Interview with Elke Maravilha, by Ricardo Costa
(originally published in Velotrol magazine)
TAGS: interview, humor, videos
“DKANDLE weaves swirling multi-colored vibrant unearthly soundscapes, blending fuzzy and reverberating Shoegaze textures, mesmerizing Dream Pop meditations, sludgy Grungey tones and moody Post-punk strains, heightened with soul-stirring lyricism and pensive emotive vocalizations”
CHILDHOOD
I was born in Russia, in Leningrad, on February 22, 1945. I'm a Pisces, with Scorpio rising and Moon in Cancer. I am water, water, water.
My father was also Russian, but he fought against Russia (for Finland) in a conflict in 1939. He was severely wounded and was imprisoned in Siberia as a traitor to the homeland. After a while, he was arrested again, this time in a concentration camp in France, where he would be killed. My mother hid a gun in me to take it to my father to try to escape. I was six years old. We got there, they searched my mother, and when they were about to search me, I kissed the soldier on the neck and he melted. My father grabbed the gun, escaped, and came to meet us.
There were three countries that accepted immigrants: Canada, New Zealand, and Brazil. I met some New Zealanders who said, "You did well to come to Brazil, it sucks there!" We came to Brazil and were evicted on Ilha das Flores, in Guanabara Bay.
BLACKS
My father went to work on a farm in Minas Gerais. I was scared as hell of black people, I had never seen one. I cried all day, I was a very fearful child. My father took away this fear from me: one day he took me to a black family's house and said, "You'll stay here." Then it was a problem for him to get me out of there, I didn't want to leave anymore. I saw those black women letting their hair down, it was huge... I was enchanted (sighs)... "Oh, how beautiful... and mine is blond, such a mess!" They would say, "Your hair is good, ours is bad." I would say, "No, yours is good, mine is bad," and they wouldn't get it.
I have a great influence because of that, I love the black aesthetic.
PEOPLE
I have the impression that we are not yet human. Some people are rats, some are birds of prey... we have a bunch of them in the government, right? We are still in this terrible stage, we have not yet reached the stage of being human.
I realized that intelligent people know how to love or at least exercise love. I think it is through love that we will become human. On the other hand, stupidity is a terrible disease, and there is no cure because it is stupidity.
People say that those who cannot walk are disabled, those who cannot see are disabled. Stephen Hawking only moves one finger, is he disabled? (laughs) My dear, I'm the disabled one.
We are building a disabled people in the country because we are not providing the essentials for humans to develop their own intelligence. And extraordinary things happen, for example, with the minimum of vitamins and minerals, the people of the Northeast are the brightest in Brazil. I mean, there is compensation that Mother Nature is giving, it is fantastic.
Edition #4
Rio de Janeiro, 2001
RELIGION
I am an idolater. The Native Americans had totems to remind them that everything that exists in nature is our sibling. We are nature, folks! We look at nature, and oh, how beautiful, I adore nature... as if we weren't part of it. We need to reconnect.
We shit in the sea, we shit on trees, we shit on everything because, after Moses, nothing is sacred anymore. One God, who doesn't even have a face, that crap is just like Nazism and Communism, it's easier to dominate. Imagine trying to dominate a people who have 40,000 gods...
Jesus Christ didn't serve for shit, in his name they are enslaving people's souls. It's exactly what he didn't want. In the name of Christ, we did much more crap than in the name of Hitler.
ROOTS
Alexander the Great invented globalization for integration. Today they are using this globalization for... BAM! I like people who integrate, I detest roots, roots are for trees.
What have roots done to humanity? The English can't stand the French, the French can't stand the Germans, the Germans can't stand the Jews, the Jews can't stand the Arabs, the Arabs can't stand the Turks... Oh, what a drag!
I think Brazil is the only country in the world that has the possibility of integrating and uprooting the human being; here, Jews get along with Arabs, they go together to the candomblé center (laughs).
We have something special, I think Brazil is the world's way out.
FRIENDS
I've met many good people in the world, I'm a privileged person. A tarot reader once told me: "Elke, you're a lucky person. I've never seen, in all the cards I've drawn, a person who has so many friends. Friends who kill and die for you".
FASHION
I've always been anti-fashion. I started with Guilherme Guimarães, who was the greatest fashion designer in Brazil at the time, but I've always liked weird stuff, I mix everything up. I used to chase after Raul (a friend) and cut his clothes, he would go crazy.
CARNIVAL
I've been in many special groups, on the floats and on the avenue. Being on top of the float is cool, especially when there was no Sambadrome in Rio. The people were right by your side, you entered a throat. Once, during a parade, when I reached the end of the avenue, I completely lost emotional control, I was peeing and crying... Today you're there and you run into a tourist chewing gum. I don't know, it lost some of its magic.
ACTRESS
A director who won a film award in Rio de Janeiro told me: "Elke, until today I get goosebumps when I remember you in Pixote (where she plays a drug dealer)."
At one point, the boy, Pixote, started to cry. "I don't want to kill Elke..." And we had to explain to him that he wasn't killing anyone, he was killing the character...
After filming, I was morally very hurt because it was very real. I looked at that boy and saw that he had no way out. He wasn't an actor, he was the character. I am the godmother of prisoners and I've seen many of those types. I looked and said, "My God, there's no way out."
I never believed myself as an actress, but everyone likes it. Avancini said: "You're a fantastic actress, too bad you don't have the calling." It's true, if you put me in front of 100,000 people, that's fine, but if you give me another name and a script, I won't guarantee it. It's a funny thing.
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BEGINNINGS
Haroldo Costa, who was from Chacrinha's production team, sent a photo of me to the Old Warrior. I had never seen Chacrinha's show, my father wouldn't let me watch TV, can you believe it? He thought it was stupid.
The production people called me and I asked, "Damn, what do I do there?" And they said, "You just have to judge the newcomer."
Oh, my love, I went there, they sat me next to Pedro de Lara... he would stay in one corner and I in the other. He's adorable, a very good person. I was there with the horn, him by my side and I "beeeep"...
I stayed for 14 years, then Chacrinha quarreled with Globo and went to Record, which had very little penetration, only here in São Paulo, and there was also the fire. I lived off this TV work. Chacrinha couldn't pay me. Silvio Santos called me and I went.
TV
Gugu, one of these powerful people, is one of the few who know how to deal with human beings, he is extremely affectionate, sweet. Power is a very strange thing, those poor powerful people.
Talent shows are an outdated formula, we only had three masters in Brazil: Ari Barroso, Chacrinha, and somewhat Flavio Cavalcanti. What came after was to use people, not to guide them, so it no longer fulfills its purpose. An old lady defined this very well. The other day they asked me if I didn't want to be a judge anymore, and I said, "It's not achieving its goal anymore." Then the old lady said, "Chacrinha was a clown, the others make people into clowns."
KARMA & DHARMA
Everyone has to fulfill their purpose, whatever it may be, even if it's being a murderer. There's a purpose in being a murderer, in being a thief. If I get too tied up in this purse, someone has to free me from it. If suddenly you're a murderer, you're God's instrument saying, "Damn it, that guy has nothing more to do on Earth, send him away."
MUTT
I'm a mutt indeed. Since I was a child I laughed my ass off, kissed everyone... well, even today I do (laughs), I wag my tail, I love it!
One day Sacha (my husband) told me, "Now I understand you. I saw a mutt playing on the beach, then two purebred dogs arrived and the mutt went to play with them. The purebred dogs looked at their owners' faces, as if asking, should I play with him or not? The owner didn't want to, right. The mutt left and went to play alone".
PUNK?
Elke Maravilha didn't show up, I was born this way. Of course, I got worse over time, much worse!
At first, I used to get punched in the face, beaten on the street (shows the scar under the lip). I was the world's first punk and didn't even know what it was.
One day something funny happened: the first time I went to England, I arrived at the airport and everyone was taking pictures of me. Some time later, they sent a postcard to my sister saying "Visit London", with my face. I became a symbol in England.
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What do you think of Elke and her ideas? Leave a comment below
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