Diary

posted by Aquiles Priester

I wanted to start this text this way, because it is exactly like these things are happening in our studio, where we’re recording our new album.

I was remembering our first day here in the countryside, the one we were stuck for good before even reach the place where we would try to compose. If we weren’t sure about what we were doing, we wouldn’t probably have gone forward.

When I say “try”, it is because nobody had the faintest idea of our musical future. Now, the songs are composed, recorded, with lyrics and finished. I must say I believe this album has much more mature songs, superior to everything we did so far. If in TROYC we could do something like “Call me in the Name of Death”, with this new album we could stretch our own bounds, with more dramatic and extremely musical songs. Melody and lyrics are also superior to those of TROYC, and this time there wasn’t one which was not exhaustingly passed by the Memory Test, which consists in creating a melody and not recording it. Should we be unable to remember it in the next day, it was not good enough. Ah, a very good thing was that Fabio and Martinez also helped with the lyrics… And that was a huge relief, since writing our lyrics without pressure is a good thing… On the other hand, having to compose because the leading vocal doesn’t have anything to record anymore is a terrible thing… There were days I kept writing for five hours and then threw everything away…

I didn’t have any free time, since we worked 14 hours per day, always trying to achieve our best performance. Sometimes, we did this at any expense (including our sanity), but we always put the music above us all… The result should be, at least, the best…

We’re currently in the “autists” house, and we had to learn how to deal with our little quirks. We can now deal with everything! Or almost everything…My charms are always with me: a picture of Dean Castronovo (which I have since 1995) and a tiny action figure given to me by Juliana (my daughter). She presented me with it in order to give me luck in every presentation, saying the figure had a hand as big as mine… I take this figure with me whenever I need things to be right…

We started composing in February, and since then, I wasn’t working on that for only two weeks, when I went to Erechim to record with Holiness… Stephanie, Holiness’s leading vocal, was in Sao Paulo to record her part in our album… We also have another two “recording guests”, but I’ll leave you curious…

Now we had to the next stage, audio mixing and mastering. I can’t wait to see Tommy Newton working… Before mixing in Celle-Germany, I’ll go to Italy for some Workshops…

Before ending, I must say I saw my old friends (Martinez, Mello and Fabio) outstanding themselves, and I’m more than amazed by our new fellow, Humberto. I’m sure you’ll all think that way when you hear our album… The main question will be: how many lead singers are there in this band?

Another crucial role was played by Mr. Adair Daufembach… I’m sure he will never be the same…

posted by Nando Mello

When the idea of going to the countryside, more specifically to Tatuí – SP, first came out, I couldn’t imagine that after 100 days we would have so many stories (and history too), to tell. To start a project from 0 and finish it within the limit date with the necessary quality is a goal that few manage to achieve, for it demands fiber. When I went back to Tatuí after 20 days absent, that was exactly what I found: fiber, determination, and backbone. I was there in February and March, to compose, and in April, to record. While there, when walking through the house (yes, I walk to think), I was always observing all that was being done, and called the moment “creative outbreak”. Moments of overachieving, always chasing something bigger, satisfaction through our music, and how they could touch people’s feelings. When I entered the band, in 1999, I always believed that we could make it, and for that I waited 10 long years. Though TROYC is a wonderful album, it was worth waiting for this one. Independently of tiredness, of breakdown moments, which could be of three different levels (junior, senior and master), all I could feel was people working to make things perfect.

I learned a lot from Mr. Adair “Again” Daufembach, wonderful professional, always focusing on achieving the best. And we made it. Humberto, our new lead singer, is a great professional and a wonderful person. As I always say “things don’t happen at random”: welcome to the Hangar family. Martinez’s strength, Fabio’s pondering and Aquiles’ determination made those last three months unforgettable. To those three crazy ones, a special thanks for 10 years of Hangar, for the dream of “playing in a rock band”. As concerning the songs… well, that’s another story, one that we’ll be written by Hangar and by all reading this diary…

posted by Eduardo Martinez

If I die tomorrow, I’m sure about one thing: it was worth dedicating my entire life to music. The reason I say this is this new album, my third with Hangar, the forth album of the band and the eight of my career as guitarist and co-author. Among the many sonorous extravagancies that will surely amaze you, I was able to re-interpret one of Last Time classics, the album which was my entrance test in Hangar, back in 1999… In February of 2009, when we face each other after the amazing TROYC tour, with our instruments and without a single new lyric, I wouldn’t have even thought that, as I write this diary (only three months later!), we would have everything recorded! The creativity and chemistry of this band amazes me, now with more extreme, complex songs. We now are a band more than ever: in lyrics, expressiveness and interpretation of each idea. Hearing this album will give you a taste of our entire music life until now.

After the excellent TROYC, we managed to compose free from any stands and formulas. You can hear the pain, the blood, the fight of each one of us to do the impossible without failing, trying to reach the perfect result by all means. In the spotlight, our new Honorary Hangarian Humberto, to Aquiles’ obsessive work and Adair “guitar hero” Daufembach.

Today, 11th of May, between pre- audio mixing, fans that find us here in our hiding place (God knows how), back-ups, last-minute-made songs, and master breakdowns of last day (yes, last day!!!), I did my final acoustic record in the CD. The best part of it is that tomorrow will start rehearsing for our first show with Humberto in the leading vocals. After that, Aquiles and Adair will go to Germany to finish audio-mixing and mastering. And it is like that since the beginning, when I first entered that “garage” in Porto Alegre, to exhaustingly rehearse all songs of Last Time, some covers and a few new song you all know too well… That shows that we are here to stay, nobody is irreplaceable, and we do this so you all can be proud to be in this madness, in shows, events, among many others. I hope that, one day, it can happen (even better!) with your band too.

My first ten years of Hangar are complete with this album. But all of this will make sense only when you get to us after the show and say it was worth leaving the past behind and moving on. I’d like to dedicate every single guitar note to my trusted friends, the ones who never turned their back to me: my family, my band and the Hangar fans: you’re the reason I live and play.

posted by Aquiles Priester

The beginning is always harder, since it’s difficult to establish a rhythm, but those days are already gone… Now many of our songs are already finished and have gained their own life, going far beyond any of us had imagined…

Now we’re recording the bass, guitars, acoustic guitars, leading and backing vocals. After that, to finish our work, we have to record guitar solos and fit the keyboard part that Fábio is doing at his home from the files we send him by Net… We only have net when we go to Tatuí, since our piece of land, ‘Recanto das Águas’, is about 12 km far from the city, and the road is pure earth… Rainy days transform it in a rally, I mean, a big PARTY!

Mello has already finished his part and is already in his comfortable home, away from the dangerous jungle… In order to do that, last Sunday we spent the whole night until 7am on Monday working, and Adair (aka Ram) had his first MASTER “breakdown”, crying out loud: “I’ve never spent a night awaken, let alone working!”… And one of us said: “Welcome to our weird and adorable crazy little world…” To easy our life, we’ve ranked the different levels of breakdown: junior, senior and master. The champion so far is Mr. Martinez, who experiments different levels of breakdown everyday, but no one has managed yet to break Mello’s Master Breakdown during the early hours when he was recording his bass… Well, after eighteen hours, it’s not that easy…

Buzz is here with us, and he is probably having much more fun than any of us… Today he crossed our little pond from side to side for the first time… He is exercising a lot, since everyone (except Adair, aka Ram) goes jogging and he follows… Sometimes Buzz looks at me and I can imagine him saying: “Life in the country is lovely, there’s a party everyday… We should stay here…”

Last week we did the first official photoshoot with Humberto, and photographer Natalia Lett, from Sao Paulo, came here to register this moment. All things were fast, since we wanted to keep working all nightlong, and the photos in this diary are from that day…

On the next day, we had a big surprise: a headbanger crying for real, in front of me… As we were recording one of our most rhythmic songs, with clean guitars and acoustic guitars, but also with guitar distortion (yes, we had both clean guitars and guitar distortion parts), Mr. Eduardo Martinez entered the room to hear the final version of T*** ** ***** and simply broke down crying…

Humberto put unique leading vocals in that song, in a very different style from hat he is used to. Immediately after everyone saw a headbanger crying, he said: “I was here imagining all things the lyrics are saying and all the possibilities this song is offering us… I can’t wait to see this song mixed and mastered by Tommy.”

And I said: “I can’t wait to let our FANS hear this music…”

Soon we’ll be back with a video of the recordings…

Aquiles

posted by Fabio Laguna

A long time ago, while I was participating in a recording session in Valinhos-SP, I started to complain about my professional life, saying I expected more, that I was frustrated… Then the audio technician turned to me and said “Hey! Can’t you see your best time is now? You’re going to understand what I say someday…”. I still remember those words, but they really sounded like self-helping like “each day is a gift”. But, apart from all my skepticism, I must admit that all that babbling, born from decades of popular knowledge, is true. We’re the only species who thinks it needs more, who thinks about the future, when, to tell the truth, we’re just like any other, needing only food and rest and nothing else.

Well, the idea and the curiosity of recording an album in a totally isolated place is something that has been deep inside me for a while, and came from ideas such as Machine Head (Deep Purple), and Blood Sugar Sex Magic (Red Hot Chili Peppers). Generally speaking, I always felt this “studio recording” harmful to our creativity, since we’re hostages of timetable and lack of privacy, people always going in and out… And after all those things, we still have to enter the chaotic environment of the city… That’s why I prefer to record my part in my cozy little bunker (a nickname for my mini-home-studio in my house), where I did the keyboards for Hangar’s new album. But how to convince my very-urban band colleagues that isolation would be good? I’m not a very persuasive guy; however, not only did I manage to bring them to the countryside, but also the heavy metal album recorded there is one that will be a benchmark in Hangar’s history.
Fortunately to us, the countryside studio provided us the same facilities as any other, as well as quality. Not to mention the perfect isolation.

Besides, it helped to strength the bonds between us, since we literally lived together, which had never happened before in the band’s history. And since we usually compare a band with a wedding, I say Hangar just got married. With nowhere to go, we had to solve our silly internal issues and consequently we’ve matured a lot.

I would also like to make my final words here a warm ‘thank you’ to the person responsible for this ‘dream come true’: Nino. We’ll be forever grateful, and we hope to someday reward you with everything you deserve. Thank you for everything, thanks to Neiva and all your family, for having welcomed us for three months. Soon, the album will be worldly released, and we know that a great deal of our fans, friends and family recognition will be thanks to you.