-Interview: Max Cavalera

Max Cavalera
Interviewed by Ryan Buege
On February 19, 2005

On Saturday, February 19, 2005, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to sit down with Max and discuss many topics that will be important to Soulfly fans for the next year. In the 45 minutes that I was talking with him, I was able to conduct what could be considered the best interview ever, hands down. And that's no joke! Everything from Soulfly's upcoming DVD release, The Song Remains Insane, to their impending album to future touring plans and many other things were talked about that night, before they hit the stage to perform their show at the Quest in Minneapolis. The whole night went extremely smoothly and Soulfly put on, once again, an amazing set. Enjoy!

Ryan: How has the tour with Morbid Angel been? How is it playing an extended set?

Max: The tour has been going great. The shows are filling up every night, and that's a hard thing for any musician to do at this time of year. All the fans seem to be responding to our set much better this time around, because they have had time to get to know the Prophecy album more. Plus, we're getting a chance to show off some of the new stuff that we just wrote for the new album. For this tour, since it's just Soulfly and Morbid Angel, we're letting Morbid Angel play for a little over an hour, then we come on and finish the show with about an hour and a half long set.

Ryan: Since you guys are out on the stage for so long every night, do you have to do anything to keep your voice in shape? Any medicine that you'd recommend to fellow metal heads?

Max:No, actually, I've never had to take any medicine of any sort. I believe that's it's just because I've had the experience of constant touring for so long, nearly 20 years, that it seems easy just to go into my trademark sound for just over an hour every night. The only thing that I have to be careful about is going into the club. That's when I can really get sick and screw it up. Especially here is Minnesota! (laughs) It's freezing! So yeah, I just have to stay warm on the way into the show and avoid getting sick.

Ryan: How much of a say did you have on what would be included on the DVD? Have you seen the DVD?

Max:I didn't have a direct say like, 'This goes here and that goes there', but I approved each part of the DVD once they were finished. I think you're really going to like it. Not that I like their music, but the guys who did the Linkin Park Live In Texas DVD did an excellent job of recording a few a our shows and I'm really happy with it. Their should be around 16 or 17 live songs in all. We also have lots of extra stuff that really shows the essence of what it means to be in Soulfly. We have a lot of footage that was taped by our crew, especially in South Africa. Like, you know, our guys getting a little crazy, drinking some beers, stuff like that. And there's this part in the safari where Marc was like being eaten alive by these giant African bugs. He was just covered with them, and he was really freaking out man.

Ryan: I had heard that their will be a few previously unreleased tracks that will be appearing on the DVD. Can you tell us if this is true?

Max: Yes, definitely. There will be around 10 songs in all. A bunch of new stuff, some remixes, and stuff like that. Like there's this one that'll be on there that we did with Benji Webb, who used to be in Dub War and now is in Skindred. We recorded it at the same time that we did the first album, but it was one of those songs that got left off. It's like, we already had him on "Quilombo" and "Predjudice", so we decided it was best to leave one of the tracks off. It's a very hardcore, fast paced song, and now, looking back, I'm kind of sorry I didn't put this one on there. It's nice that we can release it like that now. But yeah, there'll be 10 in their, and I told the DVD guys to try to make it so that you could listen to the songs in a random order, cause when I listen to a record, I don't always like to listen to it in the order that the artist put it in. So I asked the guys if they could do it, and they were like, 'Whoa, we've never heard of that before!'. But they were able to do it, so now you'll be able to listen to it in any random, computer-generated order. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Ryan: You had previously said that this new album might be both darker and heavier? Is this the direction that you ended up pursuing?

Max: In ways, yes, and in others no. The events that took place this past December, with the death of Dimebag Darrel and the passing of Moses, had a huge influence on the way that I chose to present this album, so I'd say that that made it a bit darker. We did some of the recordings in France, Turkey, and Russia and we used some instruments that you could only find in those countries. Those recordings will definitely have a strong effect on the direction that the worldly and atmospheric elements of the album take. But Marc and Joe, those guys are both huge metalheads, and they kind of forced me to make a very heavy, brutal album. I don't listen to metal as much as I used to, but Marc just lives and breathes metal. Everything like Lamb of God, Slayer, Maiden, Napalm Death, and some extremely crazy death metal shit. He loves to play those riffs and he's amazing at it, so that'll be on there, too.

Ryan: Bobby has called it the most groundbreaking Soulfly album yet. Do you agree?

Max: Umm, I don't know if I'd say that, just because I couldn't say that about any of my albums. You know, I hate it when a band comes out and there like, 'This is the best stuff we've ever put out'. That's complete bullshit. I like to think of each of my records the way I would think about my kids. They're all different, like one might be hyper, one might be calm, one might be level-headed, but they are all my favorites. You know? So I'll probably look at this album in the same way when it's done. It'll be different and very good, but I can't compare it to anything else that I've done.

Ryan: How much more comfortable were you recording this cd after having played with these guys for over a year? What was the vibe like in the studio?

Max: As always, recording was extremely stressful, especially since we had to record right after the tragedies in December. But the rest of the band made it really easy because they are all such amazing musicians. Last time, I barely even knew the guys when we went to record, but now we are all very good friends and it made it much easier.

Ryan: Where did you record the new cd?

Max: We went all over the world to get the different instuments for this one. Turkey, France, Russia, Serbia, and of course, Arizona. I would send over the basic structures of the songs to these musicians in the countries and tell them what I wanted them to do with them, and they would just record. It wasn't like they were recording a song, persay, but they recorded many noises and parts of songs, and now it will be the job of Terry Date to put them all together. Like in France, for "Soulfly V", I wanted to find some way to use an accordion on the album, but I told the guy that I wanted it to sound very dark, almost heavy. They musician starts playing these happy, fast, upbeat French party songs on the accordion, and he's like, 'Is that what you mean?', and I'm just like 'Hell no!'. So he slows it down and plays these really low notes and it sounded just incredible. He didn't even know that he could play that type of shit on an accordion before, but it was just wicked.

Ryan: Are there any guest on the new cd?

Max: Besides the musicians from the other countries and Ritchie, my step-son who did "Tree of Pain" with us on 3 there won't be any others. We made a conscious decision not to include any other vocalists on this one, because this album we really want to just showcase the band, Soulfly. This will be the first time where it's really just our album, and not about anyone else.

Ryan: Would you call the album a cohesive, flowing piece of material, or are the changes very apparent?

Max: Unless you are a person who really knows a lot about musical instruments from every part of the world, I don't think you'll be able to detect when we're playing the new intruments and such, and be like 'I know what that is!'. Everything should fit really well into the whole pace of the disc. As I said, I haven't heard a finished product, cause it's like some of the recordings still need to be sent in from Russia to Terry (Date) and he's still gotta sit down and sort everything out.

Ryan: Why didn't you decide to go with a different producer this time, like you had said that you might before?

Max: Well, everyone had been so pleased with the work that I did on our last two albums, so I decided that it was in the best interests of Soulfly if I did it again. You know, I still hate it. I'm not one of those guys who can stay up until all hours of the morning and just keep refueling myself with caffeine. I can sit behind the desk for about 3-4 hours and then I'm just like, 'I'm taking a break'. I try to get the best takes that I can get and then get out of there. I don't think that I could produce for any bands other than my own in the near future, though, unless I suddenly got really comfortable with the whole process and it was a band that I really, really dig.

Ryan: How many songs did you write for the new disc?

Max: We ended up recording about 20 songs in all, but only a little over 1/2 of them will end up making it on the finished product. We have been playing some of the new tracks all over the country so on this tour with Morbid Angel to find out which ones get the best response from the crowd so that we can have a better idea of which ones we want to get rid of. Like tonight, I think that we'll probably be playing two new ones. One is called "I and I" and the other should be "Breed".

Ryan: Do you have a name picked out for the album?

Max: No, not yet, and I know I need to get my ass going on that. Looking back I'm actually pretty upset that I named the third album 3. I mean, what was I thinking? It's not a good name at all but I just couldn't find a name that really fit the entire content of the album. We were thinking of naming it Downstroy, but that title didn't really fit with even half of the things that I was talking about on the cd. And then we thought of naming it Enterfaith, but you know with songs like "Downstroy", "Call To Arms", and "Four Elements", most of it had nothing to do with faith. So it got down to the end and I just had to settle with 3. I'm hoping that it'll just come to me, like the pressure of thinking of a name will just force me to get a good one. LIke with Sepultura, Chaos A.D. originally didn't have a name, but it got down to the wire and the label said that they would name it Propaghanda unless I thought of another one soon. Out of that pressure, I came up with Chaos A.D., and it ended up being an excellent, memorable name for the cd. I just hope that I can do the same thing this time. I know the fans won't let me off free this time if I call the next album 5! (laughs)

Ryan: What are some of your lyrical themes for the new album?

Max: There is definitely some reflections over the losses that had an impact on my life when we were recording, because that is something that I felt that I definitely needed to address. I also bring up many questions. For example, like what our purpose for being on this world might be and whether the things we do in our life are preordained, or if we are the ones who make our destiny happen. Definitely lots of different and interesting stuff.

Ryan: Have you ever thought of making a concept album?

Max: I have thought about it, and it would be something that would be very difficult to do. I love concept albums, but I know that as I would do one, I would always have it in the back of my mind to try to make it live up to the ultimate concept album, and that is Pink Floyd's The Wall, but I know that that would be nearly impossible to do. But it is something that would definitely be very challenging and exciting to do and I would love to do one. I don't know if that would be something for me to do with Soulfly or with some other project in the future. We'll have to see.

Ryan: Who is doing the artwork for this cd?

Max: Excellent question. Michael Whelan, if you know him, who did the artwork for most of the Sepultura cds, including Beneath The Remains, Arise, Chaos A.D., and Roots will be designing the artwork for our next cd. He's actually a very accomplished artist who really does his own thing. I have a couple books that he's put out. But anyway, after we had completed Roots, I figured that he kind of forgot about me because I didn't hear from him for years. So I was extremely surprised and happy when I talked to him and he told me that he had been following my career since I left Sepultura and that he really enjoyed the stuff that Soulfly has done. I just need to send him some of the lyrics and material from the album so that he can get some ideas and get going. He has done some very evil looking stuff in the past, with his skulls and corpses, but he also does some very peaceful stuff, as well. I asked him to kind of try and combine both those styles for the for the next cd. It will hopefully show a contrast between some complete scary and evil imagery and beautiful, serene paintings. Essentially, it will be a visual representation of the next Soulfly cd.

Ryan: When will the new album be released?

Max: Well after this tour, we will get the mixing completed, and I hope to have the cd ready to be released by August of this year. It should be out later this summer or early in the fall.

Ryan: Any new bands you have listened to lately, metal or non-metal, that people should know about and you might want to tour with?

Max: Right now, there is alot of bands in the metal scene that are really excellent bands. I'm glad that we're doing this tour with some old friends, like Morbid Angel. But there is also some really good ones like Lamb of God, God Forbid, and others. I'm glad that we have a couple shows coming up with God Forbid.

Ryan: Do you listen to your own stuff?

Max: No I don't. Just because, you know, when you are in the studio, you hear your stuff so much that it can become a bit old to you after awhile. Especially when you have to go out every night and play the same songs live all the time. So I'll usually listen to my albums right when they come out, but that's about it. I've actually only heard the studio versions of my songs a handful of times.

Ryan: Do your kids listen to your stuff or enjoy it?

Max: Well, I've never been one to force on them anything that I think they should listen to. I just let them do their thing. It never really seemed that they were that into what I was doing, but one year I went to do the festival tours in Europe, and I come back and they are like full-on metal heads. I'm just like, 'what the hell happened?' So it's pretty cool, that way. My step-son, Ritchie, comes out with us every so often and performs. And now, my son Igor plays the guitar and Zyon plays the drums, so it is very much like it was when I was growing up with my brother. Very cool.

Ryan: There is an old saying that, as a musician, if you're not improving, you're only getting worse. So, how do you feel that you have improved as a musician since you founded Soulfly?

Max: Well, I agree with that totally, you know. And for one thing, I know that I can't do solos. That's one thing I can't do. I can't play lead. So I wouldn't say that I have necessarily taken it to another level as far as the technical stuff goes, that's something that Marc, Joe, and Bobby are helping me to do, but I think that over the past few years with Soulfly I have gotten much more confident about the stuff that we, as a band, are doing. In the beginning I felt like there was a part of me that had to please my fans from Sepultura, and that's why I always threw a couple Sepultura songs on the setlist. But after a while, it was like, 'How many times to I have to play "Roots"?', you know? Now I can realize that most of our fans are here to see Soulfly, and they truly love the stuff that I've done with Soulfly, and because of that, I've begun to take most of the Sepultura songs of the setlist. Eventually, who knows, I might not play any Sepultura songs anymore.

But yeah, our confidence in ourselves as Soulfly has really grown, and that's how I am able to continue to create new, exciting, experimental material. (Looks at my Hatebreed sweatshirt) I think that the title of Hatebreed's album, Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire, is one of the best mottos that any musician could have. It's completely true. That's why I realize that I can improve. I never become completely satisfied with the stuff I have put out, because I know that there is always things that I can do better when I create my music, and I try to realize what those are so that I can improve for my next release.

Ryan: What are the plans for Soulfly for the rest of the year? You are a touring band, so where will you be going for the summer and the rest of the year?

Max: Well, it has been a long time since we made it to Brazil, around four years, so this summer, which is actually their winter, we will be going down to South America to finally give our fans down their what they have been waiting for for so long. I can't wait to do that. And this summer we have been asked to do many of the major aggressive music festivals over there this summer, as well. And then after that, it should be about time for the album to come out. This time, after the album comes out we're going to tour in the U.S. before we do any other area. You know, when Prophecy came out, we went over to Africa and Europe first, and almost 6 months had gone by before we were able to tour in the United States under Prophecy, and by that time, alot of the spark from the release seemed to have gone, so the shows weren't as exciting as they could've been. This time, it's only fair to get to you guys first.

Ryan: As always, it has been amazing. I'm really so thankful that I can get the chance to talk to you so often. I can't wait for everything that you've got plan for the future...especially for the show tonight. Take care, man.

Max: Of course, thanks for talking. Keep up the good work, and I'll be looking forward to talking to you the next time we're in the area. And enjoy the concert!

Photos from the show at The Quest Club in Minneapolis, MN. Go here for all the photos from that night.