Wilco (from left to right): Nels Cline, Glenn Kotche, Jeff Tweedy, Mikael Jorgensen, Pat Sansone and John Stirratt | Photo credit: Annabel Mehran

In this interview, Wilco's bass player John Stirratt shares his thoughts on the band's 25 year-run as one of the world's most creative and admired rock outlets, as well as a scoop: come next winter, the group will try to make a new record, remotely. The full article was originally published on Scream & Yell, in Portuguese. Below you can check out the whole e-mail conversations which took place between October 2019 and September 2020.

Foto: Diane Keaton/Arcade

Arte de capa: Santo de Casa

Em setembro de 2019, após um criterioso processo que envolveu meses de pesquisa, viagens a São Paulo (SP), entrevistas, redação e edição do vasto material disponibilizado pelo cliente, foi lançado o Relatório Social do Instituto NET Claro Embratel, com os principais resultados do trabalho desenvolvido pela empresa ao longo de 2018. Tive o prazer de participar do projeto em parceria com a agência Santo de Casa.

A seguir, confira um dos textos do relatório, a respeito do projeto Ação Social Pela Música. Para ler o material completo, basta acessar o Relatório Social.

Ação Social Pela Música faz conexão Rio-Nova York

O Ação Social pela Música (ASM) conquistou corações até nos Estados Unidos em 2018. A apresentação da Camerata Jovem do Rio de Janeiro, que é uma das iniciativas do projeto, em dois eventos em Nova York (EUA), no mês de maio, foi um dos grandes destaques do ano. 

Primeiro, o grupo foi premiado e se apresentou no evento “O Homem do Ano”, promovido pela Câmara de Comércio Brasil-EUA. Mas eles foram além: também tocaram na sede da ONU (Organização das Nações Unidas), a convite da entidade.

Para completar o tour nova-iorquino, os jovens músicos da Camerata ainda estiveram em um evento em uma escola no bairro do Harlem, onde se apresentaram para os estudantes e participaram de um debate entre afro-americanos e afrodescendentes.

Para David dos Santos Nascimento, contrabaixista da Camerata, a viagem à Nova York foi a realização de um sonho. Depois de ter se apresentado na Alemanha e na Holanda em 2017, e de ter passado 21 dias na Venezuela em 2015, fazendo um curso de liderança musical com os principais maestros da América Latina, tocar na sede da ONU foi mais um momento especial para o músico de 22 anos.

“Foi realmente incrível! Tão jovem ainda, poder conhecer outras culturas e sair do país. Sou muito grato pela oportunidade”, afirma David. “Em 2019, vamos receber outro prêmio na Europa, com apresentações na Suíça e na Alemanha. É demais sermos escolhidos entre os melhores grupos jovens de música clássica”, comemora.

Para Flávio Rodrigues, gerente de Responsabilidade Social Corporativa da Claro Brasil, ver jovens como David realizando esses sonhos é apenas o primeiro passo de um futuro que ainda reserva muitas outras conquistas.

“Quando a gente conversa com eles, percebemos o quanto já se sentem realizados por terem estudado música clássica e terem não só a oportunidade de passar seu conhecimento para outros jovens, agora no papel de instrutores, mas também de visitar outros países e demonstrar seu talento”, observa Flávio. 

Eventos do ASM em 2018

Veja a lista de iniciativas das quais essa turma participou em 2018. Entre elas, as conexões entre projetos e eventos patrocinados pelo Instituto NET Claro Embratel, como o realizado pela Fundação Gol de Letra e a Semana Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia da Zona Oeste do Rio de Janeiro. E teve mais. Confira as apresentações:

• Evento Diálogos Gigantes, em fevereiro;
• Fundação Gol de Letra, em abril 2018;
• Semana Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia, em outubro (que também teve participação do projeto Dupla Escola);
• Reunião de Comunicação da Claro Brasil, em dezembro.

"Foi muito emocionante a apresentação na Reunião de Comunicação e, mais ainda, a história de superação dos meninos e meninas do grupo. Encontrar um sentido e um propósito por meio de algo que encanta é maravilhoso. E saber que a empresa em que a gente trabalha apoia causas e projetos como esse nos enche de orgulho. Me lembro desse dia com muito carinho", conta Nelson Barreto, colaborador da Claro Brasil em São Paulo.

Aula para primeira infância

Outra grande novidade do Ação Social Pela Música em 2018 foi que o programa começou a desenvolver polos de musicalização para a educação infantil em parceria com creches comunitárias e escolas municipais. Assim, eles passaram a dar aulas de musicalização para a primeira infância e alunos da pré-escola. Esse trabalho tem demonstrado um impacto positivo no desenvolvimento motor e sensorial das crianças atendidas.

Ficou com vontade de conferir a Camerata Jovem do Rio de Janeiro tocando? Clique aqui para assistir a reportagem que a Rede Globo fez durante a apresentação deles na sede da ONU, em Nova York.

Veja também um vídeo de um sarau na Fundação Gol de Letra, onde a camerata se apresentou em 2018.

Mais sobre o projeto Ação Social Pela Música

Criado em 1994 no Rio de Janeiro, o Ação Social Pela Música do Brasil é patrocinado pelo Instituto NET Claro Embratel desde 2010. O projeto atende 1.394 crianças, adolescentes e jovens nos núcleos de aprendizado musical e 2.583 crianças nos polos de musicalização voltados para educação infantil e a pré-escola. No total, são nada menos que 3.977 pessoas atendidas.

O foco do programa é promover a inclusão social e a formação da cidadania, por meio do ensino coletivo da música clássica para moradores de comunidades em situação de vulnerabilidade social.

Entre as comunidades atendidas estão o Complexo do Alemão, Morro dos Macacos, Rio das Pedras e Cidade de Deus, no Rio de Janeiro.

Mike Watt / Howlin' Wuelf Media

SAN PEDRO, CA — Mike Watt is one of the world's greatest all-time bassists. In this interview, originally published on Scream & Yell, he discusses his first solo record, "Ball-Hog or Tugboat?", released in 1995. He also talks about Eddie Vedder, Nels Cline, Jeff Tweedy and Bob Pollard, among others.

So, I wanted to discuss with you the 25th anniversary of your debut solo album “Ball-Hog or Tugboat?”, which was released on February 28, 1995. Does it feel like it’s been that long?

Well, I’ 62 years old. I was in my late thirties. So, I wasn’t that young… But yeah, I do remember it. When I think back about this record, it definitely feels like it was kind of a sea change in my life. Before that album I mainly had done Minutemen and fIREHOSE. So, when I go do this record, which is really funny that it’s called a solo record, cause there’s 48 people on it, but… I’m not working on the trio anymore. There’s 17 different bands on the record. With D Boon I would bring all my music to him, and with Edward I did that too. I remember bringing Edward “Piss-Bottle Man” and he thought, “well, maybe this isn’t a song for this band”. So that’s when I started thinking about “Ball-Hog or Tugboat”. Just the idea of the bass player knowing the song and having other people come in. Traditionally the bass player is the last to be brought on except maybe in R&B and funk music. So, that’s where the title comes from. Am I gonna be the guy that brings this together, or is it gonna be just, you know what I mean, like a “fake lead guitar bass”, which I don’t really think is what bass is. Bass is not really guitar, it’s got strings like a guitar, but it’s more like a drum set, in my opinion. Specially the notes, they are down there with the kickdrum and the toms. So I used the metaphor of wrestling, like the studio was kind of a wrestling ring, and I called my friends up, see if they wanted to come play with me and do this record. It was three different towns, pretty spontaneous, it was done really quick. I wanted it to be a record that stand on its own. I didn’t want it to be so much hype, or people making a big deal about names of some of these people. I didn’t use managers or anything, I just called people up and did this for a little bit. And it got me to what I am doing nowadays. So, looking back, it was a really important record for me.

When you wrote songs like “Against the 70s”, for example, did you write it with Eddie Vedder in mind to be the singer on the record? Or “Chinese Firedrill”, for that matter, did you write it thinking of adding Frank Black’s vocals to it?

No, of course not. I didn’t know who was gonna be available for this. There wasn’t hardly any practice, all this stuff was done very spontaneously in the studio. I did have a few songs, but I felt if the bass player knew how to play them, anyone could come and play drums or guitar or sing. So I showed it to them right there in the studio. Nels Cline, I did a little practice with him. There’s a song on the record, “Coincidence is Either Hit or Miss”, that’s kind of what it was, you know?

How did the idea of reuniting so many different musicians come together? Did you invite them or they were the ones who approached you to record together? I imagine many, if not all of them, were big fans of your previous work on the Minutemen and fIREHOSE.

No, it was my idea, my record. I asked them. The only one who approached me was Kathleen Hannah, when it was almost done. She heard about it and asked to be on it. Like I said, I wrote “Piss-Bottle Man” and brought it to Edward, in fIREHOSE. There’s no way I wrote that for Evan Dando. But I thought Evan would be kind of good to do that tune. You know, that was a strange year, 1994. fIREHOSE broke up, the first week or two of the year, and I did not tour, the first year I did not tour since the Minutemen days, so, it was kind of unusual. So I thought of doing the record, but I never thought about touring. Cause there was too many people on it. That was David’s (Grohl) idea, he called me up, he said he and Ed (Vedder) would be my band, they had their own bands who could open the show, it was all very spontaneous, there was no strategy behind it, or plans… I thought of it as the old bebop days, when people just jammed together, no big stuff, setting it all up, and no expectations, no preconceptions of the way it should be, just let the freak flag fly.

So, you guys were travelling on a van and playing every night, which was the punk thing to do. However, many of your fans didn’t really appreciate you playing with rock stars. People were throwing coins and all kinds of things at you, specially Eddie, right? How did you guys deal with that situation back then?

I’ve gotten stuff thrown at me a lot of times before, when the Minutemen open up for Black Flag and then when I opened up for Primus. But I think what you are talking about is… Eddie got money thrown at him. Those weren’t my fans, those were Pearl Jam fans! You know about this shit. Who’s the guy who shot John Lennon?

Mark David Chapman.

Yeah, he’s wearing a fucking name tag! These guys are like this. It’s this love/hate thing. That was so fucking weird. When I saw this teenager throwing money at Ed, and his t-shirt said “Fuck you, Eddie”, I just thought, “what’s wrong with you?”. You’ve never been to a Mike Watt gig, you’re not a Mike Watt supporter. You just want to tell your friend the next day in school that you did this stupid shit. That was something I never had to deal with in tours before, cause I come from the underground and a small scene. But what can I do about that? They just come to the gig, they’re assholes.

It’s interesting to hear this, because I always thought it was your fans reacting to you playing with these famous guys from mainstream bands.

Well, not really. I guess, yeah, they were more mainstream than me at the time, but they were not New Kids on the Block. And Dave was just starting his new band at the time, and Eddie was playing with this weird, experimental band, where he was playing drums. He wasn’t doing what he was known for. And even when playing with me, he was mostly playing guitar. So these guys weren’t doing what they regularly do. It was kind of different, it wasn’t so mainstream, but what happened is that mainstream attitude came in, all this hype and phony shit, yeah that was terrible. But, you know, Dave was in a band called Scream. And Eddie had played in a band before called Bad Radio. So they knew about all these stuff, but you’re right, there was some popularity right? But that shit’s terrible, come on, it’s fucking Hitler shit. But it was something I didn’t really foresee, cause I never had to deal with that kind of fame before. That was no Mike Watt fan! I hope no Mike Watt fan ever does stupid shit like that. But that shit happens, there’s this mentality, when you get kind of popular, the scene becomes different, people like things because other people like things, they don’t trust their own judgement. So you’re not dealing with open minded people, you’re dealing with a herd, or a bunch of cows. People are not in their best moment. So that was not a good part of the tour. But playing with those guys, we only had a couple days of practice. And I thought that was pretty amazing to pull that off. And Pat Smear, I mean, Jesus Christ. Pat Smear was a hero of Minutemen, he was in The Germs. That’s what I found interesting, these guys could fucking play their asses off. In just a couple days we put together a whole fucking tour, did this thing, even though there were some problems with this phoniness and hype shit, as far as playing together, you know, getting together songs and making a gig, I thought it was pretty successful. And I was pretty amazed, specially coming from where I did, where I never… This was kind of a different thing for me. It was scary, exciting scary. I don’t look back on the other stuff, I can only imagine what Ed felt. I hope those guys grew out of that stuff. And also there was this sickness that came around, a flu. We were travelling on a van, but that’s what we always do. I had my van, the other bands had their vans, maybe that’s why I didn’t get sick. But anyway, they were champions, they were soldiers, they played so fucking good. Actually, a few years ago we released one of the shows from this tour as a live record. The Chicago one. Man, that tape had been around, cause the Chicago Metro always record their gigs. So, when the record company asked me about it I said, well, I’ll ask Dave and Ed and Pat. When I listened to it, I thought there were going to be a lot more mistakes. I’m really grateful to them guys.

You have a few covers on the record as well, such as Sonic Youth’s “Tuff Gnarl”, where you actually had most of the band to play it with you on your record. Why did you choose that specific Sonic Youth song to cover?

Cause I like it! You need a better reason? I think the words for that song are some of Thurston’s (Moore) best words. I got J. (Mascis) to play drums on that song, but J. jumped off in the middle. That’s why you don’t hear any drums in the middle. So Steve (Shelley) was there and he jumped on. I picked that song, also to me the music is kind of symphonic, and Nels Cline… I actually did it for Nels Cline and Carla Bozulich, who always wanted to sing it. I thought we could do a great version and make it justice, give it a new meaning. But I think J. did really good too, kind of Keith Moon drums. Until the jumped off of it. (laughs)

What’s the story behind “Hearbeat”, specially the lyrics?

This song was going to be an instrumental. But it was like 45 guys on the record and I thought, “man, I gotta have more women on this”. So I got Carla. Petra and her sisters did some singing, played some violin… I asked Tifanny, a friend of J. Mascis, if she would sing. Actually, this song is made up of a Dos song, and a song I’ve written for the Minutemen, I put them up together. Anyway, the one person who asked to be part of this project was Kathleen Hannah. So, on this song, Tifanny sings the words that I wrote, and the words that Kathleen Hannah, I guess, recited, those are her words. I was in New York City, and I was already down with the studio. Thurston was with us. And he said: “You know what, we can use my answering machine, from the studio”. So, he had Kathleen call him up and leave the message you can hear in the song. So, that’s the recording. It’s not a real message, she makes up this… Some of that stuff is very real, but some of that is made up, for sure. That’s the way Kathleen is, she mixes up things together, but the impression you get by listening to that, is like she doesn’t want to be on the record. But that’s the complete opposite of the reality, she wanted to be on the record, she asked me to. But that’s what you can do with records, you can mess up with reality. I have been asked a lot about that. That’s the story. Kathleen wanted to be on the record, she was. You know, her husband’s on there. Mike D. They’ve been married 26 years, she told me that I had something to do with it. But come on, I was just trying to make a record. The same thing happened to Nels Cline and Yuka Honda. I made a record, you know, usually when I make projects, people don’t marry each other, but sometimes it happens. (laughs)

One of the musician’s that has the most presence on the record is Nels Cline. He probably wasn’t one of the more well-known guys back then, but after he joined Wilco, certainly a more mainstream audience was able to get to know him better. He also played with you on the second leg of that tour. Do you still play with him often?

I gotta tell you, Jeff Tweedy is the boss of Wilco. He played bass in a band from St. Louis, it was called…

Uncle Tupelo.

Yes, Uncle Tupelo. They even had a song called D. Boon

He’s a big fan of yours.

After D. Boon got killed they wrote a song for him, so I knew him a little bit. But I’m really grateful to him hiring Nels Cline to be in his band, cause Nels has always done experimental wild music, and this way he can still do that, and still make a living working for Mr. Tweedy. So that subsidizes his experimental side, you know? Specially since Nels Cline moved to New York City, after he married Yuka Honda (from the band Cibo Matto). There’s a much more free jazz open experimental scene there. He and his brother Alex tried to get it going here in So Cal for a long time but people wouldn’t support it. There it’s really huge. I do still play with him, but you’re right. He started getting some attention, but the first time he got attention was when he played on my first opera, “Contemplating the Engine Room” (1997), maybe not so much with critics or the press, but other musicians. A lot of people were asking me about this guy playing guitar. And so I ended up making albums with these guys. I said: “You wanna know Nels Cline? Just play with him!” We just set up the project. For years, he just came to the studio and improvised. He’s a great listener. Also, with the internet now we can collaborate more easily than in the old days. Nels has always made himself very available to me. A great guy like that. A very generous, open guy. He’s one of the positive things I like about the music scene. There’s so much phoniness and bullshit, and then you got a guy like Nels Cline, who’s just the opposite of all of that.

Floored by Four: Nels Cline, Dougie Bowne, Mike Watt and Yuka Honda / Howlin' Wuelf Media

There is also a Brazilian connection on the record, since Mario Caldato is on the closing track “Coincidence is Either Hit or Miss”. How did you get to know him?

Well, Mario Caldato, he was sound man for the Beasties. Yeah, that connection was through the Beastie Boys. I opened up for them, Check Your Head Tour, I think in 92. It’s when they started playing their instruments again, really good tour. Horowitz came on stage and played with us, this was fIREHOSE, one of our last tours. We had a problem with people throwing stuff at us. Actually, they had problems too, people wanted them just to rap and not play their instruments. This is the way it gets, things get a little knucklehead, when things get a little “less underground”. It’s pretty fucking stupid.

Are there any leftovers from that recording session? And do you have plans to release a reissue of that album in celebration of its anniversary?

Just the seven inches, the b-sides. We released three seven inches, with b-sides. There are no plans to rerelease the album. I don’t think that would be right. It’s still on sale. I thought the best way to redo it was with the live record we released a few years ago. We ended up doing the vinyl, cause back then we just did the CD. So we did a blue vinyl, it was deluxe enough, I don’t think there’s anything else to do without being exploitive about it.

So, you played with 48 different musicians on this record and a lot more during your career. Is there anyone you still haven’t worked with that you’d like to get together and play?

Yeah, Bob Mould.

Wow.

I’ve always wanted to do something with Bob.

Yeah, that would sound amazing.

There’s another Bob. Bob Pollard.

Wow!

Guided By Voices, right?

That would also be great.

Both of those guys, they got such a vision of their own. I would also like to, instead of repackaging the wrestling record, I would like to do another one, Leonardo.

Yeah, please do.

Only, I would do it in Cleveland. Just with Cleveland musicians. You know, the town where Pere Ubu came from. I really would like to do that. With guys from Pere Ubu, like Tom Herman, Scott Krauss, John Petkovic, from Cobra Verde, there’s quite a few musicians in Cleveland with whom I’d love to do a miniature version of “Ball-Hog or Tugboat?”.

You can make an exception for Bob Pollard, since he’s from the same state…

Yeah, he’d have to come visit. Yeah, I love his genius, he’s so prolific, oh my God.  You know, he just played here in downtown LA in the New Year’s. One hundred songs, a five-hour gig.

He probably played all the songs he wrote that week.

That day! (laughter) He’s amazing.

You came to Brazil in 2005 with Iggy Pop and the Stooges, right? Any memories from that experience that you’d like to share?

Three times in Brazil, two times with The Stooges. One was the James Williamson Stooges and the other was Ron Asheton Stooges. And another time I came to Brazil was with The Missingmen. So, all three times were São Paulo, and two of them also Rio. I liked it a lot. But I still have to know more of the country. Rio and São Paulo are very different towns, but they’re kind of close to each other. (laughs)

Photo Credits: Annie Dressner

Another interview with a band I love. This one was originally published in Portuguese on Scream & Yell. Below you can check out the whole transcription of my conversation with Nada Surf's vocalist Matthew Caws. Enjoy!

- So, you have a new record out, “Never Not Together”. What can you say about the song writing and recording processes? Was it different to previous releases in any way?

It was a little different at the end of the process, but the beginning of the process was the same. Which is that I write songs at home, sometimes they’re complete, sometimes they’re just little pieces. And when it’s time to record I just bring them all to the band and we arrange them together. The only thing that was different was that everybody stayed a little bit more involved. Usually with the record, after we’ve done the basic tracks I’m all alone. But this time everybody wanted to hang in there and, you know, stay involved and have opinions and stuff.

Anything else is different... I don’t know, I’m in a good place in my life right now, so it’s made me able to be a little more objective, I think, about what I want to write about. And differences like, I always thought a little bit about what would comfort me or make me feel better if I was a listener. I always thought about that, but I think about that more now, more than I used to.

- Why did you choose to record the album at Rockfield Studios, in Wales? Was it your first time there?

Yeah, I’ve never been there. I’ve seen the name a lot on records that I like, so it’s a legendary place. The guy that we asked to produce the record, Ian Laughton, he had worked there with Ash a long time ago. And he knows the engineer there and he said it would be a great place to be. And also we wanted to record in England because my wife and I have a toddler. We usually record in New York, but this time it would be easier for me to be close to home. So we practiced here and then recorded it there. We’ve been asked a lot if is there anything special about recording in a historic studio, if it’s just machines... But what’s good about it is that it puts you in a romantic mood of trying to achieve something. So it keeps everybody excited.

- What are some of the records that you like that were recorded there?

The first three Echo and the Bunnymen albums. “Shake Some Action” by the Flamin’ Groovies. And then a lot of punk and britpop. But it’s most famous for “Bohemin Rhapsody” and Oasis as well.

- What are some of the album's main themes?

The album is about division, about tolerance, about conquering our prejudices on the inside so that we can repair them on the outside too. I feel like personal politics lead to outside politics. People are writing each other off in the United States. I don't feel like I can afford to write people off, even if I don't agree with their politics. I was lucky to be born into a liberal progressive family. But I might have been born in a different one. We're very tribal, but I'll always believe that we have more in common than we think.

- Do you guys all live in New York at the moment? You’re in the UK now, right? How do you get together to play, rehearse and work on new songs?

Nobody lives in NY anymore. Daniel lives in Ibiza (Spain), Ira lives in Florida and our keyboard player Louie lives in Austin, Texas. And we rehearse here. Yeah, I mean, it was easier when we all lived in NY, but I think it’s part of why the band has stayed together for so long. We allow each other to have our lives. And if we all had stayed in NY, even if our families lived elsewhere, I think it could have caused some kind of resentment, I’m not sure.

- The songs on the new album sound very fresh and energized, like we are listening to a new band, and not a band that is on the road for more than 20 years. 

That’s great!

- So, where do you get inspiration from to keep things interesting for you and also for the audience? 

Uh, I don’t know. You have to keep pushing yourselves a little bit. I wish I had a better answer. Cause it’s very possible that we could stop being interesting. We’re not interesting on purpose, I can tell you that.

- Yeah, but do you keep up to date with what’s going on in the music world, do you listen to new bands or do you get inspiration from other sources such as movies or, I don’t know, your family or somewhere else?

Yeah, it’s everything. I do listen to new music and stuff. We do not try to keep up with the times or anything, there’s nothing like that. We don’t try to make this kind of music because the kids are into it or anything like that. I’m into literature and painting. I mean, it’s tricky in all arts, because you want to be natural and let your imagination run free, and at the same time you have all this craft. And you can be a quick judge, maybe too quick of a judge. So it’s hard to combine everything you’ve learned from all the music that you’ve listened to, and do your craft with freedom. Maybe you’ll have an idea and you’ll shoot it down before giving it a chance cause you’re judging it. But you need that judgement, so it’s a contradiction.

- Over the years you have recorded with an orchestra on “Peaceful Ghosts”, you have made a covers album (“If I Had a Hi-fi”), and also a record with Juliana Hatfield (“Minor Alps”). Is there anything you would like to do musically that you haven’t been able to do yet?

Well, I’ve been writing songs with a lot of people. I might put out a record of songs I’ve written with others. And there’s a record that I’ve made with a guy called Michael Lerner, in a band called Telekinesis. So yeah, I’ve got other projects for sure.

- What would you say Nada Surf’s role in the current alternative rock scene is, if there is one? I mean, do you worry or think about staying ‘relevant’ in the music business and breaking new ground, or reaching a wider audience? I mean, what’s your goal artistically at this point in your career?

I do worry about reaching a wider audience, we always want to do that if possible. But I don’t worry about our place or keeping up or anything like that. I can’t really think in those terms. I can only artistically. I don’t know what our role is. We’re the old guard. I just wanna work, do what I love, try and do good work. Recently I put out a single named “Song for Congress”, which is a song talking directly to senators and congressmen in the American government. And I played it in Washington, and that’s something I’m definitely trying to get into a bit more. I wrote it in reaction to the stories of families separation in the Mexican border. I was so upset by that, and so I wanted to do more than just call my congressman. So I wrote a song directly to them and wrote a piece about it.

- For a band of your stature, what advice would you give to new bands who might be following on your footsteps, considering how influential you guys are? I mean, a lot of bands fight a lot about stuff like song structure, arrangements, whose songs get included and whose songs are left out etc. What’s your take on this, from your experience?

Well, it can really help… It depends. If one person writes the songs, then… If a band is just a short project, that person should keep the rights to those songs. But if it’s a band that you want to really last, it’s good to share publishing. I basically write the songs in the band, all our names go on them and we split all the money. It helps to take away the argument of which songs to put on the record, because that argument can come a lot. The Byrds, for example, one of the best bands ever. Gene Clark wrote their first songs, so he made a lot of money much faster than the other guys and they really resented him. And then it caused arguments in the band and they kicked him out. It can really destroy you. I think it’s like a marriage, you have to work on tolerance and be as kind as you can.

- You have tours aligned for Europe and USA in the next few months. Have you received any offers to come to South America? What are your memories from your past tours in Brazil?

Uhm, yeah, we have an offer to come back. We just don’t have time this year. My son will be starting school in September and I have to be home. So I hope we can come back next year. I had great experiences playing in Brazil, the audiences were fantastic and I really liked the food too. I like muqueca. It’s really good. Yeah, we had an incredible time there, I can’t wait to come back.

- Any additional comments?

I was gonna say that I hope the next time we come we have some free time on Sunday, because I was walking on that big avenue where everybody plays outside [Avenida Paulista]. It would be great to play an outdoor acoustic concert there too.

Foto: Picjumbo

Mais um projeto de marketing de conteúdo em andamento neste ano. Em parceria com uma agência que atende clientes em nível global, escrevi conteúdos para a plataforma StubHub, que permite a compra e venda de ingressos para shows, espetáculos e eventos esportivos, entre outros.

Além de oferecer informações relevantes a respeito dos eventos, o trabalho tem como objetivo posicionar a plataforma na primeira página das ferramentas de busca, a partir do uso estratégico de palavras-chave primárias e secundárias.

Clique nas imagens para conferir alguns dos textos produzidos sobre Lady Gaga, Lollapalooza Brasil, Radiohead e The Rolling Stones.

AFP Daniel Hakim / E-Learn Magazine

SINGAPORE - Having a successful business means more than just offering a great product, satisfying customers and making a good profit – at least this is true for Bettr Barista Coffee Academy, in Singapore. For the 6-year-old company, success also means promoting social equality and skills development of at-risk youth and marginalized women in the country, so they can successfully enter the job market and build a better life for themselves. Learn about this Blackboard customer’s award-winning initiative and how they are getting ready to use Blackboard’s digital learning environment.

Click here to read the full story

All illustrations: TRiiBU Studio / E-Learn Magazine

WASHINGTON — Em 2017, comecei uma série de reportagens sobre o sistema educacional de diversos países para a E-Learn Magazine, publicação global da empresa norte-americana de tecnologia para educação Blackboard. Entre os países perfilados estão Brasil, França, Colômbia, México, Nova Zelândia, Austrália, Singapura, Bélgica, Países Baixos e Luxemburgo. Confira abaixo a reportagem sobre o Reino Unido.


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Despite all of the concerns Brexit has raised for UK’s universities, such as funding issues, the land of hope and glory remains a great choice for students who want to attend some of its most renowned and best-ranked higher education institutions.