interview: Cansei de Ser Sexy

This interview was made with Ana Rezende, guitarist of Cansei de Ser Sexy, a.k.a CSS, by email at 09-05-2005, for an article about Creative Commons, copyright and the relationship of indie bands with internet.

Releasing your songs only through the internet was a conceptual choice or just a way to save money?

Neither. It was the easiest way to make people listen to our sound. At that time, we didn't think about make a album, but, when it got serious, we started to make our record (which is almost complete), with different versions of the songs that are online.

We think it's important to put it on internet and we intend to stay doing it.

Comercial radio stations (on Brazil) are almost unreachable for indie rock bands. Does it make internet the major way of spreading indie rock music?

Yes. We have friends that play in indie rock bands and they all spread their work at web. It's the best, fastest and more democratic way to spread your work.

Do you think the internet is an anarchic place, when we think about copyright? Or do you think copyright can still functioning at the virtul world?

If we knew it, we would be rich!

Peer-to-peer programs, like Kazaa and eMule, allow anyone to download for free any song they want, so they don't need to buy cds.
Do you believe we are going into a new age in which bands will live only with the money of their shows?

Yes. People need to realize that it's a positive thing. We've signed with Trama, we're gonna make an album, but we recognize the importance of peer-to-peer.
We all (in the band) have a musical knowledge because we use peer-to-peer, we download lots of songs. And we all know that Cansei de Ser Sexy is getting famous because of it (downloading).
We think there is a new order, more democratic in the industry, which is very good, because music isn't dominated anymore by three or four majors record labels.

Do you know about Copyleft and Creative Commons? Have you ever thought about releasing your songs under these licenses, as a way to stimulate the cultural production and help your songs to get a bigger public (in case of your songs got used in movies, samples, etc) ?

We don't know about those things.


Cansei de Ser Sexy - superafim

photos: flickr of Cansei de Ser Sexy and Adriano