Metal Storm Magazine

Heaven and Hell Records metal act Witches Mark recently spoke with Metal Storm Magazine about their album and other things happening in the Witches Mark world. Read on to see what Robert

The members of Witches Mark come from a pretty eclectic background. How did the line up of the band come together?

Well speaking for myself personally, I used to play drums for the Texas black metal band Of the Fallen. When I left that band I wanted to form a heavy metal band, get a singer with a lot of range and that classic metal sound, you know? I jammed with people I'd meet from around 2001-2004 and I just couldn't find the right people.

It's funny how things happen. The band I had left years earlier broke up and I started jamming with the guitarist from Of the Fallen, Steve Perez again. I already had the music for "Salem's Fire" written and Steve co-wrote the music for "Cauldron Born" with me. So I at least had another guitar player, but I needed to round out the line-up starting with an over the top, classic metal vocalist, which was a challenge in and of itself considering Austin now consists mostly of metalcore and death metal groups.

There was a bar here in town called the BackRoom where I was I was hanging out watching bands and drinking with some friends. A band came on-stage from San Antonio called Ancient Cross and I knew the second I heard their vocalist that I had found my vocalist. I remember being a little drunk and excitedly trying to convince Ancient Cross' vocalist Michael Lance to join my band. Looking back now, I can appreciate that Michael probably gets that kind of reaction every time he gets off stage, but long story short I was persistent with trying to convince him to join and eventually we started working on the music that would become our debut EP.

The first thing we recorded was a rough demo version of "A Grim Apparition" that sadly was poorly mixed, we didn't know what we were doing in the studio at that time, but believe it or not we received quite a response from that track. Next we contributed a cover version of "Something Wrong" for the Unbroken Records "Tribute to Angel Witch" album. At that point in time Stony Grantham of the British power metal band Shadow Keep did us the honor of laying down a session bass track for the recording of the cover song and I handled guitars and drums in the studio. Steve Perez, the other original guitarist in Witches Mark split before we recorded "Something Wrong" for the tribute record and it was around this time that Sandra Torres joined Witches Mark on keyboards.

Around the time the Angel Witch tribute was released I was in a recording arts program here in town learning studio engineering techniques and I met Yevgeniy, our first drummer who played on the "A Grim Apparition" EP there.

I knew Andy Gonzalez, our bass player, from the local clubs. I had seen him perform live on a number of occasions with his thrash metal band Hammerwhore and another band on more of the black metal side of things called Abythos. I knew he could play, I knew he was into really cool metal bands and to be honest... He was who I had in mind for the bass player position from the get go. I think he was too busy the first time I approached him about it, but about a year later he came on board as our first and hopefully only fulltime bass player.

Robb Bockman was an old friend that I played in some of my first bands as a teenager with. I had lost contact with Robb for around thirteen or fourteen years and when I ended up getting back in touch with him around the same time that Steve left the band we still shared a lot of the same musical influences, so it was a total no brainer to ask him to join the band. Robb was the last member of the current line-up to join and very shortly after, we started the seemingly never ending process of recording "A Grim Apparition"

How did Heaven and Hell records come into the picture?

Well... To preface that, with the line-up in place we worked on the EP for a little over two years. Split between three studios, I'm talking about an endless amount of recording, mixing, listening back to mixes and then changing things up... improving on the existing foundation. Normal studio stuff I suppose, but when all was said and done we had four songs that we were and are, still very proud of, you know?

We lumped our money together, paid off the engineers and producer. We signed off on the final mix and got that invoiced and taken care of... and then the finished master recording showed up in the mailbox and all of our hard work was finally committed to plastic. Like any band that's just completed a recording we were really excited and uploaded our new tracks to our profile and within literally a day of uploading the tracks we received an email from Heaven and Hell Records.

So there were some things to consider, I think we could all agree that Heaven and Hell had a select roster, I believe when we signed there were only three or four other bands on tap so we knew that we were gonna get taken care of and not bogged down the promotional totem pole.

Another thing that we could appreciate was that the whole Heaven and Hell operation is owned and run by true blue heavy metal fans. Just before we put out our disc, Heaven and Hell had done some extensive Twisted Tower Dire re-issues. Bands like Twisted Tower Dire, that's speaking my language! We developed a real friendship with the owner of Heaven and Hell Records, Jeremy Golden. He's a cool and knowledgable guy. Sometimes he calls and we talk business, sometimes he calls and we just have a beer over the phone and talk metal! Hahahaha...

Talk to our readers about what the last five months have been like since the release of the disc.

I would have to say the last five months have been everything I hoped for and then some. The last recording I was involved with prior to playing guitar in Witches Mark was in 2001 with Of the Fallen. In contrast, for that recording I can remember taking twenty five or thirty CD's to the post office and feeling lucky to get featured in one or two xeroxed print zines six months later.

Now, the label has built us an electronic press kit that has our music, photo's and biography embedded in it. They just email that out to however many journalists and websites and it's like "Boom, boom, boom" results! It kills me...

We have received so much positive press, so quickly and not to sound egotistical or anything, but as a metal fan myself I just find it so intriguing to read what other metal fans from around the world think of our disc.

This is our first time having support from a label and having support from a PR firm and we are all excited to see all of the positive reactions so far.

With Heaven and Hell backing you up this time around, what was different about your approach to the recording of A Grim Apparition?

Well, technically we recorded the EP before we signed to Heaven and Hell, but I can tell you that as we are going in to the production phase of the new album, knowing that there is a strong chance that we will work with Heaven and Hell Records again in the future, there is just one less thing to worry about.

Heaven and Hell Records has a very strong distribution, they run the popular "Sounds of Purgatory" distro and mailorder and they have been very instrumental in getting bigger chains like MetalDisc, The End Records, Relapse Records, Sentinel Steel and Century Media to stock Witches Mark CD's.

Lyrically the four songs on the disk are a strong as any band I’ve heard. While the last three seem to deal with specific topics, on the first track, Salem’s Fire, you opted for a more story-telling style. When you sit down to write, do you set out with a style in mind one way or the other?

I shouldn't really attempt to answer this as our vocalist Michael Lance handles all of the lyrical aspects of the band. What I can say though, is I admire the way Michael can tell a story or get his point across with a limited number of words.

There are some lyricist's out there who might come off a little amateur or dopey or at the opposite end of the spectrum the lyrics might appear too grandiose or artsy fartsy. The cool thing about Michael's lyrics are you are going to get that haunting vibe and you are going to get what he is saying, but you don't have to be an English major to relate to it. Having said that, I think it's one of those things where even though it works... even though the lyrics might sometimes seem simple even, I can tell you that Michael invests a lot of himself when he's in writing mode. Sometimes when we're working on stuff, he'll go home and I won't hear a peep out of him for weeks, and then I'll get a call "I think you should hear this..." and then it's like "Ok. Wow!" The gauntlet's been dropped.

The dynamic of every band is different. Talk to our readers about how Witches Mark operates. Do you have some members that handle writing music and others the business side of things? Does one person steer the ship or is it all collaborative?

The easiest way to answer that would be "Who currently has the most time to work on music?" For the EP I wrote the music and Michael wrote the lyrics, but we had some very strong additions to our line-up and now that they are on board it is changing the way things are done.

Michael and I are very confident about collaborating with the other band members. We have to be. We were so incredibly nit picky to the infinite degree auditioning people for the band that when we completed the line-up there was no questions regarding musical direction or having the right influences. We could have just as easily ended up a two man recording project, we were just not gonna budge in regards to getting just "anybody" in the band.

So, the only real enemy in moving forward with things is time. We all got together when the disc came out last fall and sat at a table and passed some CD reviews around and talked and kinda celebrated... The one thing that we all could agree on was capitalizing on whatever momentum we could stir up. So if that means the label wants a full length out in the summer, then we will not focus on anything but writing and recording until it is completed.

In a genre full of bands that can’t seem to categorize themselves without using three or four different styles of music, you have adopted the simple moniker of “traditional heavy metal,” what does that mean to you?

That just came up recently actually. We were added to the Encyclopedia Metallum website recently (www.metal-archives.com) and someone had tagged us as "Power/Speed Metal". I would personally classify us as "heavy metal" because anyone who has heard our sound should be aware that we draw from a pretty vast pallette of metal genres. You might hear traces of doom, elements of black metal, thrash riffs here, something melodic there, something more traditional sounding... It all starts with traditional heavy metal as the building block from everything from there forward.

But anyway, I saw that tag "Power/Speed Metal" at Encyclopedia Metallum and I thought "Oh shit! We haven't written another "Salem's Fire" what will they tag us when they hear something slower "Power/Speed/Doom"? It would get way too complicated to try and tag us as anything other than heavy metal.

What are some musical influences people would be surprised to know exist within the ranks of Witches Mark?

Nothing really comes to mind that I think people would find surprising. I will say that there is a pretty select group of people over here that like NWOBHM and then there's a pretty small group that like German thrash and a small group that like second wave Scandinavian black metal and a couple people who dig death metal from Florida or obscure "Metal Massacre" compilation bands and we are the microcosm that appreciates all of those sub-genres and a whole lot more.

We listen to CD's on a boom-box between rehearsals and you could walk in one day and we're drinking beers listening to Witchfinder General and you could come back the same time the next day and we're jamming Candlemass or Dissection. You never know with us...

The last time I answered this I got stumped. My brain almost exploded from all of the metal I was about to mention. It would be easier to say the stuff that we are aware of that we don't like.

If you could put together a Bucket List of bands you would want to share the stage with, who would be on it?

I think Michael would probably answer Crimson Glory. Midnight was his idol. I think he would have chosen them.

Andy would most likely pick Deceased. I think he told me one time that they were his favorite band.

I know for a fact Sandra would say King Diamond and Robb would pick Emperor.

I don't think that I am ready to play on the same bill as any of my musical heroes yet because my on-stage persona is "Destroy all who follow, leave nothing in your path." Some people might take that kind of intensity the wrong way. I need to mellow out before something like that would be an option for me.

The masses seem to be opening up to metal music again which tends to create a divide between the bands that want the acceptance and the bands that reject it. Where do you see the metal scene now and where do you see it headed in the future?

This is a real tough one to answer. Good question. When you say "scene" it makes me think of people with flashy sunglasses and "Affliction" shirts who would most likely be headed to the mall to purchase a "Revolver Magazine" and an "As I Lay Dying" hooded sweatshirt. Where are they heading? Who cares...

When you talk about rejecting acceptance...The people who are elitist and release fifty hand numbered cassette recordings of bedroom quality black metal are kind weird. Why even play if you don't want others to hear you?

I think for us, there is no "scene" mentality. We can chalk it up to there are "good bands" and there are "not so good bands". I would never want us to sound so reminiscent of another band that we would get heaped into a category like the "Gothenburg" sound or "This band should be on "Paganfest" because they all dress like elves and play pan-flutes." You know? Fuck that.

We're gonna do our thing and hopefully there will be some headbangers who take notice of us and we will continually be headed for bigger and better things.

The six members of Witches Mark are involved in a lot of things; from other bands, recording studios, and writing for magazines just to name a few. How have you balanced the responsibilities outside of the band with the commitment it takes to have taken Witches Mark to where it is today?

Heaven and Hell Records has been as supportive as can be expected and Brittania Westwood at "Rawk This Way" PR has been really instrumental in securing us both an online presence and a printed magazine press campaign. Like you mentioned we all stay pretty busy, so we depend on others to help spread the word around while we prefer to focus on music.

What can people expect from a Witches Mark live show?

We'll hopefully start playing out again when we complete the upcoming album. For now, that is the primary focus. After that, expect our trademark intensity, expect us to take you to a somber place in your soul, and then shatter you with disharmonic haunting metal odes to the dead. We're really into the revival circuit and we're preaching demonic possession through metal. "Let the Metal Possess You!"

What is on the horizon for the band? Full length? Tour?

Our long term goals would be to complete the new record, I think there have also been some talk about doing a split release with a very well known metal band. I can't say who at this point, but if it goes through we're bringing our fucking "A" game for our half and then some.

At some point we'd also like to film a music video if we can find a director that is a match for our budget, yet also carries a strong vision. Impossible...I know. Last but not least, sometime early next year we would like to make it to Germany for some shows. The German metal fans have been incredibly supportive and it would mean a lot for us to be able to perform for them.

Where can people reading this interview get a hold of the EP?

People can order directly from the label at www.heavenandhellrecords.com or if they only need a small number of copies or would like to purchase a t-shirt they can order directly from us at http://witchesmarkestore.bigcartel.com/

Before we wrap this up I want to thank you Chris for featuring Witches Mark on your website. We love visiting Metal Storm so it means a great deal to us to finally be featured on here, for anyone reading at home we'd love to hear from you. Check us out at www.myspace.com/witchesmark and stay tuned for more details on our new album!

This last week I conducted an interview with up and coming drummer Acacio Carvalho, a Brazilian export to the U.S. and asked him about his influences, past bands, his drums, and his experience living in the States.

Mad Mike: At what age did you become interested in music?

Acacio Carvalho: The first time that I actually remember having some real interest in music was when I was 7. One year later I started taking piano lessons and in less than 2 years I quit and started to play drums.

Mad Mike: At what age did you become interested in Metal music?

Acacio Carvalho: When I was 9 years old, at that time I was into music just because of the piano lessons that I was taking and all of the sudden my brother showed up at home with an Iron Maiden album called "Somewhere in Time" and since then Metal music became the strongest influence in my music and my drumming.

Mad Mike: What made you interested in playing drums?

Acacio Carvalho: The episode that I described on the last question was the beginning of it all. For some reason the drums on those songs were standing out for me and little by little my interest for it was growing, until one day that I went to a mall in Brasilia (my hometown in Brazil) and I saw a video of the "Somewhere in Time tour" playing in a Metal music store. After that day my life changed and I knew that piano wasn't my thing anymore.

Mad Mike: Who are your influences and heroes?

Acacio Carvalho: My main influence for sure was Nicko McBrain (from Iron Maiden); he was my hero and only reference for a couple of years when I started. I was fascinated by his gigantic drum set and the way he played it. After a certain time, as I was discovering other bands and drummers, I started to have different influences that I carry with me even now. Drummers like Uli Kusch, Mike Terrana, Gene Hoglan and so many others.

Mad Mike: What was your first drum kit?

Acacio Carvalho: My first drum set was from a Brazilian company called "Gope". It was the crappiest drum set you could ever imagine, made by some kind of metal, with no resonant drumheads on it. It was the only drum set that I could afford at that time and it actually worked for the purpose that I wanted, which was to practice and have some fun playing (or trying to play) songs from bands like Kiss and Iron Maiden.

Mad Mike: How many drum kits have you gone through since your first kit?

Acacio Carvalho: It's a hard question, I have no idea. I would shoot for at least 12 drum sets so far, if I had to guess.

Mad Mike: What is your current drum kit and what is part of the arsenal for it?

Acacio Carvalho: I have 2 drum sets right now, one in Brazil and one in the States. In the States I have a Tama Superstar with 8", 10" and 12" toms, 14" and 16" floor toms, two 22" bass drums and a 14" snare drum. In Brazil I have the same set up, but it’s a Yamaha Stage Custom Series. The hardware is all Gibraltar, which is a road series double bass curve rack and its arms. Iron Cobra pedals and Paiste cymbals. You can check all the other small details of my equipment on my website too. The link is: www.acaciocarvalho.com.

Mad Mike: How would you describe your playing style?

Acacio Carvalho: I've been influenced mainly by Metal drummers and Metal bands, but I bring with me some influences from my country and its music too. So I think that you can describe my drumming today as an "Energetic and Technical" kind of drumming.

Mad Mike: How many bands did you play in until you were playing in more professional bands?

Acacio Carvalho: (several laughs) Yeah, I played with so many bands before I actually achieved a professional status. Played in bands from Death Metal to regional Brazilian music, which actually worked as a school for me, because I had the chance to learn so many different styles and play with different musicians, it definitely improved the way I play and act professionally.

Mad Mike: Were there any that released material that is available?

Acacio Carvalho: No, not really. All these bands were either "garage bands" that played just for fun or cover bands that were actually formed just to play concerts.

Mad Mike: How did you get the gig in Dark Avenger?

Acacio Carvalho: I was in a period where I was studying at the Music School in Brazil, and I decided that I wasn't playing with any band. I was going to spend my time just practicing and studying music for a while. But at that time I had already played with lots of bands and I started to have some visibility towards my drumming work, I had a public that knew me in my city and the "mouth-by-mouth" advertising was increasing each day. So someday I got a call from Hugo Santiago (guitarist from Dark Avenger at that time) asking me if I would like to participate of the selection for their new drummer. I accepted the invitation and went to a rehearsal with the band. I did my best at the test, but I didn’t really believe much on the possibility of playing with them. They were a well known band and there were drummers from all over the country participating in that selection. One month after the tests, the vocalist of the band called me back saying that I was chosen to be their new drummer. Since then my career changed drastically.

Mad Mike: Can you tell us a little bit about Dark Avenger for those of us who don’t know too much about the band?

Acacio Carvalho: Dark Avenger was one of the pioneer metal bands in Brazil, along with Angra and Sepultura. The band was often mentioned amongst the big names during all their existence and released just 3 full albums in like 14 years of life. All these albums got really good reviews all over the planet and the band became a "legend" in Brazil after a certain time. The band was over in June 2005. Right after that I started the band "Vougan" with some of the ex-Dark Avenger members.

Mad Mike: Did you get along with any of the members of the band, or was it constant friction?

Acacio Carvalho: We always had some kind of issue between some members of the band. I played in the band for like 4 years, and during this time I grew closer to some members of the band, which were GZus and Hugo, the ones that I formed "Vougan" with. The atmosphere in the band became heavier with each passing day and it was a really tough time we all had in there, due to personal issues and problems amongst the band members. But like everything in life, it was a necessary path that I needed to go through before I actually found my own way.

Mad Mike: How many recordings did you play on for Dark Avenger?

Acacio Carvalho: I played in just one Dark Avenger recording, a live album called "Alive in the Dark".

This album recording was an interesting experience for me. This concert happened 3 weeks after I joined the band, and it was a big production, paid by a big recording label. We had an orchestra on stage playing the songs with us and stuff like that, and this was actually my first concert with Dark Avenger.

Mad Mike: How many shows did you play with them and what was the experience like for you?

Acacio Carvalho: I don't have any clue about how many concerts we played, but it was A LOT. The experience of being on the stage for me is always pleasant. It was always cool for me to go to places, meet people, play for them, etc. It's especially cool when you travel big distances to play and the people there know your name, and they talk to you like you were friends for years. The fans actually make you part of their lives; they feel like they know you already, because your music is part of their daily lives. I think it's pretty cool.

Mad Mike: Are you happy with anything you did while you were a member of the band?

Acacio Carvalho: Yes, definitely. I don't regret any second that I spent playing with Dark Avenger, I enjoyed it and that experience changed my life for sure. Like I said, it was a necessary thing; it needed to happen in order to open the doors that I needed to build my career stronger.

Mad Mike: Why did Dark Avenger split up?

Acacio Carvalho: It's publicly known that some members of the band always had attitude problems and it caused friction in the band after a certain time. After a couple of years, the atmosphere in the band became so heavy and dark that I personally was there just because of the obvious professional reason. All these problems and friction caused each member to be sick of each other after some years. But the decision to split the band came from just 1 person, the vocalist. He had the rights over the name and one day during the sound check for a concert he just came to us and told us that Dark Avenger was over. We all went back home and didn't even play that concert.

Mad Mike: What prompted you to form Vougan?

Acacio Carvalho: Hugo, GZus and I were having some rehearsals to play songs different from Dark Avenger’s, while the band still existed. We were kind of tired of playing the same songs for years and also tired of the musical barrier that was imposed by the vocalist to compose. So we were composing some different songs and trying new stuff just a couple of months before Dark Avenger was over. As soon as Dark Avenger split up, we decided to put our new songs together and start a new band right away.

Mad Mike: Is Vougan a project or a band?

Acacio Carvalho: Vougan was a band since the beginning. When we were composing the songs before Dark Avenger split up, it was just a project that we were using as ventilation from all the repetition we had. But as soon as the band split, Vougan came alive and became our main band and that's the way it has been since then.

Mad Mike: How would you describe Vougan’s style and sound?

Acacio Carvalho: It's pretty hard to say. Vougan is based on experiment, trying new things and sounds. Our main objective is to innovate, bring new elements for each song, make the songs sound completely different from each other, so that's kind of hard to describe Vougan's style. It's just music.

Mad Mike: How long did it take to write and record material for the first album “Mind Exceeding”?

Acacio Carvalho: We had most part of the songs already composed for years, but we never had the chance to use them with Dark Avenger. So we basically took all the ideas out of our drawers and tried to see if they would work. Most of them actually did, so we had to compose basically just half of the album a couple of months before the recordings started. I would say we took like 6 months to put it all together and have the pre-production for the album done.

Mad Mike: Were there any problems in the studio or with the production while making the album?

Acacio Carvalho: Yes, I actually had a problem that became a nightmare for a couple of months (laughs). I injured my right leg while practicing for the recordings of the album "Silent Souls" in 2006. The doctor told me to stop playing for awhile, otherwise the injury would become more serious and I would have to stop playing for a really long time. I couldn't stop playing for awhile at that time, I had a single to record and it was in just a couple of days. So I went to the studio and recorded the album injured. After the recordings of "Silent Souls", this injury became more serious like the doctor predicted and I had to stop playing drums completely for 8 months. So basically during the composing process of "Mind Exceeding" I didn't play drums at all. All I did was write my ideas in a notebook and put them into the computer, so the band could listen to it without me actually playing. By the time I needed to record the album, the injury wasn't completely healed yet, but again I had to record and I just did. Luckily, it didn't hurt my leg more than it already had been, and a couple of months later I was ready to tour.

Mad Mike: Were you happy with the production and the final sound of all of the songs?

Acacio Carvalho: Yes, I was happy with the final result of the album for sure. But like most of the musicians, every time I record something, just a couple of weeks later I already have new ideas coming out of my mind for the same songs and I start to think about how it could of been if I had used these new ideas instead of what I actually recorded (laughs). But yeah, I'm still happy with the result anyway.

Mad Mike: What was reception from fans and press like for “Mind Exceeding”?

Acacio Carvalho: It was way better than we expected. This was our first full album; we were expecting some buzz from a part of the Metal press, because this album was being really anticipated by our old Dark Avenger fans. But when we released the album, we got reviews from all the parts of the world. All the reviews were extremely good, especially in South America and Europe. A couple of months later we released the album in Japan and there it wasn't any different. We were featured 3 times in a row on their main Metal magazine, called "Burrn! Magazine", and in one of them they reviewed our album and gave us an 85 out of 100 rating, which was better than the ratings for bands like Whitesnake and Motley Crue, that were featured in the same magazine issues.

Mad Mike: How long did you tour for the album?

Acacio Carvalho: We had a Brazilian tour that lasted for a little more than 3 months and then we came to the United States and played for 2 more months for the same tour.

Mad Mike: How was the reception live towards the music?

Acacio Carvalho: It was phenomenal! We played the biggest festivals in Brazil on this tour and here in the States we also played some big concerts, like the Rocklahoma Festival in July. The reception was just great; people were singing most of the songs already and going crazy in each concert.

Mad Mike: Will there be another Vougan album soon?

Acacio Carvalho: Yes, we have been working on the new compositions since September and probably by the summer of 2010 we will have a new album out.

Mad Mike: What are you currently doing besides Vougan?

Acacio Carvalho: I've been recording with some artists and bands in the States. Right now I'm recording for the band "Quester", and the next work that I have scheduled is to record with the band "Single Bullet Theory".

Mad Mike: How often do you do clinics and instructions?

Acacio Carvalho: The last clinics that I did were during the "Mind Exceeding" tour. I use to play clinics along with the band's tour, in the cities that we go to play the actual concerts. Here in the States I'm actually starting all this process over.

Mad Mike: How has the turn out been for the clinics and instructions?

Acacio Carvalho: It was always pretty good since the beginning. When I started doing clinics I had my school in Brazil, it was called “Metal Drummers”, and I started them to promote the school. Soon it became a kind of trademark and I didn’t stop since then.

Mad Mike: When did you move to the United States?

Acacio Carvalho: I moved in June 2009 to Texas. Then I moved again to Delaware.

Mad Mike: Why did you move to the States?

Acacio Carvalho: I always had interest on living outside of Brazil. I had some opportunities to move out in the past but in the end it didn’t happen. I went to a point in my career where I couldn’t go any further if I stayed in Brazil. United States was my choice because the music business here is a lot wider than it is in Brazil, especially for a musician that plays the kind of music that I play.

Mad Mike: Did you have any trouble adapting to living in the U.S. or was it pretty easy?

Acacio Carvalho: It wasn’t that difficult to adapt. The cultures here and there are pretty similar and the people have been pretty nice and helpful. The only big things that I actually had to adapt to were speaking English as my primary language (my first language is Portuguese) and leaving my family behind.

Mad Mike: How can anyone contact you for music, merch, clinics, instructions, etc.?

Acacio Carvalho: Anyone interested in hiring me for recordings, clinics, drum lessons, etc, just send an e-mail to info@acaciocarvalho.com

Merchandise can be purchased on my website at www.acaciocarvalho.com

Mad Mike: Anything you would like to say before we wind this interview down?

Acacio Carvalho: Watch my website for any kind of info about my career, upcoming projects and also subscribe to my YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/acaciocarvalho1. There will be some new videos posted there often.

Mad Mike: Thank you for taking the time out for doing this interview with me!

Acacio Carvalho: It was my pleasure. And thank you and Metal Storm Magazine for the opportunity to share these experiences.