"Mr. Crowley is the song that inspired me to even start playing guitar."
Wikimetal (Nando Machado): We're starting another brand new episode of the Wikimetal program.
Wikimetal (Daniel Dystyler): Once again, it's going to be great because we have a guest who's going to help us run the whole show. I'm here with Nando Machado on my side and Rafael Masini on my other side.
Wikimetal (Rafael Masini): That's right. Our guest, an illustrious guitarist and great friend since our teenage years, right?
W (NM): I've known this guy for about...almost thirty years. We have a lot of funny stories to tell, a lot of interesting facts. I'm sure it's going to be a very special show.
W (DD): And as Rafael said, for me possibly one of the greatest guitarists in the country: Marcos Kleine, welcome to Wikimetal.
Marcos Kleine: Wow, starting like this, I'm going to get emotional. I usually say that I'm the second best guitarist in the world, the first is everyone else. But it's really cool, I'm a listener of the show, I'm a friend of yours and I was already pissed off saying "dude, when are these guys going to call me to spill the beans?". I only heard my own dirty secrets there, I didn't spill anyone else's. Damn, but it's really cool to participate, the show is really great, congratulations!
W (DD): Great. And today you're going to help us conduct the show, calling the frames and stuff. It'll be cool.
MK: Come on, let's go, man. Let's go.
W (DD): We've prepared a sort of timeline to tell the story of your entire career, and we're going to tell the stories, talk about the poor people, listen to the sounds, and it's going to be really cool, we're going to travel back in time starting in 1984, right Nando?
W (NM): I know Marquinhos… Marquinhos? Marcos Kleine.
MK: Marquinhos is for close friends. Marquinhos! I'm already old, messed up…
W (DD): Marcão, Marcão!
W (NM): Kleine, I've known him more or less since he started in music, we kind of started together, you know… Around '83, with that… Tell me about the arrival of Kiss, you started listening to music around that time, right?
MK: Yeah, so… it all started when I moved to a building on Brasília Machado, near where Nando and André lived, and then… We'd keep running into each other on the street, back then kids really hung out on the streets, and I already liked Kiss, and even going back in time, I think one of the things I listened to most in my life was the Star Wars soundtrack in 1978. I'd listen to it all day long, so it was already a predisposition to music, right?
W (NM): Your brother too, the older one, always liked rock, right?
MK: My brother played bass, right? It's actually a coincidence that he played all of Ultraje's songs on bass. It was pretty funny, that's all that happened later. But then, I used to mess around on the drums, right? I was like that drummer who didn't have a drum set…
W (NM): Air drummer.
MK: No.. “almofad” drummer.
W (NM): Pillow drummer.
MK: Anything drummer-like. I used to drum like that… I remember one time I got a snare drum, one of those marching band snare drums, that was a real piece of junk. And I said, “Wow, I have a snare drum, I just need the rest.” So I was kind of a lousy drummer, but I had a good time, I used to play Kiss songs… along, it was funny. And that's how this friendship that lasts to this day started.
W (DD): Did you ever play drums in Viper?
MK: So… Yes, I was a drummer, for a short time because I didn't have a drum set, you know? But I was interested. Now I'm going to start telling the dirty secrets of Cássio, Viper's first drummer.
W (NM): That's a good story.
MK: So… He was “mine” to me because, before that, we had the band, Kiss Army, which André even talked about in that episode…
W (NM): It was André Matos, Marcos Kleine was Gene Simmons…
MK: I was Gene Simmons because I had the biggest tongue, and to look bad I wore a bicycle chain on my chest, like, "Ah, I'm so bad." So we had the Kiss Army, right?
W (NM): And the other guy was Cássio, who was Viper's first drummer.
MK: Yeah, he was the mentor of that Kiss Army, but Cássio stayed with me when I started playing with Viper, but it was a pretty rough thing, but he'd say "get out of here, man, this isn't going to work out well". So, kid, I said "yeah, I don't have a drummer", and that convinced me, I left and a week later he joined. Cool, right?
W (NM): This is the story of Cássio Audi.
W (DD): As you know, besides chatting, laughing, and everything else on our show, we also listen to some music. And we have one of the traditional questions we ask everyone who comes to Wikimetal, and we'll ask you too: what's the song that, when it plays, wherever you are, you can't resist, you start headbanging, wherever you are you have to move, you have to bang your head, because it's the song that still moves you today? What song is that for us to listen to now on Wikimetal?
MK: Oh, I have no doubt, Mr. Crowley. This song even inspired me to play guitar.
W (DD): That was Mr. Crowley, as you said, right Marquinhos, one of the songs that inspired you to become a guitarist, right?
MK: Damn, Randy Rhoads was the best for me, when I heard him I freaked out, I was blown away, and I said "I need to get a guitar".
W (DD): Dropped the battery.
MK: Yeah. The drum set was already kind of neglected. The cushions, in this case, right?
W (NM): I haven't trained on the cushions in ages.
MK: But yeah, the day I held a guitar in my hand, damn… it was awesome! I think Felipe was even with me, Nando was with me. I tried it out and said, “Damn, this is amazing,” and then I got blown away, and then the bigger secrets start, like how I bought the guitar, who delivered pizza with me…
W (NM): Good, good. Well, I clearly remember when you started playing guitar, it was at the end of '84, beginning of '85, right? You managed to figure out the opening of the song Coming Home by Scorpions by ear.
MK: Exactly. I started playing guitar on March 10, 1985. I remember the day, man, can you believe it? I don't remember what I did yesterday, but I remember that day. So, I said, "Let's start playing guitar," okay. Then I had a crappy acoustic guitar at home, which looked like a berimbau, which was actually good for me to practice with.
W (NM): I remember that guitar.
MK: Wow, it was awful. You'd go downstairs and it would go out of tune. So I said, "Man, I need to buy a guitar," and then we had the idea, a joint idea... Me, Pit, Yves, and André, we were delivering pizzas, right?
W (DD): Pizza delivery drivers!
MK: Metalhead pizza delivery guys. Sanpietro here in Higienópolis and stuff, there are some bizarre stories. We started delivering pizzas and everyone was kind of a "troublemaker," I was the most dedicated, I stayed the longest because I needed more money. But there are some very interesting stories from that time, for example, there was a climb where you had to deliver pizzas, and there were some papers and we also had a line of delivery guys. So we'd kind of go see where it was. If it was far, "Damn, I need to go to the bathroom."
W (NM): Who did this?
MK: Everyone, especially Yves. There's a classic Yves song.
W (DD): Yves from Capital Inicial.
MK: Yves, from Capital. There was this one time... Sanpietro used to have a chain of pizzerias here in Higienópolis, and one of the locations ordered some olives, and they told Yves, "Oh, you're here to deliver the olives"...
W (NM): Back then, just so you know, the pizza delivery guy didn't have a motorcycle, he had to go on foot.
MK: Yeah, but he wasn't going very far either. Then they called Yves to deliver the olives, and he was very happy, actually. Then he got there and came back, and they called from the pizzeria and said, "But why did you send half a jar of olives?" He ate olives all the way to the pizzeria. Look at the level, it was bizarre.
W (NM): And it was that time playing baseball, I was playing baseball behind the building, and he hit the ball and broke the glass of the party room.
MK: Yeah, the bat went flying.
W (NM): Yeah, he went to take a swing and the cue went flying, breaking the glass of the party room. Then the guy had an idea… He grabbed a rock, put it inside the party room and started yelling “throw the mother, throw the mother”. When the janitor arrived, the kid was there with the rock inside the thing, “throw the mother, throw the mother”, like someone threw a rock from the building next door and broke the party room window. An ingenious mind, right?
W (DD): If it were used for good, right?
W (RM): I was going to have to deliver pizza for a while longer to pay for that glass.
W (NM): Well, then we started some bands together, right?
MK: Yeah, we had Exhort…
W (NM): The Ravish.
MK: The Ravish. No, Darkness.
W (NM): Ravish started after Darkness.
MK: It was Ravish, then Darkness. Fernando and I used to rehearse at his house with colored lights to pretend we were on stage.
W (NM): And we practiced interviews, right?
MK: That's true.
W (NM): We managed to go to the Quiet Riot press conference in '85, right? We saw the guys giving an interview and thought, "Wow, that's cool."
MK: And I stepped on Frankie Banali's foot. That story is true.
W (NM): That must have hurt, right?
MK: I was kind of like, you know? "Well, getting to know the guy, you know." Then I stepped on his foot, and he said, "Oh, come on!", and I was thinking the next day, "If he plays kind of badly, could it be because of my foot?" It hurt! I stepped on him.
W (RM): Hey Marquinhos, you know we wanted to record here at your house because you're going to have to play, right?
MK: Yeah. We make some music…
W (RM): That's it, that's it. What I wanted to ask you now is to tell us your favorite guitarists and a solo that you think is one of the most amazing and inspiring you've ever heard, and if you could play it for us, could you?
MK: Yes, yes. Guitarists, my current influences, we all go through them, you know… when we're kids I remember the Malmsteen era, everyone was like “Ohh, Malmsteen”, but what really shaped my life was Randy Rhoads, Jeff Beck, I really like him. David Gilmour. Man… in the Heavy Metal scene, because that's what's relevant to the show, I think Marty Friedman is cool, his work in Megadeth is really good. I like Metallica, but what I really like is efficient. So it's that thing, there are guitarists who mark your life, and guitarists you respect, that you say “Wow, the guy has some really cool work”, but it's not really my style. But in the Heavy Metal scene, the great guy for me was Randy Rhoads.
W (NM): And outside? You can speak outside.
MK: So, there's Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan, man… Awesome. I've been listening a lot to Robben Ford, who's more of a bluesy guy, which is cool, it's fitting to do some things with Ultraje. Ah… There are so many, man.
W (RM): And the soil, what do you think?
MK: The solo is Mr. Crowley too. It's the solo that made its mark, and at the end of the show I'll play the whole thing for you.
W (RM): He can change the order of our agenda whenever he wants, is that right?
MK: I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it. It's just that things are getting heated.
W (NM): What about Dave Murray and Adrian Smith?
MK: So, I think it's cool, Dave Murray especially, but also… I don't know, because Adrian Smith also did some really cool solos on Somewhere In Time. Both of them, you have to respect them, they're really good guys. I like Ritchie Blackmore, there's no way I can't mention him, I played soccer with him. You played too, right? When Rainbow came to Brazil, we played soccer with him, it was fun. They lost 12-5, something like that.
W (NM): But what was it, a salon? Society?
MK: No, field football. They got thrashed, Ritchie Blackmore wasn't very happy.
"PRAY is definitely one of the best projects I've ever done in my life."
W (NM): Well, then there was Darkness, that great show at Colégio Firmino de Proença, in Mooca. The first show you ever did?
MK: So, that show was curious because it was at a school in Mooca, and a pagode band opened for us. We were on stage because the guys were dancing and stuff, and we were holding the drums because they were about to fall, I don't know. And they did a search at the entrance to make sure no weapons or anything like that came in, and I think they found some things there. I remember two curious things from that day. One of the guys from the pagode band's crew came up to me and said, "Hey man, is that pedal expensive?" And I, sweating, said, "Hmm... no, you can find that anywhere, I'll even tell you who's giving it away." And I got a Fender, whose guy was it again? I don't remember, but he was the only guy who had a Fender in the region, in the southeast. Then the guy lent me the Fender, and we started playing Iron Maiden's Transylvania, and I went like, "ta, ta-ra-ra-ra-ra, ta-ra-ra-ra," and the string broke. Dude, my experience with Fender lasted ten seconds.
W (DD): Well, then soon after you changed the name to Exhort, it stopped being Darkness and became Exhort in '87.
MK: Exactly.
W (DD): Do you remember anything from Exhort's first shows? What can you tell us about that time?
MK: So, from the first shows we did, we had a show called Darkness back in Sion, where we had a vocalist who had a great look but couldn't sing for shit, and that was Diego.
W (DD): Diego was Uruguayan, right?
MK: Yeah. I don't remember much about him because he didn't talk much, and he didn't sing much either.
W (NM): He had hair down to his waist, we said "let's put this guy in the band".
MK: And it was one of the most bizarre things.
W (NM): He used to play ball with me, that's why I remember him.
MK: He sang in a different time period.
W (NM): In another galaxy.
MK: He was singing like Paranoid, “finished with my woman… oww…you my mind.” That show was funny. And then later we played with Valdério, I don’t know if it was Zuris already, we played Detroit Rock City and that was cool, it was a soul-cleansing experience. But that first Darkness experience was…
W (NM): It was Breaking The Law, Paranoid…
MK: But that was a cool experience.
W (DD): Marquinhos, tell me this, well, as you mentioned Exhort, we didn't even comment on it in the intro, but Drunk Again was played, the song that made its mark. Rafinha never gets tired of saying that for him it's one of the best Metal songs in history.
W (RM): From history!
MK: Wow, that's great.
W (DD): And for me, I don't know if I'd go that far, but it's one of the songs I love the most, a really good song.
MK: Really? Wow, that's great. Actually, we're all mourning this album, it sucks because…
W (DD): And speaking of this album, I wanted you to choose a song that you're very proud to have made and that's on this album for us to listen to now, that isn't "Drunk Again" which has already been played on the show.
MK: I really like PRAY
W (DD): Damn... too much. I said, PRAY, right?
MK: She has a... Wow, considering she was created in '93, '94, she still has a modern feel to her, right?
W (RM): That's right.
MK: The guys called it Nu Metal, we called it "sound" back then, so…
W (DD): That's it.
MK: It's an album I really like. The whole process of making it was great, it's a shame it didn't get the attention we expected. "Come on Wikimetal guys, you're going to hear PRAY!"
W (NM): 94.
MK: 1994.
W (RM): Dude, the chorus of this song is something else.
W (DD): That was PRAY, the title track from the album, the self-titled PRAY, Exhort's second album, which is really cool. It's a whole album that, for those who don't know it, you have to check out, or participate in the giveaway where we're giving away an Exhort CD later today here on Wikimetal, towards the end of the show.
MK: Cool.
W (RM): Marquinhos, and in '89 you joined a kind of progressive rock band, right? Blue Man All.
MK: Yeah. I did it with some friends from the neighborhood here, like Renato. It was also a bit of a vibe because I really liked Pink Floyd. I've always enjoyed playing various kinds of music, and also at that time I was playing in Atilla, which was with David Cardoso Junior; I replaced Felipe Machado in the band.
W (RM): Who played a Duran Duran-type song.
MK: It was really pop rock, but also some hard rock. So there were these three fronts: Exhort, Blue Man All…
W (DD): Blue Man All called Blue Man All.
MK: It was a cheeky allusion, a little joke. And it had a meaning because my father also came from Blumenau, so it was cool. So I worked on those three musical fronts.
W (RM): Because "Attitude" came out in '92, right?
MK: Yeah, Exhort's first LP was in '92.
W (DD): And in 94…
MK: We also recorded an album with Atilla in '91, we also recorded an album at Mosh, so the whole musical process began, I was also recording some demos, I also started teaching around that time because I had to survive, you know?
W (RM): You started teaching early, around 18 years old?
MK: Yeah, at 18 I already said, "I need to make money with this."
W (DD): Just to say that we're here at Marcos Kleine's house, and when I came in and saw the sofa there, I said, "It was on this sofa that Marcos Kleine taught me... Oh, this is an E, this is A, F, G, these are the four strings of the bass, you read the strings on the fretboard..." I started my musical life with Marcos Kleine here, in this apartment.
MK: So, and in my other apartment, here's a funny story, I had a birthday party and I got sick on the day of the party, and all these crazy people came to my house and almost destroyed it. And I was still playing drums… I have to tell this story. And I didn't have money to buy a drum set, and they arrived with a bunch of packages that looked like a stand, a drum kit… it was a broom handle, a box.
W (NM): It was a bucket. The deaf one was an old bucket that we found thrown away at a construction site.
MK: And that was the day Viper was born with André Matos. It was on my birthday.
W (DD): That's right.
W (NM): From 85.
W (RM): Let's talk a little about these two CDs from Exhort, "Attitude" was released on LP and PRAY was later released on CD.
MK: It's the first album we recorded, even with Pomba producing it back in the Dínamo days. We had some production problems, but we were all just kids, you know? But it's a cool album, an authentic album, even though it's kind of poorly recorded. But I think it's really great, I like it. It was really cool, we had a lot of exposure, it was featured in a lot of places with positive reviews. The experience of launching an album at Galeria do Rock, things like that… It was really crazy! And doing the shows was great. As for PRAY, it was an absurd leap in quality in such a short time in everything, the band, the album production.
W (RM): So the only musician who changed was the drummer?
MK: Yeah, it just changed. The band was more solid, Rubinho was really cool, lots of drumming. But like, we rehearsed more, we composed better, we did…
W (NM): You had time to rehearse at the farm for a week, right?
MK: Yeah, Nando wasn't here, he was in Australia when we recorded the first album, and it was Pit Passarell who recorded it. So I don't know, a lot of people don't know that. In fact, a lot of people don't even know that Exhort existed.
W (NM): Well, let's leave that aside.
MK: But it was, both albums were… But the second one was an incredible experience. I traveled to England afterwards, they mixed the album here and sent it to me there, and I remember when the album arrived in England… Damn, it was awesome! I was blown away and I showed it to some English producers and they were like, “Dude, it’s fucking amazing, but you guys are competing with Metallica, how are you going to do this, right?” and Sepultura was at its peak. So we thought we could get a market abroad too. But PRAY, for me, is one of the best works I’ve ever done, for sure. Everything, the compositions, we had to put up with Vartana being incredibly grumpy at the time, but I think it helped with the compositions.
Megadeth has Rust In Peace, which for me is a heavy metal classic, along with Blizzard Of Ozz and Master Of Puppets.”
W (DD): Great. Let's do a PRAY now? We'll ask our Wikibrothers to participate, and whoever gets it right will be entered to win an Exhort disc?
MK: Which studio did Exhort record PRAY in?
W (DD): Good. Okay then. Send the name of the studio where the PRAY album was recorded to info@wikimetal.com.br
W (NM): In 1994.
W (DD): The first person to order gets it.
W (RM): The first one?
W (DD): The first one, it won't be a draw this time.
W (RM): Marquinhos, also about playing… I don't know if you'll remember this, but there was a time when we were talking before an Exhort show, maybe at Black Jack, you told me that what you found very difficult to play, and look, you guys played covers of it, were Megadeth songs, and a phrase you said that I've remembered to this day was "Mustaine is fast and precise".
W (NM): Hmm..
W (RM): My question is… You were a kid back then, now with a lot of experience playing, do you still think that way, and what Megadeth song could you play showing exactly that precision, that speed that Mustaine has in his compositions?
MK: Man, Mustaine is very creative. I think you have to get used to his voice to understand Megadeth, but damn, he's... singing and playing what he plays and does is very difficult, he's very precise. He solos well in his own style. He's a guy who creates very rich backing tracks, for example, Holy Wars. Holy Wars is a song that, damn, is full of little details, you think "wow, why all this?", but it's part of the Mustaine universe. I think he's very detail-oriented, and I don't really like his guitar tone, I don't think it defines what he does very well. Even... I'm getting cocky here, but I think it's kind of harsh. I've seen him live, even at SWU you could tell he maintains that, but he's a great guy. I think his compositions are really cool. Megadeth has that album Rust In Peace which, for me, is a classic of Heavy Metal, along with Blizzard Of Ozz and Master Of Puppets. In my top five, that album is definitely there.
W (DD): I'm in the middle of his biography, and it's really cool how he writes, how he tells everything that happened in his life. It's a book I recommend to everyone who can read it…
MK: I didn't know I had it.
W (DD): Dave Mustaine's biography is really cool!
MK: I just finished watching the Ozzy one, and I think I'm going to jump into this one. The Ozzy one is sensational.
W (RM): We already talked about it on the show, it's amazing.
W (DD): Let's roll now then.
W (DD): Good, good. Very cool.
W (NM): Exhort ended around '95 and you started doing several solo projects, right? I remember you started studying more and improving your home studio recording skills, was that around that time?
MK: Yeah, it was. Around that time I was recording at home with a Tascam, those things that were around back then, with a keyboard, with whatever was available. I thought the idea was very interesting. So I recorded some four-channel demos, doing ping pong – those who were around back then will remember the terminology, you had to take something, move it to another channel to get more channels, a real mess. But then I started, when I recorded a demo for Atilla with my computer at Flavio Decarolli's studio, a friend of ours, when I saw that I could record on the computer, I jumped on that bandwagon too.
W (NM): It was around that time... 95?
MK: It was '95. That's when I really got into this production thing, you know? I discovered this software stuff, sound cards, I went crazy, you know? And it was a time when I wasn't really in a band because Exhort had broken up, Atilla was also doing some gigs here and there, and so on… It was more about teaching and this recording thing that fascinated me at the time. Later I even became a partner in a studio for three years, there's a story there! Holy crap, so much happened. But so many scams too. But it was really cool, then I started to understand it better and, not long ago, I even taught Sonar, which is a recording software for PC, I taught at a school called Synthex, but now with the show Agora É Tarde, things like that… I'm moving on. But then time got short and I can't teach guitar or anything else anymore.
W (DD): And you said, "Exhort is over, etc.", you mentioned that. Is there any chance we'll ever see a new Exhort album?
MK: I'm doing so much these days that it's hard to keep track, but you never know what's going to happen, right? A year ago I couldn't even imagine what I'd be doing today, and I'm like, "Wow, is all this happening?", you know? So I'm not one to say "no, it won't happen".
W (DD): Life takes many turns.
MK: Yeah. I like the idea of Heavy Metal. Sometimes Ultraje even plays some songs when we're doing soundcheck on Agora É Tarde. Yesterday we played War Pigs, take a look at the show, we always joke around with Heavy Metal, it's in our blood. They say I'm the Heavy Metal wing of Ultraje and also the musical part of the show, they say "Ah, I'm going to play some heavy music", "Here I am".
W (DD): Representing well.
W (NM): Yeah, but there's always been this myth, some flashes of Ultraje's roadies, way back in '85, they were always wearing Metal shirts, Roger with that long hair, there was this "dude, Ultraje plays these little songs but the guys are Metal".
MK: Yes. We include Paranoid in our shows, we play it all the time. There must be videos on YouTube of Ultraje playing Paranoid easily, they've played it at several shows.
W (DD): And live it's always heavier too, right? More distorted, faster.
MK: Yeah, and in the case of Ultraje, Bacalhau is a drummer who plays really heavy, so he could easily play in Slayer.
W (DD): Marquinhos, we have a part of the program where we chat with our Wikibrothers, wouldn't you like to announce that part of the program?
MK: So, Wikimetal guys, let's get to the heavy talk.
W (RM): We're back from the Heavy Talk. Marquinhos, you said it's hard for you to listen to music because you make so much music, you know I share a bit of what you're saying sometimes because sometimes I want to eat somewhere with live music and I feel like paying the guy to stop playing.
MK: It sucks, especially when it's music from a steakhouse.
W (RM): That's right. But regarding Metal, do you have time, sometimes on your iPod, what do you still listen to, or is it something new that you just discovered, or something from way back? What Metal do you listen to currently?
MK: Freak Kitchen.
W (DD): That's too much, too much.
MK: I love it.
W (DD): The guitarist in this band is very good.
MK: So, the last album is really good! All the songs are very good, the melodies are really cool.
W (DD): It's not Organic, right? Because Organic is from 2005 and I really like it.
MK: This one is from 2009, it's called Land of the Freaks.
W (NM): Let's put it on now.
MK: Let's listen to a song called Teargas Jazz.
W (DD): We're back with the Freak Kitchen sound that Marcos chose, which surprised me because it's not a very well-known band, and I love them. And I'll tell you a coincidence, Nando, when I was coming here, I was thinking, "I think the two guitarists I know personally—not that I've ever said this before, but the ones I know personally who I think play the best, that I know and can talk about—are Marcos Kleine and Rodrigo Ribeiro from Alien Groove," and he's the one who recommended Freak Kitchen to me. So it's a huge coincidence, because this guitarist is very good.
MK: He's very good and it's a band like that… Especially with this last album, they really found their footing, right? Because their discography is large, I think they have about six or seven LPs, but with this last album I thought they found the right dose of modernity while maintaining the heaviness and cool melodies. And the guitarist himself, he reminds me a bit of Vai playing, but also with a cool identity. Very cool.
W (NM): You didn't mention Steve Vai, but he's an influence on you, right?
MK: So, Steve Vai is like this… For me, he's become a disappointment, actually. Because I really like Steve Vai's work, David Lee Roth's work, even in Whitesnake it was good, I really like that…
W (NM): His first solos too…
MK: Also. I love that Sex & Religion album. There's even a curious story about it: Felipe Machado used to write for Guitar Player magazine, one of the first Guitar Player magazines, and when Steve Vai came to Brazil, the first Guitar Player issue featured Steve Vai, and he called me, and we went to Steve Vai's press conference. They asked Steve Vai about the Sex & Religion album, because he released it and Alien Love Secrets soon after, which was a guitar-only album with very little music. And they asked, "Aren't you going to play any songs from Sex & Religion at the show?" and he said, "No, I don't... I don't know, I just don't like that album." So you could tell the record label came to him and said, "Oh, make an album with solos," and then he got a bit annoying after that. He became a little repetitive.
W (NM): Returning to our timeline here with Marcos Kleine…
W (DD): We're approaching the year 2000, more or less.
"One album I really like is Creatures Of The Night by Kiss."
W (NM): You started with Vega, right? You set up Vega.
MK: I put together the Vega with the Mingau.
W (NM): It was around 2000, right?
MK: It was in 1998, but we recorded the first demo in 2000, when we found Cláudia, who is the vocalist of Vega and all that. With Mingau, who is a stalwart of national Punk.
W (RM): Bulwark?
MK: From Brazilian Punk.
W (NM): So tell me, you were also doing a lot of production back then, including both of Vega's albums, which you produced. Name a band whose production is really cool. It could be heavy rock or… I remember we used to go to your house a lot and listen to Fits Like A Glove, and at the time you'd say, "This song sounds amazing."
MK: I think that, from Heavy Metal, one production that I really like is Kiss's Creatures Of The Night. Man, the drum sound is from hell, that's pure country Metal. There are some legends because they say they recorded the drums faster and slowed down the tape speed to make it sound fuller, because what they did is kind of unreal, it even sounds like there's a delay, you know? I don't know, maybe they used that technique. They recorded "tum tum tá, tum tum tá" and I don't know, then they slowed it down, I don't know. Maybe.
W (DD): That's fine. I'd like you to choose a solo you've done, a solo you're very proud of, and play it for us.
MK: Oh, so, because there are the old solos, but I don't remember them all, right? There's so much. I don't know, maybe…
W (DD): So you can name a solo that you're really proud of, even if you don't play it, and then play another one.
MK: Okay. I like… let me see a solo that I like. Damn, it's tough because I'm so picky, I have to remember. A solo that I like, I think it's cool even though it's kind of boring and I think I could do everything better, is Solitaire Struggle from PRAY.
W (DD): Let's listen to a little bit of the solo.
MK: Okay. Put it there, I want to remember.
W (DD): That was a little bit of Solitaire Struggle, really cool. And now pick a solo for us to listen to, and you're going to play it.
MK: From Independente Futebol Clube, a solo that I put together for Ultraje.
W (DD): You put this solo together? Play it then.
W (DD): Very good.
W (NM): Without a doubt, Ultraje with Marcos Kleine became more Heavy Metal, right?
W (DD): Very cool.
MK: Yeah, this solo has to be kind of powerful, right?
W (RM): Hey Marquinhos, you… well, judging by your t-shirt, we know you're a Star Wars fan, a huge Star Trek fan…
MK: Damn, the day I met Spock, Leonard Nimoy, was like meeting Jimi Hendrix. In fact, I'll say it, Leonard Nimoy is the Jimi Hendrix of science fiction.
W (RM): And we realize that you've also done soundtracks for films, for cartoons… I wanted you to talk a little about that, nowadays Heavy Metal is invading a lot of films, cartoons, right? That Megamind has Guns N' Roses, AC/DC, Ozzy. Heavy Metal has invaded all of that. Tell us all about your history of recording for films and why you think Heavy Metal isn't used in soap operas? It's something that appeals to the masses, there was only one soap opera in the past, I think Shaman, that used a kind of slow song that they even became famous for.
MK: To not lose the thread, the thing about soap operas is that soap operas only tell stories that everyone wants to hear. Metal is something organic; in soap operas, everything is fake, so it doesn't have the vibe of Metal. It's more like Michel Teló, that kind of thing. So Heavy Metal will never reach that level because the atmosphere of soap operas isn't right for it. And about the soundtracks, I started playing around and making versions of themes from well-known movies and TV series in 1998 because I was a big fan of Star Trek, and I started playing at Star Trek conventions, and that's where I met Leonard Nimoy, it was at a convention. So I started creating these versions, and it was a lot of fun because I learned about orchestration, right? Which is very difficult when you know the positioning of each instrument, and that's where I started playing keyboards in a "chicken foot" style... all my fingers wrong, but I had an idea. So I was never a good keyboardist, but I always had ideas that I managed to translate to the instrument. And this project earned me an invitation from some Australians, whose poster you can even see here, Sev Trek, a parody animation of Star Trek, to do the soundtrack for the cartoon. And I, damn, it was awesome! It was an amazing project, they sent me the videos and I did everything in the software, all "synced up," and wow… It was highly praised because I made a serious soundtrack and I went with the idea of making the soundtrack, the movie is very funny but I made a serious soundtrack to make it even funnier. So it was great.
W (DD): And do you have that movie? Can we see that movie?
MK: Ah, I think you guys can find it somewhere, it must have leaked on the internet.
W (DD): Chama Sev Trek “Pus In Boots”. Very cool.
MK: It's a really funny Australian animation, and that project was great, it was very well publicized. So I did some soundtracks for commercials, but the important thing is, Micki Mihich, who you probably know, who's from our Metal era, he made a short film called The 100th Job, and I also did the soundtrack for that short film, and I even want to give you a tip: you can play the film's theme, which is really heavy and not many people have heard it, so I'm going to let you play it now, and you'll hear the theme from this short film that I made in 2009.
W (NM): You did everything, right? Not just guitar, you did everything?
MK: I did it. The keyboards, the whole orchestral part—fake orchestra because it wasn't the Hollywood setup—I did everything at home, and the short film is amazing!
W (DD): Let's roll.
W (RM): As Nando says, it's great to hear something like that, isn't it?
W (DD): Well, this was the score made by Marcos Kleine, soundtrack for the movie The 100th Job. If anyone wants to see it, there's a trailer on YouTube, it's really cool. Search for "100th Job, JOB" on YouTube and you'll find a trailer. The movie is great, it looks really cool, and Marcos Kleine's soundtrack is sensational.
MK: Wow, it's Metal, Metal. I thought it was relevant to talk about that.
W (DD): Very cool, and continuing the timeline… 2002.
W (RM): So, the thing about the Palmeiras anthem, was that in… 2000, 2001?
MK: 2003. It was crazy, because I went to a Palmeiras game… it was the week Palmeiras returned to the first division and I went to a game at Palestra Itália, it was Palmeiras against Marília, 2-0, even Lucio scored a goal, left-back… well, never mind.
W (DD): For those who don't know, Marcos Kleine is here completing the lineup with the four of us, the four big clubs from São Paulo. We were only missing a Palmeiras supporter from the program, and now we have one.
MK: We're here representing.
W (RM): The big four? I don't understand.
W (DD): Because you, Santos, São Paulo and… are Portuguese.
MK: Only three have won the Libertadores here.
W (DD): That's right, now I understand why you didn't understand.
MK: Oh, oh, oh. So, after that game I had an insight to do a version of the Palmeiras anthem and I thought, "Wow," since I had already worked with that soundtrack thing, for films, I decided to do it. The game was on a Tuesday, I started recording on Wednesday, then on Thursday I mixed it and gave it the final touches and started sending it to some friends and on Friday I was already giving an interview on CBN, then on Sunday I was on Milton Neves' program which had an audience of 20 million viewers.
W (DD): It was a five-day deal.
MK: And I was receiving about five thousand emails a day. And that was the week Palmeiras actually got promoted.
W (NM): Seriously? Only Palmeiras fans? Are there that many Palmeiras fans?
MK: I'll tell you that I received offers from TV to do versions of all the anthems, but I didn't accept them because there's no amount of money that could pay for that. I only did the Palmeiras one; the Corinthians fans can figure it out, the São Paulo fans do it, and there's even a guitar version for all the clubs. But it was crazy. Then, as Nando asked, I put that version on Vega's website, and a company was managing the site, and suddenly, in one month, instead of three thousand hits, it had 120,000. And I paid a two thousand reais fine to Locaweb for excessive data transfer, and they didn't warn me, so it was crazy, it's been crazy since it started. So, since then I've played at Palmeiras' anniversary parties, like... I have a certain fear of becoming a party staple, of not wanting to play at everything, but I've played at events that deeply moved me, like Palmeiras' anniversary, and one of the craziest things in my life was being the last artist to play at the old Palestra Itália stadium, before the renovation. I went onto the field alone playing live; many people think it was playback because I was playing wirelessly, but I couldn't bring the band, but the guitar was live, playing for 22,000 Palmeiras fans, the last event, and that was mind-blowing.
W (NM): There's a video of this on YouTube and it's cool to see because even for those who hate Palmeiras like me, it's cool because he was really emotional, in the end you kiss the field, right?
MK: Yeah, I walked slowly to the center of the field so I wouldn't lose the wireless signal. I was a little worried because there are a lot of radio and TV stations, so the signals are interfering there, the frequencies. So I stopped in the center of the field and at the end of the song I kissed the center of the field. It was an action that I actually thought about 20 years before doing it. People always say "no, it was in the moment," but it was bullshit.
W (DD): You had already rehearsed that.
W (NM): He trained at Pacaembu.
W (DD): He trained in the hallway of the house.
W (NM): He would go to Pacaembu every day with his guitar to practice that.
W (DD): Very good. Then you had an experience with Léo Jaime, right?
"Initially I was a guest guitarist, and now in April it will be three years since I joined Ultraje A Rigor, which I'm very proud of."
W (NM): The whole 80s generation, right?
MK: So in 2005 I was invited by Mingau, who was playing with Léo, starting a project with Léo, and then I was also invited to join the band, to play in the band, and wow, it was amazing, a sensational experience. Léo is a great guy that I really like. The band was me, Mario Fabre, who is now the drummer for Titãs, Mingau, and wow… we toured all over Brazil doing this show, it was five years with Léo, four years and a bit…
W (DD): We played a lot of music from that 80s generation, right?
MK: Everything was from the '80s, but it was heavier, we played Ramones at the show. Then there was Police…
W (NM): And with this band, it was impossible for it not to be heavy.
MK: And it was a quartet, there was no saxophone, no keyboard, so it was more pressure. And it was an amazing experience, we played in Brazil, I played in Cancun with him, so Léo was a wonderful experience. And in the meantime, Léo had the idea to do G80, which became that DVD Anos 80 Multishow Ao Vivo that brought together the artists from that time when we were the backing band, and the guys would come in and sing four or five songs, and the lineup would change. We did a lot of shows like that, but it's difficult to coordinate everyone's schedules, and we still do it today.
W (RM): Because Leo has a TV show today, right?
MK: Yeah, there are. But then we get all the artists, I've played with Marcelo Nova, Kiko Zambianchi, Ritchie, Kid Vinil, Paulo Ricardo, Nasi… all those guys, Leoni, so I've played with all those people…
W (NM): Everyone who played in the 80s participated in this…
MK: Yeah. Guilherme Isnard, and I even do some shows with Zero too, when Zero has a show he calls me to play. So it was a hell of an experience meeting all the artists. We did a show at Citibank Hall, which is closing down, by the way, out of this G80, and the audience looked like Metallica. Everyone was yelling “G80…”. Saying “damn it, man”. It was crazy, really cool. And singing “you didn’t know how to love me”. It was kind of metal.
W (DD): And that was the step towards Ultraje, right?
MK: Yeah. Then Leo went to live in Rio de Janeiro, he came back to Rio – actually, Leo is from Goiás, but he has a strong connection with Rio de Janeiro – and because of geographical reasons we couldn't continue, so I spent a year in that gap, playing and making music here and there. And then the invitation from Ultraje came up, with Sérgio Serra leaving, since I had already done A Fabulosa Orquestra de Rock'n'Roll, there are so many stories to tell… A Fabulosa Orquestra de Rock'n'Roll is a project that Roger did, we recorded a live album for Deck in 2005. And since I had already become friends with Roger at that time, everyone was friends there, so this invitation came up. Initially I was a guest guitarist, and now in April it will be three years that I've been in Ultraje A Rigor, with great pride.
W (NM): 2009 then?
MK: Yeah, 2009. Very happy, the atmosphere in the band is great, I love playing in Ultraje because it's heavier than with Léo, so it suits me better.
W (DD): There's a little Metal vibe hidden there.
MK: The energy at the show is amazing, something I really missed from "Ahh".
W (DD): That's the Metal audience, right?
W (NM): And Ultraje made one of the most classic rock albums. I think Nós Vamos Invadir Sua Praia is the best Brazilian rock album of all time.
W (DD): That simply all the songs were total hits.
W (NM): And we're happy to see that it's still active.
W (DD): And speaking of that, do you have any plans for the future of Ultraje? What's coming up next?
MK: We're going to record an album, but I can't talk about what it is on air. There's also a project for a 30th-anniversary DVD, and we're on "Agora É Tarde" (Now It's Late), a project that started last June. It's Danilo Gentili's show on Bandeirantes, and we're on every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. But in March it'll be daily, and we're the show's backing band, but in a different format. We go crazy, we play whatever we want, with whomever we want, whenever we want. So it's a project that's been super fun for us. We're playing a lot of music that we'd love to play, and we laugh a lot. It's like Roger said, "I feel like I'm back in fifth grade."
W (NM): So we tell all our Wikimates, WikiBrothes, WikiSisters to watch Agora É Tarde on Bandeirantes, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, what time?
MK: Varies.
W (NM): Varies.
MK: Usually 11:45 PM, Tuesday after the League, Wednesday after the football game, and Thursday after the 24-hour Police broadcast. It will also be on Fridays soon.
W (NM): The only Brazilian TV show that features a rock band.
MK: And that opens up space for rock bands. They even ask us to recommend bands, Raimundos has already been there, there have been a lot of rock bands that go…
W (RM): And there are always some guests, right?
MK: Yeah. We've already suggested some metal guys go there.
W (DD): And what's the atmosphere like with Danilo Gentili?
MK: Man, it's the back row crew. It's awesome there, the guys are really funny and they tease each other. So Ultraje seems like it was made for the show and the show was made for Ultraje. It's perfect. Actually, the idea of Ultraje on the show was Danilo's idea; he said, "The band has to be Ultraje," he contacted Roger and everything worked out. And we're very happy with this project and we're going to continue, we have a contract. So the plans are these: a new album for sure, a DVD should happen too, and a documentary that's being negotiated with some guys connected to film, they're working on it, it seems there will be a documentary as well. So Ultraje will have a lot going on.
W (DD): And there's the Ultraje book that just came out.
MK: That's right. An author, Andréa Ascenção, wrote a very well-written book, with great images and photos of all the Ultraje lineups. I joined at the last minute, but…
W (DD): But there was enough time.
MK: Damn, that was awesome. We're even going to raffle off a book for you guys. Look how nice I am.
W (NM): We're going to raffle off a book, but how are we going to choose the winner?
MK: Let's do this: you send an email to info@wikimetal.com.br and what do you put in the subject line?
W (NM): I want to win the Ultraje book.
MK: I want to win the Ultraje a Rigor book, and you'll be entered to win an autographed Ultraje a Rigor biography, signed by everyone in the band.
W (DD): Excellent. So there are two promotions going on: the Exhort CD PRAY – just find out where and in which studio PRAY was recorded and send it to info@wikimetal.com.br – and also the Ultraje A Rigor book autographed by all the members of Ultraje – just write that you want to participate in this raffle. Send it to us and we'll draw the winner.
W (NM): Shall we do another promotion, the third promotion of the program?
W (DD): This program is awesome, huh?
W (NM): Three promotions, and the third one is also amazing, it's an LP of Nós Vamos Invadir Sua Praia by Ultraje A Rigor that's even in stores. For those who like vinyl, those who have vinyl... The LP Nós Vamos Invadir Sua Praia, the first album by Ultraje A Rigor.
W (DD): The historic Ultraje A Rigor album, the vinyl version.
W (RM): I'll send an email too, I don't have one.
W (DD): Very good. And how is it going to be?
W (NM): So to send the Ultraje A Rigor LP you have to send an email to info@wikimetal.com.br with the names of all the songs that are on that record and we will draw whoever sends the correct answer, it will be drawn, and they will win an Ultraje A Rigor LP, Nós Vamos Invadir Sua Praia.
W (DD): The vinyl version. It's really easy because all the songs, as we said here, were hits.
W (RM): Don't bother searching on Google.
W (DD): Hey Kleine, you owe us because you said there's going to be a Mr. Crowley solo.
MK: Is the program over already?
W (DD): We're nearing the end, it's not over yet.
W (NM): To get in touch with Marcos Kleine… Twitter, Facebook?
MK: You can access my website www.marcoskleine.com.br, with an "e" at the end, which is what makes me poor. I'm also on Twitter @marcoskleine, and on Facebook as Marcos Kleine. Just type my name into Google and you'll find me on every possible social network imaginable, because I'm on all of them.
W (DD): Excellent. We're going to end the program with Marcos Kleine playing the Mr. Crowley solo live, so before he starts, let's just say our thanks and goodbyes. I was very honored to see you again; being here in your apartment has a special meaning for me…
W (NM): That you brought him home drunk once.
W (RM): And who has never been taken?
W (DD): Once, drunk, I handed him over to his mother and said, "I think he ate something spoiled."
MK: It was actually my first time getting drunk, it was with the Viper crew and we went to Papa Fritas, on Maria Antônia street.
W (DD): In front of Mackenzie.
MK: And the guys got me to drink. The peanuts weren't good.
W (DD): Marquinhos, I also wanted to thank you. We have an agreement that we haven't sworn on the show for a long time, but I'm going to cheat this time, which is... There's a phrase I haven't said since I was a kid, exactly what Dani said... from the guys we know, from seeing, from talking, you're the guy who plays the best. And at the Wikimetal Party there was a really cool moment, even with Nando's wife, who I was watching you play, she honored me with her presence. You were playing with Exhort, Nando was on stage, maybe doing a Megadeth cover. I was staring, speechless, and when I turned to Nando's wife, Natália, I looked at her and they both said almost simultaneously, "Marquinhos plays like a motherfucker!" It's an honor to have you here on this show.
MK: Thank you. You're my friends, so it doesn't count.
W (DD): But we would speak well of it. Sometimes a friend criticizes more than…
W (RM): I criticize Nando for being overweight.
MK: But that was a long time ago, since he was born. But thank you very much. I appreciate the kind words, it's really great for me, and we're here, right?
W (DD): It's cool that when we were putting together the script for this program, we realized how much Marcos has done throughout his career, and several things we didn't mention that he kept remembering... Rock'n'Roll Orchestra and others... a lot of history, right?
MK: When you start verbalizing things, you begin to see that it is...
W (DD): A victorious career.
MK: So, we're here, huh? I intend to stay on the road for a long time, I've always done this, it's what I love to do, music is my life and always has been, I discovered on my own that music was what I really wanted, and damn… moments like this make it all worthwhile. It's really cool and your show… I'm very happy that you guys are brothers and made such a successful show, and nowadays a Heavy Metal show is hard to find, and you guys are keeping "the flame of Metal" alive.
W (NM): Very good, Marcos Kleine. Wikimetal. Now you're going to have to play!
W (DD): So Marcos Kleine is playing over a backing track, an original version by Ozzy but without guitar, and you're playing it live, is that right?
MK: I'm going to play a little song for you guys, the solo that marked my life.