In these times of isolation, where travelling has become a virtual impossibility, let BALG at least take your ears and mind where your bodies can’t go! Today we’re in Curitiba in the south of Brazil in full summer, where I talk to Rodrigo Ponce of Brazilian melodic hardcore band Colligere. We go deep on the feeling of empowerment that playing in a hardcore band, releasing records and touring the world gave us when we were in our early twenties, and how that has or hasn’t changed in almost twenty years, and the challenge of translating these feelings into our current lives and making something good of it. Rodrigo also talks about growing up on, rejecting and rediscovering traditional Brazilian music, why straight edge got so big in Brazil and how Colligere broke up in 2008 at the height of their success and now are back together recording a new album. Working as a staffer for a regional politician, Rodrigo also gives some insight about the political upheaval in the past years in Brazil, a country that has transformed from the economic wunderkind under socialist rule to a reactionary ultra-right-wing government.