Interviews

 

Soulfly

 

Words: Rod Yates

 

Eight years ago, Max Cavalera was in the midst of recording one of the most important albums of his already influential career. With the dust from his split with Sepultura still settling awkwardly, the vocalist/guitarist was busy preparing Soulfly’s debut album when his world was turned upside down. His son Igor, then only three years old, was diagnosed with diabetes, sending his father rushing from the studio to be by his side. Almost a decade on, and with Cavalera preparing his fifth Soulfly album, Dark Ages, he was once again hit with bad news: the death of his grandson, Moses, to whom the track Staystrong has since been dedicated.

 

“Staystrong was not really a planned song to be on the album, because when I started making Dark Ages I did not think I was going to have a song for Moses, cos he was still alive,” explains Cavalera quietly. “It was one of those tragedies in life. And then Dimebag [Darrell, Pantera/Damageplan guitarist who was shot last year] happened the day after, so I think it all affected the album somehow.”

 

As has been a recurring theme in his career, Cavalera has managed to turn these negatives around, not only through his music, but through the establishment of various charities. The Iggy Diabetes Fund has since raised $US200 000, while appeals through the Soulfly website have resulted in more than 1500 items of clothing and toys being sent to an orphanage in Serbia, the country of Moses’ birth.

 

“It’s such a little thing to do, but it means so much to so many people,” he explains. “I think more musicians should do that, especially if they are from the heavy side of music. Because society’s already put us down and told us we are nothing, we are scum, but when we do shit like this, we are actually slapping society right back in a much bigger way.”

 

It should be pointed out that while Cavalera is obviously in possession of a gargantuan heart, he’s not, at the ripe old age of 35, getting soft. Indeed you need only listen to Dark Ages, arguably Soulfly’s most aggressive album, for proof of that. Cavalera’s trademark riffage and vocals are as reliable as ever, but it’s the rediscovery of his love of raw, thrash-infused riffing on songs such as Molotov and Frontlines that really gets the pulse racing.

 

“When you cut a song like Molotov,” he chuckles, “you’re going to record Molotov! You’re going to bring the shit!”

 

Another trademark of Cavalera’s career has been his fascination with indigenous music, on this occasion from Eastern Europe. He decamped to Russia to record vocals for Molotov with a friend in a Russian hardcore band, Paul Fillipenko, as well as some native Russian instruments, such as Balakaika and Treshetka. And then there was his trip to Istanbul, where he recorded the sounds of a city with roots quite literally stretching back to the dark ages of early Christianity.

 

“What I ended up using on the album was from inside [the cathedral] Hagia Sophia,” he starts. “It sounds like bells, but it’s not. It’s actually them repairing the walls, the guy was banging metal on metal. At the time I was upset about it, cos I thought, I waited my whole life to come here! But my engineer listened to the recordings and said, ‘You got some great stuff, Max, some bells you recorded in Istanbul.’ But I didn’t record any bells, the repairman actually made his way into the Soulfly album!”

 

With all this talk of recording in cathedrals and with Dark Ages bearing the words Dedicado A Deus – Dedicated To God – in the liner notes, it sounds like Cavalera’s religion is playing a bigger role in his music than ever before.

 

“All the bands in the past, like Stryper, I don’t want to have nothing to do with that!” he chuckles. “I dedicated the album to God because he has let me live, he has given me the will and strength to continue over so much fucked up shit. I’m not going to say, ‘You don’t believe in God, you can’t come to a Soulfly show.’ You can come and see Soulfly if Ronald McDonald is your God!”

 

 

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