5th Machine recently released their debut album Back in Time through Lions Pride Music. 5th Machine has an infinity for the pop culture and rock music of the 1980s and 1990s. This Barretos, São Paulo, Brazil 6 piece promises to hit you like a locomotive with their memorable melodies, passionate guitars, and catchy choruses and inspired harmonies. Metal Express had the chance to catch up with 5th Machine founder and vocalist Fabio Cabral. So strap yourselves in, because when this baby hits 88 miles per hour… well, you know the rest!
Metal Express Radio: If I knew absolutely nothing about 5th Machine, how would you describe the band’s music to me?
Fabio Cabral: Our music is based on two great musical styles, Hard Rock with great influences from AOR, but we cannot fail to mention some Heavy Metal essence in some songs. But, describing 5th Machine, with no doubt, it is a Hard Rock band.
MER: Your debut album Back in Time is set to be released on June 29, 2020. What songs are you most proud of and why? You can’t say all of them…
FC: It is extremely difficult to talk about which songs we are most proud of. The riffs were created by a triad [of] Guma, Tiago Fusco (guitarists), and I. The lyrics were written by Tiago Fusco and me. However, we can mention some songs that make us proud, like “Back in Time” that has opened all the doors for us to be here today. This song was to end up our 20 years old career. “5th Machine” the song, which expresses all the veracity of the band and the songs. “The Wind” and “The Song of a Beggar,” which were made in moments that Tiago Fusco and I were far from our families. It expresses pure feelings about the true love of father to son and empathy to others.
MER: 5th Machine says Back in Time is a locomotive that will bring you back to the 80’s. What bands from the 80’s inspire you?
FC: The 1980’s and 1990’s produced countless bands, but for sure, bands like Kiss, Quiet Riot, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Scorpions, Queen, Racer X, Winger, Dokken, Ratt, Savatage, and so on were great inspirations.
MER: The 80’s rock scene was known for its excess and debauchery. What’s the craziest thing any member of 5th Machine has done that lives up to the standard of that era?
FC: I can say that like any other teenager, rebellion was part of us. We went to concerts and drank a lot, but we always avoid fights and things like that. In Brazil, being a rocker or a metal head, as you prefer, is being different. It means being excluded from a good portion of society. Being stopped by the police without doing anything wrong and other things like that were part of our adolescence, but we learned to live with these situations, as we were directly in the sights of those who did not take us kindly. Long hair, earrings and band t-shirts were enough for people to make a bad judgment and debauchery on us, even though we’ve never done anything wrong.
MER: Who came up with the band name and what inspired it?
FC: The name of the band was created by me. My inspiration came after a trip I made to a historic village called Paranapiacaba in the countryside of the state of São Paulo. in this small village, there was a building from the 19th century called “Quinta Machina.” I am a historian, and curiosity made me research the place. I found out that in this building, all the creation and developmental projects related to the functioning of a locomotive (it’s tracks and all the railway) were born in this house.
Thus, the idea of building 5th Machine was born. A rock band of 5 friends from the past (who are now 6 friends). Where all projects (songs and lyrics) are created in the band, which led to the release of the album “Back in Time”. Furthermore, the locomotive became 5th machine’s symbol, taking on the role of an artifact that will take us straight to the golden years that inspired us musically and artistically. Fulfilling the desire to “go back in time”, from the 1980’s and 1990’s.
MER: Is 5th Machine going to be able to tour in support of Back in Time?
FC: Definitely. Concerts were scheduled in Brazil and Chile but were canceled due to the Corona Virus pandemic. For 2021 we already had concerts booked in Europe, but we need to reorganize the schedules and do what we like best, play on stage as soon as possible.
MER: Do you have any rituals before you hit the stage?
FC: Yes. Besides the normal vocal warm-ups, I try to meditate and be silent! Projecting the best concert to everybody who is watching us. I remember this one time, at the opening of a concert we did for Marky Ramone and The Intruders, Marky Ramone asked the band, “Are you sure he is the lead singer?” I talked to him a lot after the concert. Explaining why I was silent, leading up to many questions of a real fan which I couldn’t ask before the concert, [and I took] several photos with this real Punk Rock icon.
MER: What is your favorite 80’s movie and why?
FC: Absolutely, one of the best questions, because it defines the whole style of the band. I speak not only for myself, but also for everyone else in this band. In my adolescence it was not enough just watching the movies, but the songs were part of a whole process that formed my musical style and taste. Who does not remember the movies of John Hughes who died in 2009? His movies portrayed the reality of all teenagers of a time, dealing with topics that are intensively addressed today, such as bullying.
And the songs, which expressed all the results of everything that happened in the movies? Movies such as Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991), and Young Guns II (1990). It is difficult to choose just one, but I would definitely choose the 1985 film Back to the Future, because it was part of my history and of an entire generation.
MER: Is music your life or do you have a “day job?”
FC: Yes, I have a day job. I am a history professor and political scientist at a university, but music is in my thoughts. Without it, “life would be a mistake”. That’s why I make my own life a work of art. Between teaching, knowing how to learn, knowing how to live, listening to the best songs, to be able to leave a legacy in this world of so many impurities and uncertainties.
MER: Is there anything I missed that you’d like fans to know about?
FC: 5th Machine is a band that will make you feel a returning to the past, as if you were in a time capsule listening to the songs that made you feel good. We have our characteristics, based on influences from Hard Rock and AOR, but we try to avoid formulas or things like that. In addition, you will find not only a world of riffs and solos, in each song’s lyrics [you’ll find] the purest feelings of what [it was like] to live in the past of one of the best times that anyone could have lived; the 1980’s and 1990’s. On the album Back in Time you will also find our realities inthe present time.
Be the first to comment