Doomed Confessionary: Douglas Labigalini (Red Mess)

Photos by Oyèmi Hessou

Red Mess is an alternative/grunge/stoner rock trio based in Berlin, Germany.

Red Mess started in 2013 in Londrina, Brazil. Ten years after the band’s founding, singer and bassist Lucas Klepa, guitarist Thiago Franzim, and drummer Douglas Labigalini made their way to Berlin together, which certainly strengthens their bond. And you can feel and hear this community on the new album. The extremely likeable trio combines the raw sounds of 90s grunge with the heaviness of stoner rock and a great desire to experiment. Their distinctive, distinctive voice remains recognizable, haunting and full of emotion, giving the songs soul and recognizability. But the band’s musical finesse, skill, and energy are also impressive.

The trio has built a multifaceted network, established themselves in the local scene, and quickly become more than an insider tip. Red Mess are a charismatic, captivating, and sweat-inducing live act, and with their third album »Hi-Tech Starvation«, they take their strengths to a new level, breathing fresh air into the dusty desert rock scene. »Hi-Tech Starvation« was just released on August 1st, 2025 via Noisolution.

Can you please say a few words about your band?
Sure! Rock band, formed in 2014 in the city of Londrina, Brazil. We started playing together when we were kids, I’ve met Thiago because he lived in the same building as I lived. We met Lucas after one or two years playing together (not Red Mess at the time) and then we started Red Mess. Since then it is kinda the same: sharing songs between each other, playing live as much as we can and recording stuff we write. At the end of 2022 we decided to move abroad and try to live in Berlin, Germany. Our city has a huge amount of good musicians, but for our kind of sound we felt that we could risk more, trying to do the same but now in a place that concentrates more people that could relate to our music specifically.

What was the biggest challenge for the band?
Move abroad and start a new life. New environment, different language from ours and of course, trying to fit somehow into the already on going music scene in Europe. We are still trying, step by step.

What can you be most proud of so far?
Probably this last record. It’s the first one that we had the possibility of recording outside Brazil and releasing it through a label that would press our LPs. It was always a dream for us to have our ideas pressed on a vinyl, to hold this big LP cover and look at it. Can be simple, but it’s meaningful for us. Another thing is to have the chance to play at Festivals here in Europe – Rotormania, for example – watch and play with bands that we always appreciate back in Brazil, meet people from the scene, you know? This kind of stuff that we go back and see that we couldn’t predict we would be here living this stuff, specially when we were kids listening to Sabbath, Sleep, Kyuss or Queens Of The Stone Age, dreaming with something like that.

What was your biggest regret?
Hmmmm… I don’t know if we have one, to be honest. I think we always tried to do everything we could, even if it didn’t work out. We always had the mentality of “but, we have the NO already…why not try it?”. The biggest regret would be NOT TRYING. It’s a thing that we keep going, that keeps you alive and fresh. One thing that comes to my mind is to not have pressed »Breathtaker« on vinyl, but you know, money-wise it was impossible for us, so we spent a long time on the road here without a proper vinyl and people here love them, so it was a bummer not have it available in our merch stand.

What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
I will speak for myself right now, but I think it was our concert at Rotormania and Gockelscream this year. I loved the energy of the festival, kinda small but with a lot of nice people, everyone there with the same reason that was to listen to live music. Real stuff. It reminded me of small festivals back in Brazil that we used to attend, so it brought me some comfort. It was a good feeling playing there. From now on, playing or not, I wanna be part of that because it disconnects you from the Hi Tech world we live in nowadays. Playing at squats here in Berlin is also on this list, people go crazy in these places and I love it because they are there for the live music as well. No cellphones, no internet, no shit. Just loud music and dancing.

What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
Connections. How connections, being at concerts, talking to people, showing your stuff if you have the chance can bring you to places. This can be applied in any music scene or even any job. But you know, it’s just interesting how the butterfly effect affects our lives. And I’m not saying connections made of a forced, plastic behaviour in a sense of “We need to do networking”. I’m talking more about how natural connections sometimes help a lot because you discover that there are still nice people that really want to help and support music in general.

What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Currently I’m listening to a lot of Osees, Ty Segall, Bill Withers and Beatles. I’m like…Eating these bands albums as my morning cereal everyday.

What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Be humble – always!!! – and go slow at your own pace but steady. Keep doing, down to earth, with an open mind ready to learn from people. Listen more than talk, sometimes.

What are your guilty pleasures?
Sometimes watching reality shows with my fiancé – specially The Kardashians. I’m always like “what is that?” then stop what I’m doing and when I see I’m already watching the whole episode. Freaks me out sometimes, man. Specially if I’m stoned, at some point I’m always like “What a fuck is this, why are they spending SO MUCH money ON THAT, that’s ridiculous”, you know… But I can say that it’s a guilty pleasure because I keep watching it when my fiancé watches. It’s a “turn it off your mind” moment sometimes. Once we’ve tried to watch The Osbournes, but it was hard as fuck for us to understand what Ozzy was saying without subtitles, so I gave up after a couple of episodes.

Can you say something more about the current music scene in Berlin?
The current music scene in Berlin is great. A lot of different kinds of bands and artists from different niches and backgrounds. Specifically from the stoner/doom scene there are awesome bands with great concerts. There are festivals and events throughout the year that help to maintain the scene alive. Germany in general seems to have a strong scene for this genre and we love it.

Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
Our schedule for the rest of the year is something like that:
05.09 Cottbus at Fango
06.09 Weiler zum Stein at Stollen
18.09 Bielefeld at Forum with Daily Thompson
19.09 Siegen at Vortex Surfer with Meatbodies
02.10 Berlin at Schokoladen with MYMO
04.10 Bielefeld at ExtraBlues Bar
31.10 or 01.11 – TBA

What are your plans for the future as a band?
Play live as much as we can. Touring, touring and more touring. Nothing else more than that until now.

How can people best support your band?
Going to concerts, if you can. Buying merch through our merch stand or online through Noisolution‘s shop. Supporting us through Bandcamp is always helpful also.

Do you have any message for your listeners?
Pretty sure to say Thank you. We just released our third album called »Hi-Tech Starvation« and it’s really lovely to see people reacting to it and supporting our work in a sincere way. This for sure gives us more and more energy to keep doing. We would like to say thank you to you too, Bojan. People like you are the ones that keep all of this still going. Thanks for inviting us to the Confessionary, we hope to see you personally at a concert someday.

Links:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well