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I had been trying to join a band.
I'd see those "Singer wanted" ads published in Blitz
and I'd go to the auditions
but then a lot of them didn't want women in their bands
and this happened with some of my friends' bands!
After having this happening to me two or three times, I said to myself
"If you don't want women in your bands then I'll start my own all female band"
So I got together with my school mates Tânia and Ana
and we started looking for a drummer. This was around 1994.
We wanted to do something different, inspired by the bands we liked
which were bands that none of our friends listened to
inspired by Babes in Toyland, L7, the Riot Girl movement, Bikini Kill...
We made it a point to underline the feminist ideal.
We bought some acoustic guitars, it was all we could afford at the time
We had no idea what we were doing the first time we went to the studio
We hadn't yet decided who would play guitar or bass
So whoever picked up whichever instrument got to play that in the band
Tania picked up the bass guitar so she became the bass player
I picked up the guitar so I became the guitar player
and so did Ana, and that was it!
We didn't think too much about it, it all happened naturally and we went with it.
Two guitars, vocals, and bass.
For a while we were a trio because we didn't have a drummer
and it was only in 1995 that we found Joana
who joined the band after we had tried eight different drummers.
I think we must have auditioned every female drummer in Lisbon!
By the time Joana joined, Ana had already left
so we were looking for another guitar player.
That's when Joana's friend Sílvia joined the band.
This was around 1996...
That's when we did our first concerts
and started playing regularly.
It was also when we recorded our first demo.
I guess we found the word Everground in the dictionary
while looking for words that would make for interesting song titles.
I think that's where the "Everground" name came from.
It meant feet on the ground and head high up in the air.
We thought it was great because we were also a DIY band
And we also did everything ourselves by hand
and it was Elsa's idea to wrap the 7" vinyl in cloth
and it was all sewn by ourselves at home
so every single record was prepared by the band members
and people who bought the record knew it had been made for them.
I think it made it special.
There's many memorable moments like the Cais do Rock concert.
It was great for us because we played for loads of people.
We had never played for so many people before.
I also remember the BAM Festival in Barcelona
which was a great experience for us
and the first time I played outside Portugal
and in such a big festival with so many people.
It was great, but it was also somehow troubled because...
because our moms wouldn't let us go.
And then there's all the Bee Keeper festivals.
The ones at the Ritz Club...
What an amazing atmosphere
the place was always packed with people
and packed with bands.
There were tons of bands at the time.
Those memories bring a smile to my face.
During a Great Lesbian Show concert
we met Adolfo from Mão Morta
and I gave him our demo-tape.
He really liked it, so he passed it on to his manager
who passed it on to their record label.
He helped a lot by promoting our band
and we were in talks with their record label to record an album
and we had a manager... Things were finally happening
and when everything seemed to be coming together...
The rest of the band got a bit scared of...
...so much attention and so many things happening.
They thought we still had a lot of work to do
and wanted to spend more time in the studio
but not me, I wanted to move on.
I wanted to go on tour, make records...
I was ready for it!
The rest of the band wasn't, but...
It's understandable, they were younger than me.
So we decided to break up the band by the end of 1997.