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By: Steve Fallows
Steve Fallows recently caught up with Soulfly frontman Max Cavalera before a packed show at the Academy 3 in Manchester where they talked about Soulfly, Dynamo 1995, Dimebash, Lemmy and much more.
(((o))): Thanks for having us. How is the tour going so far?
Max: It’s brilliant. It’s a great package for us to be on with Lody Kong, Incite and King Parrot. We’re having a ball man. The shows are packed, Glasgow and Ireland were insane, London was killer. Igor joined us onstage and we played ‘Roots’ and ‘Ace Of Spades’, so yeah, it’s been a lot of fun so far. We have five more weeks so it’s a long one, you know, but I love coming here especially in the winter. Not many bands seem to come over here in winter, so the fans seem to be very appreciative and treasure the shows that do come over. I’m excited for the rest of the tour, I think there is 6 more shows left in England, so it’s gonna be cool
(((o))): Your new album is out and a lot of artists automatically say that their latest release is the strongest album yet. Now that you’ve had the material around for a while, where do you think it stands in amongst your catalogue of work?
Max: I still really like it. I think it was the right record for us to make at the time. It had a couple of different things on it such as the biblical stuff, which for me was really interesting to write and record, and I am enjoying continuing to flirt with extreme music with Soulfly. It has been going since Dark Ages I think. Extreme music is my favourite form of music, so I like to get Soulfly going in that direction, even though it probably means we will get smaller and less popular, because this music is not as big, but for me it’s more from the heart and I’m doing something I really love. It’s not always about being big, it’s enjoying what you do.
(((o))): Smaller shows are often more intense too?
Max: They are way more intense and much better fun, and I’m doing something I am really into, instead of being a bigger band, but not really enjoying it. That’s not why metal exists, metal is about passionate people playing the music that speaks to them.
(((o))): Looking through your back catalogue, it’s very strong and unbelievably prolific. Looking back, which albums from your past really stand out for you?
Max: Nailbomb was really interesting. I really liked that. Soufly 1 was an interesting and very difficult album for me to make, but it was also very important for me to get through that. Out of Sepultura’s work, Chaos AD was really interesting. We found something quite new and found our own identity I think on that record. Those are all very important to me. From Soulfly, a lot of people like Prophecy and Dark Ages and I’m a big fan of Archangel and Enslaved. I wanted to do something very extreme and it came out really well. Cavalera Conspiracy’s Inflikted was cool, and Pandemonium was very heavy. I like all of those records.
(((o))): I spoke to Richie [Cavalera, Max’s step son] from Incite last year about playing Dynamo 1995 in front of 120,000 as a young kid. What are your memories from that day?
Max: It was very hectic. We did a show the night before in a club, and it was really good. I remember the bassist was Dave [Edwardson] from Neurosis, and he was so nervous, he played the entire show out of tune. It was a fun day, the biggest Dynamo they ever had. Nailbomb was a massive project. We had 3 drummers and all kids of different guests so it was really difficult to put it all together on the day, but I think we did it well. I’m very proud we did it.
(((o))): Do you ever see a time when you revisit Nailbomb?
Max: I don’t think so. I think Nailbomb is done. Unfortunately, Alex [Newport] doesn’t want to do it again, and I can’t see myself doing it without him. It was perfect time, me and him together. That’s partly why I created Killer Be Killed, something a bit like Nailbomb, but it turned out differently. I might do another project a little heavier than Killer Be Killed, maybe something closer to Nailbomb perhaps, that’s definitely something I can see myself doing.
(((o))): Going back to Dynamo, in 1995 when that Nailbomb show took place, there were no big headliners, but 120,000 fans. In the days of rotation of headliners between Metallica, Maiden, Slipknot et al., can you see a return to those types of shows?
Max: I hope so. That’s what was cool about Dynamo. There were no big names, but there were always a lot of people. People loved the festival and went regardless of who was there. The headliners that year were Biohazard and Dog Eat Dog I think, not really big bands at all. They have a similar festival now in the Czech Republic, that has headliners like Napalm Death. People that wouldn’t normally headline a festival at all, but they can there and I love doing shows like that. 30-40,000 people inside a massive fortress. I really like doing the Downloads and big shows, but there is something special about these smaller festivals. Fans there don’t care that Metallica isn’t playing, they get Napalm Death, Melecesh, Soufly and Machine Head, bands that aren’t huge but do well at festivals.
(((o))): You are on this tour for a few more weeks yet. When do you start planning the next record?
Max: After Europe we head to South America and then the US with Soulfly and then I am looking at playing the Roots album with Igor because it’s 20 years since Roots came out, so we want to do a Cavalera special tour playing the whole of that record. We’ll play a couple of shows in America and see if it works before bringing it to Europe
(((o))): It will work, believe me. That sounds great.
Max: I think so. It should work in theory. After all that I’m going to work on a new Killer Be Killed and a new Cavalera Conspiracy for next year.
(((o))): Do you plan what’s coming next, be it a Cavalera Conspiracy, Soulfly, Killer Be Killed album or do you just write and see what project the music fits best.
Max: Napalm Records is pushing for a new Cavalera Conspiracy record, so I will probably start on that one first, and the new Killer Be Killed after that, because that is a pure side project and we don’t have the usual label pressure involved or anything like that.
(((o))): Touring and recording so much, and having almost the whole family involved in music, do you ever get a chance to have a break form it all?
Max: Little by little. I took a walk earlier, you know. Ten blocks that way, then ten blocks the other. I love this lifestyle so I don’t need a long break. I love touring, I love having the whole family around. There are 16 people on this bus, three bands and we all get along like this big crazy family driving across Europe. I might take a couple of months off at some point, visit some islands and chill out, but I always want to get back to music. Metal is such a big part of my life, I always have to come back to metal.
(((o))): You have an impressive list of collaborators over your career. Is there anyone else that you would still like to work with?
Max: I love the Dave Grohl idea of Probot, and I would love to steal that idea and do something with my favourite singers. People like Mille from Kreator, Tom Warrior from Tryptikon, and then new guys like Full Of Hell, 1349, Anaal Nathrakh and Belphegor. A bit of new and old together would be fantastic, really excited about doing something like that.
(((o))): The big news recently in metal has been what happened at Dimebash. Was racism ever something you encountered?
Max: I always knew it was there. If you look at a lot of Pantera videos, there’s always a confederate flag in the background and the Southern part of America is very influenced by all that, so it wasn’t really a shock to me when Phil did that. What surprised me more was how the Internet took it and how much more power the internet has given the media. The very next hour everyone was talking about it and it got bigger and bigger, and it gotten crazy. You have to be really careful about what you do or say these days. Phil is my friend, I’ve known him a long time, and I have a great relationship with him. I’m not sure what has gone down between him and Robb Flynn, but I’m friends with both guys, so I’m am staying out of it and leaving them to it. It sucks to have that going on. Metal needs to be a community, and help each other out, it doesn’t need shit like this happening.
(((o))): I think the older fans had heard about previous incidents and thought “shit, not again, what’s he done now”, whereas the Internet generation saw this opportunity to let the world know how offended they were by it.
Max: Yeah the Internet is a tool of information, but it multiplies a problem a million times when you have something like that. Eventually everything will go back to normal. I don’t know about Phil’s career, which looks quite bad right now. I don’t know if he can or will bounce back from it, but I hope he does. It makes you wonder how good or bad the Internet is, it blows everything up good or bad.
(((o))): Finally, we can’t leave without asking you about Lemmy. An obvious influence on your music over the years. His passing hit the metal world hard late late year. Do you have a favourite story about him?
Max: We did a couple of tours together, my favourites were the Christmas shows in Germany we did with Sepultura and Morbid Angel. It was always a lot of fun. My favourite story was the first time we met him, in a pub in London. We were on a night off before we played at the Marquee. We went into this bar and there was Lemmy playing this little bandit machine. We were like like kids screaming “Holy shit, there’s fucking Lemmy from Motörhead”, but we didn’t dare approach him. I got drunk enough to go over and talk to him and said “I’m from Brazil, I’m in a metal band and we’re big fans”. He just looked at me and obviously wanted to be left alone, so he just dropped his whole whiskey over my head. And said “Leave me alone kid” as he poured it over me. For me that was the coolest thing ever. I went back over to the other Sepultura guys and told them I had just been baptised. In Lemmy’s head, he just wanted rid of this kid that was annoying the fuck out of him, but for me it was this awesome thing.
