Sérgio Dias: guitar against ignorance
The eternal Mutante puts out Estação da Luz, against the cultural distress promoted by military dictatorship and claiming for living idols
Silvio Essinger
04/04/2001
"Are you pissed off? Because I am, too. But there's no use in getting pissed off and doing nothing about it!", says the Mutantes guitarist Sérgio Dias. The question was about the reasons why he recorded the album Estação da Luz 
, coming out on his label, Lótus Music, distributed on Ouver Records. To Sérgio, this CD is nothing less than his declaration of total war against the ignorance in Brazil in 2001. "I tried to be more clear and specific in the lyrics", he says. The opening track, Filhos do Silêncio, goes about the cultural deplete promoted by the military dictatorship. "What matters is to understand that money comes as a consequence. Education and culture are more important", he preaches.
Concerned about Brazil possibly joining Alca ("The country is psychologically dominated!"), Sérgio is scared of the "to each their own" ideology that rules the youth: "The identification with a tribe is more important than the pursuit of success. What moves people is the will - the Mutantes, for instance, never sold records." Even the disappointing results achieved by race driver Rubens Barrichello have room in his apocalyptic theory on the country: "This means: 'Wake Up! There's no more [Ayrton] Senna, no more Mutantes, no more soccer wonder.' Something is very wrong!"
Living idols
Estação da Luz, the guitarist says, was made along four years that he spent in Araras, a small town in the mountains in Rio de Janeiro state (he has just moved back to São Paulo, "stressed out with all the green environment"). Sérgio spent that period watching his daughter Virgínia, 17 years-old, hit puberty and get angry because she and her friends missed references. "If they got to find out about Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, that's very positive. But sticking to dead idols is a big waste of time. The youth needs living idols, concrete mirrors of their personality", he believes.
According to him, the only way out is to do what he did in his youth: "To play music on the streets and not care about making a million bucks." But with one update: "I want her to find her own identity, to come agaist us." He notices "a few explosions" that might break the process. Like Lobão, who printed numbers on his independent albums and sold them at newsstands to denounce the corruption on major labels. Or Sepultura, who became notorious outside of Brazil and then had to be accepted in their own country. And also the independent labels, which took advantage of the Internet to make information available. "It's all too chaotic, mad. But it's a start. On our days, for example, we were tuned in the BBC", he says, revealing a certain love of the past.
Sérgio makes a point about stating that he continues to be a mutant - something that he was even before the Mutantes. Since the popularity of the band is growing outside of Brazil, he receives lots of e-mail from all over the world. Some time ago, he got a message from Sean Lennon, thanking him for the influence and asking who might have influenced the Mutantes. "Does he not know that it was his father?", he asks, ironically (John and the Beatles are homaged on the song 4Ever, on Estação da Luz). With Sean, he's developing a videogame soundtrack - and Sérgio is about to perform in South Africa.
The guitarist claims to be glad that his brother Arnaldo Baptista was invited to participate in the Abril Pro Rock festival, in Recife, with Lobão. "He deserves it. He shines", Sérgio says. The shows to promote the album will start next month in São Paulo, and he gives a hint that he would like to join his brother at the festival, which bills bands directly or indirectly related to the Brazilian rock explosion in the '80s. According to him, that moment had something to do with the Mutantes: Sérgio remembers how the late journalist Samuel Wainer Filho had once been the band's manager, and along Luís Antônio Mello, tansformed the radio station Fluminense FM into the Maldita (or Damned), airing the demo tapes of bands like Blitz and Paralamas do Sucesso for the first time.
, coming out on his label, Lótus Music, distributed on Ouver Records. To Sérgio, this CD is nothing less than his declaration of total war against the ignorance in Brazil in 2001. "I tried to be more clear and specific in the lyrics", he says. The opening track, Filhos do Silêncio, goes about the cultural deplete promoted by the military dictatorship. "What matters is to understand that money comes as a consequence. Education and culture are more important", he preaches.Concerned about Brazil possibly joining Alca ("The country is psychologically dominated!"), Sérgio is scared of the "to each their own" ideology that rules the youth: "The identification with a tribe is more important than the pursuit of success. What moves people is the will - the Mutantes, for instance, never sold records." Even the disappointing results achieved by race driver Rubens Barrichello have room in his apocalyptic theory on the country: "This means: 'Wake Up! There's no more [Ayrton] Senna, no more Mutantes, no more soccer wonder.' Something is very wrong!"
Living idols
Estação da Luz, the guitarist says, was made along four years that he spent in Araras, a small town in the mountains in Rio de Janeiro state (he has just moved back to São Paulo, "stressed out with all the green environment"). Sérgio spent that period watching his daughter Virgínia, 17 years-old, hit puberty and get angry because she and her friends missed references. "If they got to find out about Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, that's very positive. But sticking to dead idols is a big waste of time. The youth needs living idols, concrete mirrors of their personality", he believes.
According to him, the only way out is to do what he did in his youth: "To play music on the streets and not care about making a million bucks." But with one update: "I want her to find her own identity, to come agaist us." He notices "a few explosions" that might break the process. Like Lobão, who printed numbers on his independent albums and sold them at newsstands to denounce the corruption on major labels. Or Sepultura, who became notorious outside of Brazil and then had to be accepted in their own country. And also the independent labels, which took advantage of the Internet to make information available. "It's all too chaotic, mad. But it's a start. On our days, for example, we were tuned in the BBC", he says, revealing a certain love of the past.
Sérgio makes a point about stating that he continues to be a mutant - something that he was even before the Mutantes. Since the popularity of the band is growing outside of Brazil, he receives lots of e-mail from all over the world. Some time ago, he got a message from Sean Lennon, thanking him for the influence and asking who might have influenced the Mutantes. "Does he not know that it was his father?", he asks, ironically (John and the Beatles are homaged on the song 4Ever, on Estação da Luz). With Sean, he's developing a videogame soundtrack - and Sérgio is about to perform in South Africa.
The guitarist claims to be glad that his brother Arnaldo Baptista was invited to participate in the Abril Pro Rock festival, in Recife, with Lobão. "He deserves it. He shines", Sérgio says. The shows to promote the album will start next month in São Paulo, and he gives a hint that he would like to join his brother at the festival, which bills bands directly or indirectly related to the Brazilian rock explosion in the '80s. According to him, that moment had something to do with the Mutantes: Sérgio remembers how the late journalist Samuel Wainer Filho had once been the band's manager, and along Luís Antônio Mello, tansformed the radio station Fluminense FM into the Maldita (or Damned), airing the demo tapes of bands like Blitz and Paralamas do Sucesso for the first time.