There is much more to skateboarding than just a board, trucks, wheels, and the physical act. The same can be said about music when your passion runs as deep as Murilo Peres’ for both. In our latest On Rotation interview, we learn that if Murilo isn’t skateboarding, you’ll most likely find him practicing guitar or jamming away on the drums with friends. Learn how music has taken such an essential role in Murilo’s skateboarding, outlook on life, and hit play on his custom-curated metal playlist.
Do you like listening to music?
Music is my life.
I just did this interview with Luis [Francisco], and he was telling me that the whole crew is always listening to music.
Especially with him, but we do have totally different styles of music that we listen to.
So how does that work when you guys are when you are all on tour get to choose the music?
It’s funny because we have fun with everything. The most important thing is to have music, and we all have to be respectful of each other’s types of music.
Everyone has their genre that they are into. That’s cool that the whole crew is respectful of that. What would you say your favorite type of music is to listen to?
For sure, it’s Rock n’ Roll from the 70s. Like Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Pentagram, Danzing, Megadeth, Slayer.
So all the classic metal-type bands?
Yeah, I like the original ones. You know, guys that brought that style.
Sick, is that what gets you hyped to go skate, too?
Yeah, I mostly listen to that all the time and because I play instruments too. I love playing drums, and I’m in a band with Vi [Vinicius Kakinho] and Pedro [Barros]. We don’t have a name yet but check this out. This is like one of our first songs; we just pulled a cell phone out to record.
*Rock music playing in the background.
What instrument does everyone play in the band?
In the band, I’m the drummer. Pedro sings, Vi is on the guitar, and Marcos [Feijó], the guy who films us, is on bass.
What got you guys into wanting to play music?
Vi, Pedro, and everyone who lives in Florianopolis, Brazil, it’s like a cultural place for music, skating, and surfing. So, the neighborhood is where guys from all around would meet and be the place to chill and share the good vibes. All the time we had the best musicians in Brazil coming there and being friends. So we always had these people around us like bringing this life to the music.
Vi was the first one that started playing since he started skating. He and Pedro played first, so every trip they used to play, and I was like f*ck, man, I want to be in the band! If I don’t learn any instrument, then what I’m going to be? The agent of the band (laughs) no f*cking way! I used to play drums when I was a kid, like when I was in school, but I didn’t have friends to play with, and the drums are like the most important thing to have when people play together.
If you play the drums, then you’re kind of like the heartbeat of the band.
Yeah, it’s like you’re the kitchen. I first learned two simple chords on the guitar, and I play them while the others played acoustic guitar and started playing a solo, and man, that felt amazing. I felt like I was part of the band with two simple notes! So I knew I was going to go deep with music. Then I bought my guitar, start playing, start learning on the internet with lessons. Everything in my life, I want to understand why. So I know everything happens for a reason. I was trying to find that reason and how they make the notes, know where they go, and how the melody works. I started studying by myself, and I’m still learning. I’ve been playing for like three years now.
It’s challenging teaching yourself an instrument, and the hardest part is getting your hands to move and open up.
Yeah! You feel pain, or you can’t move your fingers. The good thing that skateboarding taught me in my life is how to do things by myself. You can start from the bottom, and you focus on today, you know, today you learn two notes and focus on that. Just make sure you are present in everything you do. Don’t put pressure on yourself. Enjoy it. It’s hard. It’s not simple. You’re going to feel pain. But you’re going to see the next day, and it’s going to be 0.1 percent easier, man. With these things, like in a year or two, then you’re going to see the difference. So that was what made me get inspired and want to play. I’ve always loved music. I always escaped with music. I always loved Black Sabbath, like this was the first tattoo I got with Pedro, Vi, and another friend of ours when we were like 15 years old. We had to do something for our friendship. So what do we all like? What do we all love or have in common? We have skateboarding, and we have music, so that’s why we got we sold our souls for skateboarding like the cover of Black Sabbath, except we changed out rock ‘n’ roll. That’s how everything started for me. That wasn’t by mistake. It was because it’s in my heart.
How does music influence your skateboarding?
So after I started playing, then I started paying more attention to what I was listening to. When you don’t know how music works, you just hear one thing. So after I started playing, my life changed because it’s the same way I think on my skateboard. Skateboarding full time in my life right now, I have music going together. It’s like music is the thing that is going to make me dance for life, wheater it’s on board or off board. Music is the frequency like the BPM that you hear is the BPM going to your heart. It’s your frequency, and all the cells in your body are a frequency, and the music you listen to will affect the whole thing. That’s what music represents to me. That’s my inspiration to skate.
What would you guys say your goal is as a band? Do you want to play live or put an album together?
For sure, we have many friends in music that they want to record us. They have the whole structure like a studio and everything. We’re not in a rush because we are always going to be skateboarders first. Even playing or not, man, we are skateboarders. We are skateboarders that love music, but we are not musicians.
What’s the music process like for you?
Every time we play, we play as a jam. We don’t rush it because sometimes you have to let it flow and take control. If you try to force it and say we need to have a song tomorrow, it won’t work. The three or four songs we do have we were playing, and someone says, ‘hey, I think I have something. Check this out.’ Then I think the drums should be like this, and then the music starts and takes shape. Then Pedro didn’t even write the lyrics. He was just telling a story that happened to him when he was driving and got pulled over. We’re making music that our life is telling us.
Also, down in Florianopolis, we have many friends with bands, and at Pedro’s bowl, he has like a little studio. Every day we were skating there, and afterward, everyone would just come over to have a beer and play a jam session. There are like 15 guys that can play instruments. We would change out people, and every time someone would play a different instrument. This is the lifestyle that we were living. That’s like the only thing I want to do in my life. Be healthy, skate, and play music.
Do you ever have headphones in while you compete?
Yeah, for two reasons. Music never stops, and my mind does. You can think and listen to music at the same time. When I hear something that I like, then I focus while I’m listening. The BPM affects all the cells, and you get that vibe. So I love to skate with headphones.
So, it doesn’t bother you that you can’t hear the crowd or your skateboard?
The most important thing to me is to hear my skateboard, and since I skate in the park sometimes, we can drop in with more than one person in the bowl. We always want to be careful and be alert if we hear something or someone dropping in. What I love to do is just put one Apple Airpod on. I’m not going to listen to the music as well, but the session is there, my board is there, and I have it all together.
What is the go-to band that you like to listen to while skating? Do you have one favorite song from them that you always play?
For sure Black Sabbath. I like putting it on shuffle, but when I put on War Pigs, I know I’m going to have like eight minutes of good tunes. Because sometimes you choose a really good song, but it’s only three minutes, so you have to pick two or three really good songs. Then you put War Pigs on you have one song for like three runs. That song goes through different ambiances, so it changes its not like eight minutes doing the same thing.
How do you go about choosing a song for a part?
When I did my intro to Vans, Vi recorded the song, so we started making our music for video parts. It’s really quick, but that’s like my f*cking friend playing a song for my part.
If you had a part right now ready to drop and you could pick any song you wanted, all rights free, what would you choose?
I will pick one of our songs from the guys. I want to record something specific to the part. I believe that we can make a song easier than it would be to film the whole video.
Any skate video and song that you watched growing up that heavily influenced you?
One iconic song and part to me when I hear it is Serenade [by Steve Miller Band] from Collin McKay in Plan B’s Virtual Virtual Reality. For me, it was iconic because, in Brazil, I was in a contest, and I was competing in the final, and on my third run, I had to listen to Serenade. When I heard that song, like, the keyboard and everything, that made me get excited.
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