The band PLEASURE MAKER from Rio de Janeiro was built in 2001 by its guitarist and main music maker Alex Meister. What do they play? Pure 80´s hard rock with undeniable influences of Def Leppard and Bon Jovi, full of virtuous guitars, great singing, thicky choruses full of cool backing vocals but with specific characteristics and a lot of personality, of course! At the end of the last year PM released its second CD, TWISTED DESIRE, by the American recording company Perris Records and distributed also by the Japanese Spiritual Beast. Since then they´ve been catching the fruit of a very professional work they started to grow 4 years ago when they released their first album, LOVE ON THE ROCKS, also by Spiritual Beast.
Now on the 3rd of May, PLEASURE MAKER is getting ready to another big moment being in charge to warm up the audience for Richie Kotzen, one of the best guitarists of these days who besides a perfect solo career used to be a member of two great bands: Mr. Big and Poison. The concert will be at Hard Rock Café in Rio de Janeiro and you can read more information on the band´s websites: www.myspace.com/pleasuremakerrocks www.pleasuremaker.com/port/merch.htm
PLEASURE MAKER´s line-up is formed by Alex Meister, guitar and backing vocals, C. Marshall, lead vocals, Andy Starr, bass and backing vocals, Sandro Rossi, keyboards and Adriano Morais, drums and backing vocals. The band has never had deep line-up changes having just added Sandro as the official “keys man” last year and changed the bassist also.
TWISTED DESIRE counts on Alex himself taking care of the executive production and musical direction, Gustavo Sazes graphic art of the Japanese version, illustration of the cover by Ramon Saroldi, photography by Alexandre Farias and Will.
The album was recorded on two studios: Casa do Mato and Stone Studio, of Sidney Sohn, who has also recorded all keyboards and worked as sound engineer on the recording.
After 3 months of hard working TWISTED DESIRE was finally released in Brazil, on the 22nd of August of 2008, in the USA and Europe on October the 7th.
We talked a bit with C. Marshal and Alex Meister about several things and our conversation brought us to this great interview full of advices, tips, funny moments, serious talking and lost of nice stories.
I hope you enjoy and, of course, check PLEASURE MAKER out, listen to their music and read more (the website is very beautiful!). Buy the cds too and help the independent rock of PM grow and improve even more. Help them go on cause this is for sure an international level band 100% made in Brazil.
STAY ROCK!
Maila: Having 2 cds on, several positive reviews, international distribution and so on, let´s talk a bit about the myth “recording company”. What are the pros and cons of being an artist with a contract to follow? Which kind of changes happened to Pleasure Maker?
C. Marshal: Having a contract with a company can be really positive but I also see possibilities of turning it into a chaos. It depends a lot on whom you start a partnership to promote your work with. Since the releasing of our first album, “Love On The Rocks” , around 4 years ago, we faced very positive
partnerships. Since our first contact with the Japanese recording company Spiritual Beast until the contract we signed with Perris Records last year, we have really gotten more mature and today we know how to proceed. This is why we are still have total control of our work in South America in which concerns to selling material. Perris takes care of the USA and their partners around the world. We have a very good relationship and hope it get can get even better. Meanwhile we are still independent here and are very proud of it. It is much better this way
Alex: Although we lose some of the control of the business abroad it´s a fact that having a deal brings credibility and open doors taking the band to places where if we were independent they would be more difficult to achieve. But we intend to keep independent in Brazil and South America. I don´t see how a small company would really make us grow here unless the deal includes distribution.
Maila: Tell us about the receptivity of the fans around the world.
C. Marshal: I believe the scene´s been changing specially in the USA and South America. A good example is to see bands like Motley Crue taking 20 thousand people to a concert in Argentina and Journey selling over a million copies of their new album only in the USA. I think the world has always received Pleasure Maker very well. Even a guy from Serbia and Montenegro has written to us telling how much he liked the CD. Unfortunately in Brazil things are more difficult for those who play music more back to the 80´s as we do.
We are not in vogue and it makes difference. But it makes us happy to see our work being well received even though we are not a mainstream band. It makes us feel like going ahead, besides, of course, our love to music!
Alex: The feedback we have from the USA has been one of the strongest. I believe it´s a good market to Hard Rock. The audience and the media from there are great, specially regarding our new album, even thickest (laughs). In relation to Brazil there has never been any supporting to our style even in the 80´s. But I believe nowadays Hard rock could become a more concrete style here as a segment of underground music.
Maila: How was the music making process of Twisted Desire?
C. Marshal: It was basically the same as our first record with just a few changes. On the first album Alex and I wrote more and made most of the songs together. On this second album Alex wrote more and whenever I arrived to meet him he had already done a lot. I did melodies and wrote some lyrics. Something different on this album is that I made an entire song almost by myself and I don´t play any melodic instrument. Song & lyrics for “Remember” are mine. I recorded it and took to Alex who completed the job. I have already done it in other projects but it was the first time with Pleasure Maker.
Maila: And how has Pleasure Maker´schedule been? Yo will be warming up for Richie Kotzen, right?
Alex: Yes, we were invited by the producers of the event. It will be a great honor to share the stage with someone I admire so much. About our schedule, there are concerts being booked but we cannot tell the dates yet.
Maila: What are Pleasure Maker´s biggest influences? Which bands would you consider a dream come true sharing the stage with?
Alex: Our main influences are Def Leppard, Bon Jovi , Scandinavian hard rock bands and 80´s pop. It would be a dream come true sharing the stage with some of the ones I had mentioned as influences. Maybe someday...(laughs)
Maila: How do you see the present market in which concerns to downloading and piracy? Are you against free downloading? What are the possibilities we have nowadays to recover the money invested on CD production?
Alex: I am not against free downloading if the purpose is promoting. I mean, it is worth to put songs available although I do not agree into putting the entire album. By the other hand as a musician and a cds collector I am against it. Contradicting the actual quote “bands don´t make money selling cds but doing concerts”, I´d say that our second album was possible to be made just because of the first one´s good selling. People use this quote in order to justify the free downloading of full albums. In our case, if we depended on concerts booked to make money we would be in deep shit; only very well related bands make enough money here. The others have to be happy when offered the trip costs, hosting and very little money. Do you think it´s possible to record a professional album with it? I see no way out for this problem. I know there are projects going on trying to end up with it and keep the music market alive, but I can´t see the light at the end of the tunnel. We keep on making music because we love it, we don´t know how to live without it.
Maila: What makes booking concerts so difficult?
Alex: well, using the same thought of the previews answer, what makes it really difficult is the necessary amount of money to take a band to another state or city. As a producer I know both faces of this coin … by the other hand, it´s interesting to have a band from a different place in your event and of course it´s fair to pay for the band, so, it makes the budget really high. The usual solution is giving a share of the profit to the band but it really depends on the person who is producing and organizing the event cause he has to work hard promoting the event in order to make profit.
Maila: What are Pleasure Maker´s plans for the near future?
Alex: We are finishing our first video clip. We intend to do more and more concerts to spread the band´s name all over. We are also starting to plan our third album but have no idea of when we will release it.
Maila: Which do you consider the 5 main steps to achieve a professional level being able to be inserted in a global market without shame?
1 – The main thing is to have an identity. It´s common to see works where the style becomes a real Frankenstein with no identity. Only a nonsense mixing that confuses the audience´s mind when they buy the album or go to the a concert. (C. Marshal)
2 – Giving attention to the quality of the songs. Appearance is important to an artist, of course, but if it comes without good music it is worth nothing.(Alex)
3 – Having a direction. You must know your goals and do the right programing in order to achieve them. For example, if your band is a beginner and you have no support, you must save money to invest in quality when it´s time to record and produce the material. Even though Internet and MP3 low the quality, nobody stands on bad recorded music.(Alex)
4 – Playing what you like and what you are able to play. If you don´t play well, don´t try to be like Mr. Big, choose Poison! (laughs). Everybody likes it and you will leave a good impression!(Alex)
5 – Discipline. A lot of practicing, studying the instrument, rehearsing non stop and, of course, being opened to constructive criticism. People from the outside can see things you sometimes cannot. (Alex)
Maila: What is the most negative and positive thing you see in the Brazilian underground scene and mainstream?
C. Marshal: I guess in relation to underground it´s a fact that there are people investing on events, we could see it in cities as Juiz de Fora, Belo Horizonte and San Paulo. The negative thing perhaps is the fact that only a few underground events have a good infra-structure. In relation to the mainstream I am still not seeing the positive thing.(laughs), but it´s a fact that we don´t want to be underground forever even though we don´t make a type of music everybody listens to but we also know sometimes media likes what´s different. We bet on this differential to get space.
Maila: If you had the opportunity of booking a world tour with 3 bands, which would they be?
Alex: Watt, Treat and Tesla. These are only a few of the bands I really love (laughs).
Maila: What is your Brazilian bands top 5?
Alex: Dr. Sin is the first., I know it´s obvious but it´s impossible to get out of it sometimes (laughs). The others come in order: there is Tempestt from San Paulo, which is extremely professional, Bastardz, also from SP and very good inside their proposal, Glitter Magic from Minas Gerais, we had great moments sharing the stage with them and FairOff also from SP, they are recording a new album at the moment and it´s getting pretty good! I could mention more bands but you asked 5...(laughs).
