WRY
(L-R:  Chokito - Bass, Lou - Guitar, Bizar - Drums, Mars - Vocals / Guitars)

As we speak following the bands second gig at In The City, Wry are already in the process of making plans for 6 months down the line. With record label interest in the UK after Designer Magazine declared them to be The Best Band Of ITC 2003, they're set to play several showcase gigs leading up to the end of the year afterwhich they will head back to their native Brazil for a month where they will organize their own mini-version of the Lollapalooza Tour which will include both Brazilian and British bands on the bill. Designer Magazine caught up with Mars, Lou, Chokito and Bizar to find a band on the cupse of success.

Q: This weekend have been your first real gigs outside London in the UK. Has it been a bit of a strange one to be in throngs of the music industry one night and then in a Cafe Bar complex the next day?
Lou: We've been playing around London and have a lot of gigs coming up, but it feels good to be playing Manchester. Just then was really strange, I wish we'd have played one more song.

Mars: The important thing for us is the stage. We love the stage. We've been playing a gig every two days - 6 gigs in 10 days and now is the last one until the Garage in October. Were going to tour Brazil early next year and we can go out there when we want and play a sell-out tour, but over here I don't mind what's happening off the stage. We can be playing to 2 people and we'll still play the same live show because we enjoy playing together.
 

Q: As a virtually unknown band over here in the UK could you tell us how Wry came to be?
Mars: We started learning how to play instruments seven years ago and when we first started all we were making was feedback. Only that. I got another of my friends guitars and we start making feedback and drinking wine and we start the band. I didn't know nothing about keys or anything. It was just like Krang Krang Krang...in fact just like today but messier.

In Brazil they talk in Portuguese so the mainstream bands sing in Portuguese. You've heard of Sepultura. We have a lot of bands that would sing in English, but they never make the charts. We are one of the bands that actually stopped having a 2nd job because apart from the band we used to organize festivals and shows and a lot of things. We released 2 albums in Brazil and did television interviews and video clips. Just 2 weeks ago MTV was showing our video and this week all TV channels are showing interviews we did on our last tour of Brazil. Wry are the most famous band from the underground of Brazil!!!
 

Q: You really only had Sepultura to look up in terms of successful Brazilian bands, but I guess listening to you guys they were never a big musical influence. Did you look to the US and the UK for your heroes?
Mars: I remember we used to listen alot to The Jesus And Marychain and Sonic Youth, but that was before the band. The whole Madchester thing came along and we started the band. It's like I was saying, it's amazing playing here. It's like coming back to where we started. They've actually got a nickname for my city back home - it's called Manchester.

Lou: I think we have a punk influence. When we started playing in our city we were incredibly different from a lot of the bands playing there.

Mars: We were the first guitar band. In Brazil they call bands like Wry guitar bands. In England it is not. In England they call guitar bands bands like Travis. What they call shoegazing they call guitar bands. I think our songs are too good just to remain underground though, a lot of people have been saying these songs can fill stadiums.
 

Q: The live shows have become known for your anarchist stance and trouble seems to follow you around. What happened at the now infamous gig in London a couple of weeks ago?
Mars: Can you imagine a venue made up to look like Hawaii and having all these pictures and fittings? Before the gig I was saying to Tom (Wry's Manager) it was too unusual playing rock & roll in here. When we started it was good and people were enjoying it, I was crazy and everyone was getting crazy. But the manager was even crazier. He climbed the stage on the last song, grabbed me round the neck and pushed me offstage. It was so quick and seconds later these guys were jumping over the guy. At the time we didn't know he was the owner, to me he was just some guy from the crowd who climbed on-stage and didn't want us to play. He was worried about his fittings, but the ironic thing was that we didn't break anthing and he ended up breaking our bass amp. Just this month after the fight things are really starting to happen. More people are turning up to our gigs and record labels are interested.

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Wry look set to play various gigs in Manchester and London following ITC 2003
The band are set to tour Brazil early next year
For more info
www.wrymusic.com
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