Dead Fish takes Brazilian hardcore to the Avante 2025 party

“It charges me that I answer, even if it is boarding!” Wrote vocalist Rodrigo Lima, in messages exchanged by his cell phone with the report of Red portal. Founder and front line of one of Hardcore’s most cultured Brazilian bands, Dead Fish, he was on his way to enter a plane towards Lisbon, in Portugal, where he will perform this Saturday (6) on April 25 stage, the main party of Avante 2025.

The interview then had the unprecedented feat of being held in two countries. The first two answers arrived in Brazil. “The rest I will do now during the flight.” And 10 hours later, when she was already on Lusitano soil, the cell phone whistled with the other questions answered. He ran from those who in recent times took the stage of Lollapalooza, made a triumphant performance at Flipei, at Campo do MST Warehouse, and just played in Curitiba and São Paulo at the event “I Wanna Be Tour”, along with international bands such as Fall Out Boy and Good Charlotte.

You could feel the energy of your fingers frantically beating the keyboard by typing your ideas and reflections on the opportunity to play in one of the largest left events in the world, the importance of music and culture in the fight against fascism and the role of the artist in the trench of this battle to block the extreme direct, either in Brazil or in Portugal.

Also read: Movie “Doctor Araguaia” will be screened in Portugal at the party of Avante 2025

Rodrigo is 52 years old, but on the stage it seems to have the same gas of 20 and a few when he founded the band in 1991 in Vitória in Espírito Santo. But in these years, all, according to him, some things have changed. Its “moody body” and its closed social network had to be left behind. “I think after my daughter’s birth a lot happened, when fascism won 2018 in Brazil and during the pandemic a lot also happened,” he recalls.

Friends Thunderbird and Marcelo D2, so they called him in a corner and said he could no longer be unintentionally in the media. Today, Rodrigo, who always expressed himself by the lyrics of his songs, expanded the radius of politicization of his ideas. Speak more, gives more interviews, participates in more programs, occupies more spaces.

“It has been a very rich experience, not being closed in my aesthetic and political bubble, I have seen, read and heard a lot and even when I find/think we should, we will occupy spaces with our music and our ideas. I try to contribute to my cents in the emancipatory struggle of the peoples of the world and, especially, the South American people who suffer so much,” he says.

Also read: PCdoB confirms presence at the party of Avante 2025 in Portugal

And is there a parallel between the longevity of Avante, made by militancy, with Dead Fish, a band that also always ran outside the commercial circuit?

“I think the 34 -year -old Dead Fish, roughly, has a similar trajectory with the party, many of our old fans who accompany us are here with us and, impressively, many younger people have come in recent years. I think not stop making music and still being on the road makes this difference, that thing to always be through the foundations, playing and doing it with power,” he says.

For this Saturday’s show, Rodrigo hopes to do beautiful. “We try to touch Avante a few years ago, we are ultimately happy to see the basement rats play and the rotten boys play in another year. Now we will be as beautiful as they.

Check out the full interview below:

Red Portal – Dead Fish is a strongly politicized band, always bringing very important topics to the left, the working class, denouncing and fighting inequalities, from the first album… As in Brazil, Portugal is in a moment of much confrontation with the far right and fascist movements, which have grown a lot and already take up large space until the country’s parliament. What differential for the band to play at an event like Avante in relation to other commercial festivals and other audiences? Do you think the lyrics of Dead Fish, which report the current Brazilian society, can also make sense in Portugal during this period?

Rodrigo Lima – We always want to occupy the spaces, people when they call us for festivals, I believe, who know what a Dead Fish show is, we never do something different or relieves when we are at a festival or city, playing a radically leftist festival is that it is new to us. I believe that what we are living in the world today is very similar, Brazil lived a far -right government during the pandemic and it was a tragedy. With this profound crisis of capitalism we live worldwide, an album like “blind spot” [lançado em 2019] It makes perfect sense in Portugal from years here. There are obviously different details in local politics, but it is roughly fascism taking advantage of another crisis to expand territory.

I’ve heard and read in some interviews you say that perhaps at the beginning of the band you have made choices that may have influenced the “non-sucess-mainstream” Dead Fish. At that time, you were not willing to make many concessions. And you were a more guy, say, in yours, had no social network, did not give so much interview (or was not sought), did not appear much, we did not know much about Rodrigo. Today, Rodrigo is more present, participates in podcasts, plays in major festivals, occupies spaces of greater evidence in the media. This Rodrigo is more recent, right? I see a happy Rodrigo in the interviews, haughty, that Chest thing, of hardening without losing tenderness. Are you living one of the best phases of your personal and professional life? Do you think today you are a person who has more to talk about, exposing more ideas, sharing your trajectory? Is it a need to speak the moment of the conjuncture or is it a will or is it all together? How do you think a little of everything you’ve ever seen and have lived in this trajectory line contribute to the debate on politics, culture and the formation of a fairer and more egalitarian society?

Look, I’ve passed (passed) for many moments in thirty and so many years being in a band, of an extreme youthful youth, a great curiosity to see the world and no pretense of anything but being in my scene in the Holy Spirit, going through a moody body and full of rules that I personally even believe, perhaps, perhaps what I am today after fifty. I am still very reserved, it may seem that because of the exposure on social networks and media other than, but I am.

I think after the birth of my daughter a lot happened, when fascism won 2018 in Brazil and during the pandemic a lot also happened. I remember very strongly of a fact that changed everything that was when Luiz Thunderbird and Marcelo D2 called me in real charging me, with the subtlety they have, a greater participation in the media. Thunder told me that I was what it was could not afford to have my social media closed, everyone was putting the face and struggling the way we got against that bizarre rough terralanist from the far right. Marcelo spoke the same since he was active mega and fucking everything that is side. And they were right, I couldn’t steal me to tell you what I thought for more people. I consulted my mate, I spoke to close friends and the band that was going to become more active there where I was always less enthusiastic, let’s say. But if I was going to put my face, it would have to be powerful, with energy that instigated people, even if it was to disagree and do it all with joy, with some humor, because the right sadness and death was already established in the lack of vaccine, the extreme individuality of the liberal being and its unacceptable cynicism.

And here I am, I discovered a lot from 2018 here, from Mark Fisher to Lukacs, which I even discovered for less than a year. I try to contribute to my cents in the emancipatory struggle of the peoples of the world and especially the South American people who suffer so much, but who do not lose their power and always creates something to stay alive, all through music and punk/hardcore. It has been a very rich experience, not being closed in my aesthetic and political bubble, I have seen, read and heard a lot and even when I find/think we should occupy spaces with our music and our ideas.

In this cultural debate, I even wanted to ask you how much culture in the formation of a free people capable of making their own decisions in the formation of a sovereign nation. And as you, Rodrigo, face culture in your life, in your daily life, in the creation of your child, your family. How has access to culture changed your life?

This is a big question and I feel very certain of my answer because as Brazilian I can never say that much of our territorial, social and even linguistic unity comes from our giant and infinite culture, our creativity to mix tradition with inventiveness and make it so beautiful. I abandoned all the certainties of my life to madly follow art and music as the motor of my life, and being Brazilian this is even more crazy. By art I can draw an almost coherent driving thread between my family members, who are here by my side here and now, between me and my city of origin and what I live today, my relationship with the very lively Brazilian Portuguese language, I can even draw a map of my clothing and food choices, all by culture here, if this is not liberating me, I do not know what it can be. The basic industry is certainly important, land reform is unavoidable, but without culture and art and music, we will not go anywhere in this country or on this planet.

The party of Avante is also a worldwide meeting of left movements and organizations, which come together in common struggles and causes. What are the international flags that Dead Fish will strengthen, with its solidarity, on the stage of the event?

Undoubtedly, the internationalist and emancipatory revolution of all peoples, the Palestinian cause, land reform in Brazil, strong and united anti -fascism on the planet and many more. I am quite curious to see the meeting of people, the organizations that are consolidated until those that have started for these years, is a unique opportunity that I do not have in Brazil and that I really want to live it.

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(BL)