I wouldn't change the main direction of Viper's career or even my personal life

Wikimetal (Daniel Dystyler): Hey guys, another Wikimetal program is starting now, I'm Daniel Dystyler here along with Rafael Masini. Hey Rafinha!

Wikimetal (Rafael Masini): How's it going? We're really starting off with a big presence, right?

W (DD): He's one of our best friends and one of the people responsible for creating the Heavy Metal scene in Brazil, right? Because you can't deny that the band that Rafael and I are in, everyone here who follows Wikimetal already knows a thousand times that we've said we were roadies. You can't deny that Viper had a very important role in creating the entire Heavy Metal scene in the country, and the founding guitarist and personal friend of mine and Rafael's for so many years. Felipe Machado is here with us, it's an honor to have you here.

Felipe Machado: You're welcome, thank you. Thank you all. Congratulations on the initiative to create this program, because during the 90s there was a lot of Metal stuff. Metal was very popular in the media and nowadays it's not so easy to find dedicated programs, so it's a really cool initiative what you're doing and the internet is really the place to have these discussions.

W (DD): That's great, and it's very interesting that you're saying that because that's exactly the idea behind Wikimetal. A big band like Iron Maiden, AC/DC, or Metallica is announced, and it's complete madness, the website crashes. Metallica opens a second night on the second day because there's really demand, everyone likes them, and the nights are packed. Metallica on the first night had 80,000 people, on the second night 60,000, 140,000 people who like Metal, and like you said, there aren't enough venues. Saying there aren't enough venues is an exaggeration because there are, for example, Kiss FM, Vitão Bonesso, Roadie Crew, Rock Brigade, but there aren't enough venues for the existing demand.

FM: That's true, absolutely. I mean, what you're saying is that the audience is much larger than it appears in the media. That's really true.

W (DD): Exactly. Otherwise, it would be easy to buy an AC/DC ticket, but it's not. I stayed up all night trying to buy one and finally managed to get one at 7 in the morning.

W (RM): I stayed up all night and couldn't buy it.

FM: Yes, I work for a major newspaper now, so I have some advantages.

W (DD): Does not stay up all night.

FM: But if I had to buy it, it would definitely be complicated.

W (RM): Yes, I also just wanted to say that Dany introduced Felipe as a great friend, a great guitarist from Viper, but just because he's a friend, because we follow his work, Felipe is a great journalist and I've already read 3 of his books. The first one, a novel, was the one that captivated me.

W (DD): Eyes of rain.

FM: Eyes the color of rain.

W (RM): An autobiography, right Felipe?

FM: More or less, right? They say the first book is always autobiographical. Then there was The Hammer of the Gods, which was another novel. One came out in 2002, the other in 2007. And then two more journalistic books that were book versions of the blogs: Ping Pong about the China Olympics and now Bacana Bacana about South Africa. So cool Rafa, so which one haven't you read? You're missing one.

W (RM): I haven't read the one about the Olympics.

FM: Okay.

W (RM): I read Bacana Bacana.

W (DD): And I haven't read The Hammer of the Gods.

FM: So I owe you, I owe you.

W (DD): Okay. I wanted to start by asking a question I've already asked you, and I want to see if the answer will be similar or the same, or basically, as our lives change, our perspective on things changes, it's shaped by our experiences. Obviously, the experience we acquire over the years makes us think, "Wow, I could have done things differently or not." So my question is along those lines. If you went back 25 years, to the beginning of Viper's career, what are the things that, looking back now, you would have done differently or would do differently?

FM: Well, nowadays it's much easier, today it's easy to look and see the things that were wrong, but back then…

W (DD): It almost sounds like a football commentator talking, doesn't it?

FM: Exactly. I'll only comment later, but while it's happening you don't have the necessary distance to make that analysis. Now I can even see some things that were wrong, and I can even comment on them. But at the time, as you said, people were different, people are different when they are younger, and that kind of youthful personality also determines the attitudes and decisions you make at that time.

W (DD): My question isn't about saying what was right or wrong. It's more like, based on your current experience, what do you think you would do differently?

FM: Different. Being different is good. I wouldn't change the main direction of Viper's career or even my own personal life. I don't think I would change anything like that, but some episodes, which I even remember talking to you about. There was a time, for example, when Viper started as a children's game, it was very, very childish, it was the friends from the building, me, Pit and Yves, we lived in the same building, you even knew us from that time, you knew me from Sion, Dany and Rafa a little later.

W (RM): Yeah, from the buildings.

W (DD): You know that next month, when the 2011 school year starts, compared to the 1981 school year, it will be 30 years, right? So we'll have known each other for 30 years.

FM: We're not going to tell our ages. But okay, you've told us now, it's fine. So, I mean, we've been friends for many years. So when the band started, all those decisions were also based on what we really wanted, you know, having fun. A gig invitation came up, "Let's go!" We don't get paid. "Okay? So what?" "Oh, but we have to travel 7 hours in a VW van to Presidente Prudente." "Oh, let's go!" So in the beginning, everything was a party.

W (DD): It was fun.

FM: It was fun and you accepted everything. After the first album, Soldiers Of Sunrise in '87, things started to get a little more serious because we already had an album, it was one of the first Heavy Metal albums in Brazil, it had a pretty cool production that set us apart from some bands of that generation, actually some were a little older, but anyway, from that group, from the São Paulo group, and that album, it changed things a bit, we started to treat things a little more seriously, but it was still a bit of a joke, we were still very young, for the first album I was 16, imagine, Andre I think was 15, Pit was 18, but he was the only older one, the only taller one, everyone was very young and then in '89 we really had Theatre Of Fate which was a really serious album, Roy Rowland, a foreign guy, English, came to produce it, we spent a lot of money to bring this guy, to make a production that could really be released abroad. Soldiers eventually disbanded, but that was because Theatre of Fate ended up promoting Viper's name in other countries, mainly Japan and Germany. From '89 onwards, we really started to treat the band as a job. I mean, we were in college, finishing high school, starting college, but the band began to occupy a large space, and from then on our decisions became more professional as well. "Hey, are we going to be able to make a quality album to release abroad?" So we started thinking about that kind of thing. After Theatre of Fate came out in Japan and had some success, Andre Matos left the band, and it was really his decision. At the time, he wanted to pursue classical music; he's a pianist, he graduated from Santa Marcelina, I think he was graduating, he was dating a girl who was a violinist, he wanted to go in that direction. We said, "Okay Andre, then do the end of the tour, and when the tour is over you leave, we won't say anything to the fans for now, you leave and that's fine." Okay, so we started figuring out who could be the vocalist, the natural choice would be Pit, because Pit…

W (DD): I was already doing backs.

FM: Exactly, although he didn't have Andre's power, that super good timbre that Andre has, his voice was a little deeper, but he sang well, he already did backing vocals, he composed the songs, because that's super important for whoever is performing, the guy composed the songs so he had a very strong intimacy with those songs, he wrote the lyrics, not all of them, but he composed a large part of the material. So we said, well, Andre left, what are we going to do? Let's put Pit in, a natural choice, we even thought about whether we should put in another vocalist, we even thought about everything, but in the end it ended up being Pit, we started rehearsing the Evolution material and Pit stayed. At that time Viper started to get a lot of attention abroad because Theatre Of Fate had some success and Andre made an attempt to return, "Hey, we're going to tour Japan, what if I came back to the band?" Toninho told us that at the time.

W (DD): Between Theater and Evolution, right?

FM: Yeah, he told us that at the time, and we, well, 21, 22 years old, in a way I even take some of the blame for that, kind of hurt that he left the band, I was like, "No way, damn it Andre, he left, he left, and now that we're going to Japan he wants to come back, that's too much of a hassle, I don't know what, etc." And so I ended up being one of the obstacles, maybe the biggest one, to Andre's return, and I regret that, for example, because Viper could have become a band like Helloween, Iron Maiden, a really big band because the band was very good, Pit's compositions were very good.

"From '89 onwards, we really started to treat the band as a job."

W (DD): Andre is a name now, right?

FM: Andre is a vocalist on par with any of those other guys. As a vocalist, he's really good, on par with those guys, even as a frontman, as an artist. And it's funny, after we didn't want to come back, we went to Europe, recorded Evolution, and he ended up, along with Antônio Pirani, who was our manager, kind of secretly, kind of "on the sly," forming Angra, which later also became a successful band. Actually, they followed a formula that Viper had established, which was more melodic metal with classical music influences, but that's fine too, credit to them.

W (DD): Good band, right?

FM: Good band. It was successful, and it still is today.

W (RM): Good. He released a really good CD last year. Without Andre, of course.

FM: No, I ended up losing it, I lost all contact. Anyway, I think that part with Andre was a bit of a mistake, it could have been better if he had come back, especially since he was the vocalist who would have fit the bill. I don't know what Evolution would have been like with him, but I think it would have been interesting.

W(DD): And anyway, the relationship with Andre today is super good, right?

FM: No, not right after that, well, not right after that, there was a period when things were kind of "fucked up..." we were kind of estranged, we're also childhood friends of many years.

W (DD): Andre lived in the building next door, right?

FM: He lived in the building next door, he was there from the very beginning of Viper, and then we became friends and all that, but well, we wanted to make each Viper album a different way. We saw these bands, the Beatles, look at the pretension, the Beatles, Metallica, each album was different, U2, and we said, well, each Viper album has to be different too, so if Evolution was like this, the next one has to be totally different.

W (DD): Coma Rage is going to be something else?

FM: Exactly, so I really think Evolution was Viper's best album, it's where we achieved a style that was very original, I don't think there are any other bands that come close.

W (DD): Besides the music, the production is really cool.

FM: The production is very good. Specifically by Charlie Baurfiend.

W (DD): They made music videos of a truly international level, right? The song is Everybody Everybody, what's Rebel Maniac called?

FM: Exactly, the music videos were really cool at the time. When we were making Coma Rage, we ended up totally changing, revolutionizing the style, and we went to record in Los Angeles. We started listening to other things, Soundgarden, and so on, and we made an even more different, heavier album. Pit was listening a lot to The Clash, those more punk bands and stuff, so the songs came out heavier, and maybe that was a mistake too.

W (DD): So it matches exactly the answer you gave last time, all 3 things.

FM: How consistent I am.

W (DD): You're consistent, let's see if you get the third one right, you're going with the chronological evolution, you already talked about Andre, okay, I agree, you can't say it was a mistake because we don't know how it would have been.

FM: Exactly, exactly.

W (DD): It's different.

FM: But Evolution is also a great album with Pit singing.

W (DD): That's Coma Rage, right?

FM: It's Coma Rage.

W (DD): Coma Rage is the part I disagree with. I think, thankfully it's like that, thankfully it has that heaviness, I think it's awesome. And I think Death Magnetic, because I remember when you guys recorded Coma Rage I wasn't a Rude anymore, but when you showed me the master, before it was released, you showed me the songs, you said something to me, you said, "We're recording in this kind of punk way because we think, we're guessing, that Metallica's next album, after the Black Album, after Load, I think it was before Load, after the Black Album, is going to be in this punk vein, we're just guessing that," I don't know where you got that from, I remember you saying that to me and it wasn't true, Metallica went to Load, it went in a completely different direction.

FM: That's true.

W (DD): Death Magnetic, the basis of Death Magnetic for me is Coma Rage.

FM: So, there's a song by Death Magnetic, I don't know if it's song 3 or 4, I don't remember the names, but the instrumental track is The Shelter.

W (DD): It is equal.

FM: It's the same beat, "tananan tananan tananan tantz tananan," the beat is very similar to The Shelter. I heard it and said, "Wow, I know this beat." It's more complicated, but it's very similar.

W (DD): And there are several parts of the album that constantly remind me of Coma Rage, even the vocal melody is similar.

FM: I like Coma Rage, but I don't really like its production. Something about it gives me the impression that it was recorded, for example, too fast or too sped up. Because when we got there, we were in Los Angeles, it was a crazy time, we were in a hotel, the four of us, single guys in Los Angeles, everyone partying, getting drunk, recording in Hollywood, meeting bands, White Zombie, Body Count, everyone in that kind of party scene. White Zombie was much heavier and all that, so everyone was in a more relaxed mood. So when we were setting the BPMs, when we were recording, Pit was like, "No, don't make it faster, make it faster," and I remember, "Damn, really, Pit?" So, today I listen to the album and I say, "Damn, this album is too fast." The songs are very good, Making Love, Blast!, but I listen to the album and I think it's kind of rushed, it's kind of sped up. I think if the songs were a little slower, not heavier... For the Sabbath, no, not the Sabbath, but it should be approached a little more like that.

W (DD): Legal.

FM: More like Evolution.

W (DD): And then I'll give you the hint to say the third thing you said last time.

FM: The third thing that I think was a mistake.

W (DD): Following the chronology.

FM: Exactly, it was the thing about singing in Portuguese, that's what we always wanted.

Viper could have become a band like Helloween, Iron Maiden, a really big band

W (DD): It wasn't so much about the language, was it? I'll tell you the truth, maybe the Metal community won't like what I'm going to say, but I love that album.

FM: I like it too.

W (DD): I really like that album.

W (RM): I like it too.

W (DD): Except he has nothing to do with Viper.

FM: Exactly, except it's not a Viper album.

W (RM): You know what, he has nothing to do with the studio Viper. I remember I hadn't been a roadie for a long time either, I went to the first show…

FM: On an 89 FM show, right? It was intense.

W (RM): It was too heavy.

FM: It was really heavy.

W (RM): I said, "My God, it's not what's on the record."

W (DD): But those who heard it from the studio say it's Capital Inicial, Barão Vermelho.

FM: Legião, people talked a lot about Legião being heavier. That was another mistake, if I had to call it a mistake, because we were coming from Coma Rage, which was a super heavy album, coming from a tour in Europe, the United States, recording in the United States, I don't know what, and suddenly we record an album in Portuguese, cut our hair, crazy, right? Suicidal?! We never really cared much about things like that, funny, you know us, right? It wasn't a very thoughtful decision, a very emotional one, so that's why I wanted to go back to that story from the beginning. Although we became professionals, many of the decisions made throughout our career, especially towards the end, were very much based on emotion, "No! Let's do this because we want to! That's it! Screw it."

W (DD): And I think that even Rafael and I being roadies for Viper during what I think were the band's gold records, Evolution, Theatre and Soldiers, shows a bit of those emotional decisions. After all, there was a bond of friendship with me. There was the story that Rafael already told here on the show about "Take Hold Of The Flame," where he met Osvaldo, got a guitar pick from the guy, and invited him to be a guitar roadie, even though Osvaldo already had a guitar roadie.

W (RM): "Ah, my brother is out of it," it fell to the brother.

FM: It was very much based on friendship and jokes and everything, and it was cool that it was like that, it was cool that it was like that. Nowadays the band is… well, to finish off these mistakes. I think we should have recorded this album maybe with another name, a side project or Pit Passarel, Pit Solo, anything like Viper, anything, any other name that wasn't Viper, and then we would go back to doing Viper when everyone was willing to do it.

W (DD): Okay, now we're going to listen to some music, and I'll guide you so you can choose the song.

FM: Yeah, go ahead.

W (DD): Imagine this: you have a shuffle player, some kind of MP3 player, that has dozens of Heavy Metal songs, old or new, but Heavy Metal. Which song, when it comes on shuffle, makes you say, "Damn, I can't help but headbang to this song?"

FM: Damn, I'd say this happened to me the other day, sometimes I take a shower listening to my iPad, listening to my iPod in the shower, and then a song came on and I said, "Dude, this song is so powerful," which was Metal Militia by Metallica, from their first album, Kill 'Em All – Metal Militia.

W (RM): We're here with Felipe Machado, guitarist for Viper. Great choice, because I love Metallica, this choice was…

W (DD): In our program there's always a little fight like that, Iron Maiden, Metallica.

FM: Oh, Rafa is a Metallica fan and you're an Iron Maiden fan?

W (DD): Actually, they both like everything, but…

W (RM): Felipe, from the very first episode, I've been saying that I'm going to tell the story of how the Theatre Of Fate used to be called End Of Fate, even when you guys made decisions like, "Oh, what's it going to be called? End Of Fate."

W (DD): I mentioned to Rafael that I still have a t-shirt that says End Of Fate.

FM: End Of Fate, from Rio, right? The Rio de Janeiro era. From Santos!

W (DD): That's it. That's right.

W (RM): Remember? We used to go out to sell, the roadies would line up to sell, and we'd go out selling the t-shirts.

FM: Very good, that's right, you really have to work.

W (RM): So, why did it change?

FM: End Of Fate? Well, I think I remember that story more or less. The beginning of that album was composed when I was in the United States, but when I arrived, Pit started showing me and telling me a bit about the idea for the album and what it would be like, what I thought of a concept album, and I thought it was a great idea, and we started discussing it a lot, and the idea was that the album would be called End Of Fate – End Of Destiny, End Of Fate. And so the album was End Of Fate, and the song was End Of Fate, Andre sang it, it was End Of Fate in the studio and so on. Actually, I think the decision was Roy Rowland's, it was actually a suggestion from Roy Rowland because he thought End Of Fate for a band that's starting an international career was a bit pessimistic, a bit depressing, End Of Fate, man, the band's first album that's going to be released abroad, End Of Fate is kind of Thrash.

W (DD): I remember him also saying that it was something that, sonically, kind of choked.

FM: End Of Fate…. End Of Fate… Yes, there was that, then I remember he suggested some names and we really welcomed what he said because he was English, he was British, born in England, so English was his main language. So he gave the songs a little “polishing,” corrected some things that we thought were right, but weren’t quite right….

W (DD): Swapped a drummer here, swapped one there.

FM: He replaced a drummer, he really didn't like Val, Val played drums, and he didn't like him.

W (RM): Living For The Night slow.

FM: Living For The Night, he asked for it to start slowly.

W (DD): She was very quick.

FM: I think it was all fast-paced, it was really good. No, no, Roy, practically everything, even the name Theatre Of Fate, if you think about it, was a cool name. I remember that at the time we were a little scared because there was a Mötley Crüe album called Theatre Of Pain, it was a little before, but we thought Theatre Of Pain, Theatre Of Fate, Mötley Crüe, this kind of poser band, kind of glam, kind of hard rock.

We saw bands like the Beatles and Metallica, where each album was different, and we wanted each Viper album to be different too.”

W (DD): Let me tell you two cool stories about Theatre Of Fate, one funny and one curious. The curious one is this: you must remember that the idea was for it to be one song, a song that flowed into the others, so whoever listens today, for example, to A Cry For The Edge, the ending has that taran ran ran nan nan tan tan, it ends with that tan tan, which is the beginning of the song Theatre Of Fate.

FM: We even did that live, we'd sometimes string some songs together.

W (DD): The idea was to stitch the whole album together, that was one thing, the other curious thing, you must remember, I think we were on tour in Paraná, I don't remember if it was Maringá, Ponta Grossa.

FM: Ponta Grossa, maybe.

W (DD): And that was their SP TV there, Paraná TV reporting, "Oh, tonight there's going to be a Viper show, a band from São Paulo that's here in Paraná, it's going to be at such and such a place, they're launching the album Theatre Of Fate, which means Theatre Of The Desert."

FM: Damn, I remember that, we couldn't do that interview because the drummer was Guilherme, right? Guilherme Martin, who was a really funny, very playful guy, and he would start joking around so much, and after that, Teatro Do Deserto, we couldn't do any more serious interviews, remember?

W (DD): Yeah, he would ask things and we would laugh.

FM: Any question required re-recording, re-filming because we couldn't give interviews, and Guilherme was very funny. We'd go out on the street and he'd start messing with people; it was very funny. It's one of the good memories.

W (DD): You remember, it was on that tour, but I don't remember if it was in that city, that we spent the whole afternoon drinking beer and the show was at ten at night and around six in the afternoon there was a radio interview and we went to the radio station, I think you were there too, Yves was there and I went along just to keep him company and Yves introduced me on the radio as if I were a saxophonist.

FM: I remember, I don't think I was in that interview.

W (DD): Viper now has a saxophonist, Daniel Dystyler, and the guy asked me, “What are your influences?” and I said John Barnes, who was the left winger for the English national team.

FM: Well, I didn't know that, so does that mean Viper had a saxophonist?

W (DD): There was a saxophonist for an interview.

FM: No, actually, later Viper did have a saxophonist, but on "Tem Pra Todo Mundo" there were some brass instruments, so it was kind of…

W (DD): Felipe, tell us about your experience touring with one of my Heavy Metal heroes, recording two legendary albums with the band that I have tattooed here with me, and you played with Paul Di'Anno, right?

FM: Paul Di'Anno, very good. Let me just tell you guys a cool story before I tell you. This idea of ​​the album being just one song, we actually took it from two albums: Yes's Close To The Edge and I had a Fates Warning album called No Exit where the songs were all one thing, so we ripped off those two albums. But with Di'Anno, it was like this: I was kind of rusty, Viper wasn't, I was on hiatus, Renato Graccia was playing with some bands, with some friends, and one of those guys had Di'Anno's contact. I don't remember how it happened, but Di'Anno, when he travels, he does shows with local bands, even to cut costs I think, you know? Anyway, the guy gets his fee, gets there, rehearses a few days with the bands and goes for it and does the tour, and that's what happened here. So Renato's band, which was called Sexta 13 (Friday the 13th), was Cesão and De Mello (De Mello later went on to play with Viper), and Azeitona was on vocals. It was a band of those guys, and they were missing a guitarist to make it two guitarists. Iron Maiden has to have two guitarists, right? Obviously, you can't do it with my octave pedal; it has to be Dave Murray and Adrian Smith. Then Renato said, "Felipe, don't you want to play? Are you going on tour with Di'Anno?"

W (DD): Today we can call two more guitarists because we need three, right, Janick Gers.

FM: Yeah, that's true, although that one doesn't really count, does it? You like it, right?

W (DD): No, I don't really like it, but someone has to keep spinning the guitar.

FM: Call Yngwie Malmsteen,

W (DD): I don't like it, I don't like it.

FM: It would have been a top-notch gig, Yngwie Malmsteen on guitar. Steve Vai also played. Then there was this invitation for the shows, so the band was already put together, he called me and it was like this: decision: do you want to do it or not? I said, "When is it?" He said, "In February/March," I don't know when it was, and I said, "How long is it?" He said, "About 20 days." Then I was already at the newspaper, I was already here at Estadão, working at the time, and I said, "Well, I'll give you the answer later tonight, I'll talk here and see if I can take it." I can't just show up here and say, "Hey guys, I'm going on tour with Di'Anno, I'll be right back." So I went to talk to my boss at the time, I said, "Look, I have some overdue vacation time, I'd like to know if I can take it in such and such a month, from such and such a month to such and such a month," and the guy said, "No, okay." I called Renatão and said, "Renatão, I'm in!" Then we went to a studio in Itaim here in São Paulo, and we started rehearsing, just the band without Di'Anno, with Azeitona singing Di'Anno's parts, the vocals from Iron Maiden, and it was all the songs from Iron Maiden 1 and Killers, plus about 5 songs from Di'Anno's solo career. It was called Killers, then it was called… Di'Anno solo career, that was the band's name. The songs were pretty good, not as good as Iron Maiden's, but they were good songs, okay, nice. There was even a really beautiful ballad, I forgot the name.

W (DD): And he played Ramones too, right?

FM: We were playing Ramones music, I think it was Blitzkrieg Bop. Then we rehearsed for about two weeks, just the two of us, then Di'Anno arrived, and Di'Anno did about 3 rehearsals.

W (DD): Was he nice, cool?

FM: Di'Anno was kind of a tough guy, but a really cool guy, a good person, a die-hard Corinthians fan, and a really good guy. He was very nice to everyone in the band, a super laid-back guy, down-to-earth, not at all a star or anything. So, we became pretty good friends, I became good friends with Di'Anno. Then there was something really cool during rehearsals, one time we played Remember Tomorrow and we had played the songs exactly the same, and when it was over he said, "Very good, better than Maiden," it was better than Iron Maiden, that made me quite proud.

W (DD): That's a compliment, huh?

FM: That's a compliment because the guy must know him, right? Because he played in Iron Maiden.

W (DD): I don't know if you remember, I think you won't remember, but when the show in São Paulo ended, the initial set ended and then there was going to be an encore, so they left the stage, the band came back on stage, he didn't, and you would go to the microphone and say "Transylvania" and then Transylvania would start, which was the instrumental song, he didn't need to be on stage, the encore would come back with Transylvania.

FM: It started off great with The Ides of March. Damn, that show was sensational, I'd love to do it again, but then we did it, we did several shows, we did about 8 shows in the Northeast, South, we did about 9 shows, it was really cool. Then we had a party at my house at the end of the tour, he was kind of a little too enthusiastic, Jack Daniels and all that, he's a real rocker type.

W (DD): Takes the alcoholic part seriously.

FM: And we ended up getting caught up in the fun, Jack Daniels and all that. There was this one time we had a party at the end of the tour at my house, at the time I was still married to Carol, you know her, and there was a glass table in my living room and the guys started wanting to play poker, then Di'Anno started wanting to play poker, the alcohol, Jack Daniels, suddenly they broke the table in my house, well, the glass didn't break, but the leg broke, which was a wooden leg, the leg of my dining table broke during the party, and you can imagine how happy my wife was at the time, right? Then she said, "Let's send everyone home," and I said, "No, imagine, we can't send them home, it's Paul Di'Anno," so I took the tabletop to the bedroom and the party continued, there was even more space left over.

Being Heavy Metal is a part of who I am

W (DD): To move on to the last segment, I'd like you to choose a Viper song now, a song that you think was challenging for you as a guitarist.

FM: Let me think, a Viper song that was very challenging...

W (RM): Speaking of which, is it true that there's an urban legend about Viper? Is it true that when you finished recording Theatre Of Fate, producer Roy Rowland personally got up to go and give you a hug and congratulate you?

FM: Maybe, I don't remember exactly, but it could be. The Theatre Of Fate sessions were pretty intense.

W (RM): Was it a difficult song?

FM: It was, it was very difficult.

W (DD): It was in Santa Cecília, right?

FM: It was at the BMG studio at the time. Theatre Of Fate is one of the most difficult because it has some picking and several riffs in thirds, and there was another one that was quite complicated, Making Love, it was quite tricky. It had a lot of Coma Rage from this new album. Love is All was also a very complicated and long song, Andre even participates in it, it has several parts, let's choose…

W (DD): Making Love.

FM: Making Love.

W (DD): Good! Making Love.

W (DD): That was Coma Rage's "Making Love," the song was really cool. We're almost at the end of the show, and I just wanted to ask one last thing, actually it's kind of to thank you for something you do. I don't know if you do it on purpose or unintentionally, but for us in the Heavy Metal scene, it's very important. You have a blog on Estadão that gets a lot of traffic. The blog's theme has nothing to do with Heavy Metal, the primary theme, right? It talks more about relationships, what people think, men/women, that kind of thing, but inevitably you're inserting Heavy Metal elements into it, talking about how this band's show went, or new albums that were released, and that, unintentionally or intentionally, ends up doing one of the things we increasingly want to do: reduce prejudice against the style and show that it's not just the drunk, mentally challenged, long-haired guy who likes Heavy Metal. You end up mixing that into the blog, which is really cool.

FM: Wow, that's great, thank you. I do this unconsciously, because being Heavy Metal is a part of who I am. The blog is a very personal thing, I don't have any kind of editor telling me what I can and can't write, I write about who I am and who I am, Viper is a huge part of me. So I end up addressing this subject, I'll address it more and more, and congratulations to you guys who are doing the same thing, but with podcasts, trying to organize things in a way that can bring more information to people who like Metal.

W (RM): Hey Felipe, do you think we can watch Viper?

FM: Again? Damn, that's tough, isn't it? Viper took a break after Love Is All, which was a really cool, very good album. It's difficult for a band to come back after so long and make a good album, but then everyone started doing... I really got very involved here at Estadão with journalism, Pit also left, took a break and became more of a songwriter, both in Capital and in the band Metonol. Metonol gave a makeover and is playing, Val had just left, Ricardo himself went to do other things, so the band split up.

W (DD): No projects today?

FM: Not today.

W (RM): No reunion just so we can see each other, with Yves and Andre?

FM: You know what the problem is? I'd love to, but you have to rehearse, right? To do a show, you'd have to rehearse for days and days because the songs were complicated. Do you think it's easy to remember all those thirds? The solos?

W (DD): April 8, 2015?

FM: Bitch…

W (RM): With Andre, Yves.

W (DD): 30 years, right?

FM: Okay, fine, then 2015? Okay, fine, if I'm still alive by then.

W (RM): Who's on drums, Renato?

FM: Ah, Renato, probably Renato was our most consistent drummer. I don't think Guilherme is playing anymore, Guilherme became a sort of international show producer. Val is playing guitar and has become a sort of producer too.

W (RM): Cassio?

W (DD): Cassio did the opening for the 4th episode of Wikimetal.

FM: Really! You found Cassio?

W (DD): I found him.

FM: I'm about to tell you that he owes me some money, give me his phone number, he owes me some money.

W (DD): He is the chief financial officer now.

FM: So now I'm going to collect.

W (DD): Alright, to finish up then, pick a Viper song for us to listen to, now one that you like the most or want to show to the group.

W (RM): Choice of Vipera Sapiens.

FM: Wow, you guys have this one.

W (RM): I have.

FM: So let's choose Killing World, it was a good one. It's a shame it wasn't released in Brazil.

W (DD): For those unfamiliar with the Vipera Sapiens EP, which was recorded alongside Evolution in Germany, most of the songs were included on the Evolution album, and about 4 or 5 songs were left over for another EP released a little later, but not in Brazil: Vipera Sapiens (white cover).

FM: That's really cool.

W (RM): And which song has another version?

W (DD): Acid Hearts.

FM: Acid Hearts, it wasn't released anywhere, but there's Spreading Soul, a version without strings, just an acoustic guitar thing.

W (DD): That's true.

FM: And Wasted, there was a Wasted Again version that was a short version.

W (DD): That's it! Thanks Felipe, thank you so much for participating in Wikimetal.

W (RM): For welcoming us here to the State.

FM: No problem, thanks. We'll go later... stay a little longer, we'll have a beer later.

W (DD): Good.