By Kelley Simms
NERVOSA IN THE USA
B
razilian all-female thrash trio , Nervosa , have been shaking up the metal world since their 2010 formation . On their sophomore release , Agony , Nervosa proves that they deserve the respect of the metal community .
Offering up the vicious growls of bassist / vocalist Fernanda Lira , the thunderous drumming of Pitchu Ferraz ’ s and the relentless riffing from guitarist Prika Amaral , the band performs as a highly dynamic and lethal unit . In just six years , the band has gained massive momentum and is about to embark on a U . S . tour beginning this month . Caught In A Mosh columnist Kelley Simms spoke with Miss Lira about the band ’ s new album and more .
Nervosa
Photo : Gustovo Vara
Mosh : What made you decide to form a three-piece thrash band ? Fernanda Lira : After I left my previous band , I decided I wanted to make something different . I was really into thrash metal at that time – and I still am ! So as I always liked to play with girls – all my previous bands were all-girl bands , I thought it would be something great and super new to have an all-girl thrash trio . I think we still have just a few women playing , the more the coolest . So I decided it would be a good idea . Then I started looking for girls who wanted to commit to a band the way I wanted and that was a hard task . After almost giving up I bumped into Prika , who already had this project with a drummer and was in a real need of a singer and a bassist , so we kinda completed each other . They were exactly what I was needing and I was exactly what they were looking for !
Mosh : Hailing from Sao Paulo — the birthplace of Sepultura — how could they not be an influence ? What did they mean to you while growing up ? Fernanda Lira : I think Sepultura was one of the most important bands for Brazilian metalheads . They were the band that showed us that yes , it is possible to be South American , play extreme metal and yet succeed ! To us they are a huge inspiration on how to make things work and how to carry the metal flag all around . There ' s also many other Brazilian bands that we like and that also influenced us in many different ways , too . I would personally say Ratos de Porão , Torture Squad and Claustrofobia among my favorites and most influential .
Mosh : It ’ s great to see three amazing women really going for it by playing brutal thrash ! Are you out to prove that " chicks " can rock just as hard as dudes ? Fernanda Lira : I ' ve always supported women in arts and have always been active on this matter , so i ' m really glad that we can do our part on inspiring more women to be out there living their dreams . I mean , that ' s not the only purpose of the band , we play metal because we like to play metal . But if with our music and attitude we can help girls not to feel discouraged by society to do whatever they want , including having an extreme metal band , then it makes us even happier and fulfilled .
Mosh : When first starting out did you get sexist resistance , especially in Brazil , for being an all female thrash band ? Fernanda Lira : A lot . At the beginning it was pretty tough . Brazil is a beautiful country in many ways , but still it can be real sexist sometimes . So when we started , there was always a handful of people who would try to discourage us on taking the band where we wanted . Not only with rude comments on the internet , but also spreading senseless gossip around , like ' they can only get shows because they sleep with promoters ,’ or ' they send nudes to get sponsors ' and other stupid kinds of things . But it was always just a few people who did that , the majority always supported us . So what we did was not care about this kind of thing with time . I mean , critics we can take . I think critics are always welcome to help us improve as humans and as musicians . But this kind of stuff , we just started ignoring and focusing mainly on the people who actually like what we were doing and who supported us as a way of supporting more girls in metal . So nowadays , it ' s completely cool , there ' s no more of this kind of thing almost . I think with time people realized we are here playing metal because we like it .
Mosh : How ’ d you go about constructing the songs for Agony ? Fernanda Lira : It was actually pretty natural . We never set how we want to sound or anything like that . We just write in a very organic way , respecting our influences and ideas . So Agony is nothing but the result of what we had been listening to at that time and also the spontaneous ideas that came to our minds while writing the songs . The three of us , for example , were listening to a lot of death metal and faster thrash metal when we were writing it , so that ' s why it ' s faster and more aggressive than the previous one .
Mosh : With all the corruption and dirty
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34 illinoisentertainer . com august 2016