RPM (Brazilian Band)

RPM (Brazilian Band)

RPM ("Revoluções por Minuto", Revolutions per minute in Brazilian portuguese), is a Brazilian Pop Rock band. It was formed by singer/bassist Paulo Ricardo, keyboardist Luiz Schiavon, guitarist Fernando Deluqui and drummer Paulo Antônio "P.A." Pagni.

They played soft Techno-pop with strong, paradoxical, influences of Progressive rock and European Synthpop. Their lyrics were pessimistic, ironic and full of literary (Arthur Rimbaud, Surrealism and books like Christiane F.) and political references, with a strong leftist tone.

The band was very successful in the mid-1980s being considered the Rolling Stones of Brazil; the live album Rádio Pirata ao vivo was the best-selling ever record in Brazil at the time, with more than 2.2 million copies sold. The successful was not just in the selling... RPM starred a phenomenon that was compared with the Beatlemania, with ravenous fans that filled the stadiums, stopped traffic, evaded security and bought all products that were launched with the brand of banda.

After 2 years, the band gave a time, and return in 1988 with the album ¨4 Coiotes¨. The albun had a mix of progressive, jazz and dark sound and sold 250.000 (a good number, but the expectation was many times more). Problems like crises ego and drugs start to increase. After the end of the tour the band doesn´t reached an agreement as would be the sound of the next album, and together with the tension between members caused the end of the end of RPM in 1988.

Paulo Ricardo, however tried to revive the band a few times in the following decades. In the early 90's, he and Deluqui put together a new band under the moniker "Paulo Ricardo & RPM", this time trying a harder rock style to fit the current trends of the time. With no significant commercial success, the project went under.

However, in 2002, the original lineup reunited for a very successful tour and live album "Acústico MTV". The album was a reinterpretation of the successful songs of 80´s and 5 new song, including a Brazilian version of the reality Big Brother Brasil (considered for the world director of Big Brother like the best theme of all countrys). But also split soon after for internal differences and they stopped.

In 2011, Paulo Ricardo post in Twitter a new return of RPM. The band record a new album called Elektra with two CDs (one CD with remixs—RPM was the firs band in Brazil to record a remix in 80` with Louras Geladas). The disk was released in December 2011 with a paradoxical song like an eletronic rock album, where the synthesizer has a fundamental place. The lyrics are mature than 80´s with themes like complex of elektra, the night life and seduction... but with space to protest to our lifestyle, the media influence and even for a romantic ballad. The album is receiving many cheers, include the indication to the best rock album in Latine Grammy.

During 2012 the tour Elektra traveled across all Brasil and some citys of Argentina. To 2013 the band plans to record a DVD of the turnê with successful song of all career, songs of Elektra, and songs like a reinterpretation of "Wish you where here" (Pink Floyd) with a music of Paulo Ricardo.