Felipe Machado , guitarist and founder of VIPER , explores a more pop and personal side on his second solo album, Primata , released in March by ForMusic Records in partnership with FMLabs , the musician's production company.
In an interview with Wikimetal , Felipe pointed out how all the musicians in the band have a broad musical taste, far beyond just heavy metal, something that is reflected in the band's own sound which, despite having a sound based on metal, has already had albums more geared towards pop rock. "Each album has a different influence, sound and even a slightly different style, while maintaining the band's characteristics, of course," he said.
Despite having rock as his favorite musical genre, the musician explained how "the very fact of having a solo career stemmed somewhat from wanting to express myself in other ways and in other musical styles," since VIPER has a "more defined style."
Among the influences for Primata , there is an extensive and interesting list, ranging from classical music and jazz to electronic and pop: “Of course, there are some styles that I don’t like, it’s not that I like everything, but I’ve always been very open to good music. I like to differentiate music in two ways – there’s good music and bad music, I don’t pay that much attention to the style aspect.”
Featuring lyrics in Portuguese for the first time in his solo career, the project includes the track "Quinze Anos" from the controversial album Tem Pra Todo Mundo (1996), which left VIPER fans dissatisfied with its commercial sound – and completely different from its predecessor, Coma Rage (1995).
“It was a really enjoyable album to make, the songs are good, but it wasn’t a Viper album, it was an album by me, Pit , Yves [Passarell] , and Renato [Graccia]. Actually, not so much by Renato because he doesn’t like it that much, he didn’t even like it at the time,” he laughed. “It ended up being a Viper album, but it was much more about our own experiments, especially since it was the first time we were going to sing in Portuguese.”
The song arrived at Primata with a new arrangement and perfectly matched the vulnerability of composing in Portuguese, now bringing a reflection on the current age of Felipe's daughter, who is 15 years old.
Produced by Val Santos , mixed by Val and Mauricio Cersosimo , and mastered by Mauricio Gargel , the album features Felipe on vocals, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar, in addition to writing the lyrics, without fear of exposing himself. “Composing in Portuguese is much more difficult, isn't it? English is a very favorable language for rock because of its sound. When you compose in Portuguese, you need to be more rigorous with yourself, with your quality standards, because a word placed in the wrong or silly sense can transform the music into something super cheesy and childish,” he said.
This vulnerability and transparency of the mother tongue is reflected in “Sentido do Fim” (Sense of the End), a tribute to Andre Matos , a friend and bandmate, who died in 2019. The track began to be written before Felipe received the sad news, as a song inspired by the book A Sense of an Ending , by Julian Barnes , which talks about the death of one of the friends in a group of four members.
“[That day], journalists started calling me, friends and such, asking if it was true that Andre had died. I was surprised, shocked, very sad and devastated,” he recalled. “And I was curious about this coincidence of the song that would talk about the death of one of those four friends.”
The year 2022 still holds the release of Timeless , VIPER's first album of new material in 15 years, also a product of Felipe Machado's creativity during the pandemic, with tracks composed by the band at the same time as Primata . "It was a period of artistic effervescence that was somewhat repressed, perhaps by the pandemic itself," he observed. "But I like being able to move between different styles."
