André Pretorius

Who is André Pretorius?

André Fredrik Pretorius was a South African-born Brazilian musician. He was for a short time the guitarist of the short-lived punk rock band Aborto Elétrico.

André was born in Pretoria, one of the capitals of South Africa, on 2 August 1961. His father was the Brazilian ambassador of South Africa, and his mother was of German descent. Pretorius studied at the Escola Americana de Brasília between 1978 and 1980.

Pretorius first met Renato Russo at a bar in Brasília, and would form alongside him and Fê Lemos the band Aborto Elétrico. He would participate of the band's first show, on 11 January 1980, but left the band soon after to fulfill a two-year mandatory military service requirement in South Africa, where he would work for the South African National Intelligence Service. He returned to Brazil in 1982 to contend with his mother's attempted suicide.

Soon after he moved to Washington, D.C., in 1982 he married Virginia "Ginny", a former classmate in Brazil, but separated eventually ending in divorce and lived with his friends, Alex and Ricky Seabra. In 1983 he played music with the Brazilian musician Phillipe Seabra, when Phillipe visited his brothers. Pretorius took classes at American University in 1983. Pretorius moved into the "Flipper House" on Westminster Street N.W. in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C., playing and recording music with bands and friends.