In February 1977, among millions of pseudo-individuals, I started my journey to become a complete individual. And, as any reasonable person, after nine months I was born on November 18 th, in a place called Mococa, a small and welcoming town, half “paulista” (from the state of São Paulo) and half “mineira” (from the state of Minas Gerais), land of imperial palm trees, the Mococa cow, Rogério Cardoso and other such bizarre things. My home town. Since I was a child, I learned the value of the simple things in life with Miguel, my father. He was an accountant and farm manager in the pantanal region, the Brazilian swamplands. At the time we traveled a lot and were constantly in touch with nature. Perhaps this explains my necessity to be on the road. Nothing can be compared to traveling in the front seat but unfortunately nowadays cars are so fast that sometimes we miss out on the beautiful landscapes. With my mother, Sandra, I learned to appreciate the simple things in life. She was a Portuguese teacher and responsible for my excellent grades at school. She taught me the advantages of being disciplined and, through the doctrine she followed, spiritualism, how to concentrate and see beyond the possibilities. Thus life passed by while I shared my childhood with my brothers, André (the eldest) and Rodrigo (the youngest), and with my cousins, Paulo and Helena. My maternal grandparents also lived in our house. Grandma Grácia showed me how two people can coexist inside of a single body. She was, and still is, a blend of infinite goodness and a sweet malice, grandma stuff, the kind of person who watches soap operas. From Grandpa Antônio, I inherited the dignity and satisfaction that work brings to men. In his workshop in the yard, my favorite part of the house, wood was transformed into the best toys that a child could possibly wish for: toy cars, houses, tops, ramps, stilts, etc. To this day we still use most of the tools he left us.

In at least one moment of life, everybody wants to be an artist or a soccer player, something I also wanted. Since I was a child I used to pretend to be an actor, using my dad's Ray Ban sun glasses and an earphone. The plug was the microphone. Ridiculous! But if a man could imagine the consequences of his decisions, he would not even take the first step. And when I saw my brother, André, discovering the world of music and technology, I took my chance. I had already made up my mind and didn't know it. My father allowed us to observe the evolution of microcomputers (or should I say macro?), from Scopus, whose disk drive resembled a LP, to the TK models, whose soft wares were recorded on K7 tapes. At the same time, my father presented us with a very small keyboard, with which I sampled the sounds around me and then executed melodies with them. And I'm talking about all kinds of sounds you can imagine, like burps, doors, farts, dogs, parrots, etc.

Some time later André and his friends started to jam. I was still hanging around, wondering how I could join the team. So on a beautiful day, when I was about ten years old, I joined my brother's group, playing drums with my fingers on another keyboard or on a loaned electronic drum machine. Perhaps this is the reason for my fascination with drums. My father used to play a little bit of acoustic guitar and, because of his interest in music, he had contact with the local musicians amongst them keyboard players Vitor Luciano and Granito, who always showed us their new acquisitions. I was amazed by the sounds, rhythms and all those colorful buttons. Aware of my brother's and mine increasing interest for keyboards, our father presented us with a DSR-1000. At the time it was a sensation, there was nothing alike around. But I still used the instrument for other purposes than music. I loved to modify the configuration of the patches to create new sounds. I also used to copy the grooves of electronic songs André used to listen to.

So I finally had my first production! The concert was to take place on the terrace. We had lights and a back drop made of some record sleeves on a yellow canvas. We also had a home video maker and an audience. My brother played the keyboard and I did backing vocals. But there in the yard I began to realize that it would be very interesting if I started to take music seriously.

I was still following my brother foot steps when I started to take organ lessons with Neusa Dal Rio. André was already in advanced level and could read simple pieces easily. I started from scratch. But the bunch of black balls bored me and I gave up lessons two months later. However I had not given up the dream of becoming a real musician. I continued practicing and learning at home until one day I got an invitation to join a band, Veneno Destilado. I went to the first rehearsal of my life, which happened at Marquinhos's, the bass player's house. He and the guitar player (Alexandre) rehearsed lying on the bed, I played by the window and the only vacant place of the room left was for the drummer and amplifiers. With this band I played my first gig, in a town called Milagres, in Minas Gerais. I left the band after the second gig, because I didn't like the set list and that was something that bothered me at the time.

Some time later I met two guys who were to be responsible for great part of my musical identity: guitar player Rodrigo Ferreira and bass player Ricardo Lucon. While I was listening to strange things like The Doors, New Order, Dire Straits, Front 242, etc, they were light-years ahead. They introduced me to bands like Pink Floyd, Yes, Deep Purple, EL&P, Black Sabbath, etc. We formed a band, Lord Harbor. The proposal was simple and clear: to compose and play progressive rock. It's not too bad if you consider we were fifteen years old and lived in a provincial city. This audacity generated good comments from rock musicians and from the local musical community. And we released two demo tapes, Sounding in Your Mind and Shortcut to Mars. Besides playing keyboard I was also the lead singer of Lord Harbor. We rehearsed every weekend for a long time and we played some gigs in our area.

Although I was very happy with Lord Harbor, I wanted to broaden my horizons. So I started to look for a job with local professional groups. I was admitted to a band called Workshop, whose band members were the best musicians of the city: Beto Costa (guitar), André Costa (drums) and Joca Miquinioty (bass). The first gig I played with was scary. I sang La Bamba with my hands in my pockets because I was so embarrassed. But at least I did not sing out of tune and had a lot of fun! The day after the gig, I refused to receive my payment, asking why I had to get paid to play! I was only fifteen years old and I didn´t understand why, besides played a gig, amusing hundreds of people and amusing myself, I still had to get paid! I learned a lot with this band because we played many different music styles, and as all of them were almost twice my age, I learned a lot. I consider Beto Costa my best teacher and very demanding. That's exactly why my musical enrichment was so great at the time. As Workshop was a ball band, we played all kinds of music. Thus, the most important lesson that I learned from this band was, that when you leave your house to play (work!!!), it's better to leave your ego behind; therefore the greatest pleasure of playing is the act of playing in itself. And we played a lot. We traveled four years in an old van as a really happy family.

At this time I was in high school and, due to lack of time, had to abandon Lord Harbor. But to make up for that we had a band called Rockstory, with the same musicians as Workshop, but with a basic difference: we only played what we wanted to; today we still get together once in a blue moon to jam or to play a gig. At the same time I recorded my first solo work, a demo tape called Atomic Bride, which received good feed back from the musical press.

By the time I was eighteen years old, my life was upside down. Workshop had ended, I had no money left and I was about to start law school. It was a very difficult moment because if I had to work (in the most capitalist sense of the word), music would have to take a back seat, and it always has to come first if you want some measure of success. So I tried again and formed a new band, called Hangar 6, with Paulo Orlandi (drums), Joca Miquinioty, Rodrigo Ferreira, Luis Braga (vocals) and Anderson Burrone (percussion). At the time a political rally was going on. We played at about 50 political rallies and the two old month band already had a reasonably large structure. Even so, in the beginning we traveled in a Beetle, dragging a wagon filled with instruments behind us. It was a wonderful time. Everybody was alike, everybody made an effort and the band had an explosive live performance. The musicians used to alternate instruments so that the four hours of concert became less tiring. Besides keyboards, I played drums, percussion, bass and sang. We played over 300 gigs in four years. Long days... long nights... Luís and I also worked as band managers. We roamed São Paulo and Minas Gerais trying to sell gigs for the band.

At the same time, I found time to play with other bands and was invited to join Fábrica Velha, a blues rock band. There had been few gigs, but all of them explosive! During one of the gigs we played, I spun the keyboard around me and got caught in the cables, making everything crash to the ground: keyboard stand, keyboard, microphone and myself. Fortunately it happened during the last song.

During this time I also started working in recording studios as an arranger and producer for many bands of the interior of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. With Flavio Marx Band, self proclaimed pop rock from Minas Gerais, I recorded an album ( Em Um Estado Imaginário), at Haroldo Ferretti's Studio (Skank). Drums had been recorded by Ely and part of the guitars by Claudio Venturini (both from the band 14 Bis). I've also worked as a free lancer for some bands. I was giving a little of everything a shot because I wasn´t able to make a living with any of my projects. These were some of those shots and their respective targets:

- Juke Box: rock'n'roll;
- Musical Som Três: weddings, anniversaries, women's clubs, bazaars, etc;
- Alternativa: balls and carnival songs in strip houses;
- Môdas & Mudabas: pop rock and popular Brazilian music;
- Xaveco: pagoda music;
- Gil & Guaxupé: Brazilian country music;
- FEOBand: rock'n'roll;
- Coronel Joe: country music;
- Officina do Son: pop rock;
- Carlinhos Salvador: popular Brazilian music;
- [email protected]: pop rock and madness;
- Vide Bula: pop rock.

In a conservative, radical and idealistic point of view, my situation was critical, but I don't care. The fact is that I've never given up on music. While playing a bunch of crap to help finances and finish college, I hadn't forgotten my goals for any single minute.

In July 1999 I heard that Angra would be playing in Poços de Caldas. A week before the gig, I called one of the producers, Jean, in order to buy tickets. While we were talking, I found out that he had a heavy metal band called Victoria and he in turn found out that I was a keyboard player. I knew the guys who played in Victoria, which was to be the opening act for the Angra gig. They called me to replace their keyboard player for this gig and I ended up staying in the band for two years. The compositions were very good and I left this great band with regret. In the meantime I recorded with some metal bands, such as Funeratus and Spirit Heaven, and started recording my first solo album.

I finished Law school in 2001 and I found myself at a new crossroad. If I could not make a living playing music, I would have to find another job. So I used my first solo album, All Night Party At Gallamauaka's Land, as a curriculum and distributed it the musical market, no matter the style, as a last attempt at getting a job. Moreover, it was an effort to justify my eight years as a professional musician and to the five years studying law, because I recorded the album thanks to the Rouanet Law (A law that aids culture).

Before the work was complete, I sent a monitor mix to some record labels with the sole purpose of finding out if the album was reasonably good enough to be released. I received many offers, but I could not accept any of them because it was an independent effort. However, on the same occasion, Hangar was negotiating with one of the record labels to which my album had been sent to, the label Mega Hard. The owner of the label, Márcio, said it would be cool if I could record real drums on the album and put me in touch with drummer Aquiles Priester. Unfortunately it didn´t work out since the album was almost ready and they were over budget. Coincidentally, Hangar was finishing their new album, Inside Your Soul, and was looking for a keyboard player to record an intro for some tracks. I received the demo CD and just loved the work! One week later I went to São Paulo with some ideas in mind, but many parts of keyboard had been composed or arranged during the recordings, such as the very introduction of the album, The Soul Collector. Still with Hangar, I took part of the project William Shakespeare's Hamlet and we played some gigs, such as being an opening act for Savatage twice.

Even considering the year of 2001 as the most important of my career, it had not started off very well. I had just finished college (great, but so what?!), I had passed the test for OAB (Brazilian Bar Association) and the entertainment market in Brazil was going through drastic changes. Dozens of bands had suspended their activities and musicians had formed smaller and cheaper bands, without a super production and any blah, blah, blah. This meant that there was more competition in detriment to the musicians´ income.

In an interval of two months the most important albums which I had worked on up to that time were released: Inside Your Soul (Hangar), All Night Party At Gallamauaka's Land (my solo album), Em Um Estado Imaginário (Flávio Marx Band), Storm of Vengeance (Funeratus), Aria's Kingdom (Spirit Heaven) and the project William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Despite all of this, perspectives were still dismal. With all these releases and the boost they gave my name, nothing further happened. And for the first time I seriously thought about giving up my dreams and become, who knows, a prosecutor, a federal agent or a judge!

On a Sunday night I received a call from Aquiles, who already was Angra´s new drummer, saying something like: "Fábio, the Rebirth World Tour starts next Friday. As they still haven't defined who the keyboard player will be, we need keyboards tracks of some old songs for the first gigs. Can you do that until Wednesday morning?" Of course I could just answer: "Yes!" I moved all my equipment to my father's office beside our house. I only left the place to eat, use the bathroom and drink coffee, because I couldn't lose a second of the most important case of my life. It was all or nothing!

So on Wednesday morning at 5:45a.m. I'd finished the last one of the six tracks and took a bus to São Paulo at 6:00a.m. We spent the whole day mixing the tracks and at the end of the afternoon I returned to my city. The following day, Thursday, I was invited to join Angra on their new tour as a support musician. I cancelled all my other professional commitments and packed my bags to take on the most sought after job of Brazilian Magistracy: “heavy metal keyboard player of the samba country". The most impressive moment of my entire story with Angra occurred right before the first gig. It happened inside the tour bus, when I received the schedule, the heading of which was like a verdict: "Welcome to the Rebirth World Tour". Still according to the sentence, I was condemned to play over 270 gigs in 25 countries around the world; I also was to take part in some of the most important Brazilian TV shows and to record an E.P., called Hunters and Prey and a C.D. /D.V.D., Live in São Paulo.

Between each Angra tour, I dedicated my “free time” to other projects. In the beginning of 2003 I toured Brazil with Hangar. I had become an official member of the band the previous year. There's a funny detail to this story: I learned the news through a Brazilian magazine. No one in the band had told me about it. It was a very good surprise! That same year I produced and recorded the keyboards for Eyes of Shiva´s first album, Eyes of Soul. Besides recording the keyboards I also took care of the production. I also recorded the keyboards on band Thalion´s debut album, Another Sun.

In 2006, I took part of the album Almah, a parallel project by singer Edu Falaschi, which counted with musicians such as Lauri Porra( Stratovarius) and Empu Vuorinen ( Nightwish). The instrumental album Freakeys, was also released. I composed and produced the album which has special participations by Aquiles Priester, Felipe Andreoli and Eduardo Martinez.

And in 2007 I was voted as best Brazilian keyboard player according to public opinion charts of the most important rock magazines and web sites. Besides, I recorded the new albums of the bands Torture Squad and Total Death. But the most important production of this year was The Reason of Your Conviction, the new Hangar album, released in July.

Trying to understand the inexplicable is a kind of induced schizophrenia. The best thing to do is to accept it. But if I could justify how my road brought me to where I am, I would say that it's because I've never abandoned it. I believe that opportunities do not appear out of nowhere, we create them. Therefore, since we don't expect anything beyond the denial of an expectation… go ahead! That doesn´t mean that if you play things you don't trust or don't like, you will be going against your "principles”. In the end we know that shit will feed the Earth anyway.

And that's enough crap!!! Excuse me, but now I have to enjoy the landscape because it's not everyday we sit in the front seat. See you at the next stop!

Source : http://www.myspace.com/fabiolaguna