Jimmy London talks about curating Matanza Ritual Fest and television career: ‘There is no more beloved son’

O Matanza Ritual and Top Link Music will hold another edition of the Matanza Ritual Festa festival that will bring together bands Matanza Ritual, Crypta, Black Pantera It is Evil.

O Matanza Ritual is formed by a team of national rock stars: the vocalist Jimmy London(Matanza)the bassist Felipe Andreoli (Angra)the guitarist Antônio Araújo (Korzus) and the drummer Amílcar Christofáro (Torture Squad).

In an interview with Rolling Stone Brazil, London he spoke about the process of curating the festival’s line-up and also explained how he balances music with acting. “They are all my children, and there is no more beloved child. They are very different”, said the artist when he tried to compare the two careers.

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Rolling Stone Brasil: With the release of the single “Morte Súbita”, is there a possibility of an album soon?
It’s a certainty, for several reasons. We’re full of songs ready and I think they have to get out of my head, otherwise I’m going to go crazy. Our music is going to a lot of different places, so it’s all influenced by my extremely headbanging friends — the AntonioO Hamilcar and the Philip — and there are my other crazy influences popping up in really crazy places. There is also a need for a band, to assert itself as a band. We’ve already made three singles, but now we’re going to make an album. Very soon we will make an album, yes. I want to sign with a cool record label, find something that works well for everyone, make a complete album and show people what the Matanza Ritual at that time.

Rolling Stone Brasil: And talking about the songs, do you want to say anything? What can fans expect?
I was thinking about this. If you look at the songs we’ve already released — “Sujeito Amargo”, “Rei Morto” and “Morte Súbita” — they kind of go to three different places. “Sujeito Amargo” is a very normal rock song. “Rei Morto” is a song that’s quite western and even post-metal, well hidden, but it’s there. And “Sudden Death” is thrash. In fact, it really sucks, it’s a heavy song. And then, if I start reviewing my notes here, everything I’ve been doing, especially with the Antonio, who composes a lot with me, we go to a lot of places, you know? I think there is punk rock, I think there is music that is just dirt, you know? Which is kind of grind, I think there’s rock, this epic rock that I think fits very well with us, kind of western. We go to this place a lot. There are some heavy metal, there are some rockão that are a bit ballad, a bit ZZTopthere are many different places.

I even need this album to be born, even so I can understand it, be able to arrange it, listen to it, because, as I sit here listening while I’m composing, things are flowing in my head. When I fix it, a record is born here, it’s ok, there’s a goalkeeper, there’s a defender, there’s a midfield player, there’s different musical modalities in there, even I’ll understand the band better.

Rolling Stone Brasil: How was the curation to choose the bands that will perform at Matanza Ritual Fest?
Look, I’ll be honest: this year it wasn’t difficult at all to choose bands that are close and that have been really standing out. Crypt, Black Panther It is Evil have been standing out a lot… Crypt It is Black Panther In the whole world. In fact, they have been phenomena, the likes of which we have not seen for a long time. If you take a look, it’s been a long time since Brazilian bands had such a devastating start to their career, having already gone through Rock in Rio, he knows? O Black Panther at the Lollapalooza… Top-notch stop, right? So, it was relatively easy.

At the same time, the Matanza Fest There’s a thing: I feel very much like a host, you know? I want to invite people I like to come to my house, as if it were a dinner for me to serve them. It’s my team that works with everyone all night, you know? It’s the way I advertise, it’s the way I do things. And then it was cool, like, being people that I’ve known for a long time, people that either I work with or I’ve always wanted to work with. Black Panther It’s the band I’ve been following for a long time. Crypt It’s a band I’ve been following for a long time. So, there is a closeness there and I am very happy to have them close at this moment.

Rolling Stone Brasil: I think you’ve already said a little, but can you tell me more about your relationship with each of these bands?
Yes, sure. Evil It was a band that we played together a lot, traveling around Angra Fest, at the beginning of this year. It was cool, because we got to do some shows with them. And then, they even did another show playing with us in São Paulo. It’s a very dedicated band. I think rock is very demanding in this sense of starting a job. So, it’s a band that is playing a lot and does it competently, does it well, does things well. I think this is cheap.

O Black Panther and the Crypt These are two bands, as I said, phenomenal, that have been attracting a lot of attention because they are really doing something out of the ordinary. O Black Panther, for example, was a band I played with. When I went to play in Uberaba, a long time ago, I went to do a show alone with a local band. I had the privilege of my local band being the Black Panther. I was already aware of the band before, I already knew the songs. After that, they ended up on the record label that has been my record company my entire life, which is DeckDisc, with the Rafa, who is my soul brother. They recorded with Jorge Guerreiro also, who is the guy who has worked with me for 20 years and travels with me every weekend. So, it was a very family thing. That was really cool.

A Crypt is a band that has people who left Nervous, which was the band I was closest to. It’s one of those bands that has been passing the spotlight in such a strong, obvious way that I say: “Wow, man, I can’t stop having this band.” And they also happen to work with people I work with. So, it was a close relationship there. Everything went very well. It was great to get everyone involved to be there at the Matanza Fest.

Rolling Stone Brasil: How have you balanced your music career with your acting career?
I was talking now, in fact, in another interview… I came to the conclusion that the pandemic was helping me, as incredible as it may seem. I don’t want to be so stupid as to say that something as bad as the pandemic was helping me. But what happens? While we were kind of coming out of that Covid era, audiovisual productions were demanding fewer days from artists, because they were concentrating filming days. It was a little easier for me to do this, because, even though I was doing shows, I didn’t have so many filming days to miss a date and cause problems.

As now things are relaxed in this regard, I have been facing a lot of difficulty in date. It’s been a problem, because then the productions want four, five months, and I can’t give four, five months of exclusivity. I always have a show scheduled. But I’m really looking forward to filming again. This year, I hardly did anything in that sense. It was one of the coolest things I discovered recently. I can’t be without it, no. So, I have to manage, I have to find a way. But I need to get back to doing my little television things, which are a lot of fun.

Rolling Stone Brasil: Are there any projects on the horizon that you can talk about?
Look, not being able to advance, no. We have other seasons of projects that I’ve already done, which should happen later on, but we have to wait for them all to give the green light. I’m just waiting here at home, biting my nails and waiting, anxious.

Rolling Stone Brasil: Do you like one career more than the other, music or acting?
Like most? He can’t, because he’s like a son. Dude, look, the truth is… How can I say this without wanting to respond to that very obvious thing? They are all my children, and there is no more beloved child. They are very different. I never had, in fact, the opportunity to act for years, as I don’t have with music, to understand the result of this in the head, in the body, to know if it’s good for me here, if it’s bad for me. So, it’s not even fair for me to compare the two. I’ve been, I don’t know, touring with a band for 30 years. I worked for four, five years, and even then, sporadically. In about 30 years I will answer you.

Rolling Stone Brasil: You’ve been acting for a relatively short time, but you’ve already been part of big productions: Globo, Netflix… What was that process like?
Well, I arrived at these productions in the most normal way possible. I took tests, competed against a group of people, passed and was chosen. Is very difficult. Acting is a very difficult thing. It requires, at least in my case, a lot of mental dexterity. You have to be present in that moment, in a very acute way, you know? And, at the same time, there is no such thing as being forced to be present. Being present is a slightly longer process: you have to breathe, you have to know how to be present in things. On a stage, for example, it might be a little easier to be present, because, despite everything being more or less the same, you have the music there in your ear. If you close your eye and listen to the music, you are taken away. But, in acting, I think you have to know how to psychologically put yourself in the situation to take it. It’s a bit complex, maybe I didn’t explain it that well, but there are differences. Acting is difficult, I find it difficult. I don’t have that much technique, obviously, but I also don’t have that much technique when singing. I want to do more and more things, including knowing how to do them.

Rolling Stone Brasil: How did you discover you wanted to act?
I was called to make a move called Two brothers. I was actually invited. Like, “Come here, we want you,” and then it was kind of easy. I mean, it was easy because I didn’t have to audition or anything, they said: “Come here, be yourself, play this role here”. And then I got there and it wasn’t like that at all, it was a super difficult role, full of details and complicated things, accents… I had to bend over backwards to do it. But I really enjoyed doing it. I thought it was really fun, I thought it was really cool. And then something happened… A television bug bit me, and now I’m bitten. I don’t know how else to explain this, other than to say that it really felt like it.

Tickets for the Matanza Fest They are for sale on the Ticket 360 platform, starting at R$85, plus administrative fee, with the possibility of paying in installments.

Service

Matanza Ritual Fest
Date: December 9, 2023 (Saturday)
Local: Audio (Av. Francisco Matarazzo, 694 – Água Branca – São Paulo – SP)
Opening: 7:30 p.m.