
He also recalls the unforgettable moments he spent in Steve Vai : “I wasn't even going to participate in the jam session with Steve Vai because I hadn't slept for three days, but I went to visit him backstage and he talked a lot with me, gave me several tips. One day I want to sit down and write about it for everyone. He saw that I was tired and asked me to rest, and I said, 'Man, I'm really tired, I don't think I'll even do the jam session,' and he said, 'No, no. I want you to do it.' And then I thought, 'I won't have another opportunity like this, it doesn't matter if I'm exhausted. I'm going to go in there and have fun.' And when I got on stage, it felt like I was embraced. The guy's energy is amazing.”
Such a long journey with so many high points could only have been undertaken by someone who is constantly on the move. Since adolescence, Edu Megale knew he couldn't spend his life sitting in an office and that he wanted to dedicate his life to doing what he loved, but coming from a small town, he had to build his path little by little. “I say that if I ever publish a book, it will be with this phrase: poor, screwed, and with a great desire to win,” he says. “That's what I tell the guys at CS: we only have ourselves. The first thing is to know where you are, your place. If I don't have the money to do this, then I can do this other thing. If I want to do this, then I'm going to dedicate myself 1000% to it. I think everyone is capable of doing what they want. If you like it, you'll do it with a lot of love and passion. When you love something and do something out of love, it seems like everything conspires to work out for you.”
In a recent interview with Lucas Gerardi for ESPN, Edu reminisced about his days in LAN houses , which led him to fall in love with CS and also got him into some trouble, such as ending up in juvenile court due to the game's ban in Brazil. Today, in a completely different time and setting, he acts as a manager for a generation very different from his own, but with the same passion for the game: “I got into CS because I saw that there were kids there who saw this as the opportunity of a lifetime, and if I can help by doing something I love, I'll be there with them. The trust of taking care of these kids fell into my hands, and I'll go all the way with them.”
Eventually, Edu Megale managed to unite the worlds of games and guitars when he was invited to create the effects and soundtracks for the games Inbio Assault and Ninjas Attack . Today, he is preparing to launch a book and a course with guitar techniques, both free, so that the content is accessible to as many people as possible. And the tiredness? "I don't get tired," he says. "You see me waking up at eight in the morning and going to sleep at three in the morning, but if you come to me at three in the morning and say 'Let's go for a walk? Let's run?' I'll go. Because our body is made for that. You have to rest, of course, enjoy nature, but if I'm going to enjoy nature, I'll go for a hike, I'll do something that makes me burn energy, makes me walk, see different things."
When asked about the feeling of being recognized for his work, both by the public and by some of his biggest idols, Edu Megale says that the greatest feeling comes from somewhere else. “I do some live streams on Twitch playing for fun, and a lot of people say, ‘Edu, I want to keep playing because of you,’” he reveals. “For me, it’s more about trying to help the kids and setting an example so they see the effort I’m putting in and continue believing that with the same effort they will find happiness doing what they love. The greatest recognition I want isn’t even an award, it’s just for people to think, ‘That guy works for something he loves to do, and I want to do that too.’”
