Political positioning is what Tico Santa Cruz it has been years since he became a public figure thanks to the group’s success. Roque club detonaus, in the late 90s. The musician, who claims to have suffered financial and psychological retribution for his more critical stance on politics and social issues, says he feels more welcome than he has ever been at this moment when artists have been under pressure to do choices, opinions and sides.

“I wanted to be a journalist and political columnist. I even studied Social Sciences at UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) in 1997. I did not finish the course, but I continued to study and read a lot on this subject. With the Internet, I kind of became who I wanted to be. The Internet has pushed me down this path, ”says he, who has been familiar with the term“ cancellation ”since 2012.

“We live in a partial democracy. We have suffered a lot of retaliation because of our political positions. I have been attacked – including in the artistic environment itself – since 2012. Because of the office of hate and this dynamic of creating fake news, I have suffered countless financial and mental losses. People were afraid to attend Detonautas festivals because of the lyrics and combat positioning. Since 2018, I have felt the difference. Nowadays, artists have to position themselves, and as we’ve been doing this for years, we’ve got more baggage and we’ve gotten a lot of support. I even feel that the number of hate attacks on the social network has decreased. Fewer and fewer people are proposing to defend this government, which is shameful. And robots attack other people with hate attacks. “

Tiko, who is writing a book about the retribution faced by his group for its political stance, says that after a long therapy, the way they fight and defend the causes and problems they believe in has also changed.

“We treat mental health so that we can deal with feelings. My personality is warlike. The more they attack me, the more I rise. This is a kind of shield that I have created. I was never scared. I grew up in a conflict environment, which is normal for me. In therapy, I work on fights that are worth fighting. At its core, I would have participated in all battles, but during the pandemic I had personal growth, ”he guarantees.

“I am a person before the pandemic, and I will come out of it completely different. I made an inner change, I made the decision to untie the knots I had tied during my life with unresolved conflicts due to an immature attitude. I am very tense and have misaligned my voice several times, which is uncomfortable. I do not want to quarrel with everyone, and when I do, I want to know how to properly lead the content. This is the evolution that I went through during this time of vulnerability, when the pandemic brought me so many deaths and neglect. ”

This does not mean that Tiko will be exempted from expressing his opinion. New job Detonators, Orange Album, is a chronicle of what has happened in the country since 2020, and contains compositions that criticize the government Jair Bolsonaro What Micheque, a satire about BRL 89,000 checking deposits made by Fabrizio Queiroz first lady Michelle Bolsonaro.

“This recording is a read I did from 2020 to July of this year,” he says, hoping the songs won’t last forever, as most artists crave when writing songs.

“I wonder if the songs like What country is it?, do Renato Russo, timeless or if the problem is that a country that is not developing cannot move forward. I would like this album not to be timeless and just a historical document. “

Another outstanding song from the new album – Rocker Reaçain which he criticizes colleagues who adhere to conservative values ​​and support the far-right. Tiko publicly discussed with Diga, author: Raimundos, on the social network because of the political position of his colleague. In the lyrics, the musician sings: “You stopped in time and became an idiot” and “spreads prejudice and misinformation, gives a voice to authoritarianism and denial, but what a shame, you are a reaction.”

“Until 2018, I lost a lot of friends. When we talk about a pocket book, we are talking not only about politics, but also about human values. I have seen many friends, either out of ignorance or of their own choice, join the conservative camps. Not because you are against the government, in this case the PT, which I am also criticizing, you will join the conservative characters and sectors of Brazilian politics. Rock is not left or right, it is libertarian and fights authoritarianism, be it left or far right, as it is today. Rock is a tool for fighting regimes. I didn’t write this song specifically for anyone, but it reflects the views of some people, ”he explains.

Tiko has a dream, which, in his opinion, is not innocent, about the opportunity to share knowledge and change the thoughts of colleagues and fans through his songs.

“It’s not at all innocence to see this dream. Culture is the first pillar to be attacked by authoritarian regimes in Brazil because it manages to access people’s imaginations through theater, music, film and literature. I get a lot of feedback from people who tell me that our music has played this transformative role. The music of Racionais transformed me myself. Now I am renewing friendly relations with people who call me with a desire to communicate. So I believe in the transformative power of music. “

You grew up in a generation that faced current challenges in a completely different way than they do now. When you started to realize racism and homophobia, the issues that you also touched on in the album in the lyrics Keith Gay e racism is stupid?
I was born into an upper middle class family that has lost everything. When I was 12 years old, my parents separated. My father moved to live outside Rio and then outside Brazil. My mother also had problems and ended up being adopted by the family of a black father and a white mother. My brothers are black. So racism is a recurring theme. I certainly didn’t feel it on my skin, but I saw my brother suffer because he was middle-class black. It was a time when there were no blacks in private schools and in places where the middle class was frequent. He suffered a lot and taught me a lot with his suffering. I began to understand and become more interested in this topic, so as not to reproduce the models that society had.

What about homophobia? In the past, humor itself was an unacceptable joke about people’s sexual orientation …
I grew up in a generation that joked about the sexual orientation of others other than yours. I just started to understand the issue of sexual and gender orientation more deeply in 2013. I remember being very homophobic during the emocore era. Subsequently, I even apologized to the people who suffered from the line I was playing.

The album also features songs with a more uplifting and positive atmosphere, such as This is fine e glades… Do you believe in a better future?
We will emerge from this pandemic. Scientifically, we already have evidence. But a pandemic is a collective disease, so it’s important to have a collective understanding of what didn’t happen, and that’s why we’ve come to this point. Politically, we’re going to defeat this denial government at the ballot box. And when I say this, I do not mean left-wing government. But just to have a more democratic government. I don’t believe in a coup. I think that a dog that barks a lot does not bite. The one who is about to strike does not give a signal, he takes everyone by surprise. This sounds more like a bluff than a strategy. But it still worries me.

What other projects besides the book?
Detonautas is releasing a new album this year. I was composing from March to July last year, at the beginning of the pandemic. The material was ready before Orange Album, but we thought it would be better to launch. These are songs that reflect my more introspective and existential moment.