Interviews

 

SOULFLY

 

With an Australian tour, a new album in the works and talk of a Sepultura reunion on the cards, it’s no wonder SOULFLY vocalist Max Cavalera has a lot to smile about.

He brings ROD YATES up to date.

 

It may not yet be regarded as an important date, but there’s every chance that August 17, 2006, will come to be known as one of the most important days in metal this decade. For it was on that Thursday that Soulfly held their 10th Annual D-Low Memorial Festival in Arizona, named after, and dedicated to, frontman Max Cavalera’s step son Dana Wells, who was killed in a car crash in 1996. Tickets were cheap – $1 a pop, if you don’t mind – and with a selection of guest musicians such as former drummer Roy Mayorga and ex-Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson appearing, it was always going to be a night to remember. But no-one had expected this.

 

With Soulfly’s set thundering along with the momentum of a possessed bulldozer, Max Cavalera stepped up to the mic and, with a smile and a nod to the wings, announced there would be one more special guest tonight. His name was Igor Cavalera, and he would be coming onstage to play drums on a few songs. And for the first time since Max walked out of Brazilian metal titans Sepultura 10 years ago in a hail of acrimony and accusations, he and his younger brother stood together on the same stage, finally bringing to an end one of the most publicised and personal rifts in metal history. Naturally, the place went bonkers.

 

“I saw the faces on the crowd in front of the stage,” recalls Cavalera Snr with a smile. “They were in a bit of shock and disbelief. Ten years is a long time, man, it was great.”

 

Can you sum up how it felt to be onstage playing with Igor again?

 

“Yes, I can…. Thunder is the first thing that comes to mind, the sound of drums like thunder. And then there’s this serious look on his face like he’s about to engage in a war. And I remember those things from years of touring with Sepultura, the war face that Igor has behind the drums.”

 

As Cavalera tells it, there was no special planning that went into the reunion; it was more a case of things happening of their own accord. Igor had called him a week earlier to say he was going to come down to the show, but it wasn’t until the actual day that the decision was made to do a few songs together. Despite the enormity of this occurrence, the scene on the vocalist’s tour bus after the show wasn’t one of debauched celebration, but simply one of a family spending a few precious hours together – albeit in a unique way.

 

“Igor was playing with my kids on the tour bus, making fake drawings of a band called Cholesterol,” chuckles Cavalera. “I remember one great drawing he and my son Igor did, it was of a crazy monster and he was holding the head of a guy in a Fall Out Boy T-shirt. It was a very educational drawing by his uncle! I really enjoyed that!”

Did playing together again suddenly make you realise what you’d been missing out on for the past 10 years?

 

“Yeah, it’s the kind of thing you can’t really explain in words, but I knew what it was,” he sighs. “It’s the same with him. You don’t need to be a magician to know that him playing with Sepultura was a sad thing, he wasn’t there all the time, so for both of us it was a very awesome, amazing cool moment that I’d like to continue. I don’t have anything planned, Soulfly’s very busy, but the future is bringing us together somehow and so we’re going to see what happens.”

 

Indeed it seems that as far as Cavalera is concerned, a Sepultura reunion is more a matter of when than if.

 

“I don’t see why not,” he shrugs. “But again, these things are sometimes jinxed by other things, and I don’t like to jump the gun and say, ‘Yeah, it’s happening!’ So at the moment I don’t have anything official. I just know that I’ve always been at peace with everyone in the band, I really don’t hate anyone. I knew that at some point we were gonna meet up again somehow. And I always said I hoped nobody would die before that, because that’s a horrible thing never to be able to get back together because of that. I just hope and see what happens. It’s kind of like teaching patience. I don’t like patience, but I’ve learned that in this life you have to have patience to survive.”

 

There is, of course, more happening in Cavalera’s life at the moment than talk of a Sepultura reunion, with Soulfly’s tour in support of latest album Darkest Days continuing to wind its way across the world. Indeed their next stop is Australia, and Cavalera’s voice buzzes with excitement at the prospect of returning. Sadly, it took a few high profile deaths to remind him to appreciate these moments.

 

“I was thinking the other day, Sepultura toured with the Ramones in Brazil, it was an unbelievable, amazing tour,” he starts. “But little did I know it was the last time I was going to see the Ramones. I never got to see them again. You don’t really think of those things when you’re doing tours. And especially with the tragedy of Dimebag [Darrell, the ex-Pantera guitarist who was shot onstage in 2004], I kind of think of those things a little more now than I used to, you appreciate the tours and try and enjoy them a little more.”

 

Accompanying Cavalera on Soulfly’s most recent US trek was his son Richie’s band, Incite. Though he shies away from the suggestion that he’s building a Cavalera metal dynasty, his pride at his son’s chosen career is obvious. Not that it means he’s getting any special treatment from his old man…

 

“I don’t get involved much at all, I stay out of it, cos I think that’s his gig,” explains Cavalera. “And I’m not on of those dads, I don’t tell him nothing, I stay completely out of it. He’s going to make mistakes and make decisions just like I did, so it’s kind of cool that I stay out of it and let him do his own thing.”

 

Have you had any flack from people annoyed at the fact you’ve put your son on the bill at the expense of another band?

 

“No, I don’t really listen to them much at all, because as long as I can remember, I realised that whatever I do there’s going to be people who like it and people who are not going to like it and talk shit. And talking shit to me is a very negative waste of time, and I don’t pay attention to that, I got better things to do. I got songs to write for real fans that care about me being here, I’d rather spend my time in a positive way.”

 

Remarkably, given everything else happening in his life, Cavalera has found time to start work on Soulfly’s next album. And he can barely restrain his excitement when he announces it could be the band’s heaviest album yet.

 

“It is, man, it’s going to be insane,” he enthuses. “Dub music is the only normal thing I listen to, and dub music is quite insane if you think about it. Most people can’t understand it cos the bass is so loud in dub. Apart from dub music, all I’ve been listening to is just heavy shit. I just got my old Massacre records and my old Hellhammer records. When I wake up I listen to this shit from morning to night. I’m a worse metalhead than I’ve ever been in my life! And I have a band full of metalheads who just want to play faster and darker and more heavy, so everything indicates that the next album is going to be heavy as shit. And I’m ready.”

 

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