Interview: Sepuktura
I always say it's the present moment, that's just the best feeling, to be here now and have this relationship with the past. It's great. It's a freedom.
Brazilian metal giants Sepultura have had a long and illustrious career since their inception back in 1984. One that has taken them all over the globe and beyond their wildest dreams as one of the biggest metal bands on the planet. From their deathly beginnings with Morbid Visions and Schizophrenia to the undisputed thrash classics Beneath The Remains and Arise. From the heavy eclecticism and grooves of breakout albums Chaos AD and Roots (the latter of which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year) to their rebirth with Against and Nation, and their continuous progressive metal onslaught with Roorback, Dante XXI, A-Lex, Kairos, The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart and Machine Messiah, through to their final studio album Quadra, and with countless insane live shows along the way, it’s been a wild journey full of ups and downs for Sepultura but no matter the downsides they have always shown resilience with their music.
With the band announcing their farewell and now on the last legs of their final ever tour, with a final show in Brazil in November planned, they have just brought out their final release, The Cloud Of Unknowing EP, bringing the curtain on their music down triumphantly. Gavin Brown had the pleasure of talking to Sepultura guitarist Andreas Kisser whilst he was on the road about the EP and final tour as well as discussing the grand history of Sepultura, one of the best metal bands to ever do it.
E&D: Sepultura’s new and sadly, final, EP The Cloud Of Unknowing has just been released. Have you been pleased with the reception it’s had so far?
Andreas: Yeah, very much. It’s been a very positive reaction. Most of the fans didn’t have any idea we were working on something new. It was great to put out something on our very last year on this farewell run. We’ve been doing this for three years. We’ve been to so many new places, although the EP wasn’t planned when we announced the farewell tour. It came to be because of Grayson (Nekrutman)’s new input, experiences and ideas. It’s great that we managed to do the EP in the middle of the run of the road with not too much pressure, just really focusing on the music. It’s great to feel that response. We are already playing two new songs live, and live it’s even better. It’s amazing!
E&D: Do you feel like you’re going out on a real high with this release?
Andreas: I hope so. It came out very spontaneous. We never really worked an album, because, as I said, it wasn’t planned. We decided, in the last minute. Let’s do it. We were in Miami. We left the 70,000 Tons Of Metal cruise, and spent 10 days in the studio, and we worked there, just us, no release date. We didn’t have a name. We just worked everything there. ‘Sacred Books’ the third song, we did entirely in the studio, a jam made from scratch. So it’s really an interesting process, and I think it’s something that, of course, have all the elements that are used in history, but also a new atmosphere, especially with Grayson, together with us
E&D: You are currently on the US leg of your Celebrating Life Through Death final tour with Exodus and Biohazard. How’s the how’s the tour going?
Andreas: It’s been amazing, man! We are playing cities that we never played before, like Louisville, Nashville and Greensboro, places that we don’t usually do when we tour the US, and it’s great to have this opportunity now, on this farewell year that we have this chance to come to these places. It’s amazing, and has it been difficult, because obviously, you can’t play everywhere you’d like you to say goodbye. There’s so many places we like to go, but then we’re never gonna stop! So we have to draw a line, We’re doing this North American tour. We’re doing the European festivals, the last show in Dublin in Ireland, and then we do Rock In Rio in Brazil. Then our very last show in São Paulo in November, that’s the plan.
E&D: Was it always the plan to finish in Brazil?
Andreas: Yeah, definitely.
E&D: Does it feel bittersweet that these will be your last tours, or is it more like a celebration of Sepultura?
Andreas: It’s a complete celebration, man, It’s a well planned situation. Two years before the announcement, we were really talking about possibilities and the farewell idea and building everything around it, and it gave us so many new opportunities, for instance, to do the EP, to go to Iceland for the first time, or to play a festival like Lollapalooza in Brazil, which is not a metal festival. You know, we open new possibilities, and it’s a great atmosphere. We’re having a great time on the road, and we chose to do this, so there’s no reason to be sad. Of course it’s emotional, to remember and to see old friends, and especially to see people that never seen Sepultura before. It’s a great feeling that we have this chance to play for them and they have the chance to see us. It’s very positive.
E&D: Had it been a challenge doing a set list that all encompass the whole history of Sepultura?
Andreas: Definitely, it is always a challenge to play new stuff, but we’re using our sound checks to rehearse, and to practice to, these new songs. We are playing ‘The Place’ and ‘Beyond The Dream’ and we’re looking to introduce ‘All Souls Rising’ soon. I think it will fit very well with the setlist that we have, portraying the whole history of the band.
E&D: Have you still got plans to do a live documentation of this final tour?
Andreas: Yeah, of course. We are recording every show. The idea is really to put out 40 songs recorded in 40 different cities around the world. This is a project for next year. We are working on it, and this is something we’re gonna really stop after we leave the stage, to really focus on that and do something really special for the fans, with a lot of info and photos and the best sound that we can deliver.
E&D: Will you be recording the final ever show?
Andreas: Oh, yeah, definitely. It’s really to broadcast to people who don’t have the chance to come down to Brazil, to have the chance to participate as well on this celebration.
E&D: Going back over the years, what have been some of the tours that you’ve done that have been your favorites? There’s been many to choose from!
Andreas: Dude, yeah, so many. But thankfully, it’s great to look back and see so many tours where we play with our idols, for instance, Black Sabbath, or Ozzy, Metallica, Slayer. You know, all those bands that really influenced Sepultura and to inspire new bands as well to do the same, to pick up an instrument and form a band. Touring is where everything happens. I think as a musician, it has to be on stage, that interaction, and that’s where we grow. That’s where we get better, and we perform better, and we have that live interaction. It’s hard to say. I always say it’s the present moment, that’s just the best feeling, to be here now and have this relationship with the past. It’s great. It’s a freedom. So this tour probably is the best now because we are enjoying so much.
E&D: Having played so many memorable festivals from Rock In Rio to Donington and the very first Ozzfest. Do you ever look back and think about how many cool shows like this you’veplayed?
Andreas: Yeah, this is great. The festivals are really a place that you grow up fast, to face a crowd that is not your crowd only. Of course, you have the fans, but you have a variety of fans from other bands that have never seen or never heard, Sepultura, and it’s always a challenge. Also, the backstage, man, it’s like Disneyland! Whenyou sit down and you have your idols eating the catering with you, or you have the chance to talk to them and people from the business that you meet backstage at festivals, it’s an amazing feeling and a really special moment when you are in a situation like that.
E&D: How does it feel for Sepultura having influenced so many bands over the years?
Andreas: Well, I think it feels that we did something right, that really touched people in a sense, that inspired them to do something and that’s a great feeling for any artist that you express yourself, and somehow that expression will touch people in many different ways. It’s amazing to feel that and to hear that bands that mention Sepultura or a certain album or a certain concert or an interview, that inspire people to follow the path to be an artist. It was really a privilege to do what you love and to support yourself with that.
E&D: What do you feel the legacy of Sepultura is always going to be?
Andreas: Each one of us will have our own legacy related to the band. It’s really hard to define, but overall, I think that anything is possible if you believe and you prepare yourself, if you study, if you open your ears, and you understand differences that will make you more creative. This is the legacy that anything is possible regardless where you come from. We came from Brazil in the 80s. That was a very difficult time for to build a band, because of the mindset and the lack of equipment and technology and stuff, but we did it because we we had the passion for it and we believed in ourselves. I think that’s the legacy. It doesn’t matter where you come from, and it doesn’t matter what you want to do, just really prepare yourself and do it. Anything is possible.
E&D: This year also sees Sepultura celebrating 30 years of the Roots album. What are your favorite memories of making that album?
Andreas: That album is very special, man. I remember the first meeting with Ross Robinson, when we came to the rehearsal room. We were looking for the producer to do the next album. We had a few options, and Ross came in from a different planet! He was so funny and so frightening at the same time. I didn’t understand a word that he was saying, but he came very spiritually, a lot of expressions, very philosophical, and it was everything that we needed for Roots. I think it was a perfect choice to open our mind, to open our possibilities. That first meeting was a little scary, but at the same time, it opened, at least for myself, a huge door to express ourselves in many different ways and still be Sepultura, to still hold our identity, but at the same time, bring a lot of new stuff not only for us, but the metal scene in general.
E&D: What other Sepultura albums have been memorable to work on?
Andreas: I think the other one was the most important for us was Against. That was the album that really kept the band alive. Derrick joined the band in the middle of everything, finding new managers, finding writing new material as a trio. I tried to be the singer, and it was chaotic, but at the same time, it was the beginning of everything that we are living through today. It’s an album that was really necessary for us to keep us alive and working and opening new doors and Against represents that. Against the tide, that’s where the title came from. everybody was against us. This is not Sepultura. You shouldn’t do this. You shouldn’t that, but, fuck you all, man, Sepultura is something new every day. If you want to keep yourself locked in the past, that is your fucking problem, But here we are, reinventing Sepultura every day. And that’s a beautiful feeling and Against shows that we were capable of being Sepultura in many different realities.
E&D: Did that ignite a fire in the band again?
Andreas: Oh, yeah. I mean, challenge is what feeds an artist. If you are in a comfort zone, you stop creating, you’re just gonna be a puppet of yourself. You have to challenge yourself. The greatest artists were always doing something different, David Bowie, the Beatles Led Zeppelin, Queen, you hear their albums. It’s almost like different bands every album, but at the same time, they’re themselves, and that’s the beauty of art. Because you learn, you travel, you go to different places, you see, different cultures, different rhythms, different instruments, different melodies that you adapt to rock and to heavy music, That’s what kept us alive, not only Sepultura, but heavy metal in general, Metallica went to country music in the States to do some metal, and the Norwegian bands did their thing, Sepultura did the Brazilian stuff, you know. We embrace local cultural aspects to do different music, that’s the beauty of having that. Sepultura have played more than 80 countries in the world, regardless of politics and religion. You see how music, and especially heavy metal, unites people and heavy metal, it’s inclusive. You see so many women represented. You see Rob Halford, coming out. You don’t see any cancelation, any campaign against that. He was embraced by the fans, by the community, and it’s amazing, it’s very healthy, it’s very respectful. It comes from generations, you listen to your dad’s album, to your older uncle’s album, and you keep that going as a family. We don’t need the fucking charge for the top one radio playing, we don’t need that crap. We are much deeper and much more real than the fucking wave, So it’s great to be here 42 years, and we feel stronger than ever. It’s amazing!
E&D: What particular moments from the existence of Sepultura over the past four decades stick out for you the most?
Andreas: The moments from today, no one moment in the past that is more important than the other. We relate to the past, but it’s always today, it’s amazing to be here, celebrating Sepultura the way we are in a fucking positive and festive atmosphere with good old friends like Exodus and Biohazard with us on the road, like brothers, they are together with us for more than 30 years. It’s such a great feeling, and we are still here enjoying ourselves. We see so many young kids at the shows. These are the highlights. It could be Rock In Rio when we played, but I want do justice to all the other moments, and not only the good moments, but the bad moments, when we were fucked, when we were with no label, where we had no money, we had to rebuild everything. Those are the great moments as well. That’s why we’re still here, because of those moments, not the good moments that you’re onstage and on the front cover of magazines These are just a consequence of everything we have to go through daily to be in a band and to be a professional musician. The bad and the difficult and the desperate moments also are very, very important.I put them all together in the same level. I don’t forget them. Quite the contrary, they are part of what I am today,
E&D: It just shows the resilience of the band.
Andreas: Of course, an artist already has to be resilient not only Sepultura. It’s not easy to be an artist, especially nowadays that everybody’s a musical critic on the internet. Everybody knows everything about everything. So here we are doing what we do, and opinions are opinions, that’s freedom. You might well express your opinion, but I don’t have to agree with them.
E&D: What are some of your favourite riffs and solos that you’ve done over the years?
Andreas: I don’t know, man. I mean, every album is really very different from each other, but I think Chaos AD really opened a new way of playing guitar, especially leads, because I was running away off those fucking arpeggios and all that stuff that all the guitar players were doing, and I start connecting myself more to the percussive side of leads. So it came that dissonant sound like ‘Propaganda’, or ‘Clenched Fist’ on Chaos AD was started really messing around with that a lot. I think Propaganda’ is one of the songs I really like. The guitar work, the solo, the leads, more bluesy as well, is one of my favourites,
E&D: What’s next for you as a musician?
Andreas: There’s a lot of possibilities. We already have a lot of parallel things going on. I have had a radio show in Brazil with my son for many years. I have a band with him as well. I have different social projects that I work in Brazil. So I’ll put more time into it, for sure, but I want to leave it open to new projects and new things. I want to spend more time with my classical guitar work, but the thing is, I want to enjoy the moment now. Of course, we have possibilities for the future, but I don’t have to decide anything now.
E&D: With Sepultura coming to an end for the past couple of years, how does it feel that the end is actually in sight now?
Andreas: It’s weird to say the end, because it’s not going to end. We’re still going to be working as Sepultura on the live album, on the box sets and special releases that we might have in the future. This is not going to end. We’re just going to leave the road and leave our creativity to put in a different place, instead of working on a new album and a whole tour cycle and all that. We’re gonna pur that on the side and really explore our own abilities in different places. So I think it’ll be very healthy. And if, in the future, we have a chance to come back or not, that’s irrelevant right now, but we’ll be able to do something different, as Sepultura always does. I think this challenge will be amazing personally, for us, not only for our personal lives, but our professional lives, as our an artist, it’s going to be great.
