Marcelo Barbosa Official English Blog

Marcelo Barbosa on DVD "GUITARRAS DO CERRADO INTERPRETAM JIMI HENDRIX"

2011-12-20T15:11:00.002-02:00

Almah's third CD to be released in North America on January 17th, 2012

2011-12-11T14:54:00.001-02:00

AFM Records, international record label of ALMAh, now confirms that MOTION, the band's third full-length, will be available to North American fans on January 17th, 2012.

The album was recorded in São Paulo, Brazil at Norcal Studios in May-June 2011. It was mixed and mastered at Split Second Sound Studios (Amsterdam, Netherlands) by Jochem Jacobs (TEXTURES) in July. On September 16th MOTION was launched in Brazil and it was confirmed as the best-selling metal album according to November's issue of Roadie Crew magazine. On October 14th the CD saw the light of day in Europe via AFM Records and on October 18th in Japan and Latin America by Victor JVC and Icarus Records respectively.

In the middle of September Edu Falaschi, Felipe Andreoli and Marcelo Barbosa visited Japan, France and Germany with a short promo trip dedicated to the European and Japanese releases. The musicians made various interviews for international metal /rock magazines and webzines and participated in radio and TV shows. Also, ALMAh played an acoustic pocket show in Tokyo. MOTION has already got many positive reviews in such media as Burrn! magazine (Japan), Roadie Crew (Brazil), Whiplash! (Brazil), PowerMetal.de (Germany), PowerMetal.it (Italy), Rock Realms (UK), Lords Of Metal (Holland), Metal Zone (Greece), Metal Cry (Spain) and many others. You can check the links to ALMAh reviews and interviews HERE.

So far the band released two music videos to the following songs from the new CD : Trace Of Trait (10.000 views in the first day) and Late Night in '85. Both videos as well as studio reports and tour outtakes are available on ALMAh Official channel in Youtube.

At the moment, the band is finishing the first leg of Motion tour in Brazil. The band already played shows in such important Brazilian cities as São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Curitiba among others, including a few shows together with an icon of Brazilian metal, Sepultura. The last shows for this year are scheduled for 17-18th of December in Piracibaba and Itu (SP)and then, after a short break, ALMAh will be back in the spring of 2012. More dates and news will be announced soon.

ALMAh is featured in December's Issue of BURRN! Magazine (Japan)

2011-11-13T10:29:00.000-02:00

Marcelo Barbosa's interview @ Rock Overdose (Greece)!

2011-11-13T10:18:00.001-02:00

The original link: http://www.rockoverdose.gr/news_details.php?id=7282.
It's also available in Greek!

Rock Overdose: Welcome to Rockoverdose.gr! So, a new album is ready to be released. Tell us some things about this new stuff and what we have to expect?

Marcelo: This is our third album, the second as a band since the first Almah CD was a solo project of Edu Falaschi, Angra’s singer. During this time the band became more mature and we believe that in this particular album we could finally find our inner voice. The songs are heavier but also technical and with catchy melodies, mainly on the chorus. We are really proud of the results and anxious to hear the opinion of the audience.

Rock Overdose: How would you describe us this album with the previous?

Marcelo: I think that Almah’s songwriting formula, If I could call it like that, is based on the triad power, technique and melody. We all are technical musicians and some of us are really into progressive music, so it’s impossible to be too far from it. Beside this, the guitar riffs are really powerfull and we are using seven stringed guitars, so everything sounds heavier. Edu normally is in charge of the melodies and he is pretty good on it. Every song has melodies that we start to sing along after the first audition.

Rock Overdose: You think that it was good for the band that Angra was behind Almah in some way?

Marcelo: In certain way it was good, in other it wans’t. Pretty much like everything in life. It was good because it opened some doors in record labels, TVs, magazines and producers. But Angra is a big band and of course, sometimes we had to wait for a free space on their schedule so we could work with Almah. This is the bad part.

Rock Overdose: How about lives? Do you have something on your plans?

Marcelo: We’re playing live in Brazil for one month right now and I think we have more eight or ten concerts confirmed until the end of this year. This is good because in Brazil we have a good audience and the concerts are doing great. Some of them are with Sepultura, and we played twice with Machine Head too. It’s great to have a chance to play with those guys.

Rock Overdose: Who is responsible for the composing and lyrics part of the albums?

Marcelo: We did all the compositions together but Edu started the majority of them. He bought the initial ideas and we made the arrangements, instrumental sections or a new part that wans’t there together. The lyrics were done by Edu and Felipe.

Rock Overdose: What’s the main inspiration of the lyrics part?

Marcelo: In this album we agreed to talk about real life. About things that are in our ordinary days. Some of them have a personal feel but some are just about life facts.

Rock Overdose: How would you describe Almah with three words?

Marcelo: I told this in another question. Power, technique and melody.

Rock Overdose: How much in your opinion internet can help bands nowadays?

Marcelo: Internet is great to help promoting bands. You can be directly in contact with your fans and youtube is a fantastic tool to see how the bands are live, and promote video clips. The problem is that a lot of the material that pops there are with bad quality so it can show something that isn’t the truth. Once again, internet is just a tool. It can be good or bad depending on how you use it.

Rock Overdose: What’s your opinion about Greece and Greek people?

Marcelo: I don’t know personally a lot of Greek people but Greece is one the places in the world that I’m sure I will visit in the future. I do love arts in general and history so; I think that is mandatory to anyone who loves these fields to know Greece. Beside this, I do read a lot about philosophy and of course I’m quite familiar with the work of some Greek philosophers, mainly Socrates, Aristotle and Plato. I think these are the Greek people that I know and I do love them… LOL
You know, there’s a coincidence in this question. The entire Motion concept is based on moving on and trying to be better every day, things like that. When we were talking about this, I brought an Heraclitus’ quote that is: “You cannot step into the same river, for fresh waters are ever flowing on to you.” These words are written on the CD folder and also inspired the lyrics of Living and Drifting, one of the best songs of this CD in my opinion.

Rock Overdose: Is there something else you would like to announce, before we end this interview?

Marcelo: I would like to thank you for the space and interest in our work. Hopefully, soon we will be back in Europe with the whole band do some concerts and I’m looking forward to see everyone there. All the best!

Rock Overdose: Thank you for your time, we wish you the best!

FELIPE ANDREOLI & MARCELO BARBOSA, interview for Metal Sickness Webzine

2011-11-09T19:23:00.001-02:00

Marcelo Barbosa and Felipe Andreoli: interview for Rocknlive

2011-11-09T19:21:00.000-02:00

Interview for Metalzone Webzine (Greece)

2011-11-09T19:18:00.001-02:00

Metalzone: Hello and welcome to Metalzone. Your brand new album, “Motion”, has been released about a month ago. Tell us a few things about this new endeavor of yours.

Marcelo Barbosa: I think that now, three years after our last record we are more mature as musicians and also as a team. We know each other better so everything was faster than the last time. We worked in the pre-production thru emails and hung up for one week before getting into the studio. In this week we arranged every song and the results were impressive. Like I said, as we know each other better we knew what to expect from each one about music, playing and song writing. The whole process was smooth, easy and really fast.

Metalzone: As far as I am concerned Almah begun as a solo project, featuring Angra’s singer Edu Falaschi. Five years after the band was formed, it has released 3 studio albums; so, can we say that Almah is now a “full time” band?

Marcelo Barbosa: Yes you’re right. It began as a solo project but even before the second album it became a band. I’m with Edu and Felipe since that time when we were touring promoting the first album and sometime after that Moreira and Paulo joined the band. During the Fragile Equality process we firmed this line up and as time goes by we feel more comfortable as a team, as a group. For now we all are a hundred percent focused in Almah and in the promotion of MOTION that is in my opinion our best work.

Metalzone: From my perspective, your music is a combination of heavy/power metal and progressive power metal and “melody” is the key word in this “mixture”. How would you describe your music?

Marcelo Barbosa: You did it well. I would say that Almah’s music is based on the triad: power, technique and melody. Me and Felipe are really into phttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifrogressive music, Paulo is fully into death/trash and Edu is a great songwriter who always comes up with catchy melodies. We are pretty eclectic but metal is the common line between us. So, these three elements are in every song we write and it became something like a trademark.

Read the complete interview here: http://www.metalzone.gr/interviews.php?action=details&id=269&lang=en

Marcelo BARBOSA in November's issue of YOUNG GUITAR magazine (Japan)

2011-10-20T08:35:00.001-02:00

Get ALMAh to your iPhone! The band presents its official free application

2011-10-05T17:26:00.003-03:00

ALMAh is proud to announce its collaboration with Apple Inc. and presents its own official Application for iPhone which now is available on iTunes (for free). With the Official Almah App one can always stay in touch with the band with all its infos at one place: news, tour dates, pictire galleries with official and offstage stuff, video clips and studio reports, access to the social networks with all their features. The App is developed by Utap Inc.

The App is available for free at iTunes store at this location:

Strings Marcelo Barbosa by Dean Markley

2011-10-05T17:23:00.000-03:00

ALMAH presented the new album to Europe and Japan, Complete audio from Japanese pocket show and exclusive pictures

2011-09-28T12:22:00.000-03:00

Marcelo Barbosa and other ALMAH’s musicians Edu Falaschi and Felipe Andreoli have recently returned from one-week promotional tour dedicated to the third album of the band, MOTION. The new studio effort of ALMAH has been met with the great interest and enthusiasm by the mass media in Japan and Europe. The program of the trip included such cities as Tokyo, Paris and Hamburg with visits to the headquaters of JVC-Victor / Japan and AFM Records / Germany, lots of interviews, and one meet&great / sold-out pocket show in Tokyo (September 14). Edu, Felipe and Marcelo succeded to present MOTION to many important international media from various countries such as BURRN!, YOUNG GUITAR, METAL HAMMER, ROCK HARD, HARD ROCK, ROCK IT, IPC (REDE GLOBO JAPAN) and many others.

CHECK OUT THE COMPLETE AUDIO FROM JAPANESE POCKET SHOW FOR 100 SELECTED FANS:

The extensive photo gallery about this trip (including onstage and offstage stuff) is available at this location. Photos by Almah and Martin Hladik/Agency.

Series of offstage videos:
Interviews in Japan, P.1 (English)
Interviews in Japan, P.2 (English)
Almah offstage in Tokyo, P.1 (Portuguese)
Almah offstage in Tokyo, P.2 (Portuguese)
Almah offstage in Paris (Portuguese)

MOTION was recorded in São Paulo, Brazil at Norcal Studios in May-June 2011. The album was mixed and mastered at Split Second Sound Studios (Amsterdam, Netherlands) by Jochem Jacobs (TEXTURES) in July. On September 16th the album was launched in Brazil. According to Die Hard distribution network the first press of the CD has been almost sold out during pre-order period. The release dates in other countries are the following: October 14th (Europe, North America / AFM Records), October 14th (Latin America / Icarus Records), October 19th (Japan / Victor JVC).

ALMAH presents the new “Motion” website, Myspace and Twitter layout

2011-09-26T16:46:00.001-03:00

Brazilian metallers ALMAH are ready to release their third studio album MOTION on October 14th via AFM Records (Europe, North America) and October 19th via Victor JVC (Japan), and right now the band proudly presents the new layout of its http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifain Intenet pages:

Official Website http://www.almah.com.br

Myspace http://www.myspace.com/almahedufalaschi

Twitter http://twitter.com/officialalmah

At the new official website one can see the complete informaton about the band and share the news and tour dates via his/her social networks. Besides news, dates and basic infos about ALMAH, the band added musical player, links to the recent/old/onstage/offstage photo galleries, store section and a big collection of album reviews and interviews with the musicians.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

New design is based on the artwords and idea of the upcoming CD, the layouts are created by Brazilian artist João Duarte (J.Duarte Design http://www.jduartedesign.blog.com), a well-known name in the rock&metal field due to his work with such bands and companies as Edu Falaschi, Angra, Korzus, Circle To Circle, Kattah, Torture Squad, MS Metal Press and others.

In the meantime, ALMAH’s musicians Edu Falaschi, Felipe Andreoli and Marcelo Barbosa returned from one-week promotional tour in Japan and Europe with lots of interviews and a sold-out pocket show in Tokyo. The extensive photo gallery abouhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift this trip (including onstage and offstage stuff) is available at this location:

MOTION was recorded in São Paulo, Brazil at Norcal Studios in May-June 2011. The album was mixed and mastered at Split Second Sound Studios (Amsterdam, Netherlands) by Jochem Jacobs (TEXTURES) in July. On September 16th the album was launched in Brazil. According to Die Hard distribution network the first press of the CD has been almost sold out yet during pre-order period.

Advertisement of “Orange” in September’s issue of Guitar Player magazine

2011-09-26T16:45:00.001-03:00

About Almah's Motion

2011-09-17T19:08:00.000-03:00

Ok, I'm in the other side of the world, in Hamburg, Germany, working in the promotion of our new album. In the last seven days, we visited Japan, France and now Germany. This experience has been great but also exausting. While we're here, I just realized that today is the release of MOTION in Brazil. We are really excited to know what you people will think about this work and based on some questions we're answering in this promo trip, I wrote down some lines about the album and it's conception in one of the many flights we took these days.

Hope you enjoy...

I really believe that we as human beings are always, consciously or uncosciously, changing. We change in our way of thinking, in our feelings and the way we see life itself. In some people the changes are stronger, in other smoother, it depends on a serie of factors, but the main point here is that we change, adapt, evolve. This is what makes the whole MOTION concept so interisting and rich. Beside, as a consequence, art itself changes too. As an artist who expresses himself throught the music, I think that since your art is a way of expression of your feelings, thoughts, sensations or whatever, it's more than natural that it changes with any change that comes to you. Otherwise, it's nothing more than fake, false or forced way of making music based in a predetermined formula, normally choosen from what the artist or the record lable thinks it would be better accepted by the market itself.

In this CD, we wrote and played what we were feeling. There isn't one note or word on it that doesn't represent our truth at this moment and I do believe that anyone who listens to it closely with an open heart and mind will notice it. That's why we're so proud of it.

Really hope you enjoy! Keep moving!

ALMAH: New MOTION Myspace layout is available

2011-09-14T14:24:00.000-03:00

ALMAH presents the new MOTION Myspace layout based on the artwords and idea of the upcoming third studio album. The layout has been designed by João Duarte (J.Duarte Design, MS Metal Press), a well-known name in the rock&metal field due to his work with such bands and companies as Edu Falaschi, Angra, Korzus, Circle To Circle, Kattah, Torture Squad among others.

MOTION was recorded in São Paulo, Brazil at Norcal Studios in May-June 2011. The album was mixed and mastered at Split Second Sound Studios (Amsterdam, Netherlands) by Jochem Jacobs (TEXTURES) in July. The release dates are the following: October 14th (Europe, North America / AFM Records), September 16th (Brazil / Laser Company), October 14th (Latin America / Icarus Records), October 19th (Japan / Victor JVC). Japanese edition of MOTION will contain a bonus track.

New Endorsement: Dean Markley

2011-09-11T16:21:00.002-03:00

Marcelo in promo tour around Europe and Japan

2011-09-11T16:15:00.004-03:00

Yesterday the musician went for a short promo tour with Almah in Japan and Europe. This week Edu Falaschi, Felipe Andreoli and Marcelo Barbosa will present the brand new album of the band "Motion" for Japanese and European audience. As we previously reported, the new CD will see the light of day on October 14 in Europe/North America via AFM Records and on October 19 in Japan via Victor JVC.

First song/videoclip from the upcoming album of ALMAH unveiled

2011-09-11T16:13:00.001-03:00

Brazilian-based metallers ALMAH proudly present a new song from the upcoming album MOTION which will be released on October 14th via AFM Records. For the online debut of the new CD ALMAH created a VIDEO CLIP for the song “Trace of Trait” with its own story and professional production. The footage was done in Caxias do Sul, a city in the South of Brazil at the end of August under direction of producer and photographer Alex Milesi. The video is available on the official channel of the band in YOUTUBE:

MOTION was recorded in São Paulo, Brazil at Norcal Studios in May-June 2011. The album was mixed and mastered at Split Second Sound Studios (Amsterdam, Netherlands) by Jochem Jacobs (TEXTURES) in July. The release dates are the following: October 14th (Europe, North America / AFM Records), September 16th (Brazil / Laser Company), October 14th (Latin America / Icarus Records), October 19th (Japan / Victor JVC). Japanese edition of MOTION will contain a bonus track.

ALMAH Announces a Single from the Upcoming Album

2011-09-03T10:01:00.000-03:00

We are proud to announce that a brand new online Single from the upcoming album MOTION will be available for streaming from September 8th via the official channel of the band in YOUTUBE.

The single will represent the new face and direction of ALMAH. After successful power metal masterpiece "Fragile Equality" released in 2008, ALMAH returns with the 3rd studio effort “Motion” as an experienced matured band with many new ideas and without any fear to be up-to-date and to move forward towards its own language and identity.

MOTION was recorded in São Paulo, Brazil at Norcal Studios in May-June 2011. The album was mixed and mastered at Split Second Sound Studios (Amsterdam, Netherlands) by Jochem Jacobs (TEXTURES) in July.

The release dates are the following: October 14th (Europe, North America / AFM Records), September 16th (Brazil / Laser Company), October 14th (Latin America / Icarus Records), October 19th (Japan / Victor JVC). ALMAH have recently announced their promo tour around Japan and Europe (Germany/France) on September 12-19th. Edu Falaschi, Felipe Andreoli and Marcelo Barbosa will present the new record for Japanese and European fans and mass media.

Orange and NIG advertisements in September's issue of Guitar Player magazine (Brazil) with Marcelo Barbosa

2011-08-29T14:10:00.004-03:00

Marcelo Barbosa in a Promo tour around Europe and Japan with ALMAH in September

2011-08-22T18:08:00.001-03:00

We are proud to announce the upcoming ALMAH promo tour around Japan and Europe (Germany/France) on September 12-19th. Edu Falaschi, Felipe Andreoli and Marcelo Barbosa will present the brand new album of the band "Motion" for Japanese and European audience. As we previously reported, the new CD will see the light of day on October 14 in Europe/North America via AFM Records and on October 19 in Japan via Victor JVC.

The band is going to make interviews for print and online mass media, TV and radio presentations, meets&greets and acoustic performances. More information and details will be available soon.

MOTION was recorded in São Paulo, Brazil at Norcal Studios in May-June 2011. The material was mixed and mastered at Split Second Sound Studios (Amsterdam, Netherlands) by Jochem Jacobs (TEXTURES) in July. A brand new digital single will be available for online streaming in the beginning of September. The release dates of MOTION in other countries are the following: September 16th (Brazil / Laser Company), October 14th (Latin America / Icarus Records).

ALMAH Announce Release Dates for the New Album

2011-08-22T18:06:00.001-03:00

Marcelo's band ALMAH has announced that its new album MOTION will be released on October 14th via AFM Records. The band worked on the new CD in São Paulo, Brazil at Norcal Studios in May-June 2011. The material was mixed and mastered at Split Second Sound Studios (Amsterdam, Netherlands) by Jochem Jacobs (TEXTURES) in July. A brand new digital single will be available for online streaming in the beginning of September. The release dates of MOTION in other countries are the following: September 16th (Brazil / Laser Company), October 14th (Latin America / Icarus Records), October 19th (Japan / Victor JVC).http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

See more: www.almah.com.br

Track list of the new ALMAH unveiled

2011-08-11T19:05:00.001-03:00

Brazilian metallers ALMAH will release their new album MOTION via AFM Records this fall (the date will be announced soon). The new material was recorded at Norcal Studios (São Paulo, Brazil) in May-June 2011 and mixed and mastered at Split Second Sound Studios (Amsterdam, Netherlands) by Jochem Jacobs (Textures) in July. The album is produced by Edu Falaschi and Felipe Andreoli. The track list is confirmed as follows:

1 - Hypnotized
2 - Living And Drifting
3 - Days Of The New
4 - Bullets On The Altar
5 - Zombies Dictator
6 - Trace Of Trait
7 - Soul Alight
8 - Late Night in '85
9 - Daydream Lucidity
10 - When And Why

ALMAH is: Edu Falaschi – vocals, Felipe Andreoli – bass, Marcelo Barbosa – guitars, Paulo Schroeber – guitars, Marcelo Moreira – drums. The band was established by Angra’s singer Edu Falaschi in 2006 and released two albums: "Almah" (2007) and "Fragile Equality" (2008). Just recently the band returned to live activities after a one-year break. ALMAH played at Forcaos and Armazed do Som festivals at the Northeast of Brazil - headlining shows and series of supporting events such as singing sessions, a pocket show and workshops. The bhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifand was highly acclaimed by the public at all the events.

More details: http://www.almah.com.br/ing/home.php

Hotel California Solo by Marcelo Barbosa

2011-08-11T07:15:00.000-03:00

Solo de Hotel California - Marcelo Barbosa marcelogtr

Marcelo Barbosa with ANGRA

2011-08-06T19:07:00.003-03:00

Marcelo Barbosa has been recently invited to play a few shows with ANGRA in Brazil replacing the guitarist Kiko Lourero who has to skip these live dates due to family reasons. Marcelo already joined Angra's at the shows in Suzano (SP), Macapá (Amapá) and on stage of Porão do Rock festival in home city of Barbosa, Brasília. The guitarist played with his colleagues from Almah, Edu Falaschi and Felipe Andreoli. Here you can see a fan-video from this unforgattable performance!

Marcelo Barbosa and Almah have recently finished the recording of the new album entitled Motion at Norcal Studios in São Paulo, Brazil. Motion will be released in the fall via AFM Records.

Marcelo Barbosa comments on new album and the recent live shows of Almah

2011-08-02T18:00:00.002-03:00

ALMAH has recently finished the recording, mixing and mastering of its brand new album MOTION that will see the light of day via AFM records this fall (the scheduled release date is to be announced very soon). At the end of July the musicians returned to live activities: ALMAH played its first shows since Fragile Equality tour (finished in June 2010) – the band successfully performed at Forcaos and Armazed do Som festivals at the Northeast of Brazil at the end of July. Now the band is preparing for the upcoming MOTION release and tour. Meanwhile, guitarist Marcelo Barbosa comments on Almah, new album and the recent shows:

"Actually, I play in a few bands, and every one is special in its own way. Besides the fact that ALMAH is the most famous one among them and it has an opportunity to travel more playing live, the band is about to release a new album! It’s always a challenge and as usual it’s a very special feeling of this cold in the stomach when you have no idea what comes next. I’m very happy that the band is back on stage and I’m looking forward to the moment when everyone will hear the work that we’ve recorded. All of us are really excited with the final result.

At the end of July we played the first live shows after a big break. We spent more than a year without playing live on stage but even the first rehearsal showed good sound and great team work. It’s interesting, especially taking into account all the conditions.... Moreover, some song parts sounded even more natural and it was easier to play them. Of course, we have very good musicians in the band, but the songs, especially from Fragile Equality album, have very high technical level. And I believe, no one expected that it would be so easy to come back to live activities! I’m convinced that with more time and more rehersals for the upcoming Motion Tour ALMAH will sound so great on stage as never before!

I was really excited with the recent shows in the city of Fortaleza, I know this public very good because I’ve already played there 6 times (also with my other band – Khallice). But not only the feelling of this great audience or of coming back with Almah made this trip so special… We received the master of our new album Motion exactly when we were staying there, and we've listened to the ready master with the new material for the first time while on the road. We made our new photo session during the tour as well, because the band members live in different cities and we took the most from this opportunity of staying all together.

Actually, everything in this tour went on very well. Almah is a funny band with a good sense of humour. To stay close to these guys always means that a lot of fun is guaranteed! Especially with Paulo and Moreira which have a natural way to be funny. It’s impossible to spend even one day without laughing a lot. And of course, I couldn’t miss the opporutinity to go to the beach with some friends ‘cos my home city is in 1000km from the nearest seashore...

Well, I hope to visit as many places as possible with the future Motion Tour to present our new work live and to have fun playing this stuff! I’m totally sure that this CD will kick ass and let’s see what happens next!"

The extensive Onstage and Offstage Photo Gallehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifry from this trip is available at THIS LOCATION.

Almah Studio Report 2011 - Guitar recordings (Pt. 2) is available with ENGLISH SUBTITLES

2011-07-27T18:06:00.001-03:00

Start playing the video and choose the option "CC" on the left side of the video at the bottom.
Enjoy!

ALMAH: The title and cover artwork of the forthcoming album revealed

2011-07-27T18:04:00.001-03:00

ALMAH has confirmed the title of its upcoming third album, the follow-up to the previous success “Fragile Equality”, as “MOTION”. The cover artwork is available below.

Edu Falaschi comments recording of the guitars for the new Almah album

2011-06-16T17:12:00.006-03:00

ALMAH and Marcelo Barbosa keep working on the third studio album, the follow-up to the previous success, Fragile Equality (2008). This Monday, frontman and founder of Almah, Edu Falaschi, revealed a few details about recording of the new album in an interview to Heavy Nation program broadcasted by one of the most important internet radio stations in Brazil, UOL Radio.

Here is the part of the interview including the words of Edu about the guitars recorded by Marcelo Barbosa and Paulo Schroeber:

"It’s the fastest CD-recording I’ve ever done in my life! – tells Edu. – We began working at the end of April and had everything together within one month! I mean, the pre-production, arrangements, the basic parts/solos creation and the guitars/bass/drums recording... Everything took less than one month!
It’s the heaviest stuff I’ve ever recorded in my life, the guitar work kicks ass! The guitar parts have been recorded with 7-strings instruments, half-step down (B flat), and the result is very solid and heavy. The rhythm guitars were played four times for extra punch. The new stuff will show that Almah is not really a melodic metal band… But, mainly, this album will make it clear that Almah stands on its ground on the scene! While the first CD was my solo one, and the 2nd, Fragile Equaity, was the first album with the current line up, then unknown for the public, this time Almah is very well consolidated as a band. It’s got its own place, sound, identity and, also very important, its own true fan army!”

The complete news topic in English is HERE.
The original audio interview in Portuguese.

Marcelo Barbosa will play three shows with ANGRA

2011-06-10T17:18:00.007-03:00

Marcelo Barbosa will play three shows with ANGRA in Brazil (Suzano, Angra dos Reis and Brasília/Porão do Rock Festival) replacing the guitarist Kiko Lourero who will skip these live dates due to family reasons.

Marcelo Barbosa is a well recognized guitar master and teacher in Brazil. Besides his career as the founder, owner and professor of GTR Guitar Institute, he became famous as a metal musician thanks to his work in such bands as ALMAH and KHALLICE. In 2007 Barbosa joined ALMAH, the band established by Angra's singer Edu Falaschi with participation of his bandmate Felipe Andreoli, and became very familiar for Angra's audience. The 2nd Almah's album recorded in the present line-up became one of the best metal releases of the year worldwide. Right now the band is preparing the 3rd studio effort. As we previously reported, at the end of May Barbosa finished the guitar parts for the new long-awaited CD of Almah. Edu Falaschi mentioned in the recent interviews, that it will be the best guitar work he has ever had on his albums.

Thus, no wonder, that one of the leading metal bands in Brazil, Angra, invited him to replace its permanent guitarist to make these shows. The fans can really expect a great and exciting performance of Angra with Marcelo Barbosa. The first one will take place in Suzano, São Paulo state, on 11th of June.

Rehearsal with Angra:

Marcelo Barbosa reports from the studio

2011-05-20T07:18:00.003-03:00

The last few weeks I live between the trips from my home city Brasilia to Sao Paulo and back: at first, it was preproduction of the new material and right now, we’re recording the guitars for the new CD of Almah. The whole atmosphere in the studio is very good and we are convinced that the album will be great. As the songs are taking shape, we start to realize the weight and profundity of them and of their arrangements. All the guitar basics have been already recorded and at the moment we are doing some details and the solos. I have to return to Brasília for the week-end because of some shows and appointments there. But I believe that before the middle of the next week we’ll finish all the guitar and acoustic guitar parts.

Too many things happen at the same time and I must confess that I’m getting a bit crazy because of it. But let come what may!

I’ve made two videos with parts of the new songs. They are short because we can’t reveal all the secrets before their time, but I think it could be enough to stimulate your curiosity. Some elements remind Fragile Equality, after all, the band remains the same with the same guitarists. These elements are a part of our sound’s identity. But I’m sure that for the most part of the album we are daring enough and many things will be different from the stuff presented on the previous CD.

Sorry, I made a mistake recording the second video with my iPhone, I did it in the vertical position that is why the picture is too narrow. Anyway, what is really important, the sound is there. Check out the videos, we will show you more things soon. Stay tuned!

Marcelo Barbosa about the new Almah in the interview for Fullrock.com

2011-05-11T17:19:00.000-03:00

At the moment, ALMAH continues working at the third studio album, the follow-up to the previous success, Fragile Equality (2008). This week, the band has started to work at the guitar parts. Brazilian journalist, Felix Briano from Fullrock.com has got a few answers from ALMAH’s guitarist Marcelo Barbosa about how the work at the new material is going on.

First, the journalist asked how much the new stuff can be compared with the first Almah’s CD made as a solo-album of Edu Falaschi (while the 2nd one, Fragile Equality was a result of a real band work): “In some parts, - told Barbosa – but we won’t abandon the technical side which is one of the most important features of the band. That time the songs themselves were the central point of the attention and the arragements permeated them with some temperance, which doesn’t appear so much in Fragile Equality - the album that I adore. But now it’s a different moment and since we express in the music the way we think and the way we live at the moment, it couldn’t be the same”.

You live in Brasília and the rest of the guys are from São Paulo and Caxias do Sul, all the places are in different states in the country with a very big territory. How did the composing become possible in such conditions?
“This time it has been a little bit different. It’s been a bit faster than in case of the previous CD. We started to exchange some ideas through the Internet. When we had got enough material, we set up an appointmemt and spent almost a week in São Paulo in order to finalize the songs and the arrangements for the new album and right after that Moreira entered the studio to record the drums. This part has already been finished and this week we start to record the guitars, acoustic guitars and the bass".

Where are you recording the new album, in which studio?
“We have choosen the same one where we made Fragile Equality. Norcal is a studio with excellent equipment, technical staff, organization and where we are very welcome. With old partners by our side the whole process becomes easier and more agile. The main difference is the fact that this time the album will be mixed in Europe".

We are talking about the album without using any certain name, did you define the title of the new Almah’s effort?
“Not yet. Everything is happening very very fast and we will fill the gaps during the recording. We have been waiting for some break in Angra’s schedule to have a space to go on with Almah. And when it happened we immediately caught this opportunity! :) Every one of us is really excited with all this stuff that our fans would like to get to know, and these details will be announced soon, for sure".

The original text in Portuguese you can find here.

ALMAH is: Edu Falaschi – vocals, Felipe Andreoli – bass, Marcelo Barbosa – guitars, Paulo Schroeber – guitars, Marcelo Moreira – drums. The band entered the Norcal Studios in São Paulo, Brazil on 2th of May. The release of the album, as-yet-untitled, is planned for September 2011 worldwide. According to the previous messages of the musicians, the new CD will be heavy and up-to-date. And it will include 10 songs.

Marcelo Barbosa's KHALLICE will be an opening act of IRON MAIDEN show in Brasília (DF, Brazil)

2011-03-22T17:24:00.004-03:00

The band of Marcelo Barbosa KHALLICE, will be an opening act of IRON MAIDEN show in Brasília (DF, Brazil) on 30th of March 2011 during The Final Frontier World Tour of the "kings" of heavy metal. KHALLICE will appear on stage at 19h30, don't miss it! It won't be the first time when the prog-metallers from the capital of Brazil support shows of legendary rock and metal bands. In 2010 KHALLICE opened Guns N'Rouses concert in Brasília, but maybe the most significant performance in the band's history happened in 2008, when KHALLICE shared the stage with DREAM THEATER in Rio de Janeiro.

ALMAH is back with new album in 2011

2011-03-19T18:05:00.001-03:00

We are glad to announce that ALMAH enters the Norcal Studios in São Paulo on 2th of May to record the material for the long awaited 3rd album, the follow-up of successful Fragile Equality (2008). The line-up remains the same: Edu Falaschi - vocals, Felipe Andreoli - bass, Marcelo Barbosa - guitars, Paulo Schroeber - guitars, Marcelo Moreira - drums. The release of the album, as-yet-untitled, is planed to be released in September 2011 worldwide.

"I’m very happy with Almah’s comeback in 2011, first of all, because this third CD should consolidade Almah as a band once and for all!!! This album will show you a mature band and it will define the individuality and language of our sound, which is the most important thing! I’m very exctited to launch it soon!"
Edu Falaschi

Almah was established by Angra’s singer Edu Falaschi in 2006. Marcelo Barbosa joined the band in the second half of 2007. The previous CD, Fragile Equality saw the light of day in September/October 2008 through JVC (Asia)/Laser Company (Brazil)/AFM Records (Europe, North America) and became one of the most significant and best selling power metal albums at that time. In Brazil it was recognized as the best album of the year and Almah became the best band according to the rock and metal media. The Fragile Equality tour started in São Paulo in November 2008 and finished in June 2010 in the home city of Marcelo Barbosa Brasília. Then the musicians began to prepare the ideas for the next CD. More details about the new album will be revealed soon.

Two videos from Marcelo Barbosa's workshop in Niterói (RJ) in December 2010 at Escola Música Moderna

2011-03-19T18:01:00.001-03:00

The newspaper “Correio Braziliense” about Marcelo Barbosa’s “Guitarosofia”

2011-01-30T17:28:00.001-02:00

The main newspaper in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil and home city of Marcelo Barbosa, Correio Braziliense, published an article dedicated to Youtube online network. Youtube was established in February, 2008 and since then Youtube which allows any Internet user to publish his videos online became a serious platform not only for entertainment, but also for professional activities. The author analyses the secret of this network and mentioned a few cases when various people improved their work or even turned their hobbies into a real profession with the help of Youtube. One of the main examples of Youtube impact on the professional field is the series of online guitar lessons by Marcelo Barbosa “Guitarosofia”. Read this part of the article in English:

There are teachers who take this virtual platform quite seriously. It’s the case of the guitarist Marcelo Barbosa who created his project “Guitarosofia” - the series of 15 online 10-minute lessons. Marcelo hired a professional cinematographer and a photo editor in order to produce the material: “The idea was to share a bit of my knowledge with people who would like to attend my lessons but don’t have conditions to do it due to financial or geographic reasons, - tells Marcelo. – At the same time, I wanted to present my school and (why not?) my own name as a guitarist.”

The musician chose a natural style, talking to the cameras without certain scenario: “Every lesson is done as I stay in front of a student and talk to him naturally. Sometimes I even falter or just stop in order to think what I want to tell next”.

The series have already got 75.000 views and the material should be released as a DVD.

The complete material in Portuguese.

The new photogallery with many offstage photos from Marcelo's trip to NAMM (California, U.S.A.)

2011-01-28T11:34:00.009-02:00

The new photogallery with many offstage photos from Marcelo Barbosa's trip to California (USA) where the guitarist participated in NAMM musical exhibition is available on his personal profile in Facebook . Check it out here.

In case you don't have a registration in Facebook, we upload a few pictures from the gallery here:

Marcelo Barbosa has concluded “Guitarosofia”, the series of 15 guitar lessons on Youtube

2011-01-04T16:41:00.001-02:00

Marcelo Barbosa has recently concluded the series of 15 free video lessons on Youtube GUITAROSOFIA published during 2009-2010. The material consists of short professional videos in Portuguese where Marcelo explains different aspects of playing the guitar, musical theory, composition and improvisation. The very first video was launched in August 2009 and now you can check out the complete series on the official Youtube channel of the guitarist here. “Guitarosofia” is produced by GTR Guitar Institute with the support of Tagima, Elixir, Orange, NIG, IBOX and Santo Angelo. In 2011 Marcelo Barbosa is to release expanded material of “Guitarosofia” on DVD.

Marcelo Barbosa: “Publishing with great satisfaction the last, 15th video lesson, I accomplished my main idea to spread some knowledge as a free material in the Internet. I mean, not simply “any” material, but something with a very good production, content and personality. I’ve done it in order to give some strength to musicians of initial, intermediate or professional level and mainly to those who don’t have conditions to pay for private lessons. And up to the moment when I’ve started to write these words, we’ve got almost thirty thousand views of these videos on the channel. On the whole there are more than 2,5 hours of the recorded and edited free of charge material available. I don’t have any idea how many hours of work has it taken in order to get to the final result. The material published in Youtube is gratis and will always be. At the same time, I get many requests to post tabs and stuff like that. That is why I decided to fulfill my initial idea to launch “Guitarosofia” also in a special package with all the lessons in high quality on DVD and with tabs of all the examples I played there. The material is to be released very soon. I don’t know yet, if and when I continue the project, may be I’ll do it in the future, but definitely it won’t happen in 2011 because at the moment I have other goals. If you like “Guitarosofia”, please, make your comments, add to your favorites, embed the stuff to your pages, recommend to your friends helping us to spread this material, to keep the whole idea alive and to stimulate the interest to the study of this great instrument that we love so much!”

VIDEO: Marcelo Barbosa at EXPOMUSIC 2010

2010-11-19T18:54:00.004-02:00

Check out the new official video of Marcelo Barbosa's presentation at ExpoMusic 2010. ExpoMusic is one of the biggest exhibitions of musical instruments, equipment and accessories in Latin America and it is one of the most important business events in São Paulo (Brazil). 27th Expomusic took place in São Paulo on September 22-26th, in Expo Center Norte. As an endorser of the guitars Tagima, the cables Santo Angelo and the pedals NIG Marcelo Barbosa made a few workshops at the stands of these companies.

Official Youtube channel of Santo Angelo has recently revealed the video of "Memories" composition by Marcelo Barbosa performed during the wokshop of the guitarist at the stand of the company. Marcelo Barbosa has been a partner and endorser of Santo Angelo more than five years.

REVELATION IN THE MIDDLE OF BRAZIL
There are many legends and stories about the supernatural happening in the Brazilian Central Plateau. One of the few that we believe relates to an exceptional guitarist named Marcelo Barbosa, who at 17 years has taught guitar at two schools in Brasilia / DF. Listen and tell us what you think.
(By Santo Angelo)

Marcelo Barbosa presents a new part of Guitarosofia

2010-10-30T14:24:00.014-02:00

Check out new videos of Marcelo Barbosa's Guitarosofia! As usually, the material is published at the official Youtube channel of the guitarist. It continues the series of short training videos in Portuguese.

Marcelo Barbosa left the following message in his Official Portuguese blog concerning the subject:

"Ok, tomorrow I will go to North America again, this time just to rest, to enjoy friends' company and to get to know a city that I have not had an opportunity to see before despite its attraction, Miami.

I have been working a lot at the didactic materials of GTR (Guitar Institute) as well as at the compositions for some projects I take part in. But I couldn't leave Brazil without presenting one more episode of Guitarosofia series. Once again, I had to divide one lesson into two parts due to Youtube ten-minutes limit for one video. I publish both parts at once. Hopefully, you'll enjoy it!"

See More videos at the Official Channel Of Marcelo Barbosa in Youtube

Artemis musicians about Marcelo Barbosa in the interview for "Edu Falaschi France"

2010-10-03T07:43:00.003-03:00

Artemis musicians, the drummer Pedro Senna and the guitarist Nathan Grego have been recently interviewed by Sylvie Catez for "Edu Falaschi France". Among other matters, the musicians expressed their respect to Marcelo Barbosa who played a great part in the history of the band and in the musical education of its members. Artemis is a young metal band from Brasília and the musicians are currently finishing their work at the debut as-yet-untitled album with the producer Edu Falaschi (Angra, Almah). A few members of Artemis are GTR students - both guitarists, Nathan Grego and Gabriel “T-Bone” are the students of Marcelo. Before the vocals recording, a great singer Alírio Netto, Khallice frontman entered Artemis. Netto is not only a band mate of Marcelo in Khallice, he is also a respected professor and a part of GTR Guitar Institute team.
"I would like to thank Marcelo Barbosa who supported us during this period and also had a special participation in the album. The album is the result of more than one year of work, so it was very worked to show our talent to everyone", - told the guitarist Nathan Grego in the interview.
Read the complete article HERE.

Khallice has launched its official Twitter

2010-10-01T10:43:00.005-03:00

Marcelo Barbosa's band Khallice has launched its official Twitter: www.twitter.com/khallice

"Now the band Khallice also has its official Twitter. The design is done by my great partner Carlos Fides, from Artside. Don't miss the opportunity to follow, in this way you will always receive all the news and updates. See you there!"

Marcelo Barbosa

The nation-wide success of Marcelo Barbosa’s GTR Institute

2010-09-18T17:11:00.002-03:00

We’re proud to announce that some teachers and former students of GTR headed by Marcelo Barbosa have recently entered the finals of the two most important guitar contests in Brazil in 2010.

Dimas Andrade is one of the seven finalists of Double Vision contest, chosen from 500 candidates. In the final of the other contest, Tagima Dream Team 2010, there are two GTR related masters. Besides Dimas Andrade, the guitar teacher Ian Lucena has also reached the final. Both are former students of GTR and nowadays they teach in the Institute.

It’s also an honor to us that two other ex-students/teachers of GTR have been specially mentioned in Double Vision contest, despite not entering the grand final: Alex Pires and Rodrigo Fernandez.

It’s very important for us that many GTR students and teachers have played a significant part in all the guitar contests on the national level during the last years. This is a real evidence of incredible talent, professionalism and dedication of everyone who is a part of our great GTR family.

We can also mention such GTR names as Lucas Fagundes (NIG, Souza Lima), Bruno Albuquerque (NIG, Tagima Dream Team), Ian Lucena (NIG) and Rodrigo Fernandez (Kiko Loureiro/D'Addario).

”I’m really proud to have this opportunity to work personally, in my lecture room with all these people and many other great guitarists. I’m very happy to put my efforts in the music education process of every one of them. I’m totally sure, that it’s only the beginning.

Thanks a lot to all the students, teachers and partners and good luck to our new talents!”

Marcelo Barbosa

Check out a few videos of the masters from GTR:

Dimas Andrade

Alex Pires

Rodrigo Fernandez

Ian Lucena (Bemolator)

Marcelo Barbosa will participate in Expomusic 2010 (Brazil)

2010-09-14T12:31:00.003-03:00

The guitarist Marcelo Barbosa will participate in 27th International musical exhibition Expomusic 2010 which will take place in São Paulo on September 22-26th, Expo Center Norte.

Expomusic is one of the biggest exhibitions of musical instruments, equipment and accessories in Latin America and it is one of the most important business events in São Paulo (Brazil). Expomusic 2010 will present 200 exhibitors from Brazil and abroad. More about the event (in Portuguese): www.expomusic.com.br

As an endorser of the guitars Tagima, the cables Santo Angelo and the pedals NIG Marcelo Barbosa will do a few workshops at the stands of these companies and also he will participate in special events around Expomusic 2010.

Check out the schedule of the guitarist:

19/0910 - Tagima Dream Team - 18:40 (http://tagimadreamteam.com.br/)
20/09/10 - Final Double Vision Competition (Marcelo is in the jury of the contest http://www.doublevisiondvd.com.br/)
23/09 10 - EXPOMUSIC - Workshop Tagima - 15:30 to 16:15
24/09 10 - EXPOMUSIC - Workshop NIG - 14:00 to15:00
24/09 10 - EXPOMUSIC - Workshop Santo Angelo - 16:00 to 16:30
24/09 10 - EXPOMUSIC - Workshop Tagima - 17:45 to 18:30
25/09 10 - EXPOMUSIC - Workshop Tagima - 17:00 to 17:45
26/09 10 - EXPOMUSIC - Workshop Tagima - 15:30 to 16:15
26/09 10 - EXPOMUSIC - Workshop NIG - 17:00 to 18:00

GTR lead by Marcelo Barbosa is a partner of one of the most important musical festivals in Brazil

2010-09-05T17:05:00.006-03:00

GTR Instituto de Guitarra headed by Marcelo Barbosa will take part in the upcoming Porão do Rock Festival in Brasília in a very special way. The school will give a name to the heavy metal stage of the festival: this year it will be PALCO GTR. The event will take place on 11th of September. Porão do Rock is one of the most important musical festivals of Brazil. This year many important Brazilian bands will play on PALCO GTR such as Korzus, Andre Matos Band and Dynahead. Porão do Rock is an independent musical festival, its history started in 1998. This is not only musical event, Porão do Rock is famous due to its important social activities, it got many national awards over the years.
More about the Festival (in Portuguese): http://www.poraodorock.com.br

Check out a new video of Marcelo Barbosa

2010-08-20T06:36:00.002-03:00

Having some fun practicing over Govan's backing track.
Some chromatic stuff here.
Web cam, so... sorry about the bad quality of this video.
Please thumbs up, fave and subscribe, ok?
Cheers!!!!
Marcelo Barbosa

Fan Art by Russian artist Amalia Marganova

2010-08-19T07:40:00.002-03:00

ALMAH official statement

2010-07-04T08:17:00.004-03:00

photo by Paula Mordente www.paulamordente.com

ALMAH has just finished another part of Fragile Equality Tour. The band played in various cities of Brazil finishing this leg on the stage of Marreco’s fest in Brasilia.

ALMAH’s founder, frontman and mastermind Edu Falaschi has come up with an official statement about the recent tour and the future of the band:

“I would like to give a lot of thanks to everybody from the name of Almah for your incredible love and support during these five years of the band. The whole FRAGILE EQUALITY TOUR was unforgettable, mainly due to the amazing presence of the fans on the latest shows: it’s impossible to explain how it feels to see you singing along to all our songs! We haven’t been able to visit all the cities where we would like to play, but we will make it possible in the next tour! At the moment Felipe Andreoli and me are quite busy with the new ANGRA’s things, which naturally slow down the rhythm of Almah activities. However, it doesn’t mean that the band will be stopped. We are already working at new ideas for the next album and when the best moment for it comes we will record a new CD and we will back on track! See you soon, my friends! ALMAH is here: Edu Falaschi, Felipe Andreoli, Marcelo Barbosa, Paulo Schroeber and Marcelo Moreira!”
Edu Falaschi

ALMAH was initially established in 2006 as a project of ANGRA’s singer Edu Falaschi. Since then ALMAH has released two albums worldwide (Almah 2006/2007, Fragile Equality 2008), has turned from a solo-project into a regular band, and has won its own important place on the world metal scene. Edu Falaschi’s mate from Angra Felipe Andreoli (bass) also joined the band in 2007 and they work in ALMAH simultaneously with Angra. The band also relies on Marcelo Barbosa (guitars), Paulo Schroeber (guitars) and Marcelo Moreira (drums). All the musicians of Almah have got their important place on Brazilian metal scene playing in various bands and projects, producing CDs, making workshops and doing teaching and didactic work.

More about ALMAH:
http://www.almah.com.br/
http://www.myspace.com/almahedufalaschi
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Almah/159939444280

ALMAH tour June 2010 galleries:

2010-07-03T13:06:00.002-03:00

Photo by Paula Mordente: www.paulamordente.com

See more photos:

Almah in Belo Horizonte by Paula Mordente:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulamordente
http://www.orkut.com/Main#Album?uid=8761009047852238169&aid=1276539568
Almah in Belo Horizonte by Insite.Eventos
http://www.insiteeventos.com.br
ALMAH in Goiânia: http://www.bolshoipub.com.br/galerias/17-06-2010
Almah at Marreco’s fest (Brasília): http://www.flickr.com/photos/kkmk/

ALMAH entered Top-10 of HMR (Heavy Metal Radio)

2010-06-30T10:40:00.002-03:00

We are really proud to inform you that ALMAH has recently entered Top-10 of HMR (Heavy Metal Radio), one of the most important international Internet radiostations in the world, with the songs TORN and GOLDEN EMPIRE:

ALMAH - Golden Empire (Almah 2006/2007)
3rd place in Top-10 of the week
4th place in Top-20 of the past 30 days

ALMAH - Torn (Fragile Equality 2008)
6th place in Top-10 of the week
10th place in Top-20 of the past 30 days

According to http://www.heavymetalradio.com/, on 21th of June 2010.

ALMAH song in AFM compilation

2010-06-30T10:30:00.003-03:00

ALMAH song Beyond Tomorrow has been included in a new AFM compilation (to be released July, 23).

According to AFM records:
On July 23, the new Heavy/Power Metal compilation "Metallic Dawning" will be released. With 32 songs on 2 CDs and a playing time of more than 150 minutes this compilations offers "value for money". It will be available for special price and even include 3 unreleased tracks (Ross The Boss, Circle II Circle and Elvenking). The cover artwork has been created by Bulgarian artist Dimitar Nikolov.

MORE INFORMATION: http://www.afm-records.de/en/news/news-467-V1001A1001+Metallic+Dawning.html

Marcelo Barbosa: live pictures with his band ZERO 10 (UK Brasil, June 2010)

2010-06-29T17:10:00.004-03:00

A few photos of KHALLICE's show in Goiânia, Brazil on 17th of June

2010-06-28T15:43:00.004-03:00

2010-05-25T09:25:00.001-03:00

Marcelo Barbosa: Invitation to Brazilian Guitar contest (in Portuguese, more info about the contest in English: http://www.doublevisiondvd.com.br/) and instrumental composition in honour of great Brazilian guitarists Sydnei Carvalho and Alex Martinho:

More Marcelo Barbosa's videos: http://www.youtube.com/marcelogtr

The long awaited Guitarosofia 12 is available now!

2010-05-24T16:55:00.000-03:00

Rest in peace, Ronnie James Dio

2010-05-18T04:25:00.000-03:00

This is a very sad feeling of finiteness that comes with a death of some person. In case of persons well-known worldwide this feeling is even more intense, because it’s like you lose someone very dear. Happily, in case of Dio, his marvelous life-work turned him immortal. It’s enough to hear any of his classic works of any of his bands to be convinced that his legacy will live on, whether he is physically present or not. Rest in peace, Ronnie James Dio.

Marcelo Barbosa

All I Am Solo played by French guitarist Frédérick Doré

2010-05-17T16:38:00.000-03:00

Marcelo Barbosa: "I became happy to see the solo recorded on another part of the world which has been played so precisely. Congratulations, brother!"

ALMAH resumes Fragile Equality Tour

2010-05-14T17:18:00.003-03:00

In June 2010 ALMAH is again on the road with Fragile Equality Tour program. The new leg of the tour will include a few dates in Brazil. According to the bass player Felipe Andreoli, the band is booking as many dates as possible while Angra is finishing the production of the new CD. The band is very happy to come back on stage with Fragile Equality Tour program. One of the shows will take place in Marcelo's home city - Brasília. Marcelo's band KHALLICE is to play with Almah this time in Goiânia!!!

Almah - Varginha/MG - 12/06/2010
Roça N’ Roll Festival

Almah - Belo Horizonte/MG - 13/06/2010
Hard Rock Café

Almah & Khallice - Goiânia/GO - 17/06/2010
Bolshoi Pub

Almah - Brasília/DF - 19/06/2010
Local: Marreco's Fest

More info: www.almah.com.br

ALMAH confirms its participation in Marreco's fest 2010 in Brasília, DF (Brazil)

2010-04-29T16:52:00.002-03:00

ALMAH confirms its participation in Marreco's fest 2010 in Brasília, DF (Brazil). According to the official press-release of the event, the band is one of the headliners of the night and will play on June 19 at Camping show in the heart of Federal District.

Besides Almah Marreco's fest 2010 has already five other confirmed bands: Mystifier, Dark Avenger, Sarcasm, and Uganga Heaven's Guardian. The festival is ready to accept 17 bands and more acts will be confirmed soon.

Marreco's rock festival takes place every year since 2001. It is a very important cultural event of the region which represents and consolidates the underground music and musical industry of the region. Promoted by the musician and producer Fábio Marreco, the event becomes more and more popular throughout these years, and it has taken its proper place in the festival schedule of Brasiília.

More information about the event: http://www.marrecosfest.com.br/

In the meantime, Almah musicians continue to work at their other bands, projects and enterprises. Edu Falaschi and Felipe Andreoli are finishing the new Angra's album, the release is scheduled for August, also they continue their activities as producers and musical teachers. Marcelo Barbosa manages his GTR Guitar Institute, works with the band Khallice and other musical acts. Paulo Schroeber is working at his solo album and currently touring with his other band Astafix.

This is the second officially confirmed date of Almah for this year. Before Marreco's fest the band will visit Minas Gerais to participate in Roca'n'Roll fest (June 12). More news coming soon.

Several pictures from Khallice show

2010-04-28T19:45:00.003-03:00

Last week Marcelo played with his band Khallice at the 50-years-anniversary of Brasília. Here you can see a few pictures from the event made by Guilherme Negrão:

Insomnia - acoustic guitar part from Marcelo

2010-04-28T19:39:00.001-03:00

"Fun in Drop D. But sleep just for 3 hours ain't that fun... :( Hope you enjoy!"

Guitarras do Cerrado event: interview with Marcelo Barbosa

2010-04-17T13:12:00.003-03:00

Marcelo Barbosa to participate in the DVD recording of GUITARRAS DO CERRADO project playing JIMI HENDRIX. The event is dedicated to 50-years-anniversary of the capital of Brazil, Brasília and will take place in UK BRASIL PUB on April 21, 8 p.m. GUITARRAS DO CERRADO project was established in 2003 and presents the union of the leading names of the guitar world of Brasília and its region such as: KIKO PÉRES, HAROLDINHO MATTOS, MARCELO BARBOSA, CELSO SALIM, ALBERTO SALES, DILLO DARAÚJO, DOCA, TONINHO MAIA and MAURÍCIO LAVENÉRE. Here you can read the short interview of Marcelo Barbosa in relation to this event done for GUITARRAS DO CERRADO official website.

Complete name: Marcelo Silva Barbosa

Date of birth: 07/04/1975

How and when did the music come to your life?
I was 11 when I was influenced by the explosion of Brazilian rock and later by the first Rock'n Rio festival which got me into the first contact with some great world rock icons.

Why was it the guitar?
Without any doubt, the guitar is one of the most expressive instruments existing in the music. Besides that, this is a symbol and a synonym of rock'n roll, the musical style which made me want to be a musician.

What does Jimi Hendrix mean for you, as a musician and as a guitarist?
An important milestone in the history of the instrument. Without any doubt, any guitarist in this world (whether he wants it or not) who came after him has some Hendrix influences in his proper style, even without realizing that.

Which album or song of Hendrix would you emphasize?
Are You Experienced kicks ass.

If you had an opportunity to play with him, which song would you like to play?
It’s difficult to choose only one, but I think, Purple Haze.

If this meeting happened in Brasília, where would you take him to play?
I think it might be quite interesting to play with Hendrix on the esplanade of the ministry departments. Who knows, maybe on the Congress ramp, it was some show there a few years ago.

Whom would you invite to assist this musical walk in Brasília?
All the sensitive persons with good taste and admirers of real artist expressiveness.

Whom wouldn’t you invite?
For sure, anyone who take part in the actual system of the government of Federal District.

Your message for 50 years of Brasília anniversary
I’m too biased to say it due to my passion to the city, I was born and I was made here. I’ve already gone all over Brazil and a little bit over the rest of the world and in general I’ve never been in a better place for living. Long live Brasília and the quality of life it guarantees to us!

Guitarras do Cerrado website (in Portuguese)

Happy Birthday, Marcelo!

2010-04-07T16:59:00.003-03:00

New "week-end solo" from Marcelo - Lick de Sábado (03/04/2010)

2010-04-05T03:37:00.002-03:00

Almah confirmed its first show in 2010

2010-03-28T16:48:00.003-03:00

ALMAH is to be back on stage soon. The band has recently confirmed its participation in one of the most important rock festivals in Brazil Roça‘n’Roll in Fazenda Estrela, Minas Gerais. According to the official press-release of the event Almah will play on main festival’s night, June 12.

Besides Almah the following bands have already been confirmed: Bittencourt Project, Torture Squad, Kamala, Raveland, Hammurabi, Unliver and Mercuryio Projectile. The rest of the participants will be announced very soon. Besides musical show, there are many other events in the program of Roça‘n’Roll 2010 such as Air Guitar and Guitar Hero championships, workshops, exhibitions, theatrical performances etc.

Rock‘n’Roll takes place every year, the first festival was organized in 2005. Since then, it has welcomed more then 170 rock and metal bands from various parts of Brazil and other countries, becoming a real important event of the city. More information about Roça'n'Roll:
MySpace: www.myspace.com/rocanrollfestival
Youtube: www.youtube.com/rocanrollfestival
Twitter: www.twitter.com/rocainroll

Almah was established as a solo project of Edu Falaschi and released its first album in 2006 (Brazil, Japan) and 2007 (Europe, USA). Then Almah turned to be a real band with permanent line-up, studio and live activities simultaneously with the work of the band participants in other bands and projects. The latest Almah studio album of the band was released in September-October 2008 through AFM Records (Europe, North America), JVC (Asia) and Laser Company (Brazil) with the following line-up: Edu Falaschi – vocals (Angra), Felipe Andreoli – bass (Angra), Marcelo Barbosa – guitars (Khallice), Paulo Schroeber – guitars, Marcelo Moreira – drums (Burning In Hell).

More news about Almah – very soon, stay tuned!

Birds Of Prey (Santo Andre, 2008):

"Saturday's evening" solo from Marcelo Barbosa :) Enjoy!

2010-03-28T05:39:00.001-03:00

Khallice opens Guns N'Roses: one more video

2010-03-22T22:06:00.001-03:00

Marcelo about opening Guns N'Roses show in Brasília with Khallice on March, 7 (click here or Read more button to get the complete report)

2010-03-14T20:05:00.018-03:00

Two years after the legendary trip to Rio de Janeiro to open Dream Theater show, Marcelo Barbosa's Khallice played with another legend - Guns N'Roses, this time in the home city of the band, Brasília. Check out Marcelo's story about this challenge, some video and photo stuff!
The report in PORTUGUESE IS HERE.

Well, unfortunately for my blog, I’m not that kind of person who makes a lot of videos or photo stuff. Even at moments like this… and it’s a real mistake. But normally I’m so deep in my thoughts, so I forget to make shots. But this time I succeeded to do a few!

As it was mentioned before, the confirmation that we are the opening act of the show of the Guns came only on Friday evening. It's been two weeks since we got in touch with the promoter for the first time, I didn’t hear anything more about the show since then, so I became pretty sure that it wouldn’t happen. To be honest, I didn’t even tell anything to my band-mates about it, because it was only one chance and I didn’t intend to give them a vain hope. That’s why when I called the guys to let them know about the show, they didn’t want to believe. They thought that I was kidding, also due to my way to inform them about it. It was like this:
- Hi Michel. Are you going to the show of Guns on Sunday?
- Fuck... I think, no.
- But now you have to go, because we open it! :)

As a short preamble, I’d been already acquainted with the present guitarist of the Guns Ron Thal, we first met at Namm Show in Los Angeles a few years ago. We had a short conversation there, and he wasn’t in the band yet at that time. When I got to know that the Guns should come here I sent him an e-mail trying to schedule a workshop or something like that in GTR. As I expected I didn’t get his answer until the last Sunday. He replied that it could hardly be possible to coordinate any event with the Guns’ schedule, which was really crazy, with everything done in a rush and changes all the way through. I sent him my thanks in return and proposed to organize something when the Guns are not on tour. On Friday, after getting our show confirmation, I sent him one more e-mail with this news and the time frame of our soundcheck. And we arranged our meeting there.

(At Namm 2006)

Since Khallice doesn’t maintain any constant show schedule, the first difficulty that we faced with was the necessity to rehearse at least twice before the show. We fixed Saturday and Sunday to rehearse in my studio, and thus, I had a “mega punk” week-end again: shows with Zero 10 till early morning on Friday and Saturday and rehearsals with Khallice on Saturday and Sunday at noon!

We arrived to the venue on 3 p.m. and after checking the technical team and getting the instructions from the producers we were looking at the soundcheck of Sebastian’s band until 4 p.m. or something when the installation of our backline began. I adore playing on stage of big shows in Brasília, because it gives me a great opportunity to take along all the equipment I want and I need. The one who really doesn’t like this, is my roadie Bruno, because he has to carry two cases and a head of Orange amplifier, which are really not light in weight.

Everything passed perfectly. Our soundcheck was calm and tranquil and the band sounded very good on stage. It’s clear, we had a fixed sound limit - quite common thing for opening acts of great bands: 104 dbs of loudness. They do it mainly in order to provide some sound impact when the main band enters the stage. I’ve always found it an idiocy, but in the end…

Ah! Here’s some very interesting detail: EXACTLY on the 7th of March but two years ago we were in Rio de Janeiro, opening Dream Theater show. How big was the chance to hit the same day? One from 365... :)

Ok, after the soundcheck I had a chat with Ron. I presented him Neto and we were talking for a few hours. He showed me his equipment and the famous double neck guitar with one fretless finger-board and another normal one of Vigier. A very cool thing. I talked a little to the guitarists of Sebastian, they were very cool.

Our show was scheduled for 20:00, but it was changed to 20:30. We played 30 min for more than 20.000 people and, as usually, we were really welcomed by the public. When our show was finished, Ron was waiting for me on the right side of stage. He made compliments to me and then invited me to assist at the show of Sebasthian right from the stage. Great... why not? Fuckin’ great show!

(Photo by Guilherme Negrão)

Concerning the shows of Guns, despite the routine delay it was simply one of the best performances I’ve ever attended. It was a grand spectacle including everything – the sound, the light, the pyrotechnics and video. Very impressive.

(Photo by Guilherme Negrão)

Since our backstage room was next to the one of Sebastian, at the end of the event we spent some time together talking and drinking. This man is one of the main figures I know, very funny… very cool guy.

(Photo by Guilherme Negrão)

I came home almost on 4 a.m., very tired but also fulfilled. It was a very special Sunday. Thanks to all (from here and there) who sent us their positive thoughts and energy. See you soon!

MARCELO BARBOSA

Khallice backstage (photos by Guilherme Negrão)

Marcelo Barbosa launches official French Blog

2010-03-12T16:53:00.005-03:00

Renowned Brazilian musician and professor Marcelo Barbosa (KHALLICE, ALMAH, Zero10 guitarist and GTR Guitar Institute owner and teacher) launches his official blog in France. You can find a lot of information regarding the guitarist and his bands and projects in French, as well as many pictures, various videos and songs here: http://mbarbosafrance.blogspot.com/
The new service is managed by Almah France (official European fan club and official French site and blog of the band). Thanks a lot to Sylvie Catez for the support and initiative.

Fan-video of Marcelo's band Zero10

2010-03-11T20:30:00.002-03:00

UK Brasil Pub, Brasília DF
More about Zero10: www.zero10.com.br
More videos of Marcelo Barbosa: http://www.youtube.com/user/marcelogtr

Khallice in the air of MetalCast show

2010-02-27T15:03:00.004-03:00

There are several bands out there offering their first material (EP, demo, album, …) for free. Hence the choice to finally add some of those freebies to the list. But they are just a tip of the iceberg. And they come from everywhere, be it France, Brazil, USA, or elsewhere. Again you’ll be surprised to hear and see which bands made it to the list. On top of that, we even went to Mexico and South Korea to look for bands worthy of your attention. At least, we hope they’re worthy. Enjoy the show and don’t hesitate to further check out the featured bands.

Host: Polina
Tracklist: Tim, Marcus, Polina, Judith

01. Heaven’s Basement – Executioner’s Day
02. Cryogen – This Nightmare
03. Legend – Dawn of Empire
04. Claustrofobia – Minefield
05. Khallice – Share a Little Something
06. Archenterum – Hamon Baal
07. Khrophus – Symbols Or Not
08. Etánisis – El Último Guerrero
09. Oranssi Pazuzu – Danjon Nolla
10. Tiamat – Cain

CHECK THE EPISODE HERE

If you are in Brasília, don't miss this special show of KHALLICE!

2009-12-14T18:39:00.002-02:00

The short story of MB-1 (Marcelo Barbosa Signature Model) by Marcelo Barbosa (CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE STORY)

2009-11-30T19:08:00.005-02:00

Read the original text in Portuguese on Marcelo Barbosa's official website.

Translated by Irina Ivanova, Alex Froloff, Andrei Kulikov (The Power Of Metal Russian Community).

I have always been a great fan of good instruments and I have had various ones during my career. There were many different brands and models, but every one had its proper peculiarities and its identity. Depending on period of my life, I had a passion to some certain instrument spending a lot of time with it. So, it was in such a way with Ibanez of RG series, with Stratos, with Wolfgang and with Telecasters. It’s impossible to choose only one, since every one has its merit and sometimes also its limits.

Ibanez, model Jem was the one, which attracted my attention the most among all the guitars that have ever passed through my hands. This is the signature guitar of Steve Vai, the guitarist I’ve always admired a lot. Besides a good tune and an excellent tone (in general, in case of older 7WH), the playability of these guitars is sensational. Since I have big hands, the standard fretboard and the access to the last fret were really very good.

On the other hand, besides the tone I’ve always liked the feeling of playing the vintage guitars. Stratos, Les Pauls and Teles have the image of the history of rock and consequently of the history of the guitar. And to go to stage with one of these “children” in my hands always makes me feel good. It feels like becoming a part of the history myself… It’s difficult to explain.... I just like it...

When Tagima invited me to develop my signature model I was very pleased, but at the same time quite preoccupied. I didn’t feel like releasing just a guitar under my name only to push something on the market. It should have been some product of good quality and with its own personality. At that time I was playing a lot the stratos and teles. Even the most modern guitars I played basically were stratos with humbuckers and Floyd Rose. At that moment Tagima already had some very good signature models in this style like the guitars of Edu Ardanuy or Juninho Afram. I decided that I must think how to unite the characteristics I liked the most in the guitars in one instrument. It would be the best way to begin. I took a flight to SP with three guitars in my luggage: Fender Telecaster, White Jem and Fender Strato. Having met Seizi Tagima, I explained him my ideas, which were totally respected.

I like the shape of Telecasters despite the fact that these guitars are not so popular. The problem is that the traditional teles are full of “angles” and it became uncomfortable when I started to play them. There could be a solution: to do MB-1 with the shape of tele, but with more anatomical forms, a bit like the most modern, developed stratos. Besides that, the cut away should be large like on a Jem guitar to get the access to the last frets easy. By the same reason I asked to do the junk between the fretboard and the body basing on the same guitar model. At that time Tagima was already doing a type of a headstock I would like to have, with two locks on the top and four on the bottom. I chose this type of headstock, but I had an impression that I would like more to have it inversed, with four locks on the top and two on the bottom.

Besides the layout of the body, I settled on a pickguard in the style of stratos, although the shape is based on the telecasters type, and also I decided that the input jack should be on the lateral of the guitar like on Jems. The chosen pickups were the same I used on some Tagima Strato: Seymour Duncan 59 at the bridge position, JB at the neck position and a single SSL-1 in the middle. All the hardware is by Gotoh. And then I had some doubt: should we use a dark fretboard or a light one? Besides the aesthetic differences, the fretboards done from the light wood are famous for their harsher and brighter sound, and the ones done from the dark wood provide heavier and stronger sound. Well, everything depends on the combination of freatboard, wood of the body and the pickups, which also influence this factor. Since my Tagima Strato had a light wood fretboard, first I decided to choose rosewood fretboard with ivory and cedar body. Thus, the first prototype of this guitar was done and not so many things have been changed since then.

A few years later we had a new conversation, this time with my partner Marcio Zaganin who takes care of the development of Tagima instruments, and a few things were improved. Basically, the position of some switches was changed a little bit, and the edges were smoothed even more making the instrument to be more anatomic and comfortable.

According to those changes, the bind was also moved again. Finally, the back side was changed from black to Sunburst, and the model was ready to be released.
During the last years this one has been my main instrument on stage as well as in the studio and its price/benefit is one of the best on the market. I’m really proud to have this partnership with Tagima over so many years and to have this opportunity to develop MB-1. They are the first company, who believed in my music and started to support me. Such companies like Tagima, who support Brazilian music, are essential for the development of our musical market.
Don’t miss the opportunity to get to know MB-1.

MB 1 - (Marcelo Barbosa)
Body: Cedar
Fret board: Size 43mm (1st fret), 52.3mm (12the fret) Rosewood 24 frets with abalone dots
Sensors: 1 59 Model (neck),1 SSL-1 (center) and 1 JB (bridge) of Seymour Duncan
5-way switch controles, 1 volume and 1 tone
Bridge: Floyd Rose System by Gotoh
Hardware: Gotoh
Hardware color: chrome
Color: Sunburst with black pickguard

2009-11-20T13:59:00.001-02:00

Guitarosofia 11: Lick using minor pentatonic scale in E with legato and tapping

2009-11-13T10:46:00.002-02:00

Solo de Beat It - By Eddie Van Halen

2009-11-10T20:17:00.000-02:00

Just having some fun with one of my favorites guitar solos of all times. Hope you enjoy it! Cheers!
Marcelo Barbosa

Guitarosofia 10: Lick with the tapping in A harmonic minor

2009-10-31T18:04:00.001-02:00

Marcelo Barbosa is the new endorser of Condor bags

2009-10-31T18:02:00.001-02:00

Marcelo Barbosa: "They are produced by iGig and I must confess they're the best and the most good-looking bags I've ever had. For those who don't know this product yet, I recommend it. If you'd like to learn more about them, please, follow the link: http://www.flyigig.com/

GUITAROSOFIA - Part 9 is available!!!!

2009-10-23T13:49:00.002-02:00

The 9th part of the series of video lessons in Youtube by Marcelo Barbosa presents the lick using arpejo triads and two fingers tapping.

GUITAROSOFIA - Part 8 is available now. ENJOY!!!!

2009-10-16T15:43:00.003-03:00

The video represents some exercises for the left hand to develop motor coordination and freedom of the fingers.

ALMAH Official Facebook

2009-10-09T15:44:00.001-03:00

Almah Official Facebook is available now.
FOLLOW!

GUITAROSOFIA - Part 7 (phrase using arpejo and tappings)

2009-10-09T15:40:00.003-03:00

New official Twitter of ALMAH!!!

2009-09-25T10:19:00.004-03:00

Almah launches the new channel: official Twitter account http://twitter.com/OfficialAlmah.
It will keep you informed concerning all the news about Marcelo's band! Stay tuned and follow! (Designed by Antonio Cesar)

Marcelo Barbosa launches new official website

2009-09-23T19:01:00.001-03:00

Marcelo Barbosa (guitarist of Almah and Khallice; GTR Guitar Institute owner and professor) launches the new layout of his official website . The new design is created by Carlos Fides from ARt SIdE (also Almah, Edu Falaschi, Shaman among other clients). The new Marcelo Barbosa’s website edition represents the complete information about various activities of this great musician and musical professor with his bands and Institute including latest news, schedule of the shows and workshops, equipment, pictures, discography, lessons and much more. The new stylish layout with convenient navigation and rich contents provides the easy access to Marcelo Barbosa’s guitar world.
In addition, Marcelo Barbosa represents his new official blog, Twitter and Youtube layouts.
See also about Marcelo Barbosa:
Official Myspace,
Official English Blog.

New Marcelo's interview!

2009-09-20T17:25:00.003-03:00

The original text in Portuguese
http://www.grv.art.br/newsleter/24-08-09/grv/texto.html
To read the whole text, please, use "read more" button.

1) What is your first musical recollection?

I grew up in musical atmosphere, in spite of that fact that I became the first musician in my family. I always listened at home to MPB (music popular brasileira) like Elis (Regina), Djavan, Caetano (Veloso), Gilberto Gil among others, and I think that all this formed my attitude, some model for me. Thus any other kind of music I could listen to, would be compared with this base, deliberately or not. I was pretty influenced by the explosion of Brazilian rock. At that time there were born bands like Legião, Capital, RPM and others, it was like a real epidemic of rock bands in the city, and as a teenager I couldn’t stay aside. But what really kicked my ass, was the first Rock in Rio festival. I already had a guitar but it was a kinda toy for me. I played from time to time, not having many ambitions. The festival was opened by Globo, and I remember that I was a bit scared by all this. It was a very electrified the world, and I still remember Angus Young or David Coverdale on stage very clearly. At that moment this seed was sown in my head and a bit later, when I was about 15-16, I was sure what I’d like to do in my life.

2) Your first job in music?

It depends on what do your mean saying “job”. It began early. When I was 16-17 I was already playing at nights in the clubs, and before I performed on school festivals and friends’ parties. More or less at the same time I started to give private lessons of acoustic and electric guitar and with time I was hired as a teacher by the two biggest musical schools here at that time. I suppose, it’s possible to call “my first job in music” all this, the private lessons as well as these nights at the restaurants. I used to play there, if I’m not mistaken, on Saturdays with Kátia Monteiro and it was great school for me having such an opportunity so early.

3) How and when did happen your first big appearance on the market?

This is also relative... I guess it happened with the launch of the first CD of Khallice, at first we released it independently, but then it was re-released in Brazil by Hellion Records from Sao-Paulo and some time later by Magna Carta from USA worldwide.

4) The highest point of your career?

Thanks God, it’s now.

5) The biggest disappointment?

I can’t remember anything. I try to keep the achievements and good things. Disappointments and frustrations stay only in my experience and learning. The proper facts are forgotten.

6) What kind of moment the musical scene in Brazil is having now?

I believe that it’s the same with the rest of the world. Some moment of transformation when no one can tell what will happen.

7) If you could change something in musical industry, what it would be?

To prohibit paid promotion of artists in mass-media. I consider it to be funny, because it’s not so hard to solve. Everyone knows it exists, everyone tells that something should be done with it, but no one has necessary power to solve it. Many years ago the situation turned over in this way and the problem is that the public doesn’t ask for anything. Everyone thinks that if any artist is on TV or on the radio, it’s because he’s great, due to his talent, musical abilities, charisma or whatever. In reality, the reason of having such a space is that the artist is almost totally financed or this is politics. This is a vicious circle, because most of the people accept those faces, who appear in mass media because they don’t know anything else. Thus, it becomes easier to make the consumers “eat” anything, as soon as they don’t have any power or any means to choose what to listen to and what to buy.

11) In marketing terms, what’s the difference between Brasilia and other states?

Despite of the fact that Brasília is still far from the ideal, it’s not bad anymore at all. I travel all around Brazil playing, and complaints are always the same everywhere. Even if we are talking about São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. Brasília has always been a very musical city and the quality of productions here has made this fact very clear with time. I think our unique beautiful sky and our landscape, which is so green, give us a lot of inspiration. Besides this, before 80’s our city didn’t have a lot of entertainment options, and I suppose, for many habitants at that time it was a good solution to establish a band.

12) Give your advice to a young artist from the outside?

It would be the same for a musician from any other place. To live by music is not very easy in any place, and it’s the worst in a country without necessary base in education and health services. Be professional and it will be repaid. The music, besides being a great entertainment, is a hard work. Accept it like this.

13) If you could have a dinner with three artists (from the past or the present), who would it be?

Jimi Hendrix, Bach and Miles Davis. (Imagine this dinner...) We couldn't even know what kind of music would be played there...rs

14) What is the main question you would ask them?

It’s difficult to choose only one question. I guess, I would stay quiet, listening and trying to understand a bit the world of these three revolutionists.

15) In your opinion, who is the most special and greatest popularizer of Brazilian music in the world?

I suppose, it might be unfair name just one. Also, it depends on the style we are talking about: MPB/Bossa Nova or music made for brasileiros. From Carmem Miranda to Ivan Lins, including Tom Jobin, Villa-Lobos, Sepultura, Angra, Hermeto Pascoal among many others. I remember how much I became happy at the show of Chic Corea in Blue Note visiting New York for the first time! After the show we were looking at the posters of the past shows on the wall and we noticed Ivan Lins among tens of world-famous names. I was very proud at that moment.

16) The best things in Brazilian music for today, what should we listen to?

We have a lot of great things in all the styles, but the most of them can’t get the space they deserve in the major mass-media.

17) What is your next challenge?

I’m working at a few projects. There’s GUITAROSOFIA among others: the series of the video weekly guitar lessons in Youtube about the guitar technics, composition, improvisation and much more. Some great but unpretentious “chat” about music. The videos are available here: www.youtube.com/marcelogtr/ Actually, the project is much more serious, it’s just the first step.
After the first 20 lessons in Youtube one can buy them on DVD through my website or GTR website, but with partitures and tabs, in addition to 10 unreleased lessons which will not be published in Youtube.

18) Your favorite album (CD or Vinyl) of all times?

What a boring mania to make me choose just one thing among many great others... :lol: It depends on the day, my sense of humor, my mood. I like very much Revolver by Beatles, at least it came in my mind now. But I must confess that I’ve never thought about having just one unique favorite album, it could be very narrow to care about choosing only one album.

Marcelo Barbosa at Expo Music 2009 (São Paulo/SP)

2009-09-19T09:56:00.002-03:00

Marcelo Barbosa’s Schedule (date/time/event/participants/stand):
September 24 (Thursday), on 14:30 - Marcelo Barbosa and Felipe Andreoli - NIG
September 24 (Thursday), on 17:30 - Workshop - Marcelo Barbosa and Felipe Andreoli - NIG
September 24 (Thursday), on 18:00 - Workshop - Frank Solari (Elixir) and Marcelo Barbosa (Elixir) - Izzo (Elixir Strings)
September 24 (Thursday), on 19:10 – Workshop - Condor (Orange Amps)
September 25 (Friday), on 14:30 – Workshop - Marcelo Barbosa and Felipe Andreoli - NIG
September 25 (Friday), on 16:50 Workshop - Condor (Orange Amps)
September 25 (Friday), on 17:30 – Workshop - TAGIMA
September 25 (Friday), on 18:00 – Signing Session - Santo Angelo
September 25 (Friday), on 19:00 Workshop Marcelo Barbosa (Elixir), Klaus Ximenes (SG), and Rodrigo Oliveira (Vic Firth) - Izzo (Elixir Strings)
September 26 (Saturday), on 13:45 – Workshop - Marcelo Barbosa and Felipe Andreoli - NIG
September 26 (Saturday), on 15:10 – Workshop - Condor (Orange Amps)
September 26 (Saturday), on 18:00 - Signing Session - Santo Angelo
September 27 (Sunday), on 15:15 – Workshop - Marcelo Barbosa e Felipe Andreoli - NIG
September 27 (Sunday), on 16:00 - Signing Session - Santo Angelo
September 27 (Sunday), on 16:50 – Workshop - Condor (Orange Amps)
September 27 (Sunday), on 18:15 – Workshop - TAGIMA

AND FOR NOW - ENJOY THE 6TH PART OF GUITAROSOFIA!

Don't miss Guitarosofia 5!!!

2009-09-12T17:19:00.000-03:00

GUITAROSOFIA - Part 4 is available now. ENJOY!!!!

2009-09-08T19:37:00.000-03:00

New layout of Twitter and Portuguese Official Blog

2009-09-07T20:29:00.002-03:00

MARCELO BARBOSA OFFICIAL TWITTER (PORTUGUESE)
MARCELO BARBOSA OFFICIAL BLOG (PORTUGUESE)

GUITAROSOFIA - Part 3 is available now

2009-08-30T12:34:00.002-03:00

Show with Almah

2009-08-30T10:14:00.001-03:00

September 6, São Paolo (BR), Santos

Interview for Hard Blast webzine

2009-08-16T07:25:00.004-03:00

Maila: What are the 5 main and necessary steps for those who intend to be guitarists like you?
Marcelo: I´ve never thought about it this way but let´s see what I can do. Well, first you´ve gotta know about music, learn how to listen to music and research the references. Second: study to learn. It can be done through a teacher, a good school or even by yourself if you think it´s better. Everyone must choose what´s the best way. Third: play with other people. It means nothing if you play very well but only to you bedroom´s wall. The relationship with other musicians in different musical environments is essential to anybody´s development. Fourth: be professional. It isn´t because you decided to work with arts that you are not a regular professional. You must see your career as a real job and make it as important as one. Last thing, never stop researching and studying. A professional who doesn´t go for constant improvement loses the chance of creating something new and innovative. Nobody is too good to stop learning.
Maila: A message to the readers, please.
Marcelo: Never give up on your goals even when they look impossible to achieve. Dreaming is part of living and it´s fuel to the soul. Who spends all the time with both feet on the ground loses the magnitude of flying. Don´t dream too much, though, work hard to achieve your dreams. Only dreaming won´t bring you anything and nobody will work for you.

The complete text of the interview interview by Maila-Kaarina in English
The complete text of the interview in Portuguese

Marcelo Barbosa's GUITAROSOFIA

2009-08-15T13:44:00.004-03:00

Marcelo Barbosa launches series of video lessons in Youtube. The series consist of short videos where Marcelo tells about different aspects of playing the guitar, musical theory, composition, improvisation. The material is produced by GTR Instituto de Guitarra with support of Tagima, Elixir, Orange, NIG, IBOX and Santo Angelo.

The first lessons are already available:

Marcelo Barbosa: "I have a very big love and interest in teaching music, teaching playing the guitar. This is one of the possible ways I found to give an opportunity for all who are interested to learn more about the world of six strings. It's a pleasure to share a part of what I learned and found myself during more than 20 years dedicated to the instrument."

The videos also to be available:
Marcelo Barbosa Youtube Channel
GTR Youtube Channel

Marcelo Barbosa about the last shows of Almah (click Read More or here to get the complete story and pictures)

2009-08-13T05:36:00.006-03:00

Original story in Portugues is here

As some people already know, at the end of this week we did two shows after a few months without playing: one in the capital of São Paulo and another in Ourinhos, some city in the same state. As usual, I’m here to tell you my end-of-the-week story.

Although the first show had to happen on Friday, 31th of July, we decided to meet in SP one day before, on Thursday to do at least one rehearsal after such a long time we haven't played this difficult stuff together. Felipe was going to arrive on Friday, but it made sense to do some small rehearsal even without him.

I departed from Brasília on 4 p.m. on 30th and landed in SP on 5-40 p.m. or something like this. I used the flight time to start reading the bestseller “Cabana”. In the beginning it was good but in my opinion it started to get boring yet before the middle. (I really don’t know if I have patience to read it till the end!). When I arrived to the destination, my band mates Edu, Paulo and Moreira were already waiting for me at the airport to go to the rehearsal room, where we would work from 8 p.m. till 11 p.m. Since it was too early, we went to eat some pizza right in the airport, because otherwise we should have stayed without eating till 11 p.m.

When I stay in São Paulo it always surprises me how Edu always looks at the watch worrying if we have enough time to arrive to a certain place, even if we have 1,5 or 2h in reserve! On 18:30 or something like this we entered Edu’s car with all our bags and equipment. Edu forgot to take out the baby’s seat and it made the process more emotional: we were tightly placed there. And it’s clear that we got into heavy traffic and arrived at the studio a bit later than 20:00.
The rehearsal was going very well and although we hadn’t played together for a long time, all sounded much better than expected. I believe, the great number of shows we had played before this pause helped us a lot to stay in a good shape. From there we went to a hotel, left there our bags and equipment before going for dinner. And once again we ate in Sujinho, traditional São Paulo chain with different restaurants all around the city. Time flew by in eating and talking a lot and we could fall asleep only after 2 a.m.

On the next day after a walk and a breakfast on Av. Paulista we returned to the hotel to have a small rest until 6 p.m. when we had to go to Manifesto to do our soundcheck. I always wonder why we never come back to hotel and have to stay right at the venue till show-time, even if the show should start only at 2 a.m., like in this case! For sure, the soundckeck started only at 8 p.m. (when the soundcheck begins in time, it means that there’s Santa Claus who is working at the sound desk and Chip and Dale work as a roadie and a light engineer). Thanks God, we did it fast and closer to 9 p.m. we were already free. And what could we do to until 2 a.m.? For sure, to have a dinner was a great idea! Local people advised us some good shopping center located not far from there. I wanted to catch some cinema in between the dinner and the show, but couldn’t due to the schedule, so we came back to Manifesto (but only after going to drink a coffee with Felipe).

The show began after 2 a.m. and was very good. The venue was full and people were true and excited. It could have never been better. It’s very pleasant to look at the audience and recognize some faces of people who always visit our shows since the very beginning and some of them have already become our friends. I believe this is one of the best parts of our work (besides the opportunity to play with friends). To get to know new great people, new places, to find new friends… After the show finished at 4 a.m. we went to a bar to meet the fans, to make photographs, to do autographs and to talk with some friends. We returned to the hotel almost at 6 a.m. and although Paulo and Moreira wanted me to go to eat with them, I preferred to walk alone to the hotel to sleep for about 40 minutes. I had already learnt that our manager Vera would pick us up on eight to go to Ourinhos.

As soon as I put my head on the pillow, the time to go downstairs with the luggage came. From hotel – to Edu’s house where we drank some coffee and went to the place of our appointment with the crew of Rafael Bittencourt, since our show in Ourinhos was arranged for both bands. We were able to leave SP a little bit after eleven, I think so, and very soon I already fell asleep. But I awoke every hour because it was not so easy to put a 1,87m person like me comfortably in any seat of such a microbus like we were traveling in.

We arrived to Ourinhos almost at 6 p.m. Soundcheck was scheduled for six :lol: … Ok, happily, the crew of Bittencourt Project had come earlier to set the equipment. Soundcheck between six and nine and a dinner in some Argentinian restaurant not far from the venue. Great food and nice atmosphere. We returned to the hotel closer to 11. Chat, shower, bed with a book and alarm clock on the telephone rings. Show time!

The venue wasn’t really full. The local promoter told us that people have fear of crowds because of swine flu and he heard that many of them didn’t come due to that reason. Despite that, people who came really enjoyed the show. It’s great to feel the audience trembling with every song. I would have liked to see the show of Rafael, but unfortunately I was very tired after the previous night and this kept me from arriving to the venue earlier when we had to go to the stage ourselves.

The show finished, photos, autographs, chats, waiting for the roadies and we went to the hotel after 5 a.m. while our departure to SP was scheduled for six. How nice… My flight to Brasília was at the quarter past midday, thus I should have been at Guarulhos one hour earlier, 11-15. Coming into the bus, all of us fell asleep and the trip passed fast. We crossed the first SP precincts almost at eleven and Rafael was very kind to offer to bring me to Guarulhos airport, to another side of the city. During our way we had a great conversation about music, career, market, composition etc. I departed as planned, though with some small delay, and arrived in Brasília at 2-30 p.m. with some strange feeling that nothing had happened and I was still at the airport, taking the flight to SP... :lol:

Thanks to all who shared these shows with us and helped this trip. I hope to give you some great news soon!

Pictures from Ourinhos by Mitsuo

See the complete gallery on Almah French Blog!!!
Thanks to Sylvie Catez for the links.

With Almah - 31/07/09 - Manifesto (fan videos)

2009-08-05T19:04:00.000-03:00

More:
You'll Understand
Birds Of Prey
Nova Era
Children Of Lies
Magic Flame
Fragile Equality
Breath
Scary Zone
Thorn
King
Bleeding Heart
Take Back Your Spell

Really cool pictures of Marcelo by Paula Mordente (Almah Brazil) from Manifesto (click Read More button to see the complete gallery)

2009-08-04T20:18:00.006-03:00

More pictures from this show at Paula's Flickr account

Interview with Marcelo Barbosa made by fans (Almah France together with Almah Japan)

2009-07-24T12:20:00.004-03:00

Thanks to Sylvie Catez (Almah France) for the interview. To read the complete interview, please, click Read More button.

Almah France(France): Hi Marcelo! Could you introduce yourself for the French and Japanese public, please?
Hi everyone, I’m Marcelo Barbosa, Almah’s guitar player and it’s a pleasure for me to answer these questions for you guys.

Almah France (France): When did you start to learn to play the guitars?
It’s not easy to precise, that’s a lot of time from there. LOL... I was thirteen years old I think. It was 1988/1989, I guess and I was deeply influenced by the first Rock’n’Rio festival and by some Brazilian rock bands that started to have huge success at that time here in Brazil.

Almah France (France): Could you tell more about GTR? Why did you create it and when? Could you introduce GTR for French and Japanese people, please?
OK, GTR is my musical school. I created it about twelve years ago and it was quite natural for me. At that time I used to teach guitar at other music schools. There wasn’t any musical school here, in Brasilia really specialized in the guitar. It was a dream for me to have my own guitar school, with a good method, great teachers and modern equipment. I started with one room and one guitar, the thing grow up and now we have more than twenty teachers and more than five hundreds students. We teach the guitar, bass, acoustic guitar and we have vocal classes too. Nowadays GTR is a franshise and we have two and soon we will have three schools in Brasília.

Almah France (France): What did you learn with Almah (in studio, on stage)?
I try to learn from everything. It’s quite a mania or an obsession. Keeping this in mind I think I’m always learning a lot and it isn’t different in Almah. When I joined the band I already had some studio and stage experience, so I didn’t have a lot of news concerning this matter. I think I learned a lot about musical businness, about relationships, some different points of view concerning music… In the studio I have learned that there are a lot of different ways to get the same result...

Lupi Blue (France): What kind of strings do you use?
I’m an Elixir endorsee. I use Elixir 0,10 gauge. It has more sound than 0,09 but it doesn’t hurt my finger tips like the 0,11. So this is an interesting point between a better tone and my fingers health... LOL

Frogfingers (France): Have you got a particular training before starting to play the guitar?
Not a specific one. I do like to play some guitar before get on stage but nothing special. Anything that makes my firgers to get up. Normally I play some cromatisms that I consider to be good, because it exercise every left hand finger equally. I keep changing the exercises from time to time because if I don’t do that, I get bored.

Frogfingers (France): When did you start to feel free with your instrument, with a good musical vocabulary? (How many years after beginning your practice?)
It’s a good question. I have never thought about that... Almost from the beginning I have felt connected to the guitar players extremely good like Steve Vai, Malmsteen and Joe Satriani. So, it took some time to feel free playing this kind of music. I think maybe something about five or six years. On the other hand, I’ve always felt free when I play the guitar and this is why I had no doubt about being a musician and working by 100% with the music.

Shred 666 (France): What are your main influences and your favourite bands or musicians?
It changes from time to time. I do like pop and rock music like Steve Wonder, Michael Jackson, Muse among many others. Among the rock/metal stuff I like more Pantera, Metalllica, Dream Theater, Symphony X, Rush... It’s too difficult to choose something to put on a list. About musicians, starting with some guitar players and then going to other instruments I would mention such names like Greg Howe, Richie Kotzen, Allan Holdsworth, Michel Camilo, Miles Davis... AAAAAAHHHHHHHH I feel this is so unfair to many other great musicians... I can’t keep doing this. LOL

Metallaw (France): Hi Marcelo ! I’d like to know what do you think about guitar schools like Berklee? Do you think it’s the only way to learn to play? How did you learn to play? In a musical school?
I believe good schools of any subject are really helpful. But I’m sure, it’s not the only way to learn how to play. We know many great musicians who have never been at some musical school. This is only one of many ways to learn how to play. I think, the knowledge is a bless and if you have how to get it with a good teacher it is really good. I had guitar and music classes in many schools and teachers. Learn is a passion for me and I’m just waiting for some free time to start again studying about Jazz, improvisation and Harmony.

Metallaw (France): Do you listen a lot of music? What do you listen to besides metal?
Yeah, I listen to a lot of music. I can say that metal is maybe only 25 or 30% of what I listen. Besides metal I’m listening to Joshua Redman, an incredible saxophonist of smooth jazz, NuJazz or whatever. I normally run at the park and right when I do that I’m listening to the last Guns’n’Roses album (ok, you can bit me, I loved it...), some Muse songs and the last Metallica album... My Ipod is almost a JukeBox ...

Pimousse (France): Hi Marcelo! I’d like to know if you have hobbies besides music?
Yes, I have. I do love to read good books and to see a good movie. I have a lot of DVDs and books here and if I could I would see one movie each day. Recently I’m addicted to a TV seriees called Criminal Minds. It’s great! It’s about serial killers and I have good time with it. Besides that I practice Taekwondo since I’m a teenager and I love it.

Pimousse (France): Will you record a solo album in the future? It will be so great
This is in my plans for this year. I’m working at the songs and I think before the end of this year you can be surprised with a good news about it. It depends on how much Almah will be on the road this year.

Symphony (France): Hi Marcelo! Could you tell us about your musical equipment? Amp, guitar, etc ... What do you use exactly?
Hum... I have a lot of equipment and what I use on stage or in a studio depends on which tone I want. I have a signature guitar made for Tagima to me, the MB-1 model. There are my main guitars but I have a lot of others like PRS 513, Fender Strato, fender Telecaster, Nzaganin, Ibanez among others... I have some amplifiers too like MesBoogie Dual Rectfier and Mark IV, Orange, Line 6... On stage with Almah, because I need to be practical I use a PodX3 Live with some NIG Pedals in its loop. Normaly I ask for a Marshall JCM 900 with a 4X12, and bring two guitars MB-1 with me, one tuned in Eb and the other one in Eb with the botton in Db.

New endorsement

2009-07-18T11:23:00.006-03:00

Marcelo Barbosa has just signed a new endorsement deal with ORANGE, the world famous British amplifier company: http://www.orange-amps.com/. The brand is well-known due to its work with such artists like Tony Iommi, Gary Moore, AC/DC, Iced Earth, Jimmy Page, Slipknot among others. Marcelo Barbosa is also endorsed by Tagima (guitars), Santo Angelo (cables), NIG (pedals), Elixir (strings)and IBOX.

GTR advertisement for the biggest local TV channels

2009-07-17T15:30:00.004-03:00

Marcelo Barbosa: I'm very happy with the result and I'm very thankful to my great friends for ideas, conceptions or their talent which helped me to finish this clip: Serj Buss (who is always full of great ideas), Edu Falaschi, David, Jorge and Vania! It's always great to contact with such talented, experienced and intelligent people! ;) I hope, you will like it too!

Highlights 2009: Almah in Rio (Hard Blast webzine review)

2009-07-07T18:56:00.005-03:00

ALMAH – Circo Voador – Rio de Janeiro – April 5th 2009
By: Maila-Kaarina Riippa

The band is good! The black and the blond guitarists Marcelo Barbosa and Paulo Schroeber showed speed, technique, beautiful solos and the most important thing: interaction. Felipe Andreoli kicked ass with his 6-string bass and fast fingers playing with no pick, beautiful to see, Marcelo Moreira played as strong as a Heavy Metal drummer always should do and one thing must be emphasized: the sound was perfect. It was possible to listen to each instrument with very good equalization. The drumming was strong, full of great kicking and exciting cymbals, guitars were perfectly distinct, we could feel both guitarists styles, bass lows were making us feel them in the chest and Edu´s singing was very good too.

The complete review is here