1. In your busy life as a musician you've found time to realize methods and DVDs. What prompted you to dedicate time to their achievement? Aquiles Priester – Those who appreciate my work expect some kind of didactic material to be released from time to time. I’m in no hurry to do many things so as to have a vast catalogue. My greatest concern is to maintain a high level of quality in everything I do. Come to think of it, free time is something that doesn’t exist, but if you want to go ahead in your care er, you have to make time to realize the things that are important and at the right time. 2. Your last instructional DVD (The Infallible Reason Of My Freak Drumming), is very practical with regard to the division of chapters. Did you choose this subdivision by yourself? Aquiles – Yes, I produced the DVD myself and it was based on things that I always studied. Everything I learned with Kiko Freitas at the time when I studied with him is included in the DVD. This goes beyond the exercises themselves because I’m talking about the conception of the work. Many people comment that the way in which the DVD is presented is very good and that makes me very happy. This DVD was released worldwide by Mel Bay Publishing and in 2011 was considered 3rd best instructional DVD of the year according to readers of Modern Drummer magazine . 3. How long did it take to complete it? Aquiles – I did a long pre-production, almost 15 days recording and rehearsing the whole script during 8 hours daily alone on a farm. I did all the recordings only in two days and on the second day I recorded over 12 hours straight, with a very short break to eat something. No one knows all the work it takes to record a quality DVD nowadays. 4. It reached the success you've expected? Aquiles – It was way beyond what I expected. When I began the project, my goal was to take a sample of the DVD to the Namm Show 2010 and land a worldwide contract. That happened through Mel Bay, which not only released the DVD, but also my instructional book “Inside my PsychoBook – 100 Double Bass Patterns”. It is great to go into big stores around the world and see your DVD and book on display. It is a reward for so much dedication and work. 5. I think "PsychOctopus Solo" fully represent your style: latin blood, elegant in its execution, but progressive in the essence. How did this song come to life? Aquiles – That solo is very much inspired by Neil Peart’s solo in Rush’s DVD “A Show of Hands”, released in 1989. I always wanted to have a solo with back tracks and it was conceived with the help of my great musical partner Fábio Laguna, who nowadays plays with me in Hangar. We spent two afternoons together working on those parts. I hummed them to him already imagining the rhythm of the groove and he created the musical harmony. I paid a homage to Buddy Rich which is a shock, for no one expects me to play a passage of “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” in a drum solo of a heavy metal drummer. As you, Thomas Lang commented that this solo was very elegant after watching one of my drum clinic at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles. 6. You've got the pleasure to play with Paul Di Anno and follow him on tour. How did you meet him? Aquiles – The owner of a label saw me playing at a pub in São Paulo and invited me. Actually he said that he was the singer of a big band, but I never imagined it was Paul. I always was and still am a great Iron Maiden fan and to play with Paul was unique for my career. It was the first tour I did in Brazil and that lit a huge flame inside of me since at the time I still held a regular job parallel to music. 7. Then you were also called from Vinnie Moore. In this case, what happened? Aquiles – This happened by chance. Hangar was supposed to open Vinnie Moore’s gigs in Europe in 2008 and our European manager sent Vinnie a copy of our album “The Reason of Your Conviction”, which had been released in 2007 so that he could get to know the band. The tour didn’t happen, but Vinnie asked our manager if I knew his work and if I’d by willing to go on tour with him. I knew Vinnie’s whole discography and two weeks later I posted a video on YouTube playing the song “The Maze”, which is one of the most complicated tracks he ever composed and which visits various musical styles. It was a good shot and Vinnie said he’d invite me to tour with him when possible. It took a while and only came to be in February 2010. It was worth the wait because, with this work, I got a lot of exposure out of Brazil. After that things really started happening for me. 8. The Freakeys are an instrumental band. Needing for large spaces of expression, or simple artistic choice? Aquiles – The album was supposed to be a solo album by Fábio Laguna, but in the middle of the process he thought it’d be more interesting to use t he name of a band. It was one of the most difficult albums I ever recorded and I overcame all of my limits at the time. We recorded in the middle of the tour for the album “Temple of Shadows” and we recorded about six tracks in one studio and then we recorded everything over again because we didn’t like the result. It is a great album and at the time many people compared it to the albums of the “Liquid Tension” project. 9. You are the Hangar group founder, born in November 1997. How much and in which way the sound of the band evolved from the from "Last Time" to "Acoustic, But Plugged In!"? Aquiles – The album “Last Time” was composed and recorded at a time when we had very little experience. Hangar projected me and gave me freedom to play the way I al ways wanted to. I am very proud of the band’s discography and “Acoustic, but Plugged In!” is a compilation of our greatest hits. We only realized after some time that the repertoire of the album was practically the same as what we were playing at our regular gigs. 10. With Hangar, at the beginning, you have opened an Angra live. After you became their drummer. How did your entry into Angra? Aquiles – I did an audition. I knew they needed a new drummer and at the time I was moving from Porto Alegre to São Paulo for work through the multinational I was working with at the time. It was a time of many changes in my life and everyone thinks that I moved to São Paulo to play with Angra when I actually had a regular job at the time. Back then it was difficult to decide if I really should go ahead with my dream of becoming a professional musician, but now, 10 years later, I know I took the right decision. My joining the band was well thought out and we did many tests until they were sure that I was the right person. 11. Do you think that Angra's sound have influenced the sound of the Hangar? Aquiles – No, not in the least. Hangar always had its own sound which is difficult to label. That is still true today. We let the music take us wherever it wants to and our fans don’t demand that we record similar albums. 12. It was a tough decision to leave Angra? Aquiles – It is always difficult to leave your comfort zone and start all over again. In 2007 when things weren’t going very well with Angra, it took that decision and it wasn’t easy. I didn’t know what was going to happen to my career, but I knew that I couldn’t remain in the band because I didn’t feel part of it. I couldn’t compose and couldn’t participate in the decisions that affected my life within the band. I was very sad with the course things were taking and the management of the band also didn’t please me. At the time it was tough, but today I know I took the right decision and made a bet on my career. If I had stayed on in the band, I’m sure I’d be a different Aquiles today and my career would have taken a completely different path than the one I am on now. In 2011 you've published two works: "Inside Your Soul" (CD Relaunch) and "Acoustic, But Plugged In!". Is unusual for a progressive band to realize an entire acoustic album. Where dids the idea come from? Aquiles – The album “Inside your Soul” had been out of print and many fans asked that it be re-released. That is why we decided to include some bonus tracks. As to “Acoustic, but Plugged In!” it is an album we should already have recorded since we’ve been playing acoustic since 2007. It was a huge challenge to re-write the arrangements of the album, not only on the drums, but also as a producer.