Afrozoid: “In the ballroom of a catholic church”

Afrozoid brothers when they were kids
In 2017 I met and had a chat with the Brazilian duo Afrozoid. They remember that every time something went wrong, the audience yelled: ‘Booo'!

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In 2017 I met and had a chat with Phabian Edward and Rafael Lopez a.k.a. the Brazilian duo Afrozoid. In the interview they reminisced: “Every time something went wrong, the audience yelled: ‘Booo'!"

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“We were still really young at the time of our first gig. Phabian was fourteen and Rafael twelve. Although Phabian was older, he was a lot more nervous than Rafael, who remained very calm.”

Neighborhood party

“There was no specific audience that night. It was in the ballroom of a catholic church, at a neighborhood-party in São Paulo (Brasil) and the people just wanted to dance. Remember, it was 1996, and there were no party competitors at that time. We mostly played garage house and Chicago house.”

Mixing every day

“Did we prepare the set on beforehand? Well, we were mixing every day anyway. Everything was new to us. We possessed a few records that we knew by heart and had decided before the gig where we would mix in the next record.”

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DJ father

“Our family was not present that night to support us, but some of our friends were there. Especially school friends, but also neighbors and friends from our quarter. And our father supported us from the very beginning, because he used to be a DJ himself. He also was our mentor. Beside him we had a friend that gave us instructions and taught us how to mix.”

‘Boooo’

“That first gig turned out to be quite a challenge. Phabian didn’t succeed in mixing because he was so nervous to play in front of an audience. Every time something went wrong, the audience booed. Rafael on the contrary, was calm and succeeded in doing a great set. The audience clearly preferred his performance that night.”

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Happy

“In hindsight Phabian logically was not very pleased with the criticism he got from friends and neighbors. Rafael was of course very happy with all the compliments he got. After this gig Phabian started to practice even more to improve his performance and Rafael continued to do what he was doing already.”

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Software

“We always liked music, ever since we were kids. We listened to the radio and whenever we could, went to clubs in the city. It became more and more clear that this is what we wanted to do in the future. Through software as Cakewalk and Buss we also got more interested in producing.”

Afrozoid

“In 2002 Rafael produced a few techno and drum’n bass tracks. When both projects got attention from DJs as Marky, he released under his former alias Los 3 Brasileros a few tracks in Germany. In 2008 Phabian started his label Válvuda Records and in 2013 we joined forces in our project Afrozoid. In Afrizoid our knowledge of techno, house and Detroit-styles are united.”

“What we want to express to other producers, is the tip to always check the history of the track and the origine of the DJ’s and producers. Be sure to always be up-to-date.”

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This interview was originally published on DJMag.nl on Thursday September 14th 2017.

Who is Afrozoid?

Afrozoid was formed by the brothers Rafael Lopez (ex-Los 3 brasileros) and Phabian Edward in 2013, rescuing old influences of house and techno of the 90’s.The main idea of the Afrozoid project is to bring all the knowledge that both of them had in the past as DJs, when they played at underground parties in the 90’s.

The essence of Afrozoid’s productions brings influences from the past to the new era of house and techno. Afrozoid comes with a combination of groove, dark and Detroit. Afrozoid’s productions are mirrored after such artists as; Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Dave Angel, The Advent, Joe Beltram, Green Velvet, Underworld, Secret Cinema, Mau Mau, Habitants, Carl Cox, Surgeon, Cassius, Prodigy, ALTERN8, 808 State, LFO, Dave Clarke, Thomas P. Heckmann, Sapiano, Daft Punk, Laurent Garnier among others.

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