Music fromFriFa Alaska talks to RS about new album 3, electronic rock and hiatus

Before pausing your activities indefinitely, the Far from Alaska will complete a cycle started during the pandemic. The Potiguar trio formed by Emmily Barreto (vocals), Cris Botarelli (Lap Steel, synthesizer and vocal) and RAFAEL BRASIL (guitar) launches 3your new studio album, on all digital platforms via Onerpm. The 12 -track album is public after three EPS, with three tracks each, have been made available over the last three years – so, again, there are only three songs that end the tracklist.

Much three in this story, right? It is no coincidence. “It’s not four EPS, it’s all in three: we made three three -track releases each and now the album comes out with three unreleased, because everything revolves around the three”explains Rafael, methodically, to Rolling Stone Brazil.

The new work is a reflection of the social isolation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The trio was even with a studio scheduled to compose and rehearse the album that would succeed Unlikely (2017). The creative process happened, but otherwise: remotely, with each in their own home, and Cris and Rafael willing to learn how to record their own songs – even surpassing personal resistance. Botarelli explains:

“We are a band who wants to play everything loudly and sing screaming loudly. We never thought that making music in front of a screen corresponded with our way of making music, but it came to a point where it was or nothing. ”

Naturally, the trio began to venture into other genres besides the rock of alternative contours that so far did, as it was now possible to transcend the boundaries of their own instruments. Electronic rock sets the main tone of 3, but the album is not limited to that: it has pop, indie, reggae and even a track, “Hardxote”which seems to mix xote and technobrega (or at least the typical battery turns of the segment). According to the musicians, nothing planned, but totally aligned with their tastes. Rafael comments:

“We use the accidents that happen in life, in the band’s career. The initial plan doesn’t work, so we let it roll. The electronic was the natural way because we really enjoyed, both pop and electronic music itself. Even without the pandemic, I think this path would be together. Just married everything. ”

In turn, Emmily points out that isolation accelerated the process of exploring other genres and leaving the electronic on the front line. Without the pandemic, “it would have been slower.”

“I think we would arrive at that moment, but it wouldn’t have been on this album. I think it would be after that. I remember the feeling of: ‘We have to learn, chipped, F#Gave’. There was no other way. So it was at Marra. ”

More collaborative

3 It also differs from other Far from Alaska albums by having greater participation of external agents, whether in performance, production and even composition. According to the technical sheet available on the platforms:

• Leningiant of Brazilian music, participates in “look”;
• Duck BantonBritish icon of reggae, participates in “Secret”;
• Medullacarioca rock band, coescribes and participates in “Future”;
• Yung Buddha co -scale “Future” and participated in an excluded version of the track, due to a career gap announced after allegations of harassment;
• Lucas Silveiravocalist and guitarist of Fresnoco -produces “Cuz You”, “Good part” and “Trouble”;
• IZZY CASTRO (Twin Pumpkin) produces “look” and co -produces “Txanaman”, “Auuu”, “Hardxote”, “Meltdown”, “Secret”, “Good Part”, “Trouble”, “Go Ahead” and “The Sun”;
• Luiz Gadelha (Talma & Gadelha) Coescribes “Auuu”;
• Gabriel Soutomember of projects like Dusolto and Luisa and the alchemistscoescribes “Hardxote” and co -produces “Trouble”.

Despite the long list, the trio points out that the material, mostly, has arrived ready for these employees. “I think who was a little looser was Lucas Silveira, because he does it for a long time and he is doing it, because he is very thousand volts. I think that’s where we lost control a little more, but we still disturb a lot ”says Rafael. “The terror of producers and mixers – they working and we follow and breathe in the neck”jokes Cris.

Each collaboration has its history, but Lenin’s yields a separate report. The band and the legendary MPB artist met in the 2017 edition at the Festival Coma in an unusual way. Brazil remembers:

“At the end of our show, it was common for the guys of other bands to invade the stage in the last song. When I look to the side, Lenin is. Then I remember giving him a long hug and he just cursed: ‘P#ta it, Car#lho, very f#da’. He really enjoyed it. When the record rolled, we remember and invited it. He stifled on the spot. We went to his studio, we recorded with his son, because they have a studio. When he sings, he has a giant identity. ”

What changes – and what is maintained

Each Member of Far from Alaska reported a different change in the approach of his instrument (s) while recording 3. With the word, the trio:

Cris Botarelli: “I don’t even know what I recorded in every song. We are building and we are recording. I have a producer vein, more than an instrumentalist, so I love to lose control of what I already did. In this album, I was less limited by my own instruments, which are no longer few and still decided to take over. There are so many synths on the album that live, you can’t even choose one of them to play. ”

RAFAEL BRASIL: “Node Unlikelywe had bassist in the band, then he left and who did the bass at the shows was me. Then Cris started to do more and on the new album she plays lower than me. They also changed the tones, because in the set of tracks 3.3, for example, I don’t even know how to turn on the fuzz pedal. Now use more clean guitar, drive, ambience effects. It didn’t even exist delay on my pedalboard. ”

Emmily Barreto: “I’m not screaming so much on this album, but at the same time there is music where I scream a lot. This album is where people will be able to hear in a softer way, but in parts. I think we present other sides of my voice. There is a particular song that I look forward to everyone to listen to: ‘The Sun’. Whenever I hear, I say, ‘Wow!’. ”

And what remained? The free spirit in terms of musical genre. It is even something that, according to the members, the fans themselves have always embraced, because not even the most different tracks of 3 suffered with rejection. Rafael states:

“I think this is the band with less rejection I’ve ever seen in my life. Everyone likes it a lot, we are very grateful for it. I remember that this fear of rejection happened in Unlikelybecause they put us in this place Stoner Rock, ‘a lot of rock’, and us: ‘No, it’s all pink, it’s crazy, to that’. We felt that the most traditional rock fans would find it bad, but the crowd came along. Very few people did not enter this. We are not in our apex of number on the internet – because we take the foot off the accelerator – but who is still there is a lot. So keep spreading our sound to friends. ”

Gap and future

With 3 Properly released, Far from Alaska holds its latest performances before the break. One of them takes place on April 6, at Cine Joia, along with the Sugar kane and other attractions. During another, scheduled for April 8, there will be the recording of a DVD, with place and more information to be released soon.

The next efforts focus on the projects apart from each musician – where they, in a way, are also together. THE EGO KILL TALENTactive for more than a decade and previously consolidated with another formation, has Emmily Barreto and Cris Botarelli Since 2022 and 2024, respectively. Already the Swavedefined as “simple, easy and fun rock”, counts on Cris and Rafael. The guitarist also conducts the Tigerwith a repertoire described by him as “acoustic songs, love and levinhas”.

The pause in Far from Alaska activities occurs precisely in order to have time for other initiatives – besides, of course, to offer a breath to a band that has been in uninterrupted activity since 2012. Cris Botarelli explains:

“We have been coming from many years and a lot of intense work. We decided to take time to devote ourselves to these other projects as well. Far from Alaska is the center of our musical activities. Exactly because of thinking of a continuity, I think it comes time in life when every musician wants to do other things. It’s time to breathe and come back with … I don’t know like, right? Because we do not commit too much to any of our previous work. We always invent something new. ”

But the band comes back, right? “Yes”explains the multi-instrumentalist. “But we don’t know when. We don’t put dates. ”

*3Far from Alaska’s new studio album is available on all digital platforms via Onerpm.

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