Douglas Leal and Marian Sarine discuss CICATRIZES DO FUTURO, out May 29 on Neurot Recordings

Transmission 374: Interview with DEAFKIDS

São Paulo duo DEAFKIDS formed in Volta Redonda, Rio de Janeiro in 2010, when Douglas Leal launched the project as a solo recording venture before Marian Sarine joined as a live collaborator. Signed to Neurot Recordings since 2017, the band has built a body of work that runs electronic production, polyrhythmic percussion, and guitar noise through the framework of punk, drawing on Afro-Latin, Brazilian, and African rhythmic traditions without treating any of them as mere texture.

Title: CICATRIZES DO FUTURO
Artist: DEAFKIDS
Release Date: 2026-05-29
Genres: Experimental Music, Industrial Music, Noise Rock
Label: Neurot Recordings

Their previous non-collaborative full-length, Metaprogramação, came out in 2019. A third member, bassist Marcelo dos Santos, departed in 2024, leaving Leal and Sarine to function as a duo, splitting production and instrumentation between them. CICATRIZES DO FUTURO is the record that emerges from that reconfiguration, nine tracks recorded at Estúdio Jukebox in Volta Redonda in 2025, mixed by Andre Leal, Kleber Mariano, and Douglas Leal, and mastered by Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse Studio in London. It is out on Neurot Recordings on 29 May 2026, on LP, CD, and digital.

Featured image: © Leticia Soto

Which music did you listen to before you started creating your own?

I was very young when I started to play and create some stuff, and Nirvana was probably the first thing that made me wanna start doing it!

How did DEAFKIDS start?  How did you meet and decide to start a band together?

I (Douglas) started it as a solo project in 2010, where I recorded everything. And soon after I released the first demo that year, I met Marian and Marcelo, who liked the project and embraced the idea of being my live band. After a while, two of us moved from Volta Redonda (countryside of Rio de Janeiro) and started living together in São Paulo, and the creative process became a bit more collective. I thought it seemed natural that we moved from being a solo project to becoming a band.

Were you all aligned in terms of direction, or did it take a while to agree on where to go?

I think it’s an ongoing process! It’s not always a 100%, but overall, we’ve been quite aligned as a whole, in the desire to live this life in music and the arts, with certain “do-it-yourself” principles and artistic integrity, our musical tastes, direction, etc. Personally, I’ve always liked to go further and push creative ideas to the limit, mainly as a search for a way to sound unique, and sometimes, naturally, that takes some time to align, haha. During a period of our lives, we shared many experiences, as friends and also in musical development, sound and aesthetic research, and that brought us quite close as well. We admire each other and end up influencing each other over time, each in our own way.

How does the current political climate in Brazil inform your work?

I think it’s not just the political climate that undoubtedly influences our work, but also our own psychological and mental state, and that of society in general. And well, all of this influences us simply because it’s our daily reality. Internally, there are many countless issues—economic, social, territorial, humanitarian… and besides that, we carry a target on our backs… Imperialists, zionists, and tech corporations are thirsty for war, and corrupt sellouts are plentiful here. Today we have a respected leader in the presidency, but one of the dirtiest congresses in our history. The near future is a little frightening.

What role does the body play in the way you think about music?

I think that in relation to music, there comes a point where you realize there’s a certain bodily memory that often expresses itself even before a thought (for example, when improvising), and being in that state of “non-thought” in a creative flow is very interesting. For me, it’s kind of my “active meditation,” where I can switch off my thoughts and just explore unfoldings of known and unknown places. In some way, our body is a tool that allows us to enter this “non-mental” state, and from there, open doors to other flows of consciousness. Another point I think about is giving importance to music that grabs you by the body, that makes the body move even before the brain processes certain emotion or what kind of music or melody is happening, that is, a less mental process that allows the body to take the lead in expression, and this can be liberating, cathartic, or simply put you more in touch with yourself and with other people who are on the same frequency around you.

What draws you to such a wide range of global rhythms?

I am very curious and fascinated by music and popular/traditional cultures. Over the years I’ve been very interested in researching, seeking to reach the purest sources of things, and in how alive and ever-changing this force that is music can be, inhabiting all kinds of human emotions and rites. Through the years we saw that we all shared somehow this same interest and fascination. The world is vast, and music is an ancient advanced human technology. In my view, a force like music is completely metaphysical, inhabiting time, space, and consciousness in a totally different way. In Brazil alone, we have a gigantic source of musical rhythms that are directly connected to the African continent, which in turn bridges all the music of the American continent.

How did the band change after Marcelo’s departure?

We continued as a duo, but we followed the sonic path we were already forging in this era, which is much more electronic, with beats and synthesized elements. So this approach has already allowed us to adapt and continue creating and playing live in this new format, which worked very well. In a future era, we’ll see where our sound will continue to transform.

How did “CICATRIZES” come together?

We spent a lot of time composing and recording demos, producing and re-shaping electronics and riffs, creating and shaping polyrhythms, whether in person or remotely. For various reasons it was a process that took several years, so as time went by, we felt the need to just do something sonically as urgent as possible.

What does the album title mean to you?

It means that the future is already cursed by the very forces that pretend to build it.

How did the environment, physical or social, affect the tone of the album?

It’s a mix of frustration and pessimism with a wild desire to live and create confrontational cathartic art in our times.

What outside of music has shaped the way you see the world?

Nature!

How much material was left out, and what guided the final track selection?

Not much was left out, but a lot changed throughout the process. We chose to work on 10 tracks all the way, but in the end we chose to leave one out.

How do you plan to bring this album to the live stage?

We’ve already been playing some songs from the album at our shows. The idea is to bring practically the entire album to a live format, adapted and expanded as we usually do, together with visuals!

What are you working on next?

There’s a lot going on. Now we’re going on the road to promote CICATRIZES DO FUTURO. We’ll have a release show in July at a very special venue in São Paulo, and then we have tour plans for Mexico, Europe, Japan, and South America this year. Plus, there are some soundtracks, a remix version of the album with several artists we admire very much coming soon, and things we can’t talk about yet! We’re very excited!

Photos courtesy of © DEAFKIDS

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others