Interview to Tokio Hotel's fans

Emo in Portugal
The origin of the specie
There is no one that doesn’t have opinion about the new urban tribe. With the ascension of bands like My Chemical Romance and Tokio Hotel, the big cities – and not just those– are growing up between the youngest, the style of paint the nails black and asymmetric fringes. BLITZ talked with teenagers of the North and South of the country and concluded: Anyone wants to be emo, but they really exist.

It’s a recent add to the scenery, mainly urban – groups of boys and girls, frequently in the first steps of teenage, wearing black and strong make-up, also dark. Gothic? No, emo, is a designation that derives from the expression “emotional hardcore” and is used to talk about the biggest fans of bands like My Chemical Romance, 30 Seconds to Mars or Tokio Hotel. Besides the strong visual component, really close to a second side of gothic like the character of Japanese comics, emos are known by their supposed tendency for less positive status of mind. In some networks, emo rimes with the attraction to the suicide and auto-mutilation - One way to go along the psychological pain, already existent, with the physical pain.
In the last months, emos have been in the order of the day, for the most several and unexpected reasons. Recently, Correio da Manhã published some news about the run-out of two teenagers from Leiria, apparently, «bewitched with the emo». Last year, the suicide of a 13 year-old teenager, big fan of My Chemical Romance, came and relights the discussion about the music in the young people behaviors. And, in Portugal, each concert of Tokio Hotel has invariantly, colorfull titles in the newspapers, thanks to the great – they are, mostly, girls – of the German band. The folklore of the excursions and camps outside of the buildings of the shows, where some of them already slept several days, transported the emo phenomenon to the televisions and general media. Most of the fans say that they are victims of preconception and judgments of value without any base, thanks to the increase coverage of the media. BLITZ talked with some of the fans of band most famous of the moment about what attract them to the music and in the emo esthetic. «We feel really good in our skin» was the answer more listen.



José Pires has 17 years old and was the first one to answer to BLITZ’s request. Maybe because, in an opposing case of his companions, he doesn’t have any fear to admit he is emo. «I don’t take it as a religion and I don’t really like to call myself emo, but is something natural». The classification with the emo movement happens in terms of music, but as visual too. Fan of My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park, Gravenhurst, Muse, Placeblo, Smashing Pumpkins or Death Cab for Cutie, José Pires finds comfort at the music of his favorite bands. «When I got into the High School, a lot of things changed. I started listening to musics of bands that seemed to have the same problems has me. I started navigating in the online world, found [things] about them, how they dressed, and their attitude. I thought: This guys jump all around a stage… are just like me, they think like me! The interest for the «dark side of entertainment» was already far from: «Horror movies, fantastic series, and books written by Stephen King or also, when I was at the Primary School, “Os Arrepios” of R.L. Stine. All that influenced the kinds of band I listen or the clothes that I dress».
Natural from a small village near Bragança, José is «almost sure» he was «the first human with the chromosome Y, at school, coloring his hair of red. I’m almost sure that the old women of my village were talking I colored my hair for one whole week», jokes this tramontane emo, who doesn’t walk on the street without a lot of care. «My black tee, has a comic character, is one of my favorite clothes, just has my black jeans and All Stars from the most various colors, always like black and red», describe, by email. «The hair must have risk alongside. The jeans must be skinny or I’ll go insane, and the rubbers of my shoes must be permanently written with my favorite lyrics». At this moment, it’s Hot Fuss, the first album of The Killers, giving the lyric to his shoes.
At home, José’s style doesn’t bother his parents. «My mom already asks why I don’t wear the T-shirt that my uncle offered me in the Christmas… But I think that’s the only objection to this style: I leave behind the clothes that I used to wear», tell him. «I was created in a house where the preconception is not too significant and my parents have an open mind. It’s the “We were already young” factor».
Curiously, the familiar suspension points are fought by the media power: «My parents found that this style is common in other places: at the movies and TV the style have been implemented ». At the school, the acceptation is other: «They call my awful names like homosexual, they call me freak, abnormal. If this is the prize that I’ve to pay in my skin, it’s really small», admits. «And the loud bands in the iPod always help covering up some of those voices». José has friend outside of the village where he lives that, guarantee him that, in a big city, his relative extravagance would pass unnoticed: «One friend of mine at Porto’s city told that, he had the same look like me: dyed hair, my black nails, my black tee and my black and beaten All Stars… no one would notice him». Definitely, José feels really well in his skin and he will not hand over his own style: «The other guys put me on the side because I didn’t like to play football and the girl who used to seat on my front never wanted to know who I was, I felt myself arrested in a village where the mentalities are from the century XIX… My emo style allowed myself express my difference. I felt myself different, then I started acting like different. I feel really well like this».


Part III
Soft Emo
More «discrete», her own words, is Cláudia Costa, fan of My Chemical Romance and distinct member of the BLITZ.pt community, where she answers like Pandora 92. Cláudia has in the authors of «Teenagers» her favorite band but she tries to take them out of the emo movement. «I think their style is kind related to emo, but not completely», says the 17 year-old student, who discovered the music of the Americans with 13 years old with the video “I’m not OK”. «I liked their sound and attitude », remembers. The long dark hair and iPod phones looking between them, Cláudia valorizes the pose of the band or singer she listens. «If I like the song, lyric, the attitude of the band or the singer, it’s half away to become a fan», explains. Admirer of Paramore, Kaiser Chiefs and Amy Winehouse, she doesn’t consider herself as emo, also because of the mentality. «I don’t want to be mean, but it’s a very depressive style. More like “it’s everything against me, nobody likes me”. A little darker, also de look. I like band named has emo, but the style doesn’t have any interest for me just to follow it».
At her school, in Massamá, Cláudia coexist with other followers of other bands: «The ones who have a style more “beto” are in a indie-rock vibe. There are the dreads and Goths there are very few of them. There are the ones who have no style, they are more casual, informal… And skaters. From the Metal style there are just one or two, in the maximum ». It’s easy to identify a Goth from a Old School Emo? «Yes, the Goth calls more the attention visually. Be an Emo reflects also in your personality: they are a bit dramatic, of extremes. Or they are really happy or they are saying they don’t want to talk with anyone». Well appropriate to the changes of mood of a teenager, so. Cláudia, we already understood that she is a discrete and self-assured.