BEST OF TIMES: desde faro, portugal sxe: PRESSURE

buenas!
para los que aun les importa el hc, les dejo una entrevista realizada a esta genial banda hc sxe, que sigue con el espíritu youth crew de la ciudad Faro en portugal... PRESSURE

NAME AND BAND POSITION?
Hey there! Name is Diogo I’m the singer. The other guys are Rafael playing drums, Valter on bass, João and David on guitars.

LETS TALK ABOUT YOUR INFLUENCES. CAPPO STYLE.. TRYING TO SAVE THE WORLD WITH THE POSITIVE OUTLOOK THINKING, OR IAN MACKAYE STYLE, TRYING TO BE MORE INTROSPECTIVE AND DIY. WHAT DO YOU THINK PRESSURE HAS TO OFFER TO THE HC SCENE TODAY?
I don’t know, I certainly can relate with both styles, being positive and still introspective. And I totally relate with DIY thinking, specially on small bands, where we can still easily do most of the things ourselves. From promotion, to booking our shows, and having control over basically everything that goes on with the band. I don’t think I’d want to be in a band with contracts and people telling me what to do… I do this for fun, and I have a great time when I’m writing songs, recording the songs, working on the layout, playing shows. doing merch and all that comes with being in a band. If I had someone pushing me to play more shows, put out new records on a specific schedule this would stop being fun, it would turn into a job… That’s why we choose this name pressure – cause we’re sick and tired of all the pressure we feel out there. We want this band to work as our relax time, our own therapy. I don’t relate with the “saving the world part” I’m here to save myself and if I can inspire someone along the way with my example – great, and if I don’t, that’s fine too.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? VEG OR NOT VEG?
Well I’m the only one in the band not vegetarian, so my favorite food right now would probably be something Indian, chicken with those spicy sauces, they have great vegetarian dishes with potatoes and spinach too. Or Mexican burrito’s and stuff.. I love eating and trying different food!

WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST, INSTED OR CHAIN OF STRENGTH?
Chain of strength absolutely. One of the most intense bands ever, every song seems the most urgent thing in the world!

WHAT HAPPENED WITH FARO SXE? IS IT STILL COOL, I REMEMBER POINTING FINGER TIMES WERE REALLY SXE POSI AND COOL..
Straight Edge has never been big in Faro. The first sxe band was Pointing Finger started in 1999! And people from Faro didn’t use to like us, that’s why we were always playing in Lisbon or doing Eropean tours. There was a band called Get Lost after that and Broken Distance but always the same members you know?
Actually this new band Pressure has the four guys who used to be in Pointing Finger (me, David João and Rafael) so it’s a new band but when we’re playing live it’s like nothing changed from the Pointing Finger days. Faro is a small town (about 50,000 people) so it’s hard to find enough people into this kind of music, and the ones who like the music don’t know how to play instruments, and the few who know how to play music don’t commit to sacrificing their time to be in a band.. that’s why me and Rafael when we started this band ended up inviting our old friends, cause we didn’t have any other valid options. The other guys play in this amazing band called Broken Distance.

AND, WHAT HAPPEND WITH POINTING FINGER?
Pointing Finger was around for 8 years… we started it when I was 16, it ended when I was 24 years old. We did 5 full European tours, released 2 demo’s, 4 7”s and one full length.. we had labels releasing our music all over the world but we didn’t manage to tour South America, Usa or Asia cause we were all students and were always broke .. so after releasing our full length we got to a point where it seemed like we’ve reached everything that we’ve aimed as reasonable. That’s why we called it quits. We did one last tour and played our last show here in Faro. I experienced a lot of things thanks to that band, I learned a lot, met a lot of different and interesting people, visited about 15 European countries and it helped me grow a lot too.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU PLAY SHOWS?
About once every 3 weeks or so.. it’s hard to find free time and we don’t want to play every week in our area.. We have a small tour planned for November through Europe with Broken Distance though.

I THINK, YOU ARE THE GUYS THAT BOOK THE SHOWS TOO? JEJEJE IS THE SAME HERE IN GUATEMALA.. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT GUATEMALA HC...
I don’t know much man, I know a few bands like XSangre JovenX, Venganza, Fuerza X and xEterna Conviccionx… and now I know I’d like to go there one day, like a México/Guatemala surf trip or something

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE HC BAND RIGHT NOW? WHAT IS YOU FAV HC BAND IN EUROPE RIGHT NOW AND OLD TIME HC...
Right now it’s probably Gone But Not Forgotten from Seattle. In Europe Broken Distance, and from the old school Gorilla Biscuits. More recent but still gone: In My Eyes and Carry On!

what do you do for living?
Diogo - I’m a lawyer, Rafael works in a resort, David in a pharmacy, João in the airport and Valter studies management. Working class oi!

Do you have any sxe or hc tattoos related?
Diogo - I don’t, I’m not into tattoos.. João and Valter have stuff in their legs like youth of today’s fists and judge’s hammers.. stuff like that, Rafael has straight edge written on his back.. I guess we all should do whatever we want with our bodies, and there are a lot of tattoos that looks great, but seeing kids getting into hardcore and doing two full sleeves and chest pieces in a matter of months makes me wonder… I mean I knpw people who tattooed VEGAN STRAIGHT EDGE on their backs and by the time the finished the tattoo they weren’t vegan nor straightedge anymore.

What do you think about hc and sxe have done for you in your personal life? school, work, etc
Diogo - It has taught me a lot!
It has helped me grow and thanks to hardcore and straight edge I think I’ve been living a much richer life, in the sense that I’ve experienced more things than I would if I had never been in contact with this sub culture. Specially the “do it yourself” ethics, have made me improve and learn about a lot of things, like music, editing, writing, recording, distributing, you know?
A band is almost like a small business, there’s a lot of stuff to take care and manage besides playing and writing music.
And at a small level we need to do eveything ourselves, most times as a team.
As I started working I realized how hardcore has shaped me into someone ready for the real world! There’s a lot of things you can’t learn from books. Thanks to hardcore I’m ready to talk in public, I’m not stage frighten like most people are, I can go to court and speak to the judge’s face without blinking ‘cause these past 10 years I’ve been singing in a band and facing a crowd of people who are looking at me and judging what I do and how I act.
Hardcore has taught me hard work, preseverance, honesty, opened my eyes to other countries and cultures.. It’s hard to imagine my life without this whole thing.

Thanks for this interview, you can reach us at myspace.com/xpressurehcx

xxx