Place: Catete, Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
Parents: Jose Sergio and Gloria
Brother: Sergio Fiore
Instruments: Vocals, Flute, Harmonica, Guitar, Electric Guitar, Keyboards, Bass.
Role Models: Bryan Ferry, Simon Lebon, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury;
Fav Bands – or musicians: Duran duran, Beatles, Roxy Music, Japan, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Depeche Mode, Rolling Stones, Queen, Kraftwerk, B-52´s, Blondie, George Michael, Peter Gabriel, A-ha, Franz Ferdinand and many more;
Fav Actors: Malcom Macdowell, Roger Moore, Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, Ewan McGregor, Christian Bale, James McAvoy;
Fav Films: Clockwork Orange, Velvet Goldmine, Gone with the Wind, Grease, American Psicho, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Gia, almost all James Bond; Star Wars, Indiana Jones and also 50′s sci-fi, and epics, japanese and chinese, and many more.
Fav Drinks: Sake, white wine, Smirnoff Ice;
Personal addiction: Hazelnut flavoured chocolate (Nutella) and cherry;
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Erika Fiore was born in June 17th, at the Catete, a district inside the city of Rio de Janeiro (coincidently, same neighbourhood where Duran duran played the RCM Rio concert in 2008).
She lived her whole childhood on another district called Penha, not too far away from Catete. As a child Erika and her brother Sergio were always very artistic and curious about evrything. Erika started ballet classes when she was five, but changed to drama group at the age of 9. She finished primary school at Meira Lima School and went to secondary school at NS Brasil School, where she kept her theatre performances and began music classes at 6th grade.
By that time the 12 year old girl got in thouch with rock bands for the first time, influenced by her parents she became obssessed by The Beatles, and decided she would be a pop star. She used to say: “If John Lennon said that the Beatles were more popular then Jesus, then I want to be more popular than the Beatles!”
By the age of 15, her parents moved to Belém, a city at the north of Brazil, 2019.46 miles (3250 km) from Rio de Janeiro. She had to go to a catholic School, where all her education was directed to prepare her to law school, and redirect her attention away from arts. But none of that really worked, in two years she left for a regular school (Sophos School) where she had the opposite environment – music classes and support from the art department to form her first band. By that time she got in touch with music from the 80´s and felt instantly in love with Duran duran, which became a huge influence that made her form her first band, which was called Planet Earth and it was indeed a Duran duran cover band. In the end of 1999 year she got into Publicity College at UNAMA Univeristy, where she met Vinicius Passos, a guitarrist who joined the band, and they changed the name to Ultrachrome. Erika started to write then her own material for the band, and in October 2000 they recorded a cover version for Ordinary World. Until today, that´s Erika´s favourite DD song. The love for Duran duran gave her a nickname, Lebonah (after Duran duran´s lead singer, Simon Lebon), given by her childhood friend, Juliana. Simon was her favourite Duran at that time, and until today she sees him as a role model.
She went to Music college in an attempt to settle her family, that kept imposing that she should have a college degree.
Two years after that, Ultrachrome split and Erika turned her attention and time to many different activities, from acting to costume design and martial arts. “I did a little bit of everything, that makes me a ’superficial encyclopedia of arts and crafts’” she says. At the year of 2007, in September, she decided to go back to study music. In December that same year, she formed the band Duranium with some friends of music school.
That band was important do increase her skills as musician, performer and band leader. She was responsible for planning everything, from the band´s concerts to wardrobe and set list.
Then, in the end of year 2008, her life would turn upside down when she found herself having the chance to meet her heroes, the members of Duran duran – the only one she hasn´t met yet is Roger Taylor. In that occasion, she exchanged a short dialogue with Duran duran´s keyboardist, Nick Rhodes: while her friend Caio kept saying that Nick had the best band in the world, Erika corrected saying ”No, you have the best job in the world.” Nick answered ”I know I do” and Erika finally realised, because of the confidence in his voice, that this was really what she wanted as fate: to become a pop star.
With this “awakening” feeling, she contacted a friend from Rio de Janeiro, Fabi Rodelysen, who played keyboards and asked her to form a band. By then, Duranium was officially over: “There´s no way I could achieve what I wanted with people who don´t take the work seriously. Being in a band, first of all, is hard work, but there´s a lot of people who just don´t see it that way. Since I ended Duranium, I get involved only with people who knows what they are doing.”
A few weeks later, Erika and Fabi met Mila Smith, who played drums for a long time, but as soon as she was invited to join the band, she moved to bass guitar ; that was the birth of the band ÆSIR.
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Why Lebonah?
“My love for Duran duran got me a nickname, Lebonah (because my role model since the Ultrachrome band to the Duranium days was only Simon Lebon), and it was given by a childhood friend of mine, Juliana. Actually, originally the nickname was Lebona, without the h, but I included the h for aesthetic purposes.”
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