Twilight Aura Believe last Friday the 13th. The successor to For a Better World (2022), the new work raises the bar even higher by presenting an expanded sonic palette, without losing the group's characteristic sound.
Featuring several special guests, the album was co-produced by Andre Bastos with Tito Falaschi , who was also responsible for mixing and mastering. The artwork was designed by Juh Leidl .
Believe is a Wikimetal Music (Brazil) and Psychomanteum Records (rest of the world) release. The CD is now available through the Wikimetal Store . Listen to the album on your preferred digital platform .
In an interview with Wikimetal , guitarist and founder Andre Bastos talks about expectations for the release of the new album, the songwriting process, and future plans.
Twilight Aura and expectations for the new album
Wikimetal: The highly anticipated new album, Believe, will be released this month, blending various influences from old-school and modern power metal. What are the band's expectations for this release?
Andre Bastos : We are extremely happy with this release, this partnership with Wikimetal. Originally, we started as an old-school power metal band back in the 90s. But a lot of time has passed since then. So we have songs on this album that were written back then. We recently released the single "Loss of Life," which even features Andre Matos's vocals, and his brother Daniel's too, which harks back to those times, but we also have some things that are much newer. The opening track, "Real Roads," isn't the kind of power metal that spends five minutes with double bass drums the whole time. It has breaks, it has variations. We wanted to bring a more open sonic palette to this album, and we are very happy with the result.
WM: And what was the production process like for the album?
AB: Each of us lives in a different corner of the world. I live in the United States, the drummer in Australia, the keyboardist in England, and the others, who live in Brazil, each live in a different state. So, just like on the first album, I composed the songs. I share some very basic demos of the song ideas with the band members, we gather input until I create the final version of what the song will actually be. After we have everyone input , our producer, Tito Falaschi , also starts giving his opinions, and we finalize it, and each of us starts recording in our home studios, and we send everything to Tito Falaschi. Then he mixes and creates the final result.
WM: The new album features special appearances by Jeff Scott Soto, Felipe Andreoli (Angra), Fabio Caldeira, BJ, and Andre Matos. What was the experience of each collaboration?
AB: Starting with Jeff Scott Soto, we've known each other for 10 years through mutual friends. We recorded this song two years ago, but we're only releasing it now. When I explained the idea to him and showed him the song, which was composed by our other guitarist, Rodolfo, Jeff really liked the idea. We'd already released this song as a single before, but now we've made a new version with keyboards by our keyboardist, Léo, and also a duet with Daísa. So you have Jeff and Daísa on the same song, a much more hard rock song, and we're very happy about it.
it was BJ who introduced Jeff Scott Soto , the BJ, the vocalist of the band Spektra , who is also part of Jeff's band. BJ and I have been friends for thirty-something years. He's a really, really cool guy. It would have been great to have him participate in this song because of the song's history. I explained the story behind the lyrics to him, he really liked it and agreed to participate. I was even in Brazil, we went to record together at Henrique Canale , who is the bassist for Spektra.
Filipe Andreoli, on the other hand is a phenomenal musician; he plays any instrument very well. Not just the bass, which he's perhaps the best in the world at, but he plays acoustic guitar, electric guitar, everything. We were on the cruise, at the 7000 Tons of Metal tour , the idea came up, I suggested it to him, and he said, 'Record a guitar solo? Yes.' We got back, I sent him the song, he liked it, agreed, a few days later he sent the solo, ready. Really cool.
And the idea of having Andre Matos and Daniel is a little bigger because it's a song that was composed back in the 90s. We recorded a demo with Andre's voice; he participated at the time. And we managed to digitally recover his voice, so we decided to release this song on this album, so we recovered his voice. And since Andre was going to be there, we thought of calling Daniel, because it would be beautiful. The two Matos brothers on the same song. We called the drummer, who is the brother of our guitarist, to record as well, which is Fábio Elsas . So we were very happy.
I also forgot to mention Fábio Caldeira , the vocalist and keyboardist of the band Maestrick , who recently released a phenomenal album. Caldeira and I already know each other and instantly connected, we became very good friends. I showed him the song, I showed him the idea, he agreed right away, he did a duet with Daísa. The guitars and bass on this song were recorded by a friend of mine, Marcel Ribas, who lives here where I live, in Austin, Texas. He's my bandmate, he's been here in Austin for 18 years. So I'm very happy with all these people joining my companions of 30-something years from Twilight, who are now here in Twilight Aura.
Featuring the late Andre Matos
WM: The single “Laws of Life” features vocals by Andre Matos, taken from a demo tape recording from early 1992. Can you tell us about your experience recording with Andre back then?
AB: I used to play in a band called Skyscraper , and it was in that band that we made this song. I left Skyscraper in '91 to join what would become Angra . In the new project that Rafael Bittencourt had started, Andre joined and it became Angra. Skyscraper was recording this song on a demo, and I asked Andre and Rafa if they would be willing to help with the recording. They agreed immediately. So on the day of the recording, I picked Andre up at his apartment. We came in the car, I had written down the parts he would sing on the sheet music. So he would tap the tuning fork in the car and sing his parts. He arrived at the studio already prepared, with all the parts memorized. It was really cool. The guy at the studio had never seen Andre sing before.
The moment he started singing, the guy in the studio said, "Wow, this guy! How can someone sing like that?" It was a unique experience. Everyone who was there remembers that day fondly because it was incredible. The band Skyscraper released the demo, it was a hit with the people at the Blackjack bar, but then the song ended up being shelved. When we were recording this album, Nasa, who was from Skyscraper, suggested reviving the song, and I really liked the idea. I, who had written it, said, "Okay, let's redo it and release it." We managed to recover Andre's voice, and it turned out beautifully, his voice with Isa's, it was really cool. It was perfect.
WM: The song also featured Daniel Matos, Andre's brother and current bassist for VIPER, who recorded the bass and contributed vocals. What did he add that was special to the track?
AB: Daniel is a very talented guy, with incredible musical taste, because he's not just into rock, he plays various styles. He plays forró, samba, country. He has a country band. So, when I invited him and explained the proposal, he agreed right away. I sent him the music files to learn. So, first it was at Duny's house, he showed me his parts, I really liked the arrangements he made, because it's not something a power metal bassist would do that way, since he has a more expanded sonic palette, he came up with more ideas and it turned out really cool. We went to record his part at Leandro Caçoilo , he recorded a vocal part that turned out very good, I was extremely happy with the result.
WM: And now, 33 years after the recording, how is it for the band to revisit this nostalgia and record the single?
AB: So specifically with the band Twilight, it wasn't the way we imagine because that song wasn't from the band Twilight, it was from the band Skyscraper, which was the band I had before Angra. After I left Angra, I founded the band Twilight. So we never played that song with Twilight. The guys from Skyscraper were very emotional, there are several comments from them. We even invited Anderson Bellini to make the lyric video for the song. And Anderson Bellini is the greatest Andre Matos expert there is today.
He made a beautiful video, he even included scenes of Andre singing in it. For us, who have been involved with this song from the beginning, it was a trip down memory lane filled with affection. And this song has been very well received. Its streaming numbers are good, and the video is doing very well. It's reaching many places where I never imagined Andre was so popular. He's taking our music further.
How the Twilight saga ruined the band's name
WM: I wanted to clear up something I read about you guys once. Is it true that the band's original name was Twilight, but you needed to add Aura because of the Twilight Saga?
AB: It's crazy, because ever since I was younger, I always wanted my bands to be called Twilight, but I had never actually formed a band. I'd join bands, and then when it came time to decide on a name, I'd lose it. Even with Angra, when we formed, I suggested the name Twilight and they preferred Angra, which is rightly a great name. So when I started the band Twilight from scratch, I started inviting people, saying, 'Do you want to join the band Twilight?' I didn't say, 'Let's form a band, let's choose a name.' No, I said, 'There's a band called Twilight, do you want to join?'
The guys agreed, so the band went with that name and I liked it right away. Why the name Twilight? There's a band called Electric Light Orchestra, which has a song called "Twilight," which was one of the first rock songs I fell in love with when I was 10 years old. And the word is very beautiful, Twilight. Anyway, we put the band together, and at the time we didn't know about registering names. We didn't know anything about the business side of things. We made demos and tried to approach record labels to try and release something.
The band went on hiatus, and when the MySpace , I opened a page called Twilight Brazil, and suddenly, overnight, a lot of people started joining. A lot of people, like, very vampiric, very gothic, and people said that wasn't the Twilight audience, what was happening? That's when I found out that a saga called Twilight had come out, and the people from Twilight Brazil thought this page was related to the movie. It had almost 15,000 followers in a weekend. I said, 'Where did this come from?'
And when we decided to revive the band, between 2020 and 2021, Rafael Bittencourt, who was helping with the business side, put me in touch with someone who could help me register the name, and she explained it to me. She did some research and showed that all the registration categories had been taken by the movie crew. Everything was taken by vampires. And I didn't want to get rid of the name Twilight, so we thought of something else. And then came the idea of adding a word after it, which we chose: Aura. Because Twilight starts and ends with the same letter, T, and Aura also starts and ends with A. It'll be a cool logo, it sounds good. Some people even said, 'Wow, it sounds like a yoga school name.' But that's okay, we used the name and managed to register it.
The difference between working with music in the 90s and now
WM: The band made its return in 2021, 28 years after its formation in 1993. Have you noticed much difference in these almost 30 years, in terms of promoting your work, gaining media attention, and releasing material?
AB: It's a completely different world. Back then, we had to rent expensive studio time, with few channels, and work miracles while we were there. We had to arrive very prepared to record. And if the singer wasn't feeling well that day, we had to record anyway, because the hours were counting down. We recorded our demo at Philip Kolodet , right at the beginning of his career. Nowadays, Philip is an international name, super well-known. Many people recorded with him, and we made cassette tapes, duplicated them, printed the covers, and left them in the magazine we had, in the fanzine, hoping someone would talk to us. We sent them by mail to various places around the world hoping someone would respond. It would have been very difficult to consider launching ourselves independently; it was very difficult to even consider that.
When we returned in 2021, even though we were each in a different corner of the world, the possibility of doing things independently existed, it was much easier. And I have access to information about what you have to do, what the business side of things is, it's much easier. When we started talking to the Wikimetal about this partnership, it's impossible to imagine doing that back then. The way we can work together, manufacture, distribute, is much clearer, much more possible and more democratic, let's say, nowadays. But the competition is also much greater. Every day we receive a bombardment of new music. How are you going to choose what you're going to listen to? So we're still figuring out how to show people: 'Look, want to hear new music? Listen to ours here'. And for that, we work with people who know what they're doing, like you guys.
WM: You guys who have followed the transition in how music is consumed, from the analog to the digital era, and from digital to streaming. What are the most drastic changes you've noticed in how the public interacts with you?
AB: In the past, musicians were idols we didn't have access to. It was very difficult to know what was happening. Let's say I was a big fan of Helloween , and I didn't know what was going on with the vocalist, Michael Kiske . I had to wait for the album to come out, buy it, listen to it on vinyl. I listened in the car or on my Walkman, recorded it on a cassette tape to listen to later. And that was it. And the success of a release was measured by the number of copies sold, or how many times the song played on the radio, then on MTV. The way it is today, artists have become much more humanized.
They're less heroes, much more human, even because they're appearing on social media and the artists themselves are always showing what their lives are like. So they're much more accessible. And regarding consumption, nowadays hardly anyone listens to an album from beginning to end, from the first song to the last. So there's a whole science to it: which song goes at the beginning of the album, which song will be the last on side B, which song will be the first on side B. Nowadays we do a little of that to try to follow a sequence, knowing that it's quite possible someone will pick up a song, listen to it, and pass it on to another band. So that's the current reality, that's what we have to work with. We have to make all our music knowing that if someone listens to that song, maybe they won't listen to the next one.
Twilight Aura perform live The band already has shows scheduled.
AB: Bringing people from four different continents together on stage to perform is a challenge for few. We won't say no, we'll never do that. But we don't have any plans at the moment. We have received invitations to some really cool festivals. I don't want to name them here yet so as not to spoil anything if it happens, but we are seriously considering them. But let's remember that bringing these people together for a performance, say, in a place with few people, is very damaging; you basically destroy the band's morale.
So, we're very happy to record and release it, and to do a show, that's a story we still have to develop. We're going to promote this release a lot. We're going to keep releasing music. We even have more things recorded that we intend to release at some point, not too far in the future. We can't stop making music. So we're going to keep producing, recording, releasing, that's the minimum we can do.
Could you leave a message for Wikimetal's readers?
AB: Guys, I'm so happy with this partnership we're forming. I wanted to send a hug to Dani and Nando, who started this project way back in 2011. I remember when it began. And it started releasing really high-quality music. I feel honored to have the name of the band Twilight Aura associated with Wikimetal. We will continue to support this metal communication vehicle, for promotion and good music in general.
I hope you'll buy the physical copy of the CD too, because the artwork is beautiful. You'll have access to all the artwork that Juh Leidl created, which is wonderful. Oh, but there's nowhere to listen to the CD? It's not about listening to CDs anymore these days. Buy the physical media, start your little collection, enjoy it because it's really cool, complete the artistic experience. Give us a chance. I hope you like it.
READ ALSO: Interview: Edu Falaschi talks about the 'Temple of Shadows' tour and a possible show with Angra
