Bronze is not for the weak. Ok, she indeed wants you to call her by her last name, which gives a nice bling to who she is. But her intensity on anything she does, likes or hates, tends to be overwhelming. It’s pretty cool to see the sparkle in her eyes when she talks about her passions – she is proud of her happiness, and wants you to do the same. This Casperian is the ultimate music lover: goes to many gigs, comes back exhausted and voiceless – as if it was her first time, won’t stop talking about the show for nothing during the week, and not to mention that her uniform basically consists of band t-shirts (since one can’t just own too many band t-shirts). Now on her path to being a successful music journalist, she talks about her major inspirations, and how the first chords of a few Pink Floyd songs changed her life.
Age: 20 years-old
Hometown: São Paulo (SP)
Major: Journalism
Year: 2018
Zodiac Sign: Virgo
You’re an avid concert-goer. When and how music became this important to you? Do you remember the song or the band that arose this interest in you?
I’ve always listened to music. My mother likes alternative music, so I when I was a child, I got to listen a lot to Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Jorge Ben Jor, except for all of those silly things I listened to in school. But when I was 12 or 13, I decided I wanted to take music seriously, so I downloaded some Beatles songs, stole a Pink Floyd CD from my father and listened to these classic bands. My fourteens were very important to who I became, since I decided to culture myself up, watching [Quentin] Tarantino and [Stanley] Kubrick’s flicks. I owe everything to Chuck Palahniuk, though. Fight Club [Palahniuk’s book] and The Wall [Pink Floyd’s album] expanded my mind, and somehow, became the triggers to my depression, four years later.
Since The Wall was the album of my life in 2012, I went crazy when I found out that Roger Waters was coming to tour in Brazil. I went to that show, and it was beautiful. It was the first concert that really got to make me emotional. In that same year, I saw Scorpions. I consider live concerts my outlet. They’re part of my life. They free me for a while, and take me out of reality and let me just enjoy the moment, which is something my mind rarely lets me to do. I don’t think there’s anything more beautiful than 90.000 voices singing together. Everyone with their life stories, paths, passions and hates, just leaving it all behind to enjoy the music. Live concerts are my religion! They are my sacred moment; it is personal, but not exclusive.
When was your first show?
My first live gig was Capital Inicial in Águas de Lindoia. My family and I were there travelling and the show was free. I dragged my mom through the crowd and we ended up in the grid! [Laughs]
Which shows were the dreamiest?
It’s quite a long list! Black Sabbath, because it is a band I like a lot, but I can’t really explain why. Paul McCartney’s was a divine experience: it rained a lot in that day, but it suddenly stopped and he did the show normally. However, it started to rain again in “Hey Jude”… the raindrops falling, the whole stadium singing the “nanana” – nothing has ever been so beautiful. Roger Waters I have already told you, but then there is David Gilmour. It was really hot, but seeing “Wish You Were Here” was incredible. “Comfortably Numb” moved me the same way it did when I listened to it when I was younger.
Now, we finally got to Imagine Dragons. [Laughs] My relationship with this band began in 2013. I’ve always loved dragons, and my friends knew it, so they came up to me and said: “You should listen to this band. It has ‘Dragons’ on its name, you’re gonna like it.”. And it was before they announced they were coming to Lollapalooza, in 2014. I watched maaany videos of their gigs – even though I hate doing it -, and by then, I was already interacting with their bass player, Ben McKee, online. And that’s why when they came onstage, he smiled at me and even agreed with his head to make me sure he was smiling for me! When it ended, he tried to throw at me at least five guitar picks, but I just couldn’t hold any. So ok, I thought: “Damn it, he’s never gonna throw it at me.” Then, he looked at me to make sure if I’ve picked up any, and I declined, so he calls a security guy, gives him the pick, and starts to point madly at me. It was then that I won my first pick!
So I guess their gig was the dreamiest…
Imagine Dragons is the band that I’ve most seen live, five times. Ben even tagged me in an Instagram picture of their concert in São Paulo in 2015 – it said “A lot of friendly faces out there in São Paulo. Especially the ones with my name on their shirt”. I even saw them in Amsterdam, and he sang to me, stood the whole concert in front of me….
You’ve also recently photographed the concerts of some nice bands.
Yeah! They were so amazing that I’m still speechless. The first one was Dingo Bells, in Sesc Consolação, and Foals, in Cine Joia. The first one almost didn’t happen, since we had to photograph from far behind in the theater, and my camera lenses weren’t any good for it. Thank god I had my friend, Bruna, to borrow me hers! And after that show, I went to talk to the boys in the band, and they were really cute – even calling me by my first name at the end of our interview! And Foals was even cooler, because I got to shoot from the stage pit! I mean, it was my first international gig as a photographer, and I got to shoot from the pit! And that show was amazing – their vocalist, Yannis Philippakis, threw some water at the public and even fell a little over me! Not all of my pictures were good, though.
How did you decide you wanted to be a journalist?
Alright… I was between Cinema, Journalism and Languages. Then, it was in the middle of our July holidays, when I was reading The ocean at the end of the lane, from Neil Gaiman. In the book’s blurb, it said that he is a journalist! Boom – I decided then that I was going to be a journalist. And it’s a profession that allows me to write about many things I enjoy, while I still write. It gives me freedom to write about my passions and learn more about them.
How’s your experience as a journalist been going?
I got to be a TV reporter for the first time recently, for Cásper’s Edição Extra. I loved it, and I’m pretty sure it’s one of the things I still want to explore in my career. I also wrote a gigantic piece for Esquinas about independent artists, and it gives me chills to think that’ll be my first text to be published. My internship is a lot different from those things, since I work as a press agent, but it’s been nice to learn with it, since I still haven’t learnt about it yet.
If you had to choose three famous people to interview, who would they be and why?
No doubt, Jim Morrison. I’d love to spend a whole afternoon listening to him talk about the world, life and his perceptions. It’s a dream to make a profile of his – maybe in another life? [Laughs] Also, Freddie Mercury. It’s hard not to put him in a godly position. [Laughs] And third… Can I just write about Pink Floyd’s creative process?
You can do anything.
Ok, so I’d do an essay about that. It would be a dream if it was possible to do so. [Laughs]
What are your biggest inspirations in Journalism?
Flesch [a musical journalist, quite famous on Twitter: @jnflesch]! Gay Talese, Neil Strauss, Walter Robinson… I’m also going to say Evaristo Costa because I love him! [Laughs] Nana Queiroz, and what she did for Presos que menstruam [Prisoners who menstruate, a report on women that are imprisoned in Brazil], which is something I still need to do in my life. And also those Washington Post guys who exposed the Watergate Case… I saw the movie while still in school and I was shocked. All the president’s men makes me romanticize journalism and change the world through it. Who knows? [Laughs]