Interview: Nerds Attack!
by Rafael Karasu (rafael@karasukiller.com)
Photos: Mauricio Santana
originally published in DOLL (Japan) #251
2008/06

1- Hello Nerds Attack, how are you?
We're fine here, thanks for asking. Working hard, day after day, running a race against time, pollution, unfinished business, college... Oh, this is São Paulo. We're already used to breathing this delicious routine that tastes like pollution and stress, this is really “live fast, die young”!

2- Who is Nerds Attack! nowadays? Tell us about the band's history, how and when did you get started? What drove you to start a band?
In the beginning we were just a fun project for three goofy friends, with straight and simple bases, played in the speed of light, oh yeah! Nerds began with Fabiano (guitars), Barreto (bass) and Xopô (drums); after a short while we turned into a foursome with the arrival of our dear chubby bear Foca (vocals). This is Nerds Attack! first and current line-up; our biggest motivation is being able to show people that our friendship was the main key that has given us the opportunity to be together doing something that has always been very important for all of us, that makes us live each day as if it was our last: questioning things, playing, disputing things, screaming, talking about what we think is right and wrong, positive and negative.

3- What are the band's major influences?
We're pretty ecletic, and despite the differences and the individual preferences each one of us has, the band as a whole listens to everything from folk to psytrance, from Funk Carioca (also known as Baile Funk) to thrash metal, from surf music to rap, but what really makes us feel the blood running through our veins is punk/hardcore and all its subgenres. When starting Nerds Attack! we were largely influenced by fast/thrashcore bands like Scholastic Deth, Razors Edge, Jellyroll Rockheads, L'amicco di Martucci, The Tangled Lines, Discarga, Chuck Norris, Idol Punch, Secret Seven, Triste Fim de Rosilene and of course, Limp Wrist. The latter, not only is one of our favorite hardcore bands musically, but also a strong influence regarding our main theme, because they explore the struggle against homophobia, transphobia and sexism among many other conservative prejudices that are seen by religion as sins, and are perpetuated by the State with its interventions, by the media and their vehicles, by the capitalist marketing which develops associations and in many other ways, which consequently aggregates values, disrespects the diversity and create labels, while not even us have the capacity of defining (or not) our own sexuality.

4- What does punk/hardcore mean in your lives? Do you consider yourselves a punk/hardcore band both musically and in your posture?
Maybe this answer won't be satisfactory enough, but the meaning of punk/hardcore in our lives may be described with one word only: Very! Punk/hardcore made us be these rebelious children who contest everything they hear or read, our parents and the society don't like it, but we love being this way and we use this posture in our band.

5- Does everyone in the band have a job? How do you manage working and playing?
Everyone works, or at least pretends they do. Foca makes money in the form of gold bars, working with support for safety-related software, Fabiano works all day long in a printing office which is located downtown (he quit that job befoure our Northeastern tour and later he was given his job there back! Go figure...), Barreto spends his whole day creating polls in Brazilian communities and works in accounting, and i work with ATMs and shopping services, I answer calls from the whole country, get screamed at on the phone, drink a lot of green tea and read some books. We actually can manage working, playing and rehearsing, but apart from these activities we have very little time to see each other. But it's like the people from Brasília say: “If rock is getting in the way of your studies or work, stop studying and stop working!”. What's really good is living what's the most intense and real. You can find work anytime you want, but there's only one rock 'n' roll!

6- Brazil is a very big country, the band has been to many states and cities, tell me, what's the audience's reaction in each place? Is there a difference?
So far we have played in six cities in the Northeast, two in the Midwest, and three Southeastern cities besides São Paulo (if memory serves me, and my math too, that's it) and it's very curious to see that each place has its own characteristics, they have different audiences, and in each place we've been to we receive different caring and attention. Actually, for the four of us it's very pleasant being able to travel, to play in different cities and states, meet old friends, know new places and new people. We really want to know the South of Brazil, which along with the North are the regions of this huge country that we still don't know.

7-Your songs are sung in Portuguese, can you explain the content of Nerds Attack!'s lyrics? How is the writing process?
Nerds Attack! talks about diverse themes in the lyrics, but we really focus our songs in issues related to homophobia and social prejudice, hetero and homosexual regulations, religious imposition inside and outside hardcore, among other themes. The diversity in our themes is very wide, we have songs going from the evil we submit ourselves to, from the moment we repress our feelings all the way to animal exploitation, which generates cultural attractions like rodeos and bullfights, things that are justified only culturally, never ethically.

8-Do all the band members adopt the Straight Edge lifestyle? How is that scene in Brazil?
Nerds Attack! is not a straight edge band, even though some members adopt a drug free lifestyle. In Brazil, the straight edge scene had quite a boost in recent years; many people have shown a growing interest in learning more about the beginning and the history of the movement. With the increase in number of people following this ideology in Brazil, the number of bands, zines and collectives created and maintained by straight edge kids has grown (and keeps on growing). Since everything that grows consequently ends up having offshoots, nowadays people have their distinct concepts of what straight edge is, and what the abstention from drugs represents to each individual. For us, straight edge is, since its inception, an ideology created from punk, belonging to punk, with challenging characteristics, adopting a drug-free lifestyle, pride-free, and libertarian. This is Nerds Attack!'s stance, we don't force anyone to think like we do, each person will interpret the beliefs as he or she sees fit, even if some concepts get a little distorted, dogmatized or meaningless, and sometimes even opposing the basic ideas, we are not the ones to have our fingers in other people's faces saying who's right and who's wrong, nobody owns the truth. Like Betercore (a Dutch straight edge band) used to say: “We know that it is wrong to drink, but we also know that it is right to drink”; each person will do whatever he or she wants with his or her life, that does not depend on their stance. Being straight edge is not synonymous with being a good and correct person, after all, there are motherfuckers everywhere and that's never going to change.

9- For a few years now, we've been seeing a new wave of punk/hardcore bands in Brazil. How do you see this renewal? Which bands do you like?
Well, the renewal is a good thing, because it means there are still people involved with punk/hardcore and that they want to demonstrate and pass on information through the band. I think the highlights of the new wave are Nossa Vingança (with whom we will be releasing a split CD soon, through Karasu Killer, right Rafael!?), Discarga, Demonkrätzie, D.E.R., Justiça, Shit With Corn Flakes… and many other we really love, it's even unfair to name only these!

10- Soon the split CD Nerds Attack!/Nossa Vingança will be released in Japan, how is the response to this release in Brazil? What do you expect from the distribution here in Japan, through Karasu Killer Records?
Dude, for us it is a great victory having the support of Karasu Killer promoting this material in Japan. Sometimes I stop and think “Fuck man, Japan! Where the hell have we ended up?!!”. I never thought we could one day have enough coordination to learn hot to play fast, let alone see that one day our songs would be promoted in a recording released “on the other side of the world”, and next to a punk/hardcore scene that we love so much!

11-More and more people talk about corruption, violence and unemployment in Brazil. What do you see in the future for the country?
We think that these three items that you mentioned, corruption, violence and unemployment, will always be a part of underdeveloped and developed countries, the latter with a lower unemployment rate, being that corruption and violence are present in both, starting from the inhumane behavior of the human being with the capital, it's a dog eat dog world, those who have more want to have even more, those who don't will want some too, and the room for those who have nothing is small and paved on a hard path.

12-Tell us, what are the positive and negative aspects of living in São Paulo?
The positive aspects are being able to eat well at any time of day, cultural and leisure options, many hospitals spread over the metropolis, and you can find and buy any object, book, record, clothing item or any other trinket in this town, it's impressive… I don't really know if these consumerism options are a good thing too! On the other hand, the negative aspects overcome the good ones, and they're exactly the ones that are most important for us as human beings, chaotic and limited means of transportation, be it the buses or the subway, poor quality of life if you compare it to the cities in the country, violence, corruption in politics, rampant growth, inadequate education, blatant social discrimination…

13- The Brazilian culture is completely different from the Japanese one. What do you know about Japan? What do you admire in this country?
We actually know some stuff, we know that in Japan there are few police officers on the streets, there's no ground floor and all buildings start from the first floor, they have the shortest national anthem in the world, taxi drivers don't accept tips, there are no cemeteries because it's a physically small country, in some areas dolphin hunting is legal (that's really shocking, since for Brazilians in general this animal is a “magical” creature). Also, because we're nerds, we admire the high-end technology you have, we're thousands of light years behind you guys, now that there's a project about a high speed-rail here, and the amazing food with shiitake, shimeji, seaweed, soy, tofu, yakisoba…

14- What Japanese bands do you know? What impresses you the most about them?
Dude, we know quite some stuff about Japan and, honestly, Japanese fastcore bands are our major influences. We really like bands lke Gauze, Lipcream, Exclaim, Youth Enrage, Razors Edge, Jellyroll Rockheads, Flash Gordon, Breakfast, Nice View, 324, Idol Punch, Rose Rose, 1000 Travels of Jawaharlal, Tomorrow, Battle of Disarm, Vivisick, Melt Banana, Yellow Machinegun… among many others, I could go on for hours! I think the unification of fast and happy songs has a lot to do with us, we love fast music, we're extremely goofy. We bring together the chaotic reality of the everyday living in a large city and the energy and excitement of fast non-stop drumming, and a little bit of coffee, and we hit it! We have a new day ahead of us.

15-Leave a message from Nerds Attack! to Japanese readers.
We would like to thank you, Rafael from Karasu Killer, Mozine from Läjä Rekords, Shamil from Balboa Discos, Juberto from Rock Mutante Discos, Felipe from Kafaca Discos, because without them, this CD would never be released. And also to all the people that follow us in our shows and who somehow are members of this band, be it because of the friendship or the strength they've given us during these two years of Nerds Attack!. If you want to know the band, you can reach us at: www.myspace.com/nerdsattackfast / www.purevolume.com/nerdsattack / www.fotolog.net/nerdsattack or at nerdsattack@hotmail.com