The trigger for a lifelong love of music was my first sight of the album cover for Iron Maiden. I’m Brazilian so I didn’t speak in English, but I could translate, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and it made me wonder even more. What is this? I listened to it with my friend and we tried to understand the lyrics, but this was impossible because my friend doesn’t speak English too.
When I take the record home I tried to hide it in my dad’s collection. I put it in the middle where he would not see it. I want to put it in backwards in case he find it, but the image on the back was worse than the front. One day, while looking for Paul Simon he sees the record and he ask me, what is this, how can you explain this cover? I really liked this image and music, but how can I explain this to my dad if I can’t understand the songs? My friends older brother listened to Iron Maiden so I asked him, what is this music? He said, “It doesn’t matter …you are only a child…this is heavy metal, and you don’t even speak English so you will never understand”. At this moment I remember my daddy’s words. “Hey Henri, never give up for your dreams.” So I ask my parents to take English classes. By the end of a year I could understand my favorite song “Infinite Dreams”. Then I figure out that it depends on your feelings and how each person translate the lyrics for what the song means. When my friends brother told me that I would never understand the lyrics, he really didn’t understand the power of music.
Iron Maiden inspired me to learn English and make me realize that when I only listen to the music I miss most of the song. Now I pass this to my daughter. She is starting to listen to Megadeath and I tell her, can you imagine if you pay attention in your classes? Someday you will understand the lyrics and you can sing the song in the right way and understand the meaning behind it.
[Henri created the Instagram profile for @metalnphilosiphy in 2018. But he didn’t really share anything because of the language barrier. Then when the translate feature was introduced he realized that he didn’t have an excuse anymore and it was time to share his passion with rock music. He explains, “Many of my friends and family in Brazil don’t have the opportunity to learn English, so I have the idea to post the songs so we can all understand the lyrics. I challenged myself to post some positive lyrics everyday. Then people start a conversation with me through direct message. I realized, the worst problem during the virus is our mental health. And this is something I could do to help everyone. We all love music, it’s in our soul!”]
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