.::: KaRaSu KiLLer ReCoRdS :::.

Interview: Mukeka Di Rato
by Rafael Karasu (rafael@karasukiller.com)
03.15.07

MUKEKA DI RATO
Mukeka Di Rato is the most known Brazilian band in Japan nowadays, everyone’s talking about the Filhos da Puta do Brasil [Motherfuckers from Brazil] coming to the island! This year’s tour will cover the whole Japanese territory and show the importance of a Brazilian band playing on Japanese soil. This is a true tour from a Brazilian band in Japan! Mozine San will answer these questions!

When you arrive in Japan what do you think you’ll find? What’s the general idea you have about this country?
I think our perception is the same as the one from any Brazilian that watches the Discovery Channel (laughs), technology being created every milisecond. Crowded streets, a lot of crazy people walking up and down, karaoke machines everywhere, electronics falling off of trees, lights, sake and sushi!

Soon the new issue of DOLL MAGAZINE will be out, with a Mukeka Di Rato interview. How was that? Was it a wake-up call for the Japanese to get in the mood and understand the band?
The guys from Vivisick got us this interview I believe. I know about the importance of the magazine in Japan and I’m really happy with this feat, this tour was hard work, for the guys in Vivisick and for us here in Brazil. You have no idea (maybe you have) of the amount of effort we are making here to go to Japan, so all this gets us going and makes us very happy. The interview is very basic, and was answered in a very honest way, it sums up nicely what Mukeka Di Rato was and is during all these years in Brazil.

People here in Japan know the split with Vivisick and “Acabar com Você”, which was distributed by MCR Company. Tell me about the release of “Samba’s not dead” [a compilation released only in Japan].
We tried to sum up Mukeka Di Rato from “Pasqualin...” up to “Máquina de Fazer”, and we left out only the songs from the split with Hero Dishonest, and obviously the ones from the split with Vivisick, because it was released in Japan. We put less songs from “Acabar com Você” for the same reason. I think this CD covers all phases and sides of Mukeka, even though the shows in Japan will be much more “hardcore” than in Brazil, where we play the “rock’n’roll” Mukeka stuff, if you know what I mean.

Being Brazilians, what’s the impression you have about Japanese punks?
When you mention punk I’ll understand people who are connected to the hardcore scene in general. I know that there are many punks who like Mukeka Di Rato and I think this is cool, but Mukeka isn’t and never was a punk band, I think everybody knows that, including Japanese. To tell you the truth, I don’t know what punk is even in Brazil, imagine in Japan. But I hope only to find receptive and good-humored people, I think it will be very different than an European tour.

Knowing that this is a country that has many Brazilians, do you expect to see many of them at the shows?
There’s already a lot of people writing to us, and in any place different than your country it’s always nice to find a Brazilian or someone who speaks Portuguese. I hope to see Brazilians at the shows, but I believe they’re part of the hardcore scene where we’ll be playing, which I think is even better.

Pitty [a famous Brazilian singer that names her own band] is coming to Japan in May too, I saw a flyer saying “Pitty Japan tour 2007” informing two shows on the same day in Nagoya. What’s your opinion about Brazilian bands that come to Japan to perform only for the Brazilian community?
I think there’s a huge difference between Pitty and Mukeka, even though both bands are on the same label [Mukeka has just signed with Deckdisc and will release an album before the year is over]. I think she’s doing the right thing, each artist should try to succeed while feeling good, and having two gigs on the same day just proves that she’s successful with the Brazilian audience in Japan. I think this is meaningful. I would really like to meet them in Japan, if I’m still there I’ll definitely be at the show.

Do you plan on releasing a Mukeka DVD, just like Vivisick did when they went to Brazil?
Yes, we would really like to do a “Mukeka In Japan” or something like that, we’ll take many DVs and Vivisick and friends will film us too. We want very raw footage showing things there and how they’ll really happen, everything really natural and realistic.

Have you learned any words in Japanese? What do you know? Can we expect any new Mukeka song in Japanese?
Merda already has some songs in Japanese, Mukeka could write some too, but there’s nothing planned. I only know bad stuff in Japanese, the only things taught to me (or that I wanted to learn) were omanko, chinpo, kusotare, kuso and so on…

On the list of bands that will share the stage with Mukeka, one of them in my opinion is the most important, and the biggest influence for a whole generation of Japanese… how did you react when you heard that you’d be playing with GAUZE?
I have Gauze cassette tapes, so you must imagine how proud I am. I’m more excited about watching them then playing on this day.

Are you anxious to try sake? Tradition says you should make a toast, “Campai”, emptying the glass in one shot. It’s a sign of hospitality and attention!! What would you do if you got a 4-liter gallon?
You kinda know us, we don’t know how to appreciate cachaça moderately, here in Brazil I drink sake very often, it’s cheap, it gets you drunk. Campai or otherwise, it doesn’t matter, the goal is to get crazy! A gallon won’t be enough, we’re raging alcoholics!

Tell me about your enthusiasm for this tour in Japan.
There are many attitudes about Mukeka that I like a lot, that’s what makes me want to be in the band still, despite all adversity on the way and in life throughout all these years. For instance, who’s going to Japan isn’t necessarily Mukeka Di Rato, but Paulista, Brek, Sandro and Mozine to enjoy some vacation, fuck it if there’s no money, fuck it if it doesn’t work out, fuck everything, we are 120% sure we’ll have lots of fun during our stay, with anything, and thank God, that’s the way things have been working with Mukeka since day one.

Link for Mukeka Di Rato’s tour in Japan:
http://vivisick.shouten.jp/mdr.html