KIKO LOUREIRO: 'It's Much Easier To Create A 10-Minute Song With 20 Parts Than To Create A Great Pop Song'

In a recent interview with Christine Greyson, Brazilian guitarist Kiko Loureiro, best known for his work with MEGADETH and ANGRA, was asked about how he manages to stay focused on composing the kind of music he wants to write without worrying about what's going to commercially work later. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I don't think about if the song is gonna work commercially, but composers that think commercially, I believe that it's natural as well. I believe that [someone] like Bruno Mars, [who is] a great composer and it's super commercial, I remember watching an interview or something that he grew up seeing Michael Jackson as his reference. If you grew up seeing Paul McCartney or Michael Jackson or Stevie Wonder, and then you're already kind of shaping your taste, what you think is beautiful.

"Being direct and simple is not a sign of being bad. Actually, it's a sign of being great. It's much easier to create a 10-minute song with 20 parts than to create a great pop song. It's much easier. You just add stuff, just whatever, like pasta with a lot of veggies, just put whatever, put stuff — you know, pasta with something.

"So what I do is I do what I feel like at the moment," he explained. "And then I try to make it nice inside the style that I like. But I think that the people that are into this, they're not obeying like rules of the… I don't believe. Some people might be, but the big artists that they stay forever, that's who they are. They just have this huge talent to say something that connects to a lot of people. It's, like, how can you put some musically complex things, but the people just listen and it flows naturally. It's not simple. It's complex. But it touches people.

"That's the most difficult thing in music, in art, to do something really deep with a lot of elements that a musician can go and dig and find more different chords, more different melodies," Kiko added. "BEATLES have that, Steve Wonder has that, Elton John has that. The same goes for the classical composers. So that's what I try to think when I play. But then, in the end, it's a bunch of notes in the guitar. But that's the thought behind [it], the process behind [it], the references. [it has] nothing to do with capitalism or record labels. Somehow we have to go along with those things, because you have to upload to Spotify, because we need to make the Spotify owners and shareholders, they can have a new yacht. We have to help them. I'm very happy. I don't need a yacht. I live in Finland. So the sea is frozen for half of the year. So, yeah, just give me more guitars and that's it. I'm happy."

Kiko's latest solo album, "Theory Of Mind", was released in November.

In November 2023, Kiko announced his decision to "extend" his absence from MEGADETH's touring activities, explaining that he didn't want to "hinder any of the band's plans or the hard work of all the incredible people involved in the tour."

Kiko revealed in September 2023 that he would sit out the next leg of MEGADETH's "Crush The World" tour in order to stay home with his children back in Finland.

One day after Kiko's announcement that he was "extending" his absence from MEGADETH's touring activities, band leader Dave Mustaine released a statement in which he said that he loves Loureiro and respects and fully supports Kiko's decision. He described Kiko as "a top-notch professional, a maestro" and thanked the guitarist "for his dedication and hard work these past nine years, helping us to achieve a Grammy on 'Dystopia' and the additional awards we have received on this latest record 'The Sick... The Dying...And The Dead'." Mustaine added: "I could not have done this without Kiko Loureiro."

MEGADETH played its first concert with Kiko's replacement, Teemu Mäntysaari on September 6, 2023 at Revel in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The 37-year-old Mäntysaari was born in Tampere, Finland and began playing guitar at the age of 12. In 2004, he joined the band WINTERSUN. He has also been a member of SMACKBOUND since 2015.

Loureiro officially joined MEGADETH in April 2015, about five months after Chris Broderick's exit from the group.