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Left to Right: Maria Cals, Ale de la Vega, Alice
METAL PULP AND PAPER: Hello Maria. Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for Metal Pulp And Paper. We appreciate it. 

MARIA CALS: We thank you! 

MPAP: How are things going so far this year for Indiscipline? What’s next for Indiscipline. What will the band be up to finish out 2017? 

MARIA: Pretty good! We finally released our debut album, which had been ready since November 2016, but we were waiting for the perfect timing when we had at least a label distributing our album here in Brazil, which we now have (Shinigami Records). We shot 2 videoclips, (“Fear in Your Eyes” and “Degrees of Shade”), did 1 lyric video (“Burning Bridges”), some other live ones (including two 360º), and there also two guitar/bass playthroughs coming up. We had to take a small break now due to personal reasons, but we’ll be back in September and then you can expect even more videos, special releases and most importantly many shows! 

MPAP: Indiscipline is a power trio metal band from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil that formed in 2012. What else can you add to that so everyone can get to know your band better? 

MARIA: We’re heavily influenced by metal (pun intended!), definitely. However, we’re also influenced by some other genres, namely hard rock, punk, and grunge. If I had to pick 5 bands to list as our main inspirations, I’d pick: Black Sabbath, Alice In Chains, Motörhead, Crucified Barbara and Metallica. We’ve released 3 albums so far: a demo, a mini-live album and a full-length. We’ve done more than 70 gigs and played in many of Brazil’s states. You can find us on YouTube, Facebook and also on all main digital music platforms (Spotify, Deezer, iTunes/Apple Music, etc). We also have an official website which you can check out at www.indisciplineofficial.com. 

MPAP: Before we go any further, can everyone sound off and introduce themselves and tell us who your main influence was for picking up the instrument or the microphone that you play now? 

MARIA: When I first started to listen to metal, back when I was 12-13 years-old, I immediately felt the need to play an instrument as well. I chose the guitar because one of the first songs I ever liked (and then learned how to play it) was Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” - who wouldn’t be inspired by such riffery? Tony Iommi remains to this day one of my main influences. 

ALICE: I started playing (and singing) almost directly on stage to earn money. I actually started playing covers and only a little time later on I had my own band, playing the music that I had written, and I consider this band to be Indiscipline. I spent some time as a “music zombie”, with no specific influences, just playing what I was told to play, even though I already liked metal (Nightwish, Blind Guardian). I felt bad, like I was losing my identity. I didn’t necessarily listen to what I liked, but instead to what I had to, to be able to play it live. Fortunately, that’s not what happens today! I play what I like and listen to what I like. My main influences are Alice In Chains, Motorhead, AC/DC, ZZ Top, Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Black Label Society...I’ve been listening to a lot of Carcass and Exodus as well. 

ALE: My first contact with an instrument was with an acoustic guitar that belonged to my dad. I had my first attempts at making music using that gear, and I still enjoy doing that to this very day. As time went by I started learning songs too in a self-taught way only by reading chords’ magazines. Then I started learning how to play the keyboards, and consequently built a better notion of music theory and etc. At 11/12 I could turn any thoughts into melodies! 
At 9 years old I started playing in a martial band when my dad was moved to another state (he’s in the Military). Then I found what I really loved! My family was in the church (they are until this day, only I left) and took some classes and started playing the drums at the church’s band. I’ve done many things drums-wise, and every experience counts. Those experiences made me the drummer I am today. Some of my favorite bands include Angra, Lacuna Coil, AC/DC, Nirvana, Metallica, and many others. Right now, in Indiscipline I’ve lived a lot of things I’ve always wanted to do before, like important gigs, videoclips, recording an album, and doing everything very professionally. Some of my influences as a drummer are Taylor Hawkins, Mike Terrana, Eloy Casagrande, Joey Jordison, Phil Collins, among others. 

MPAP: When forming Indiscipline, back in 2012, were the intentions to be an all-woman power trio? 

MARIA: I have to be honest here, I’ve always liked the idea of an “all-woman” band, simply because we understand each other so well. I started my life as a musician in a punk rock all-woman quartet, and some years later after that first band had already quit I moved on to a metal all-woman 5-piece. Then I played in some bands in which I was the only woman, great experiences as well, but the sense of sisterhood was obviously lacking. So, when Indiscipline was formed, that was the most evident direction.  

MPAP: Were there ever any ideas to add another guitar player or even a man into the Indiscipline fold at the very beginning? 

MARIA: If the right person comes along (and that’s a big IF), we’ll definitely have another guitar player in the band, but it’s not something we really think about. We love the power trio format. It’s the best line-up for everything-traveling, making all the big decisions, etc. We don’t discard playing with a man in Indiscipline, but we wouldn’t have him as a full-time member, only as a temporary solution-for instance, if one of us was sick and needed a substitute to play live for some time. 

MPAP: Once forming, and the lineup was concrete, you recorded some songs together and released a demo called In My Guts? Why a demo and not an EP, or full release? Was In My Guts everything you expected?  

MARIA: In My Guts was our first release and we worked really hard, and learned a lot from it. What I personally like a lot about In My Guts is the fact that we didn’t rush anything. We released it as a demo album, something to present Indiscipline to as many people as possible, kind of like our business card. We needed to go through that step (some people advised us to go straight to the full-length album, but we decided to take our time). We had a lot of feedback and listened to many constructive criticism and saw where we could do better when we finally released the full-length album.
  
MPAP: Some bands will say that when first starting out, they felt rushed into making an album, and the end result just didn’t sound like what they really wanted it to be. Then 20 years later, the album is remixed and released the way it should have been. 

MARIA: I understand – that’s precisely the reason releasing a demo was a decisive step for us. We had to feel the band, the songs, how people would perceive us, learn from constructive criticism, know where and how we could improve. It’s only been a few months since we released Sanguinea, and of course we’d do many things differently now that we’re able to listen to the final result, but that’s part of the process. I don’t see the album being remixed though, not for the reason you mentioned anyways. 

MPAP: After In My Guts was released in 2012, it wouldn’t be until 2015 before you would release anything else until Live At Toca? What was Live At Toca? How did this recording all come about? Were you ready to make Live At Toca by any chance? 

MARIA: Indiscipline was formed in 2012 and only in 2014, after our line-up was stable, we released In My Guts. Then in 2015 we had the opportunity to release Live at Toca, a mini-live album, through the Converse Rubber Tracks contest. We were one of the 84 artists chosen in the entire world, amongst which only 7 were Brazilian! That was CRAZY and a great honor. We had 3 songs written for our debut album, and we decided to record those. Live at Toca has this raw, in-your-face, all-or-nothing atmosphere that we love so much, since we obviously recorded everything live. Being at one of Rio de Janeiro’s most legendary studios (Toca do Bandido) and engineered by American producer Geoff Sanoff (who has a Grammy and has worked with artists such as Green Day) was definitely a dream come true for us.  

MPAP: Sanguinea would be your next endeavor. In the beginning of 2017, it was released after a successful crowdfunding campaign, which almost seems to be the normal thing for a band to do these days. Did you feel bad at first asking your loyal fans for their money to help finance the release? 

MARIA: I am a huge fan of crowdfunding campaigns, having participated in projects of bands such as Huntress, Thundermother, The Agony, Obituary, L7, Crucified Barbara, Raimundos, Gangrena Gasosa and more. It’s a great opportunity for a fan to grab exclusive and rare material while supporting the artist reach a very important goal at the same time. It’s a win-win situation, so I didn’t feel bad at all to ask our fans for their help. We tried to offer cool and exclusive items too. For instance, a book of illustrations Alice did for each song of the album. We had the original drawings for sale and guess what, someone bought it! We also had handwritten lyric sheets, an exclusive t-shirt, an eco-bag hand-made by Alice, and more. I even offered one of my guitars, which unfortunately wasn’t sold, but that’s ok. We reached our goal and even surpassed it. The support of our fans was unbelievable and truly heartwarming. 

MPAP: What can you tell us about Sanguinea if someone hasn’t heard it before? 

MARIA: You’ll notice we put our best effort into this album. It’s our baby, we nursed it, put a lot of hard work, sweat, tears and a lot of love in it. Music-wise it is pretty much our style, a mix of metal/hard rock/punk and grunge. Something you won’t be able to label easily. We hope you love it as much as we do and be sure, we’re always fighting to get out of our comfort zone and evolve. 

MPAP: What do you think are some of the stand-out songs on it so far that the crowds are really enjoying? Favorite song off it so far to play live for the crowd? 

MARIA: The crowd usually enjoys the fastest and heaviest songs - either the ones they can mosh to, or the ones they can headbang to, or if they can mosh to it and headbang to it, even better! Haha. 'Fear in Your Eyes', 'Take it or Leave it', 'Poison', 'Higher', 'Nasty Roar', 'Burning Bridges' and 'Indiscipline' all fall into those categories. The one I personally love most to play live…I can’t choose only one, so I’d have to say 'Fear in Your Eyes', 'Nasty Roar', 'Take it or Leave it' and 'Burning Bridges'. 

MPAP: Who did the cover for your Sanguinea release? 

MARIA: American-based artist Jas Helena. We had seen some of her work and thought it was impressive, so we decided to contact her for the album cover art, and it worked out. We already have someone working on the art of our second album and I can say you’ll ALL enjoy the artist. We love the mystery! Mwahahaha.

MPAP: Is there a message or meaning behind the picture you feel it portrays? 

MARIA: We like to feature female characters on our album covers. This time we asked Jas (the artist) to portray this character in her own way, through her own artistic freedom. We said we wanted something like a post-apocalypse warrior (like a continuation of what happened in In My Guts), but instead she came up with an idea similar to a Walpurgis night scenery, which was cool with us too. We felt it suited the album’s dark and feminine atmosphere. 

MPAP: How would you say you’ve grown as a band from the demo, In Your Guts, to Sanguinea

MARIA: We tried to absorb every constructive criticism we received and worked hard to perfect those “weak spots”. Also, we thought about what we’d done in In My Guts- lyric wise, music wise, everything, and tried not to do repeat ourselves, without letting go of who we are. We tried to stay away from our comfort zone and of course that wasn’t always pleasant, but it was exactly what we needed. Needless to say, it’s the same direction we’ll be taking in our next album. We never settle. 

MPAP: What were the inspirations to start the band, to start Indiscipline? Was it difficult at first? What were some of the struggles you had to overcome being new to the music scene in Brazil? Is there ever a competition between bands in Brazil? 

MARIA: Every beginning is tough, starting from scratch is not easy. But it’s also exciting, energies are renovated, ideas are new and flowing like crazy. The struggles were pretty normal (at least to a band hailing from a 3rd world country which doesn’t support rock n’ roll music as a culture) - building our audience (which we do until this day), finding gigs to play since no one knew us as a band, etc. I don’t think there’s a competition between bands here, no. On the contrary, I see many bands supporting each other.  

MPAP: Do you follow what bands are up to in The United States?  

MARIA: Sure, many! One of our favorite bands at the moment is California’s Night Demon. They are also a power trio which deliver great performances. I saw them live in Rio earlier this year and their energy is simply amazing! Since then, I’ve been following them closely and became a huge fan of their work. They released their second album this year and it’s awesome. I listen to it almost on a daily basis and hope they return to Rio in 2018. 

MPAP: terrorist’s attacking venues where people gather to listen to music; the Bataclan in Paris, and now recently the Manchester bombing in England, how do you feel about all this happening? Getting out and going to live a show to see your favorite band shouldn’t mean you gamble with your life. Many people would say that music at one point might have saved their lives.  

MARIA: We were shocked when we heard the news of what was happening at The Bataclan, we were playing a festival in Brazil and a French fan sent a message to our page telling us there were shootings happening inside a gig in Paris. It’s crazy, and so, so sad. Music is a very powerful thing, it shouldn’t be messed with. I really liked some people’s attitudes after the attacks, though-they refused to be afraid. They understood that to live in fear is not to live at all. 

MPAP: Have you ever felt unsafe playing a show before? 

MARIA: You know, one can never feel 100% safe in Rio de Janeiro. We’re always looking over our shoulders. There are many areas in the city which are considered especially dangerous, and we have played in those areas more than once. However, right now public safety is a concern anywhere here. We are going through a major financial crisis caused mainly by years of a terribly corrupt government. Unemployment has reached ridiculous rates. Armed robberies during traffic jams, exploding of ATM machines, shootings in favelas between the military police and the local drug traffic gangs (which usually have civil casualties), we have it all. Sadly. 

MPAP: On behalf of myself and Metal Pulp And Paper, thank you for talking with us Maria. Look forward to what the future holds for Indiscipline. Any last words you’d like to tell the readers and your fans out there? 

MARIA: Thank you for the opportunity! For anyone out there reading this, thanks for supporting us. It’s a cliché but you’re the reason we keep on fighting this daily battle. Stay tuned for more news and updates! Rock on! 

Band Members:

Alice - Vocals/Bass 
Maria Cals - Guitars/Vocals 
Ale De La Vega - Drums/Vocals

   
   
   
   
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