METAL PULP AND PAPER
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
MAX CAVALERA
©picture courtesy of soulfly.com
Metal Pulp And Paper: You've been in the music industry for a very long time. You started the original Sepultura in 1984. What would you tell your future self-2016 the do’s and don'ts, any advice you'd want to give?
Max Cavalera: Man I mean it's kinda like even mistakes are part of it. You know it's like a learning experience you know, so I think I don't regret anything. I think it was all meant to be. It's definitely not as I planned because I thought I was going to stay with Sepultura forever. It was my first band, but that wasn't the case. Regardless of that, it was a blast to end up being able to create Soulfly, and that opened up avenues for stuff like Cavalera Conspiracy and Killer Be Killed and other stuff that I do. So not much. You just got to roll with it the best you can. Even with the technologies about the same with the internet and not selling CDs and all that shit everybody goes through you know. It's like you have to roll with it.
MPAP: You've worked with quite a few musicians from Tom from Slayer, Burton from Fear Factory, Jello Biafra, even Sean Lennon. Who has been your favorite?
MC: Well I don't really have a favorite.
MPAP: Or somebody that it was like you walked away, and you just went, "Wow this is the shit"
MC: There's been a couple of those. Tom Araya's one of them because I was a big Slayer fan, and I thought it was really cool because back in the day Sepultura and Slayer had a little few riff going, and there was some shit talking back and forth. It bummed me out because I was a big Slayer fan. So when I had a chance to do "Terrorist" with Tom, for me it was killer because for two reasons. For one because, one I respect him as an artist and I wanted to work with him. Second, because he put all that shit behind. All the fighting and all that bullshit, and we're just good friends. We ended up touring with Slayer. He took us on tour in somewhere in the end of 2000 or something. So that's one of my favorite ones.
Sean Lennon I really liked that because it was very different, and we talked about our dads. It was a very kind of intimate subject you know. Some of my favorite ones are more obscure ones. "Blood Fire War Hate", with David Vincent, a big Morbid Visions fan and "World Scum" with Travis from Cattle Decapitation. I loved that. I loved how that turned out. And even in the new album Sodomites with Todd from Nails. Nails is one of my favorite bands.
So I like all of them. The ones with Chino is cool with the Deftones. I love Chino. And the beginning of Soulfly is all kind of connected to the Deftones you know. From just Sepultura days of course, you can't forget Jello Biafra, "Biotech Is Godzilla" great lyrics.
MPAP: Right. I was just going to say that.
MC: Then of course on Roots, Mike Patton on "Look Away" with Jon from Korn. Those are some of my favorite ones.
MPAP: Who is somebody you want to work with but you haven't got a chance to yet?
MC: There's a couple of famous guys that are on my bucket list like Ozzy, James Hetfield, Phil Anselmo you know. Then of course I have a lot of-
MPAP: Godflesh at all?
MC: Yeah, Justin would be great. That's actually a really cool idea. Then there's some my favorites, some of the thrash guys I really like, Mille from Kreator, Schmier from Destruction. There's also Jeff from Carcass, so many cool people still there. And I like a lot of the new bands too. I'm always looking forward to new stuff. I've been listening to a lot of it lately. Abbath, I like that a lot. I've been listening to a lot of French death metal. Blood Red Throne from Norway. From France, Benighted. So I might do something with these young new guys also, Full Of Hell.
MPAP: That's cool.
MC: My music, my metal world is really big. I don't have divisions like a lot of people who just have divisions. I think that's stupid. Even with the Death Core, because I like stuff like The Acacia Strain, Suicide Silence. I don't divide it like them. They don't listen to Thrash; they only listen to Death Core. That's a small mind, man.
Of course my favorite stuff is metal especially like extreme metal. Some of my favorite stuff is Hate Eternal and Suffocation and stuff like that. I've been getting into a lot of Black metal lately, a lot of Watain. It's just great. Dark Throne. It's like I kind of like didn't listen to it when it came out but now I go back and listen to those records. That's some really good shit. Urgehal stuff like that. It's like cool stuff. It's cool because they cover some of my shit. Urgehal did "Funeral Rites", they did a great version of "Funeral Rites". I was so blown away, it sounds amazing.
MPAP: Yeah?
MC: It made me realize that Morbid Visions is actually a cool album. I never looked at that being a cool album, but now that other bands cover stuff from that album, I'm thinking actually there's some cool shit even back then. Even as kids we were writing some interesting stuff.
MPAP: You definitely want to give your fans the music, Sepultura was at least an album out every 2 years, Soulfly is kind of the same. Then you have your little side bands. What do you think of bands that take longer than that? I mean like Metallica has taken over 8 years to put something out. Do you think they're depriving their fans of something? Or it's Metallica, it's no big deal, they do what they want?
MC: Well I would just like Metallica just to do something good.
MPAP: I think we all do. They're getting better. (Both laughing)
MC: The last record was all right. You see it’s not Ride The Lightning, or Master Of Puppets. We just whether we would like to see it. I don't know if they can really do that again. It sounds like it's kind of hard to get back to that time. They need Cliff Burton to do that. I can't wait 8 years, it would kill me if I wait 8 years to put an album out.
MPAP: I don't think a lot of your fans want to wait that long either.
MC: So for me I like to keep it rolling. I'm already thinking of the new Killer Be Killed record for next year. So I’m always busy. I like to stay busy, I like to stay active.
MPAP: What is Max's goals, Soulfly's goals for 2017?
MC: Well a lot of touring. This tour is over in a week. And then I actually have a little break which I'm going to go home and write some riffs for Killer Be Killed. Then I pick up again with Igor and we do the Roots Anniversary Tour, 20 years of Roots. That's going to go all the way to December, all through Christmas.
MPAP: I hope you come back to Portland to do that.
MC: I think so. I think so. I think it looks like we're going to do the whole US like everywhere. And then hopefully beginning of next year we're going to do another US run kind of like this one. We packaged Suffocation and hopefully we get to tour with some of the bands I like to, like Full Of Hell or Nails.
MPAP: Nails would be a good one.
MC: That would be cool. Hopefully we can put some kind of package like this, Mike's really into Revocation. So maybe we get to go out with those guys too, that would be cool, or Dying Fetus or something like that would be kind of cool. Goatwhore, there's a lot of cool bands out there, man, those packages. I think it works. This tour is living proof that these packages work especially this one, with Lody Kong, Abnormality, Battle Cross, Suffocation, Soulfly. It's a lot of metal. The price you pay for the ticket is fucking worth it.
MPAP: And it's going to get hot and sweaty inside there. (Referring to the small bar/venue Dante’s that Soulfly was playing later that night.)
MC: Yes, it’s gonna get hot, but it's worth it, man, because you get a lot of metal for the $20 that you pay for the ticket. At least I think that's what the fans want, they want these kind of packages and we're going to continue doing them next year. That's actually my idea of mine, hopefully I can do it is do a mini festival because I'm so frustrated of never being able to do Mayhem. I've never been invited for Mayhem my whole life. The summer is long. None of those ever contacted me and never even consider inviting me, so I say fuck you all. I'm doing my own festival. Kind of got a little Max fest and having my favorite bands play. I look forward to that. The Roots thing is I think Fear Factory is opening up. That's going to be killer.
MPAP: They were just here just last week.
MC: I think we're going to try to get one more band to go with that. That's going to be awesome. Then I would love to a little festival thing. For me it would have been really cool. I like the young bands and I like to support them. It would have been a fuck you to Mayhem and all these other festivals. Like we can just do on our own, fuck you all. We don't need you.
MPAP: That's cool. Thank you very much. Killer to meet you and interview you.
Max Cavalera: Man I mean it's kinda like even mistakes are part of it. You know it's like a learning experience you know, so I think I don't regret anything. I think it was all meant to be. It's definitely not as I planned because I thought I was going to stay with Sepultura forever. It was my first band, but that wasn't the case. Regardless of that, it was a blast to end up being able to create Soulfly, and that opened up avenues for stuff like Cavalera Conspiracy and Killer Be Killed and other stuff that I do. So not much. You just got to roll with it the best you can. Even with the technologies about the same with the internet and not selling CDs and all that shit everybody goes through you know. It's like you have to roll with it.
MPAP: You've worked with quite a few musicians from Tom from Slayer, Burton from Fear Factory, Jello Biafra, even Sean Lennon. Who has been your favorite?
MC: Well I don't really have a favorite.
MPAP: Or somebody that it was like you walked away, and you just went, "Wow this is the shit"
MC: There's been a couple of those. Tom Araya's one of them because I was a big Slayer fan, and I thought it was really cool because back in the day Sepultura and Slayer had a little few riff going, and there was some shit talking back and forth. It bummed me out because I was a big Slayer fan. So when I had a chance to do "Terrorist" with Tom, for me it was killer because for two reasons. For one because, one I respect him as an artist and I wanted to work with him. Second, because he put all that shit behind. All the fighting and all that bullshit, and we're just good friends. We ended up touring with Slayer. He took us on tour in somewhere in the end of 2000 or something. So that's one of my favorite ones.
Sean Lennon I really liked that because it was very different, and we talked about our dads. It was a very kind of intimate subject you know. Some of my favorite ones are more obscure ones. "Blood Fire War Hate", with David Vincent, a big Morbid Visions fan and "World Scum" with Travis from Cattle Decapitation. I loved that. I loved how that turned out. And even in the new album Sodomites with Todd from Nails. Nails is one of my favorite bands.
So I like all of them. The ones with Chino is cool with the Deftones. I love Chino. And the beginning of Soulfly is all kind of connected to the Deftones you know. From just Sepultura days of course, you can't forget Jello Biafra, "Biotech Is Godzilla" great lyrics.
MPAP: Right. I was just going to say that.
MC: Then of course on Roots, Mike Patton on "Look Away" with Jon from Korn. Those are some of my favorite ones.
MPAP: Who is somebody you want to work with but you haven't got a chance to yet?
MC: There's a couple of famous guys that are on my bucket list like Ozzy, James Hetfield, Phil Anselmo you know. Then of course I have a lot of-
MPAP: Godflesh at all?
MC: Yeah, Justin would be great. That's actually a really cool idea. Then there's some my favorites, some of the thrash guys I really like, Mille from Kreator, Schmier from Destruction. There's also Jeff from Carcass, so many cool people still there. And I like a lot of the new bands too. I'm always looking forward to new stuff. I've been listening to a lot of it lately. Abbath, I like that a lot. I've been listening to a lot of French death metal. Blood Red Throne from Norway. From France, Benighted. So I might do something with these young new guys also, Full Of Hell.
MPAP: That's cool.
MC: My music, my metal world is really big. I don't have divisions like a lot of people who just have divisions. I think that's stupid. Even with the Death Core, because I like stuff like The Acacia Strain, Suicide Silence. I don't divide it like them. They don't listen to Thrash; they only listen to Death Core. That's a small mind, man.
Of course my favorite stuff is metal especially like extreme metal. Some of my favorite stuff is Hate Eternal and Suffocation and stuff like that. I've been getting into a lot of Black metal lately, a lot of Watain. It's just great. Dark Throne. It's like I kind of like didn't listen to it when it came out but now I go back and listen to those records. That's some really good shit. Urgehal stuff like that. It's like cool stuff. It's cool because they cover some of my shit. Urgehal did "Funeral Rites", they did a great version of "Funeral Rites". I was so blown away, it sounds amazing.
MPAP: Yeah?
MC: It made me realize that Morbid Visions is actually a cool album. I never looked at that being a cool album, but now that other bands cover stuff from that album, I'm thinking actually there's some cool shit even back then. Even as kids we were writing some interesting stuff.
MPAP: You definitely want to give your fans the music, Sepultura was at least an album out every 2 years, Soulfly is kind of the same. Then you have your little side bands. What do you think of bands that take longer than that? I mean like Metallica has taken over 8 years to put something out. Do you think they're depriving their fans of something? Or it's Metallica, it's no big deal, they do what they want?
MC: Well I would just like Metallica just to do something good.
MPAP: I think we all do. They're getting better. (Both laughing)
MC: The last record was all right. You see it’s not Ride The Lightning, or Master Of Puppets. We just whether we would like to see it. I don't know if they can really do that again. It sounds like it's kind of hard to get back to that time. They need Cliff Burton to do that. I can't wait 8 years, it would kill me if I wait 8 years to put an album out.
MPAP: I don't think a lot of your fans want to wait that long either.
MC: So for me I like to keep it rolling. I'm already thinking of the new Killer Be Killed record for next year. So I’m always busy. I like to stay busy, I like to stay active.
MPAP: What is Max's goals, Soulfly's goals for 2017?
MC: Well a lot of touring. This tour is over in a week. And then I actually have a little break which I'm going to go home and write some riffs for Killer Be Killed. Then I pick up again with Igor and we do the Roots Anniversary Tour, 20 years of Roots. That's going to go all the way to December, all through Christmas.
MPAP: I hope you come back to Portland to do that.
MC: I think so. I think so. I think it looks like we're going to do the whole US like everywhere. And then hopefully beginning of next year we're going to do another US run kind of like this one. We packaged Suffocation and hopefully we get to tour with some of the bands I like to, like Full Of Hell or Nails.
MPAP: Nails would be a good one.
MC: That would be cool. Hopefully we can put some kind of package like this, Mike's really into Revocation. So maybe we get to go out with those guys too, that would be cool, or Dying Fetus or something like that would be kind of cool. Goatwhore, there's a lot of cool bands out there, man, those packages. I think it works. This tour is living proof that these packages work especially this one, with Lody Kong, Abnormality, Battle Cross, Suffocation, Soulfly. It's a lot of metal. The price you pay for the ticket is fucking worth it.
MPAP: And it's going to get hot and sweaty inside there. (Referring to the small bar/venue Dante’s that Soulfly was playing later that night.)
MC: Yes, it’s gonna get hot, but it's worth it, man, because you get a lot of metal for the $20 that you pay for the ticket. At least I think that's what the fans want, they want these kind of packages and we're going to continue doing them next year. That's actually my idea of mine, hopefully I can do it is do a mini festival because I'm so frustrated of never being able to do Mayhem. I've never been invited for Mayhem my whole life. The summer is long. None of those ever contacted me and never even consider inviting me, so I say fuck you all. I'm doing my own festival. Kind of got a little Max fest and having my favorite bands play. I look forward to that. The Roots thing is I think Fear Factory is opening up. That's going to be killer.
MPAP: They were just here just last week.
MC: I think we're going to try to get one more band to go with that. That's going to be awesome. Then I would love to a little festival thing. For me it would have been really cool. I like the young bands and I like to support them. It would have been a fuck you to Mayhem and all these other festivals. Like we can just do on our own, fuck you all. We don't need you.
MPAP: That's cool. Thank you very much. Killer to meet you and interview you.
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