Welcome to SPIN L.A.!

Hi and welcome to my blog!

My name is Silvia Mendes and for the ones that have never heard of me, I am going to tell you a bit of my story:

I started working in the music industry back in São Paulo, Brazil in the early 90’s and nowadays, I am still involved in this business.

It all started at Espaço Retrô -- a legendary and eclectic club in downtown São Paulo --when I was invited to promote Thursday nights. The project was called ‘Metal Thursdays’ and it had some of the most popular Brazilian hard rock and heavy metal bands playing. From there it was easy to promote other clubs, until I became a full time promoter.

One day I got a phone call from the editor of Dynamite Magazine -- at the time a start up rock publication -- to work for the magazine and for the production company he owned -- Dynamo Productions. At Dynamite I had the opportunity to learn a great deal about the industry and also interview some of the best known musicians and bands in the world like Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from Kiss, Ian Astbury from The Cult, Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi, Robert Plant, Aerosmith, Limp Bizkit, among many others.

I also worked as a public relations for companies like Giannini Guitars (a famous guitar company in Brazil) and Zyldjian working with Kenny Aronoff, Stu Hamm, Dennis Chambers, Rudy Sarzo, Rick Lawson, among others.

In 1999 I decided to move from São Paulo to Los Angeles and I continued writing for Dynamite magazine and Dynamite Online as a US correspondent. The music scene in LA reminds me a lot of the 90’s in São Paulo. Bands playing on Sunset Boulevard and finishing the evening hanging out at the Rainbow or some other spot on the strip, everybody trying to make it. It is interesting that when I lived in Brazil my idea about the music industry in LA was very different from what I found when I moved here: after all is said and done, everybody wants the same thing, even though people speak different languages!

I have many different interests in life, so besides being passionate about music, I went back to school and graduated in Business Economics at UCLA, I just got certified as a yoga instructor and now I am really excited about Spin LA. After almost 10 years in the city of angels, I became a local but without losing the famous ‘Brazilian touch’.

Welcome!

Photos: Luciana Mendes and Kevin Long

Read this article in Portuguese: http://dynamite.terra.com.br/blog/spinla