ODYMETAL: Interview KAMALA

Interview of KAMALA

by MONKEYMETAL aka Troll / ODYMETAL,

04th February 2024

Answers by Raphael Olmos (vocals, guitars)

All photos (1 to 11) sent by Raphael Olmos

Credit photos 5 to 10 : Corentin Charbonnier

I call on your memories, during your youth you discovered music when, how and with which artists or songs ?

I remember very very well…the “turning point” was when I had 13/14 years old, and I bought the VHS “…A Year and a Half” part 1 and 2 by Metallica. When I saw the first tape that was the recording of the iconic “Black Album” and the second tape was about the touring…just after that was very clear to me that was what I want to make as work, passion and life style.

How did you come to learn to play guitar and sing ?

My brother that is 4 years older than me, played bass at that time, and he asked me if I wanted to play guitar to play with him…first I don’t liked at all the idea, but my parents give to me my first guitar when I was 12 years old, and after don’t play for almost a year, I’ve stated to really try to learn by myself, but we know that without a teacher it’s difficult and could take more time, so when I was 15 years old, I knew that the classes was sooooo urgency if I wanted to make my dream come true. So I made guitar classes for 2 and half years, and studied a lot, with focus…after that, before I turn 18 years old, I’ve started to teach guitar and I’m still teaching, cause is something that I really love to do.

But to be a singer, was never in my mind…but after have some problems with vocalists, i try to make vocal lessons to fix this problem.

Knowing that you are a guitar teacher, what advice would you give to someone who wants to learn to play the guitar ?

For sure my advice is search a teacher to help on the process, not just someone to teach the instrument, but a teacher that understood your musical taste, your difficulty and facilities, to make the learning process full of joy and also with focus based with your time to study between each classes.

Do you know of any methods or sites on the internet that could be a good alternative for those who cannot necessarily take lessons due to lack of time, transport or means ?

Today we have a lot of cool material on YouTube, apps and website, helps a lot for sure! But at the same time that have all these material for free or for good cost, have a lot of material with mistakes, and every person have their facilities and difficulties as I said above…so it’s very important to find a “mentor” to help with the learning process.

Tell us how you came to work with the M & O Music label ?

First of all we don’t wanted to sign a label without know that they really wanted to work side by side with us. My point is, we have some goals in mind for every new record. And a really close French friend of us, introduced us to M & O Music and the project fit for what we was searching to us. We’ve signed with them for a little more than s year, and until now all the work with M & O Music and Office is running really good!

Tell us a little about all of your tattoos, the choice of their location, the meaning of the designs or their history ?

I have many many tattoos…here it go:

1º the cross on my back: it’s the Black Sabbath cross, but instead to have my name into the cross, as Sabbath members, I’ve chooses to have “Carpe Diem” inside.

2º angel on my back: it’s a angel with blood on his clothes and wings, and we can have 2 meanings…that the angel is hurt, but still flying and also that the angel is not so good as the people expect to be.

3º scorpion on my arm: it’s my zodiac sign

4º the Phoenix on my leg: it’s totally connected with Kamala, with every change or challenge, me and the band “born again” stronger!

5º Buddha on my arm: I’m not Buddhist, but I read a lot about it and fell a connection with many points in my life, so this tattoo is about this connection.

6º 7 chakras on my arm: it’s also about this “zen connection”. I’ve read a lot about the chakras when I was writing the “the seven deadly chakras” album.

7º the Ganesh on my right hand: Ganesh meaning is that he guides worshipers in their protection, good luck, protection and help to have the triumph over adversity and obstacles.

8º the Shiva on my arm: another Hinduism goddess with powerful meaning.

9º the evolution on my arm: is that classic drawing of the evolution to monkey to man, but instead mean, my tattoo is the evolution for a guitarist.

10° riff on my fingers: I’ve wrote RIFF, on each finger of my left hand, cause is there that I make the riffs. Is almost like James Hetfield tattoo, but his tattoo is on his right fingers.

11º 1984 on my fingers: is the year that I was born.

12º downpicking on my thumb: It’s in my right thumb, cause is where I hold the picking and shows my love for make “downpickings”.

13º the colors on my leg: I’ve near from my ankle the colors red and black, and between the two colors, my natural skin representing the white color, cause this tattoo is because of the love of my Brazilian football team that I support since kid, São Paulo FC, that the colors are red, white and black.

14º the Indian inside my arm: I’ve lost a close friend some years ago, called Leo Alves, we was close friends and also he produced my official videos of Kamala, made by his company “Kaiowas”, so this Brazilian Indian, was the symbol from his company.

15º the streak fish inside my arm: also another tattoo made to a close friend that passed away, called Edu Macatti, and he liked to make beer, and this streak fish is the symbol of his last beer that he gonna release, but he passed away before that.

16º the scissors on my both foot: I’ve on both foots 2 fingers a little bit glued, so I made this scissors tattoo as that drawing to make in some magazines and something like that, to “cut my glued fingers”.

pochette KAMALA corrosive, demo, EP 2005

You have the chance to play in the same group with your wife Isabela who also shares your life and the same passion, isn't that sometimes complicated to manage ?

Not at all! Cause before we play together and share our music goals and dreams with the same band, on the beginning of our relationship, I already have Kamala and she had another band, so we always support each other when our bands have gigs, when Kamala had gig, she helped us, and her band had a gig, I also helped her band…this support was totally natural since the first days, cause we know the meaning that music have for each of our life’s. And we don’t had planning to play at the same metal band, but on 2016 we had one of our European tours and Bela already got the plane ticket to help us with the merch, lights, sound check and these kind of stuff, but one month before the tour (with all dates already scheaduled) our past drummer had a serious injury and was totally prohibited to play drums for the tour, so when we was worry about it, and asking with ourself “whom we can try to ask to play drums and save the tour”, Bela said “I know many songs, I just need to practice, but I can make it” and with less then a month, we choose the songs that she already had in mind + some new songs from the upcoming album and she totally made a awesome job! The feeeback during the tour was great and she substitute our past drummer for almost a full year after this European tour, and the feedback on the Brazilian gigs was also awesome. After this time, we had a friendly conversation with our past drummer, to know when we could return to gigs and next steps, but during this time his personal life has changed a lot, so we chooses to follow different ways. So after that, we need to choose a new official drummer for the band, and as Isabela made an amazing job for all the gigs, we don’t make any test with anyone, we just choose her, cause she deserve it! Of course after that, we have to learn how to deal with that with more “healthy way as possible”…and the point that was hard, was to learn and realize when stop to work or talk about small band stuff during “day by day”…for rehearsals, writing process, we always liked to work together, and another great stuff is that when any bands are on the road, the members missing the family, we don’t have this problem at all during the touring period. When we are on the stage, working, it’s not “Rapha and Bela the couple”, but is “Rapha and Bela the musicians”, we always separated very well this both “sides”.

On your EUROPEAN TOUR 2023, 3 dates will be different, there is the one at the “La Passerelle” room in Pouzol where you will play with an orchestra, the one at the “Maison de la Musique” in Ancizes-Comps where you will be in a “guitar master class” and the last one has the “médiathèque” of Manzat for an acoustic show.

Can you explain to us the reasons, the choices, why and how in detail for each of these dates ?

Also we can add a 4th “special date” on this question, that was another gig with the orchestra at Clermont-Ferrand on the last show of this past tour. All the dates was soooooo special, the master class was really cool as the acoustic gig at media library! And the gigs with the orchestra for sure was one of the most amazing moments in our career. The musicians of “Union Musicale en Combrailles” and us, we had an amazing synergy…that looks like we played with each others many many times, and since the rehearsal that happened on the morning of the same day of the first gig, this was the feeling. The maestro Thierry Varion made a great job on the arrangements, and who introduced us, was our French brother Corentin Charbonnier. We really hope that we can repeat this in a near future!

Can you give us a summary and assessment of your EUROPEAN TOUR 2023 and why did you do one date in Belgium, two in Switzerland and 9 in France ?

This was our 7th European tour, and probably the best tour until now. At the same time, was hard to make it happen, cause was our first European tour after the COVID, so the tour costs (plane tickets, car rental, fuel, peage and make the merchandising) was higher than ever, a lot of places unfortunately closed the door, so after 4 years, we returned to another European tour. The last one before that, was on October/2019. France became like our second home, and we already make a full tour with only French dates…now we signed with M & O Music and Office , that is French, so the people says that Kamala is the most Brazilian French band…so since our 3rd European tour, the country that always have more shows, is France. At the same time, we always return to play at Belgium in almost every tour, and we felt that the band is growing in Switzerland, cause we made our first Swiss gig in 2019, but was only one gig and now we returned to play 2 Swiss gigs in new cities. All the shows was amazing, whom wants to check more, we have a blog with 9 episodes in our YouTube channel of this last tour.

What are your plans for the coming months ?

We was announced at one of the most important Brazilian festivals, called “Abril Pro Rock”, and this gig it will happen on 29th and 30th from the next month. To be part of the line up of this festival, was always one of our goals/objectives and we are happy that this gig will happen! Also we are booking more dates in Brazil, and we’re planning to make another European tour on the second half of this year…also we will release the playthrough of every songs from “Karma”, maybe more official videos. Beside all that, I’m writing new riffs to work in a new songs for our upcoming album.