#15: Rodrigo Ponce (Colligere)

In these times of isolation, where travelling has become a
virtual impossibility, let BALG at least take your ears and mind
where your bodies can’t go! Today we’re in Curitiba in the south
of Brazil in full summer, where I talk to Rodrigo Ponce of
Brazilian melodic hardcore band Colligere. We go deep on the
feeling of empowerment that playing in a hardcore band, releasing
records and touring the world gave us when we were in our early
twenties, and how that has or hasn’t changed in almost twenty
years, and the challenge of translating these feelings into our
current lives and making something good of it. Rodrigo also talks
about growing up on, rejecting and rediscovering traditional
Brazilian music, why straight edge got so big in Brazil and how
Colligere broke up in 2008 at the height of their success and now
are back together recording a new album. Working as a staffer for
a regional politician, Rodrigo also gives some insight about the
political upheaval in the past years in Brazil, a country that
has transformed from the economic wunderkind under socialist rule
to a reactionary ultra-right-wing government.