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Interview: Leonardo Panço (Jason)
by Ricardo Tibiu (tibiu@karasukiller.com | www.chiveta.wordpress.com)
Photos: Carlos Fernando Castro
originally published in DOLL (Japan) #250
2008/05

Terrifying hardcore
After eleven years active, shows all over Brazil and three European tours the cariocas from Jason have just released their fourth CD. Recorded between 2006 and 2007, “Regressão” [Regression] was released last year through a partnership between Brazilian labels Tamborete Entertainment (www.myspace.com/tamborete) and Ant-Discos (www.myspace.com/antdiscosoficial) and German label Horror Business Records (www.horrorbiz.de). Jason’s music is in between hardcore and metal, with raw riffs, vocal inflections and even some experimenting. We talked to guitar player Leonardo Panço, who also maintains Tamborete Entertainment, to show the Japanese readers this band, homonymous to the character in Friday the 13th - it’s hardcore terrifying!

Define Jason’s sound quickly and precisely so Japanese readers can know what you’re about.
It’s difficult to be precise, but I would say we’ve already been a hardcore band and today hardcore is only one of the elements, but it’s always around, in rock and metal, always trying to run away from obvious lyrics about politicians, the system, all this stuff that’s so artistically poor.

What are the band’s main influences?
Freedom, Kerouac, Bukowski, Dogma 95, cool melodies, roars that make you faint, guitars that try to be like Dimebag but fail, Marshall, distortion, Brazilian punks from the eighties, mean metalheads in general.

You guys sing in Portuguese, tell the Japanese readers what your lyrics are about.
Death, anguish, suicide, pretensions, irony, deceit, arrogance.

Jason has toured Europe twice already, right? When did you guys do it, and do you have any idea how many shows you’ve done, and how many countries you’ve played in?
Wrong. We’ve toured Europe three times. Let’s see if memory serves me: in 2001 we played 62 shows in 12 countries. In 2003 we played 26 shows in four countries, and in 2006, 38 shows in four countries again, I'm guessing fourteen countries total.

Which do you consider the most important shows you’ve played so far?
That’s hard. The most important ones are those in which every aspect is complete, and that is very hard. Good sound, a light vibe among us, an excited audience. On most occasions one of the three doesn’t work well, being that the first two are the most important. There are many shows that in the most obvious definition have been important, like the show with Planet Hemp in Salvador for 5000 people, all the shows in Paraíba, Maceió and Natal. Almost every show in the Northeastern cities, the shows there are rarely bad. We’re in a good phase lately, with no pretensions whatsoever, everything really light, each of us with a cold beer, Gibson SG as loud as can be.

As a label owner, how do you see the music industry nowadays? Do you see much difference from shall we say, the European music industry?
In Europe things are much easier because the economy helps, almost everybody can afford a record after the rock shows. Here in Brazil, not always the person has money to catch a bus and go to the show, so things are a little more complicated. I unfortunately haven’t released much. It was only two records in 2007 and there’s only one planned for 2008, and I hope a book I wrote also comes out. Nothing else.

You put “Odeia Eu” (1998), “Eu Sou Quase Fãs de Mim Mesmo” (2000) and “Eu, Tu, Denis” (2002), Jason’s three other records, at TramaVirtual to be downloaded for free. Do you think the internet is an ally or an enemy for independent bands?
We put the three records there because of the promise we would receive money for that. I would like to sell the CDs I still have at home, of course. But when those are over, there’s no other reason for them to be re-released, since everybody is downloading them. I think the internet is an ally. Everybody in Jason downloads music, so we can’t complain if people download ours. I want to sell CDs because I spent much money, but...

According to the liner notes in “Regressão”, in this record Jason was Leonardo Panço (guitars), David David (bass), Marcelo de Souza (drums), FF (lyrics) and Vital (vocals). The line-up is constantly changing, why does this happen?
Actually, our line-up hasn’t changed that much. What happens is that in virtually every tour someone couldn’t go and that person had to be replaced, which is something very bad. But officially, on the albums, there wasn’t so much people. We said Jason “was” that in the record because we can never know what’s going to happen in the future.

Do you guys have any side projects?
David plays in Os Abreus and in 20 other bands that call him all the time. Marcelo has even been in five bands at the same time, but right now he’s only in Jason. I only play in Jason too. I play shows with Iguanas as a second guitarist, but I'm not a member of the band and in Halé [editor’s note: whose record “Lixo Extraordinário” was released in Japan through Karasu Killer Records] I substitute Herbert when he has to work, but I’m also not a member of the band.

In your opinion, who are the highlights in Brazil’s new wave of punk/hardcore?
I’m not really familiar with the new wave bands, I’m already an “uncle”, you know? Who doesn’t have the patience to go in every show anymore. In Rio de Janeiro there’s Ataque Periférico, Confronto, Disgrama, but I think they’re not that new.

Jason has been around for 11 years, but before that you were already involved with the Brazilian underground scene, right? What are the main differences from when you started out?
My first band goes back to ‘88, but I count from ’91, ‘92 on. A lot has changed, huh? But we’re still light-years behind other countries. Brazil is a new country, we still have to evolve. All the bands having their own equipment, being treated correctly at the shows, being fed, like it’s happening in Minor House in Porto Alegre, and it seems that in Espaço Impróprio in São Paulo too, just like it is in the international squats, free beer. The equipment is not ideal, but when I started out, if the guy had a Fender, the whole neighborhood was talking, it was an event. Nowadays I have a Gibson, I started with a Jennifer. Cool name, but it’s a crappy piece of wood. The internet is an evolution, but there’s still a long way to go.

In 2005 Tamborete released the book “Jason - 2001, Uma Odisséia Na Europa” about the band’s first tour in Europe. Where did the idea of releasing it come? Do you intend to release/write other books?
The book was written during the eighty days we spent touring in 2001, as things took place. It was only released in 2005 due to those old underground issues, regardless of me having scanned everything myself, asked my friends for artwork, layout, reviewing. It was very expensive and I paid for all of it, so it took some time to come up with the money. I always wanted to release a book, maybe it was an ego thing, I learned how to read at home with an aunt when I was three, so everybody tells me about how I used to take books with me everywhere, to parties and stuff, so that’s probably where it came from. I wanted it to be something like Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road” and Henry Rollins’ “Get In The Van – On The Road With Black Flag”. Spending eighty days traveling through thirteen countries (we haven’t played in Sweden, but we’ve been there) was obviously material for a book, we would have the unexpected, the surprises, everything was new all the time. I have three more books already written but I have no idea when they’ll come out because it costs thousands to make a release, but I think they’ll see the light of day eventually.

Besides Godzilla, what do you know about Japan? Any band?
Almost nothing. The obvious that an ignorant westerner knows. I really liked Spectroman, Dr. Gore. There’s The 5.6.7.8’s, a very good girl band. That band that came to Brasil with Autoramas, called Guitar Wolf - I think it’s boring, terrible. I heard the stories from Mukeka di Rato, Detonautas, Pitty, so I would really like to go to Japan, but I don’t know, not only it’s way too expensive, but I’m also growing more and more afraid of planes. Everytime I’m on a plane I feel more scared than the previous time, so being inside a plane flying for 24 hours... I don’t know.

What does the band have planned next?
We recorded two videos three weeks ago and we’ll record one more on the 28th at a sold out concert with Detonautas. It’s going to be sold out because of them, of course. Right now, getting these three videos done is already a hard thing to do. We’d like to make a documentary will everything we have, at least 11 years on the road, which apparently will be released when we’ve already been around for 15. This year I think we’ll only play some shows around here, since we’re working, studying, it gets hard to travel. We have five shows scheduled in Rio De Janeiro and we’ve never played that much around here. There were even times when we didn’t play a single show in the capital in a year, almost two years. So having five shows here in great venues (Lona de Realengo, Cine Lapa, Áudio Rebel e Elam) is something rare. Don’t miss out!

Leave a message to the Japanese readers!
I got these eyedrops from an Australian friend who came from Tokyo, and it’s like putting Red Bull on your cornea to stay awake. Very cool. Invent some more stuff like that and send me an old laptop which would be thrown away. Arigatō.

Contacts:
www.myspace.com/jasonbrasil
www.fotolog.com/jas0n
www.myspace.com/tamborete