After a successful first edition last year, local Rock band Blademark are once again bringing back their Rock-themed Blademark Festival 2016
In September last year, local music fans who like their tunes loud and fast, were treated to Macau’s first truly Rock-themed music festival. Organized by one of the city’s most successful and long-lasting bands, Blademark, as part of its 10-year anniversary celebration, the Blademark Festival was not only a live music event, but also gave local creative businesses a chance to showcase their products.
The inaugural event was a great success and Blademark now hope to make the festival an annual occurrence. Blademark Festival 2016 is set to take place on November 12 and 13 at Albergue.
This year’s performing bands include Iansin, Ma Man Lei, Ferdinand Choi, BPC Catalyser, Experience and Zenith. As well as live music, the Festival will also feature a Fashion & Arts Market, Visual Design Showcase, Food & Beverages, as well as Film Show. There is also an exhibition presenting 10 paintings by Blademark’s lead vocalist Fortes Pakeong Sequeira.
During last year’s Blademark Festival, the band introduced three new songs to their fans. Pakeong reveals that the band will debut another new song this year that will be included as part of the soundtrack for a soon-to-be-released film.
Talking about last year’s festival, all four members of Blademark say they were very satisfied with the performances and result.
Bass guitarist Raimundo “Raymond” Nogueira points out that what he enjoyed most about last year’s event was the interaction with other bands, both on and off-stage.
“It was quite fun,” Akitsugu “Aki” Fukushima, the guitarist of the band agrees. “Macau does not have many festivals like this, so it was like a new thing for everyone. This was not only a band show; there were exhibitions too. There are so many things mixed into it.”
Meanwhile, drummer Darren Kopas thinks that there should be more events like the Blademark Festival in Macau, as they provide a chance for different parties in the local creative industries to come together.
Pakeong agrees but laments that the number of music festivals in Macau seems to have been shrinking in recent years.
“Macau doesn’t really have many music festivals, let along Rock festivals. Many of the music festivals here are very formal. Even some of the pop music festivals are disappearing. For example, we used to have HUSH!! and a May 1 music festival at Hac Sa Beach. But last year they were merged together,” the Blademark vocalist observes.
Two-Day fest
This year, the Blademark Festival will be extended to two full days. While the second day will again present some serious Rock performances on stage, the first day of the event will feature more acoustic music and performances that are more “relaxed” in terms of set-up and style, with several pop singers also joining in.
Pakeong explains that this arrangement fits in with this year’s theme: Back to Nature.
“Music and musical performances do not always require a heavy set-up. An acoustic guitar and a singer can already deliver an impressive performance. We really want to convey the idea of ‘returning to one’s true self’,” he says.
The Blademark vocalist believes that all the participants of the festival, including the musicians on-stage and the craftsmen and merchants off-stage, share the same fight: a fight for their dreams and for what they want to achieve.
“None of us is making a huge profit from it. We are only pursuing a life with quality and a better future. I think this is what Macau needs as well.”
Live Music Needed
It goes without saying that part of the reason the band is organizing the Blademark Festival is to allow local audiences a chance to experience the power of live music. So all four members of Blademark were concerned to hear the news recently that the local Live Music Association (LMA) venue was reconsidering its future operations, especially since good live music performances are already hard to find Macau.
“I am a really big believer in live music,” Darren says, “I think live music is very important. If you are only listening to pop music or rock, you are only seeing a small piece [of the music world]. Independent places such as LMA bring in bands from places like Canada, Germany and Finland. Those bands are small but their music is interesting and they are the people who work very hard to bring their music to the world.”
Darren believes that Macau is becoming an increasingly difficult place in which to play music because venues for live music are vanishing. He hopes that people will start appreciating live music more and support venues like LMA so they can continue operating.
Regarding the future development of the band, Aki reveals that they are currently working on a soundtrack for a film, and will start producing more new demos after their studio revamp is finished.
Pakeong says that the reason they work on these non-band-music-related projects is to show others that people who form bands in Macau are not there to just entertain themselves only.
“We want people to recognize that rock and roll musicians and bands are professionals who should be respected in the society as well.”
Fortes Pakeong Sequeira
Lead Vocalist
Fortes is a child from a single parent family, rebellious teenager, idle youngster living on the edge, prodigal son, pillar of society… He has been travelling through time with life changing in every second. The inspiration for his creations is not limited by time or space but emerged from the experiences in the past, imaginations about the future and feelings at this moment. His experiences come along with failures and suffering. As the head and the lead vocalist of Blademark, his thoughts have been leading the band to more and more strange and infinitely mysterious states where the members keep exploring and adventuring!
Akitsugu Fukushima
Guitarist
An all-round musician, at the age of 21, Aki moved from Fukuoka in Japan to Macau and joined Blademark with musical fervour as the guitarist in his youth. Before coming to Macau, he played guitar for another band with a greatly different style to the heavy metal of Blademark. But Aki is such a rare all-round musician and creator that he can handle different music and performance styles. Live on stage, he always charms the audience and friends with his wholehearted performances.
Darren Kopas
Drummer
Darren Kopas is a wandering musician who finally settled down in Macau and joined Blademark. Darren was performing and touring around Europe and the United States before he was assigned by his company to work in Macau. He only planned to stay here temporarily but soon formed his own band, Music Boxx joining together some great international talent. With Darren as the leader, Music Boxx broadened the sights of many local bands and made them a model to follow. After the band was dissolved, Darren was invited to join Blademark as one of the members.
Raymond – Raimundo Nogueira
Bass guitarist
Raymond is a typical Macanese, born in Macau. His style is to be quiet but passions run through his veins calmly. He was the bass guitarist of an English rock band MZ in Macau at age16, and also played for a number of other bands.
Aside from being the lead vocalist of Blademark, Fortes Pakeong Sequeira is also an accomplished artist and and now entrepreneur. Recently, he has been focusing on the art pieces that will be showcased at this year’s Blademark Festival. He is also working on some graphic designs for clothing.
Pakeong says his first job after graduating from the university was working with fashion designers and providing support for them in terms of graphic design. Drawing from this experience, Pakeong is now putting his illustrations on a range of merchandise, including clothes, mobile phone cases, stickers and back packs. “Those illustrations were actually created specifically for some songs and slogans of Blademark,” he explains. “All the creations, including the merchandise, music, drawings and graphic designs, are connected. Every time I engage in creating something, I am actually doing an assortment of things. For example, after I write a song, I can create a set of illustrations out of it, which can then be applied to the products.” In terms of music, Pakeong reveals that he has been working on the establishment of a new music company “Sparrow”, with him in-charge of the creative branch. The company’s studio is located at the Village Mall on the third floor of the Edifício Broadway Centre at Rua do Campo, together with Blademark’s rehearsal studio.
