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 bonde do role interview
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Mock the house. In 2007, you'd reasonably assume that anyone who claims that 2Unlimited are their favourite band is taking the postmodern mickey, but there's nothing ironic about Pedro D'eyrot's devotion. The 24- year-old MC with Brazilian trio Bonde Do Role has an infectious enthusiasm for everything from Mexican soap operas to Arctic Monkeys, an attitude that's the well-spring of his band's idiosyncratic, genre-busting sound.Their debut LP, With Lasers, is a vibrant melange of 80s hip-hop and electro, hair metal, calypso, heavy rock, techno, punk, African hi-life, lyrics that borrow from Portuguese gay slang and - crucially - baile funk. The bastardised offspring of 80s Miami bass, this sound developed in the urban ghettos of Brazil and is described by D'eyrot as “like hip-hop gone punk”. We have a word for it in Portuguese, which is “rebola”, and it means dancing with your hips. Basically, it's booty music with people screaming over it and lots of energy.”  Bonde Do Role were discovered by globe-trotting American DJ and baile funk fanatic Diplo, on one of his jaunts to Brazil. He signed them to his label, Mad Decent, even though they'd made fun of him with their first, Daft Punk-sampling tune, Melo Do Roboroque (Robot Rock Song). “We started out by mocking someone,” laughs D'eyrot, “and that someone signed us.” The band have only just celebrated their second anniversary, and they made their first trip to Europe with Diplo when they'd only played five gigs in Brazil. D'eyrot admits that their rise has been incredibly fast. Did they never worry that singing in their native Portuguese might be a handicap to success? “It was never an issue, because we never meant to be a band. It was a joke that became an album, that got signed to Diplo's label. We never stop to think about what we're going to do, we just do it. Bonde do Role is very random. For us it's all about the fun, and if it's not fun it's not worth doing. People can think whatever they like about us, but I'd like them to listen to Bonde Do Role in 10-15 years' time and laugh their asses off. Like they do with Bon Jovi.”
Sharon O’Connell
Bonde Do Role – With Lasers, released 04 June 07 on Domino.
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