The Art of Prog

NOTE: Milton Mendonca interviewed Mindflow guitarist/vocalist Rodrigo Hidalgo in July of this year.

Milton: Good afternoon, Rodrigo. This is Milton calling you from the USA.

Rodrigo: Milton! How’s everything, my friend?

Milton: All is well over here. How’s Sao Paulo today?

Rodrigo: It’s nice out today. The sky is blue and the sun is shining. It’s actually weird, you can never predict the weather down here.

Milton: That’s a good thing though. Rodrigo, first of all, I really appreciate you taking the time for this interview today.

Rodrigo: The pleasure is all mine. I should be the one thanking you.

Milton: So, in a unexpected turn of events, MINDFLOW has landed a spot at ProgPower USA for the first time. How did this last-minute thing work out?

Rodrigo: Well, it was quite simple actually. We received an email from Glenn (Harveston) a few days ago, inviting us to perform at ProgPower, and we obviously accepted the invitation immediately. We are very, very happy to be able to play for the fans there. It’s something that we have always wanted to do, and we couldn’t wait for it to happen. Finally!

Milton: Good things happen to those who work hard enough, I guess.

Rodrigo: That’s true. It’s a really great honor for us to come to such as renowned festival. It’s quite an achievement in our careers, without a doubt.

Milton: Cool, were you familiar with ProgPower USA in the past?

Rodrigo: Oh, absolutely. We follow it every year, always check out the website and hear stories about how great of an event it is. We’re always tuning in for the latest news.

Milton: Cool, is there any bands in this year’s lineup that you’d be excited to watch if you get the chance?

Rodrigo: I actually want to see all of them! Especially FATES WARNING, that I have always loved. And our singer, Danilo Herbert will be joining CRIMSON GLORY onstage, that would be awesome to see too.

Milton: Great, it’s nice to see bands doing that. Now what can the fans in attendance expect of MINDFLOW live?

Rodrigo: Well, I think for sure the fans can expect a lot of energy, because MINDFLOW is much more powerful live than on the CD. This is something that we’re really proud of, this live energy. It is at the concert that MINDFLOW becomes the real MINDFLOW. It’s going to be an awesome show, for sure!

Milton: It’s interesting that you mention it, because I’ve always thought that MINDFLOW’s music, especially with the latest album calls for a live environment.

Rodrigo: Definitely. We really enjoy playing live, and the songs from Destructive Device work really well with the audiences.

Milton: Now, before we go on talking about Destructive Device, I wanted to ask you a little bit about the band itself, and its beginning.

Rodrigo: Sure. I think we started pretty much like any other band, a bunch of friends who wanted to play music together. We honestly didn’t take is very seriously in the beginning, but we always had in mind what we wanted to do. We always knew we wanted to play our own music, and we wanted to do something different. We wanted to innovate, you know?

Milton: Absolutely.

Rodrigo: So with this whole progressive rock and progressive metal thing, we took the liberty to try a bunch of different things and not confine ourselves to this genre. In fact, that’s the one thing I really like about the style of music we play. It gives us so much freedom to flirt with different types of music, and that’s exactly what we wanted to do. We always wanted to let our minds flow.

Milton: I think I’ve heard the expression somewhere before…

(mutual laughter)

Rodrigo: We started as an instrumental band with me, Ricardo Winandy, Rafael Pensado and Miguel Spada. Eventually, Danilo Herbert joined the band as vocalist and we renamed it MINDFLOW. That’s when we started taking it seriously.

Milton: How long ago was that?

Rodrigo: It was around 2003. Then in 2004, we finally released our very first album, Just the Two of Us, Me and Them, which we are very proud of. It was a whole new experience for us, since we’d never been in studio before. So that’s how we started, pretty much. The rest, as they say, is history.

Milton: It’s interesting then how the band’s name is not just a name, but rather, the band’s approach to writing music so to speak.

Rodrigo: Absolutely. That’s the whole point of the name. We try not to worry about the style, shape or form of the song. Usually we say that the songs end up composing us.

Milton: Cool. Just the Two of Us, Me and Them was a strong debut that immediately put the band out there in the scene, were you surprised by that?

Rodrigo: Oh yeah, very much so. We released this album with no ambitions, really. We sent a few copies to the press for reviews and I remember being very nervous to see what they would be saying about us and our music. And then all of a sudden we’re getting all of these positive reviews and we’re like “Wow!”

Milton: (Laughter) That’s great!

Rodrigo: Yeah, and then we attended this music expo in France and we brought a few copies of the album to pass around and promote our work. At this expo, we hooked up with a record label who really liked the album and wanted to sign us. We reached an agreement quickly, and our debut album ended up being released in 60 countries.

Milton: Wow, 60? That’s not too shabby for a debut, huh?

Rodrigo: (laughter) Not at all! We’re very proud of this album, like I said, it is very special to us. Kind of like the oldest son, you know? (laughter) And achieving that with our debut release gave us quite a boost of confidence to continue with our work and write more music.

Milton: I can imagine. I know there’s an interesting story behind the concept in your debut. Would you give me a little more insight on that?

Rodrigo: Well, first of all, allow me to say that when MINDFLOW releases an album, we always try to stay within a topic, or a theme, so to speak. We strongly believe this makes the release more powerful and we’re able to link this with various other forms of media, such as internet, videos, etc. Anyways, the concept behind Just the Two of Us, Me and Them is based on a true story. I had a cousin who was an airplane pilot in Brazil, and that had always made my family very worried about his safety. It was a recurring topic among our family, his safety and their worry. One night, I had a dream that something went wrong with his plane, and he died in the crash, but I never really mentioned it to anyone. I was never much of a believer in these things. Then, about a week later, we got the news that a plane crash ended up claiming his life.

Milton: Oh, no.

Rodrigo: Yeah, it was very sad. So the album really became kind of a tribute to him. We decided to tell this story through our songs. That’s the concept behind it.

Milton: I’m sorry to hear about such a sad story, but you created quite a tribute to him with the album. Now, you mentioned that you’re always trying to stick to a theme in the album, and yet bring the work to different media. Do you find it easier to stay within the same topic, when it comes to writing the songs?

Rodrigo: I think it’s something that you have to be much more careful with, actually. It requires more work from us, but it’s also something we really enjoy doing. We try to think of it as we’re not just composing an album, but the soundtrack to a specific topic. For instance, on the latest album, we approached as writing the soundtrack to an action movie. And we moved that beyond the music. Our artwork, the video, it all fits a “Mission: Impossible,” Hollywood-esque thing. Now that I think about, it’s much more labor-intensive, but it’s more gratifying in the end.

Milton: I can tell you that Destructive Device seems to have been a very elaborated project.

Rodrigo: You have no idea! (laughter) We always wanted to offer more to the public and to our fans, to go that extra step. Like I always say, MINDFLOW goes way beyond the music. Usually a band releases an album, does a tour and there’s that gap of a year or two until the next album, sometimes even more. We didn’t want this gap to exist, we wanted to stay connected with the public and always offer them interactivity with the band. So back in the day, we had the idea of creating an Alternate Reality Game about a Serial Killer.

Milton: Oh yeah, our good friend J.A.C.K.

Rodrigo: (laughter) Exactly. Basically, we created this character whose story goes through different parts. We released the first part of the game with our second album, Mind Over Body. It was actually kind of obscure, hidden in the album, sort of. Like, you’d have to figure it out by reading a few lyrics and looking at some signs and stuff. We left some cryptic clues so to speak so people could look and say “Huh, there’s something over here, what is this stuff?”

Milton: That’s really cool!

Rodrigo: It was awesome, because it took about a year and three months for our fans to finally reach the end of this enigma. And we had a lot of people who participated.

Milton: That’s a really awesome way to stay connected with the fans.

Rodrigo: Oh, most definitely. And that part of the story ends up with J.A.C.K. being arrested and thrown in a mental institution. Which is exactly where Destructive Device begins. Basically J.A.C.K. is able to escape from his confinement, and the detectives, who’re really the fans, have to figure out how he managed to do that, and try to catch him. They have just recently been able to solve this part, and now people are eager to hear what the next one will be.

Milton: So you’re not planning to end the story anytime soon, huh?

Rodrigo: Definitely not! It’s so cool, the fans love it and we have a lot of fun with it too. We try to innovate as much as we can, you know? We love our music, but there are other things that we believe to be very important, and we try to explore these things as much as possible.

Milton: So what’re you going to do that’s going to be innovative in Atlanta?

Rodrigo: (laughter) Ah, of course we have something up our sleeves. We will be playing a new song at ProgPower that is part of our next project, entitled MINDFLOW 365.

Milton: That’s great news. Tell me about this MINDFLOW 365 idea.

Rodrigo: Well, Destructive Device came out around a year or so ago. And we’re so anxious to put new music out, that we’ve decided to write and release one new song a month, in the period of a year.

Milton: Really?

Rodrigo: Yeah, we figured why wait another whole year? The first song will be released on 09/09/09, and we’ll have the opportunity to play it live for the first time ever at ProgPower. Each song will be released with a different product, the fans will be able to participate and choose the title of certain songs, for instance, it’s going to be very interactive.

Milton: That’s quite a bold project!

Rodrigo: It is. This way we can offer the fans the freshest ideas and music that we have.

Milton: That’s also a great way to allow the fans to know and to experience what you guys are feeling in the moment, or currently, so to speak.

Rodrigo: Exactly, you nailed it. That’s the concept, we want the fans to feel it as we do. If you think about it, a band writes the music, then the lyrics, rehearse it together, then start production in the studio, record the whole thing, work on the artwork and when you look at the calendar, it’s been easily six months. Then another few months until the album is out. It’s new to the public, of course, but it’s not the current moment the band is in, do you know what I mean?

Milton: Of course.

Rodrigo: So we thought it’d be interesting to release this album one song at a time and show the world what we’re living through and feeling through our music.

Milton: And would this be released only digitally?

Rodrigo: The idea is to release the songs digitally at first. We’ll set up a date for the fans to receive the lyrics, the title, then an exclusive wallpaper for that song, and finally, the song. We’ll be doing that every month, there’ll be different ways for the people to get the songs, which we haven’t announced yet. And then, after a year, we’re going to put out a conventional CD with these 12 songs, and the next part of our Alternate Reality Game.

Milton: Speaking of digital releases, MINDFLOW was one of the very first bands to make the whole album available on the internet, at no cost, for the fans. I’m curious as to what MINDFLOW’s position is on the whole Mp3/piracy issue.

Rodrigo: You know, we’ve had our opinion about it for a long time and it has never changed. We decided to make our songs available for the public for free because we really want them to listen to our music and get familiar with our work. And since nowadays we’re not really sure what tomorrow is going to bring in the whole Mp3 thing, we decided that we wanted our music to be available in the most widespread possible way. And we’re proud to be one of the first bands to do that, since it was great for us. It is an honor to have people access our website, download and listen to our music.

Milton: That’s a cool, sensible way to deal with it.

Rodrigo: You have to be. It worked in our advantage, because it increased our fan base and our concert attendance, which is really what matters. I don’t think anyone today should expect to make a living out of selling CDs. The CD is nothing more than a way to transport the music. Luckily, there are other ways for the music to reach the public, nowadays. Nobody really needs CDs anymore, if you think about it. So since day one, we decided on this approach. Think of the music as our business card. And then, more people will come to the shows and buy our merchandise.

Milton: That’s yet another way you guys seem to be one step ahead of things.

Rodrigo: Yeah, that’s a way to put it. Or even just follow the world as it evolves, really. CDs came out and they worked great for a long time, but things have changed. What matters the most to us is the proximity to our fans. Our fans can be sure that we’ll always be doing our best for them to reach us and our music.

Milton: And have you personally converted yourself to the digital era of downloads?

Rodrigo: (laughter) The funny thing is that I still like buying CDs.

(mutual laughter)

Rodrigo: But I’m slowly changing. I think nowadays there’s a general mentality that the band has to make the music available digitally, and not charge for it. Music listeners seem to have this mentality that allows them to listen to it without having to pay for it. I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad thing yet, but that seems to be a trend. It’s like music has become something that’s public domain. I don’t even think this is wrong, but I find it good and bad at the same time.

Milton: How so?

Rodrigo: I think if a band tries to shield themselves against it, they would end up hurting bad. However, if they embrace it and somehow evolve with this trend, I think it’s a killer opportunity for them.

Milton: What I can get out of this is that MINDFLOW is really not so worried about making money selling albums.

Rodrigo: Not with the albums, no. But for instance, our concert figures have increased tremendously. I think if we had opted to hold on to the music and not put it on the internet, like we did with our first release, I don’t know if people would’ve bought it. But once you release one product out there, the following ones will most likely be purchased. And the concert is one of these “products.” I think it’s a great way to start.

Milton: You guys seem to have a very cool and special connection with the North American crowd. Even Brazilian bands who have been out there for longer, don’t seem to get such a connection up here.

Rodrigo: Yeah, I know. I think it may be because of the style of music we play. I think the American crowd must be more into the heavier, more raw Prog metal. And obviously we’re heavier than those too. Especially with the release of Destructive Device, which received amazing reviews in the United States.

Milton: Now, you did a few tours here in North America, but you took a very unusual approach to those tours. Instead of trying to get an opener slot in a tour with a more established band, you chose to book your own headlining tour, despite of the size of the shows. Quite a risky attempt, no?

Rodrigo: Absolutely, but it totally paid off. It was a great experience, and the crowd’s response couldn’t have been any better. We were so thrilled by the way we were treated. I remember people flew hours just to be able to catch us on tour. That alone was worth the tour.

Milton: That’s excellent.

Rodrigo: I think when we were discussing the possibility of playing in the USA, it seemed right to us to do things the way we did. And it worked out. We usually tend to go where we believe we should go, you know? Even if it seems a bit unusual, sometimes, but it’s what’s in our hearts that counts.

Milton: Any interesting stories you can tell me of the last time you were here?

Rodrigo: Stories… we always have stories. Good and bad ones.

This ends Part One of Milt’s interview with Mindflow guitarist/vocalist Rodrigo Hidalgo. The complete interview can only be found in the official (printed) ProgPower USA program given to all attendees. If you want to read the entire interview, you have to come to the show!

Final Note: All photos/images used to illustrate this interview (except album covers) were provided by Mindflow. No copyright violations are intended.