Interview: Cü Sujo
by Rafael Karasu (rafael@karasukiller.com)
Photos: Tais B -Juba
originally published in DOLL (Japan) #256
2008/11
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We introduce to you Cü Sujo, a “rock” band from Lajeado, Rio Grande do Sul, in the southern Brazil. We chat with the singer Guilherme and the guitar player Zeh, that tells us a little bit of the 7 years of the band's history. Check it out!
1-Hello CÜ SUJO, how are you?
Guilherme - We are all fine. Better now, being part of this issue of the Doll Magazine. Thanks Rafa for the invitation.
2- What's the meaning of CÜ SUJO?
Zeh - The band starts to play and had the first gig booked, but we didn't have a name, so I suggested “Cu Sujo” (in English “Dirty Ass”) - that was the name of a cat that a have when I lived in another city - and the name stayed. The idea was really to cause a strong impression of repulse or any other thing in this sense.
Guilherme - I remember that in those days the name chocked to the point that we were not aloud to put gig posters in the streets… but in time people got used to it.
3- Tell us about the band's history, when and how it began?
Zeh - What motivated was the fact that we liked music, knew how to play and had some ideas in common. In the beginning, that was December of the year 2000 or January of the 2001, don't remember exactly, we played only covers; we just want to play songs from the bands we liked. When we started to make our own songs the band stopped and I don't even remember the reason. It was just a few months of activity.
Guilherme - I wasn't a member of the first formation, I was living in another city of the same region and knew the people who made gigs and “rolês”. In 2002 I moved to Lajeado and there I always used to find Fino (drummer in those days) wasted in the streets and he invited me to do some music: “we need to do some sounds… call Zeh to play… Cü Sujo is the name, it has to happen!!!”. So Zeh called Seco to play the bass and the band was formed again, but this time the objective were to produce our own material, expose our feelings and relate our everyday.
We had several moments of stoppage and change of formation, but we are still active nowadays with Guilherme - vocals, Zeh - guitar and vocals, Seco - bass, and Horn - drums.
4- Does everybody in the band have a job, or do you live off your music?
Guilherme - No-one live or pretend to live of music with the band. For us Cü Sujo is a form of art in witch we express our feelings. If we want to live of music we'll have to change the name and the kind of music that we play.
Well, we all work: I am a publicity and journalist; Zeh is a history teacher and a researcher; Seco is an industrial chemist; Horn work with graphic services.
We all study too.
5- What do the band members listen to nowadays?
Guilherme - I listen to all kind of music, it depends on my mood… I've being listen to lots of bossa nova, samba, reggae and crust; Seco likes metal and 70's hardrock bands; Horn prefers thrash punk and crossover; Zeh has listened to some indie and post-rock bands. Is this crazy mix that makes our sound happen.
6- What's the meaning of punk/hardcore in your lives? Do you consider yourselves a punk/hardcore band both musically and in your posture?
Guilherme - We don't consider ourselves a punk/hardcore band, but we identified with some ideas like the “do it yourself” posture and also with the sonority. Belonging to a determinate group or following a certain ideology can limit you in many senses. We don't want limitations, we want freedom of ideas and sonority to express ourselves in anyway we feel like. The punk/hardcore meant a lot in our lives, with it we learnt to see the world in a different way. It was inside of the punk/hardcore that we get to know the best and the worst people of our lives, where we made great friendships.
If we don't have lived the punk/hc we certainly wouldn't be here today giving this interview.
7- Tell us about Cü Sujo' releases and what we can expect from “Abstract” split with Agathocles, the new record which will be released in Japan .
Guilherme - Our first release came out in 2003. It was a split tape with Abravanel, called “Split maldito” - this demo brought the opportunity to participate in some collections and it was released again two years later in a CD format with some bonus. In 2005 came out the EP “Tudo menos partir a Bebe”. We stay a couple of years without record anything, so in 2007 a friend of us from Argentina putted together a discography in CD called “Discografia Completa 2003-2007”, but the release came out just in that country. In the current year it already came out a v/a tape called “8 Ways… The Same Destination” with bands from many regions of Brazil, where we participate with three songs, with distribution also in Argentina and United States. Recently we release an EP in floppy disks, and another split with Hit Me Back (EUA) that was released here in Brazil, in Argentina and in Portugal. Our next record is a split with the masters of racket: Agathocles. The CD is almost being released and will be distribute also in Japan, so all of you will be able to get in touch with our music! In 2009 we want to release our first full-length.
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8- Once a Japanese friend went to Rio Grande do Sul and told me that he did not see any person of Hardcore Punk there. Cu Sujo is a first band that I interviewed here, comment on the scene there.
Zeh - Many times I've try to think about what “scene” means, I guess that people refers to the scene in a very generalized way, scene/scenery. I could define the “scene” here as: a theater with many actors, but with diferent texts. In a way, I consider this a very good thing, but in another ends up weakening the capacity for organize events and everything else…
Guilherme - The scene here in our state have been loosing strength recently with the years, because it's breaking apart every time more, many divisions of groups and ideas.
Parallel to this, neo-Nazi and nationalist groups have been growing and causing aggressive and unpleasant situations to the population, specialy to black, gay, jewish and northeastern people and punks. I don't know why all of these, but I believe that the fact that our region shelter many European immigrant that run from the Second World War, in the middle of the last century contribute to this.
For these reasons and others is very hard to find individuals of the scene walking around alone in the streets... they prefer to stay in squatts and friends houses to preserve their lifes. When you see them in the streets is generally in groups and going somewhere.
9- How do you see the current Brazilian scene? Which bands that are a part of this scene do you listen to nowadays?
Guilherme - The Brazilian scene have always been very strong in São Paulo, here in the south we had better days. It seems that in the North-east the scene it's very good and in some states of the Center-west and north too. We keep in touch with people of several states via postcard and internet, this way we can know what's happening across country.
Even though the Brazilian scene has lots of good bands, we do not have the habit of listening to them.
10- Your songs are sung in Portuguese. Can you explain the content of Cü Sujo' lyrics? How's the writing process?
Guilherme - Our way to compose does not follow any rule in specific, but usually one of us comes with the bases and we all built the song from that.
Most of the lyrics are mine or Zehs and they reflect our everyday. I don't propose any kind of revolution or changes in the world, I leave this for others.
Zeh - We mix the ideas and see what happens next. When I make a lyric I think in the subjectivity that it might contains, not to be interpret only in one way…
11-More and more we hear about corruption, violence and unemployment in Brazil, what do you see in the country's future? I think that in the southern Brazil there's no difference!
Zeh - No, there's no difference. The future that I see for the country, and it is what's happening until now with the government of president Lula, is that he (Brazil) is allying always more and better to the world capitalist agenda, with all the pros and cons that such project has to offer and that may produce in a country like ours. The question is discuss if this is a valid project. I do not consider it, and I'm in favour of the destruction of all symbolic goods created by it.
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12- What do you know about Japan? What do you admire in this country?
Zeh - I don't know much about it, some tourist points. I admire the school uniform and the food. Besides the economic success…
Guilherme - ... wild and colored hairs, "Jaspion", "Cavaleiros dos Zodíaco", Nintendo, great hardcore bands, martial arts, samurais training in the midle of bamboos, food base don raw fish and rice, compact dwellings, new technologies, trains fasts as bullets, killing of wild sea animals… Here in south Brazil existed a TV channel that broadcast documentaries about Japan and I loved to watch. I remember that once one of these programs shown this southern island from Japan where the streets are made of sand and the house's fences were hedges... I found it sound beautiful, gave me wills of living there. I heard that the people are very polite in Japan.
13- Which Japanese bands do you know? What impresses you the most in Japanese bands?
Guilherme - S.O.B., Disclose, Fuck On The Beach, The Jaguars, Romantic Gorilla, Toe, Vivisick, Carcass Grinder, The Youngers, Battle Of Disarm, Guitar Wolf, Unholy Grave, Flash Gordon, Bug Sneakers, N.E.K., Automatics, Vertical, Beyond Description, ... these are the first that came in my mind.
The quality and the way that some punk bands from there manage to work with the political posture and others in a more outspoken way impress me.
Looking from here appears that exist a mutual respect between all kinds of bands… I can be wrong.
14-Leave a message from Cü Sujo to the Japanese readers.
Zeh - Health and good look! We want to play there and get to know Japan better.
Guilherme - I thank all of you for the attention and in special to Rafael, for the opportunity of the interview. For those who wants to know more about our work I ask for you to get in touch with us. Health and peace for all!