A Wilhelm Scream

I recently had the chance to sit down with Nuno Pereira from A Wilhelm Scream on their stop over in Winnipeg on the ‘Through the Noise Tour’. We made fun of Ed Hardy wearing douche bags and talked about hometown hero’s Propagandhi among other things. It is always fun talking to people who are passionate about what they do. If you have never heard of A Wilhelm Scream take the time to listen up and listen repeatedly because this band rips in so many ways.

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Dwayne: First off. What is your name and what do you do in the band?

Nuno: My name is Nuno Pereira and I sing in A Wilhelm Scream.

Dwayne: So you guys are currently doing the “Through the Noise” tour with Comeback Kid, Madball, Living with Lions and Devil in Me. How has the early days of the tour been so far?

Nuno: It’s been pretty fun so far! We have had a couple long, shitty drives and we have a EPIC one to make yet as well but those are the breaks. We toured most of the way across the US to meet up with the tour in BC. All those shows were awesome; met up with a lot of old friends and all these shows have been great also. We have been friends with Comeback Kid for a while. Actually right here in this venue was the first time I ever met Andrew when we were here playing with Strung Out. We have been good friends ever since. Not touring together or anything – just hanging out playing some gigs overseas. When they approached us with the offer to do this tour you have to jump at something like that! 

Dwayne: How did you guys react when you were asked to play this tour with Comeback Kid and Madball. I mean this is a pretty epic hardcore bill to be apart of!

Nuno: We have been ready to do a Comeback Kid tour for awhile. Our schedules just never lined up right. So we were not going to do anything else we were going to do this! We jumped at it! You would be a fool not to. Their new record just came out so there is a good buzz about it right now. It’s just fun times!

Dwayne:  A While Scream, like any indie band that has been around the block for a while, has seen its fair share of members come and go. How does the current line up stack up again the past ones?

Nuno: It’s funny because when John, our original bass player, left the band and that was years and years ago. Now we have Brian from the band ‘The Fullblast’ it was like a godsend! The kid is a fucking phenom! He is a blast to write with. When Chris left the band we were lucky enough to get Mike who was in a couple of bands that toured with The Fullblast and stuff like that. The kid is fucking retardedly good on guitar! As far as when new members come in, for us it has always been a positive thing. It is also really fun creatively – writing new material and stuff like that. It’s almost like a breathe of fresh air. You can get caught up in a rut musically speaking so to have someone like that come in and bring new ideas. It mixes things up in a good way …. Adds spice to the soup!

Dwayne: A Wilhelm Scream is known for your very fast songs. Yet they hold up well technically. Is this something you try to push on every new record and when you’re throwing around new song ideas?

Nuno: If and when it does happen, it happens pretty naturally. We don’t set out to write mid tempo songs. We might write two or three but we also don’t set out to write out a full album of bangers either. We just kind of approach it song by song. We just happen to like that kind of music so we are going to write that kind of music. It has kind of been our mantra  that we are going to make music that we like first and foremost and if people will follow along – great! There are plenty of people that don’t like my band and there are plenty of people who get what we are trying to do musically and fun wise. Even if there are just four or five of those people it’s worth it. So yeah, we don’t set out to write a certain kind of song just all comes naturally and depends how many drugs are taken (laughs)

Dwayne: So depends on how much heroin is injected then (Laughs)

Nuno: Yea if it’s a meth week it’s going to be some fast fucking songs that last 20 minutes!

Dwayne: Put your ed hardy shirts on………

Nuno: And jus fucking go for it! …. Get my hat pierced!

Dwayne: I saw an interview with you and you were talking about the Ed Hardy shirt wearing “morons.”

Nuno: Ah dude… It is like everyone traded in their Von Dutch hats for a fucking Ed Hardy Hat. It’s fucking ridiculous!

Dwayne: Getting back to the music for a second (laughs)  Writing the type of songs you do, is it important to be able to pull these off live just as good as the recorded versions?

Nuno: Yeah! We never write or record anything that we can’t pull off live! There is a songs we recorded a few albums ago and it had like 3 piano keys in it. So in that case we might do something like that. Generally speaking we just get in there and the guys go crazy trying to nail down all these parts. If anything its more like practice once you have played it 500 times in the studio live its like “ah ya man I have played this a millions times already.”

We drive crazy in the studio. There will be hour long parts just trying to get the guitar part perfect. I remember a couple times in the Blasting Room, waking up to hearing the guitar part being played through the wall and sleeping for another hour and waking up to the same part.

Dwayne: My first experience hearing about A Wilhelm Scream was reading AMP magazine along time ago. They were reviewing the best records of the year and someone from A Wihelm Scream, I don’t know if it was you, had all 3 as Propagandhi.

Nuno: Seriously dude… They just don’t make bad records.

Dwayne: Have you heard the 3 songs that were released digitally for a Haiti fundraiser?

Nuno: No I haven’t.

Dwayne: They are decent but there is one song where John K Samson sings on it and I read a review on it and the review said “It sounds like Kermit the Frog trying to sing punk rock”

Nuno: [Laughs] The Weakerthans rock though! Funny story actually; the other day we were playing and we were walking and we walked by this bar and thought hey that band is doing a really good cover of a Weakerthans tune. Turns out it was The Weakerthans playing [laughs]. I think it was Calgary that we were in.

Dwayne: A Wilhelm Scream has been on a few different labels throughout the years. Most recently you were on Nitro records. Why the decision to split ways with them?

Nuno: What happened was we had a 3 record deal with them that we fulfilled. It’s no secret that the music industry has had its legs taken out. Some of the smaller labels, Nitro isn’t a tiny label but they are not a huge label either. When we signed with them I remember going to the offices and there was like 30-40 people working for them and then just a couple years later going back and there is just 6 people. So it was tough. I don’t think really on either side we were really pushing the band too hard – you know what I mean? Which is unfortunate because we were touring our asses off we always have and always will. I think as a band we thought it was not worth the time re-signing with a label that doesn’t have the time or resources to accomplish what we can on our own. The Paper + Plastik thing was great! We talked to Vinnie and have been friends with him and his band for years. We liked his ideas and where he was coming from. We liked his ideas about packaging and how the music was a tactile thing. So that was awesome and he is always down with fun ideas.

Dwayne: New label in place. I know you just released an EP. Can we expect a new full length anytime soon?

Nuno: Next year hopefully. We have a few songs written for it already. Six or seven songs banging around. So once we get that many more we are hopefully going to record in November and get the record out for maybe end of winter or springtime release.

Dwayne: No secret you guys are huge Propagandhi fans. Do you remember the first time seeing them or hearing them?

Nuno: I remember the first time I heard them. I was living overseas and it was right after How to Clean Everything got released and I was like “holy shit this is awesome”. I was already listening to a lot of NOFX and Pennywise constantly. They played fast and I loved it and so solid. I remember the first time I saw them live I actually have a funny story about that

(about this time, we were interrupted by Mitts from Madball with beers)

Nuno: Years and years ago when I was maybe 20, Propagandhi was going to play in Providence, Rhode Island and all my friends were going. I had to work that night. All my friends were going and I was so bummed out. So I go do my work thing get home at like 11 and I get a phone call from my friends that were coming over so I asked how the show was and they told me Propagandhi had to cancel. So fast forward me and my friends drove from Boston to Montreal got tickets, got to the door, and turns out the promoter was someone I knew. He told me he could have put me on the guest list but I didn’t care I was not going to miss this! I walked up and from the first note I got goosebumps and maybe even a little tear fell. I was like “this is EPIC! This band is as tight as a drum.” They played a ton of new shit and old songs it was just unbelievable! I have seen them maybe 3 more times and let me tell you I am 31 and have fucked up knees from skateboarding but they are pretty much the only band I go into the pit and loose my mind for at this point.

Dwayne: So what is up next for you guys after this tour?

Nuno: After this we go home for like a few days. We have a hometown show. Then we set off for Gainesville for THE FEST. We will be touring down there with a couple awesome bands (the Flatliners,and Strike Anywhere). After that we will hunker down and write some new tunes and polish up the ones we do have.

Dwayne: Any final words of wisdom?

Nuno: Words of wisdom… Hmmm. I am not a very wise person but I would like to say any fans of A Wilhelm Scream, thanks so much for being the best fans ever. Come check us out when we come back through and I guess that’s it. Go fuck yourself!