Brazilian band Shadowside just released their second album, Dare To Dream, and the band's name is already among the best selling Metal acts in Brazil. Formed by Dani Nolden (vocals), Raphael Matos (guitar), Edu Simões (bass) and Fábio Buitividas  (drums), they embarked to the USA in September for an extensive tour and now we got hold of lead singer Dani Nolden, who spoke about their promising career.

Dare To Dream has just been released and is already one of the best-selling Metal albums in Brazil today. 
It’s selling much better than we expected. I didn’t think it would be something as big and fast. This album was kind of a risk for us, because we changed the direction in relation to the previous CD, Theater Of Shadows, following a different path. It ended up working though. Things could not be better for us. We were very surprised when the staff of Roadie Crew (biggest publication in Brazil) reported that the CD was a bestseller. It was selling better than Amon Amarth’s last album, and they had just played here.

What are the main differences between your first CD, Theater Of Shadows and Dare To Dream?
That was a bunch of kids in the studio, so things were just starting in every way, we had to convince people to like our stuff (laughs). In Dare To Dream  we went in search of an identity, where people would listen and know it was Shadowside, which eliminated all Judas Priest and Iron Maiden strong influences. We thought, "let's be 100% Shadowside, love, or hate it!".

How was it to work with a producer who is not directly connected to Metal and worked with several mainstream bands?
That was pretty cool, quite an experience! For he is not typically a producer used to Metal – although he knows Metal – he knew very well how to develop our heavier side, encouraging our creativity. He didn’t tell us exactly what to do, just gave some tips, letting us go for it. It was a positive thing the fact that he was not fully connected to the style as other producers because it avoided some cliches of the genre. If something does didn’t sound 100% Heavy Metal, he’d say "So?", "It’s okay".

Are you responsible for all lyrics? What are they all about?
Although all band members have total freedom to create, I did all the lyrics because I had lots of it already written. And it’s about everyday situations, about relationships – not only romantic, but among friends too – things that may happen to you or to me.

It is true that during the production of the CD you had to spend the Christmas night in an American fast food?
We were producing the CD and had to spend the Christmas night in a fast food shop in the United States – a horrible one by the way (laughs). There was nothing to do in the city, people were celebrating, we had no where to go, so that was the only alternative we found.

Usually female vocalists tend to sing ‘angelically’. You, however, have a strong voice full of drive. That came naturally or you were inspired by someone?
I was inspired by men (laughs)! I used to listen to singers like Sebastian Bach, Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Paul Stanley (KISS), and I didn’t know female singers, only Heart and L7, which were not really references to me (laughs). When I started singing there were bands like Nightwish. Although I don’t know, I knew about Doro long before all those, and today I love her voice.

How would you define the sound of Shadowside? What are the influences of the band?
This is quite complicated. It goes from Deep Purple to Disturbed, we hear a lot different things. Fábio’s two favourite bands are Tears For Fears and Slayer. Mine are Disturbed and Judas Priest. Rafael likes 80s hair bands like Duran Duran, and also likes Pantera, then you see that we listen to many strange things (laughs). 

Do you have any kind of harassment problems, both fans and musicians?
Well, harassment from fans never were a problem, because until now no one crossed the line. Sometimes some guys linked to the scene, who don’t know the band very well, come with that little chat, as if I was a groupie. Sometimes they misunderstand the situation, they think I'm there to get things... But it lasts only until we start to play.  After the show ends, they come with a different talk, with respect and such, so I don’t stress out.

Tell us a little about the recent tour that you did in Spain. This wasn’t the first time that the Shadowside ventured in foreign lands, was it?
This was our second time in Spain and in September it was our fifth trip to the U.S. Things are happening too fast for the band out there. In Spain we didn’t know that we would get such a good reception, because there were a lot of people at shows singing the songs, even though the CD had been released only 10 days before... This is when we realize that the internet works very well, because the entire CD is available on MySpace for streaming, and probably people were listening it all day because they knew the lyrics from beginning to end (laughs). It was really cool.

How have the American public been receiving Shadowside?
Theater of Shadows was released in the States, while Dare To Dream is only distributed there. The public reception has been very good, pre sales were higher than sales of the first, not even having been released there yet, so we are expecting great things this tour.

What are the next steps of Shadowside?
We have some one off concerts scheduled in Brazil, as well as a tour in the Northeast. In the winter we plan to return to Spain and also do some dates in Portugal, maybe book something in England too, as well as France, Germany, Lithuania, but nothing is confirmed yet. Until then I invite everybody to access our sites www.shadowside.ws and www.myspace.com/shadowsideband. Cheers!

 Luciano Piantonni
 photos: promo