Finally I am broadening my list of interviewed bands by adding this passionate Sao Paulo, Brazil hardcore band! Established in 2002, CLEARVIEW was born as a side project of two classic Brazilian Hardcore bands called GOOD INTENTIONS and CHILDREN OF GAIA. They are one of the most hard-working and dedicated punk crews in South America.
They’re finally hitting European roads this Summer, so it’s a perfect chance to get to know them if you’re not familiar their work. Worldwide hardcore! Take a read below and spread it around.
What’s up guys? I think you’re the first South American band to be featured in an interview on IDIOTEQ :) Cool. How have you been doing?
Sup idioteq crew and readers?
How is everybody doing? Hope you all are doing great! 1st south American band on idioteq’s interview department? Haha can we feel like pioneers then? JK. We’ve been great!
Yay, amazing! You’re allowed to feel blessed :D So, you’re booking your European trek from the 25th July until the 22nd August. Impact Bookings is helping you out, right? Will it be your first time in Europe?
Are we allowed to say it then? Haha Thank you! IMPACT BOOKING is taking care of everything. If i would say 2 words about them it would be: LEGIT and SMOOTH. Its our first time playing in Europe, we can’t wait to get there, talk to people and share some great ideas. Definitely this summer will be amanzing! Too much information and experiences to be shared with the European crowd.
What is your association with European hardcore scene? How do you know it? Have you heard some good and bad stories about it? :) Do you know what to expect, comparing it to your local punk scenes?
We grew up listening to European and North American hardcore. Back in the 90’s we didn’t have internet, so there was a place in Sao Paulo (where we come from) which’s called “galeria do rock” (rockmall). We used to go there and ask for distro catalogs. We used to buy lots of stuff from crucial response, victory records, lots and found and revelation records. (Good times).
The stories about euro scene, maybe are the best! Some Brazilian hardcore dudes touring in somewhere in Russia, beating up some nazis Haha We only expect good things about the European tour. We hope you guys care about politics and worldwide economy!
Damn right we care, bro. What’s there about it that you find particularly interesting to discuss or scream? :)
Good question!!
Well about what the regular system tells you do like: force the poor to be always poor and the Rich always to be rich. Injustice system!
Can you do anything about it besides drawing people’s attention to problems like this?
The only thing we can do probably is warn people about what the wrong media tells them.
New kids are coming to the shows and we feel that nowadays these new people are ‘asking’ about real answers and caring less about fashion. People are free to make choices. Some people like to believe in everything but some others like to “ASK” about the facts.
Ok, guys. I’ve been following South American punk scene for some time now and I must say it’s freakin’ amazing! From what I’ve seen and read, I really admire the passion shared by the kids out there. Tell me about your perception of the punk reality that surrounds you :)
South American scene is getting bigger and stronger. As everybody knows its hard to say that the majority kids care about real causes like “poverty and economy”. The whole punk atmosphere out here is based on real punk values. We will always have those people who follow what the media says and those who refused to live how the system tells you to live.
Our scene over here is good enough because we respect each other and do believe that respecting each other is the first step to live with dignity . Punk kids mosh together with crucial hardcore bouncers! Haha
About punk reality, well… We all live in this screwed society but when we Have the chance to deny things that the media forces you to swallow, We spit the truth on their faces.
What do you hate most about the society that sorrounds you?
I would say, INTOLERANCE. All kinds! Intolerante people make this world a burden!
Alright, boys. You have released the official video for “Constant Denial” in February. What feedback have you received from your supporters?
The feedback was awesome, everyone who watched really liked what we did. Of course it’s not a million dolar video clip, but it came out pretty decent for a live video clip! haha Our good friends from Ghost Filmes and our bassist did the whole pós-production.
Any Plans for another video in the works?
Definitely, we will make a new video very soon but it will have a little bit more of production. Our good friend MEDUZA from ghost filmes and some other people are writing everything.
“Pure Mayhem” LP was released 2 years ago. It’s been a long time, yet you still seem to heavily promote the outing. When can we expect a new LP? Shall we expect it to come out next year?
Well, our 7″ (seeds of rage) was recorded last year (2012). We are writing new stuff when we are not playing gigs but right now we are focused with the european tour. When the right time comes we will record a new album. We are so sure that once again our good friend “NICK JETT (TERROR‘s drummer) will do everything!
After the European tour, we will go back to the studio and start writing a brand new LP with 12/13 songs. I can tell you that’s gonna be something like heavy, fast and powerful.
Lots of kids have fallen into you right after you released your “Rage Through Integrity” split with PAURA. How did you guys team up for this release? Can you tell me more about your current perception of it?
Our record labels in South America were about to press it as 7″ and in the same time our friends from PAURA had those songs ready to put out on the streets.
So we talked to our record labels and we all decided to make a split cd.
We are good friends with PAURA, a long time friendship, so it couldn’t be better for us. Having a split cd with old friends, you know?
Our songs from rage through integrity are little bit different if you compare with Pure Mayhem, but the whole essence still the same. When we recorded the “Rage through integrity” we didn’t want to sound like ‘pure mayhem’, we were like “let’s mix everything we like and then the result will be these new songs”.
Said and done, it came out kinda thrashy with oldschool heavy hardcore.
Some kids into thrashcore/thrashmetal music really dug our new songs and this is pretty cool cuz we believe that there’s no rules for you to write music, it’s pure art, some people will like it and some won’t like that much.
Ok, guys. Before we end up, please tell me how did a side-project GOOD INTENTIONS and CHILDREN OF GAIA turned into a full time gig? Do you remember that moment?
Yeah! After CLEARVIEW’s first gig we knew that we couldn’t spend more time with our old bands, so we were like “this is what we wanna do, it’s now or never”. So we left our old bands and started doing things full time with CLEARVIEW. A few months later, CHILDREN OF GAIA broke up and GOOD INTENTIONS still around, but we have no news about their stuff.
What were a few of your most memorable shows early on?
We shared the stage with awesome bands but some memorable shows, we would say:
1 – Pure Mayhem Record Release party! (this gig was amanzing)
2 – TERROR first time in South America;
3 – For My Family South American Tour (AGNOSTIC FRONT / MADBALL);
4 – CLEARVIEW – Pure Lava Tour (CHILE/ARGENTINA);
5 – COMEBACK KID first time in Brazil;
6 – CRUEL HAND first time in Brazil.I think those shows were pretty much insane.
You’ve recorded 3 demos till 2008. Why did it take you so long to produce a proper outing?
Living in Brazil is hard as hell once you have a hardcore band.
90% of the crowd needs to bust their asses the whole day and some people have night classes. We have to study hard over here, otherwise it’s hard as hell to get a job that we could call “DECENT”.
That’s why we took so long to write new jams, cuz we were so focused on your personal interests so we couldn’t find an extra time to write new jams.
Ok, but let’s not get caught up in the past or try to pre-determine the future ;) Are you happy at the level CLEARVIEW is at nowadays?
Everything is pretty good these days.
Everyone in the band is 101% down with the band, we have a good communication between us which is rad.
We never thought that we could go this far and become this beast.
It’s good to see that people still care about message and that’s what keep us around playing and showing our ‘art’.
Let’s sum it up, boys. What can we expect from you guys in the coming months?
After our European Tour we will come back to Brazil and play as much as we can, start writing our new LP and of course Film a new video!
Great! Let’s keep in touch!
Do you have anything else you’d like to finish with?
Thank you very much IDIOTEQ! Before we finish we would leave a msg for those who have been around for a long time and those who just got here:
Well, we don’t know how people think nowadays but we still believe that if you choose to be a hardcore dude/girl you’ll always refuse to follow what the system tells you to be. Once you choose to be part of the counter culture, you decided to live without boards, flags and nation.
Hardcore scene is a worldwide community where we find ourselves.
It doesn’t matter if you are rich, poor, black, white, native… everyone who is part of this thing deserves to be heard and of course… respect each other, no matter what.
Peace.
CLEARVIEW Bandcamp
CLEARVIEW MySpace
CLEARVIEW Facebook
CLEARVIEW YouTube
[email protected]
