Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Embracing Your Roots With MAX CAVALERA From SOULFLY
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up everybody, Maxicamleta here you listen to Heavy mag
- 0:05Speaker 1: in Australia with our new album Shama.
- 0:08Speaker 2: Fantastic Max, thanks for joining us this morning, brother, Thank
- 0:12Speaker 2: you man, thanks for having me my pleasure to say.
- 0:15Speaker 2: There's a bit gone on withst self Flight at the moment,
- 0:17Speaker 2: but we'll start with the new album Shama, which is
- 0:19Speaker 2: due out on October twenty fourth. This is gonna be
- 0:22Speaker 2: a thirty eighth alvel with Soul Flight to Guy with
- 0:24Speaker 2: countless others from Sepulture, Kill and Be Killed.
- 0:26Speaker 3: They say it.
- 0:27Speaker 2: Small, but do you still get the same feeling of
- 0:29Speaker 2: anticipation that comes with a new album despite putting.
- 0:31Speaker 3: So many outs?
- 0:33Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no matter no matter how many albums you make,
- 0:36Speaker 1: it's always the same as there. There's nerveouness in anxiety.
- 0:42Speaker 1: I probably have a bunch of ulcers from making records.
- 0:46Speaker 1: But it's it's a it's a cool excitement. It's fun.
- 0:49Speaker 3: You know.
- 0:50Speaker 1: It's like you know, you're proud of the thing. You know,
- 0:55Speaker 1: you're proud of the you want to hear what people
- 0:57Speaker 1: think of it, you know, because that's the that's what
- 1:00Speaker 1: use the everything that we do is for the fans
- 1:03Speaker 1: to enjoy what we do. You know, But I think,
- 1:07Speaker 1: like right now, so Fly is been more inspired than
- 1:11Speaker 1: ever before. I think this is like a really good
- 1:15Speaker 1: moment in Soulfly, really inspirational moment to make a record
- 1:19Speaker 1: like Shama is very very full of enthusiasm and inspiration.
- 1:24Speaker 1: And the record is full of I feel, very very
- 1:29Speaker 1: strong songs and full of tribal grooves, kind of back
- 1:33Speaker 1: to the tribal beginnings of so Fly, and with a
- 1:37Speaker 1: lot of real cool noise stuff in it, which is
- 1:41Speaker 1: like makes them more modern. I've been joking calling this
- 1:45Speaker 1: album feels like tribal technology. You know, you have the
- 1:50Speaker 1: tribal beats, but with technology on top of it together.
- 1:54Speaker 1: You know. But I think it's gonna be if you.
- 1:57Speaker 1: If you love so Fly, this album is definitely for you,
- 2:00Speaker 1: Like this is an album made for for a soulf
- 2:02Speaker 1: Life fan. If you don't like Soulfly, I don't even
- 2:06Speaker 1: waste your time. You're not gonna like this record.
- 2:11Speaker 2: Now, you touched on the musical sort of a private
- 2:13Speaker 2: can you get a taper into it first?
- 2:14Speaker 3: I tell us what you're gone for this summer musically?
- 2:19Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this, this record came about you. Know,
- 2:22Speaker 1: it started with experimenting med and zion like jamming and
- 2:27Speaker 1: you know, collecting riffs and ideas, and the more we
- 2:32Speaker 1: thought about the record, the more it was going in
- 2:35Speaker 1: this groove tribal direction naturally, and it was cool that
- 2:42Speaker 1: that it went that way for some reason. It's it's
- 2:50Speaker 1: my most Brazilian record of all time. With the name
- 2:54Speaker 1: is in Portuguese. We have songs in Portuguese. We have
- 2:58Speaker 1: name songs about which is Brazil, the Brazilian slums in
- 3:04Speaker 1: the hills. And then one song that the name is
- 3:08Speaker 1: inspired by Australia actually is Always Was, Always Will Be.
- 3:13Speaker 1: That's why I have original quote, you know. Uh, it
- 3:18Speaker 1: was from when I was in Australia. I saw a
- 3:20Speaker 1: documentary that was called Always Was, Always Will Be. I
- 3:24Speaker 1: wrote that name down in my notebook because I'm gonna
- 3:27Speaker 1: use that at some point in the future. Uh, And
- 3:31Speaker 1: it became one of those songs in the It's kind
- 3:33Speaker 1: of more experimental song. It's gotta be a god flash
- 3:36Speaker 1: vibe to it, electronic drums, real noisy itterial noise screaming
- 3:43Speaker 1: in the background, and it's got real hard Brazilian spiritual
- 3:48Speaker 1: lyrics on it. So the record is a bit of
- 3:52Speaker 1: an adventure kind of record. Inside of the album, we
- 3:55Speaker 1: have the story about Shamas, a boy that grow up
- 3:58Speaker 1: in the favelas and his mother passed away, and she
- 4:02Speaker 1: comes to him as a spirit and tells him to
- 4:05Speaker 1: go to the jungle, go to the Amazon and reconnect
- 4:10Speaker 1: with the spirits of the forest, and he becomes a
- 4:16Speaker 1: more powerful person after he does that. And it's really
- 4:19Speaker 1: cool that we have this story right in the middle
- 4:21Speaker 1: of the record. But yeah, I think that record is
- 4:24Speaker 1: full of cool guests, a lot of cool people. Dino
- 4:26Speaker 1: from Fear Factory, we got the guys from unto Others
- 4:31Speaker 1: and Nails and No Warning and Archie Enemy Again. This
- 4:38Speaker 1: is a Soulfly record with guests, tribal music, percussion. It's
- 4:43Speaker 1: everything fans love about Soulfly. It's on this record.
- 4:47Speaker 2: Further that point, like you've been quite a little saying
- 4:50Speaker 2: that I'm excited to present a long time flans a
- 4:53Speaker 2: revival of our original sounds.
- 4:55Speaker 3: Like what do you mean by that, You're going back
- 4:57Speaker 3: to the original sound?
- 5:00Speaker 1: We are and we aren't at the same time, you know,
- 5:03Speaker 1: because it's impossible to really go back to that time,
- 5:07Speaker 1: to ninety eight, ninety nine there was. It was a
- 5:11Speaker 1: magical time where Soulfly was born, including when we came
- 5:14Speaker 1: to do we Can Play Big Day Out Festival was
- 5:20Speaker 1: an incredible experience. But I think if you compare to
- 5:25Speaker 1: the last couple of Soulfly records like Total and Ritual,
- 5:32Speaker 1: even like Conquer, this record feels very different from that.
- 5:36Speaker 1: It's really more connected to stuff like Primitive and Prophecy
- 5:43Speaker 1: and Soulfly one. But also together with that there's modern
- 5:49Speaker 1: shit on it as well, with electronic you know, electronic
- 5:55Speaker 1: noises and stuff that's part of the production between Zion
- 5:58Speaker 1: and Artur So. I think the record is is it's
- 6:02Speaker 1: a combination, you know, but if it does feel like
- 6:07Speaker 1: a real Soulfly record, Like to me when I listened
- 6:11Speaker 1: to Shama, this is the vision I had for Soulfly
- 6:14Speaker 1: in the for the from the beginning. This this is
- 6:17Speaker 1: the kind of ship we want to play, you know.
- 6:19Speaker 1: This is it. It's spiritual, it's tribal, it's heavy grooves
- 6:26Speaker 1: and uh and as heavy as balls. You know, like
- 6:29Speaker 1: a lot of the stuff is just fucking heavy, man,
- 6:32Speaker 1: you know. Favella, Dystopia and NIHI list is more like
- 6:37Speaker 1: almost like an in tunbees kind of song, you know,
- 6:39Speaker 1: like it was let's like, let's give give to them,
- 6:43Speaker 1: and it's it's cool. The record short, it's only thirty
- 6:46Speaker 1: three minutes, so it doesn't we don't funk around. You
- 6:51Speaker 1: came in and punch you in the face, and we leave.
- 6:53Speaker 1: We get out, you know, we get out of the way.
- 6:58Speaker 3: You spike.
- 6:59Speaker 2: This is a couple of times. But you mixed a
- 7:01Speaker 2: bit of You've done a bit of experimenting musically. You've
- 7:03Speaker 2: got a bit of a bit of electronics through with
- 7:05Speaker 2: the tribal stuff.
- 7:06Speaker 3: Is that easy to integrate together in music?
- 7:11Speaker 1: I think so. I think it's cool to me. Experimental
- 7:15Speaker 1: music is very interesting because it's very organic, you know,
- 7:20Speaker 1: and I think like when you have the chance to
- 7:22Speaker 1: do it, you should do it because the results are
- 7:27Speaker 1: always real exciting. And you know, even the intro like
- 7:32Speaker 1: of the album, which we call it The Indigenous Inquisition,
- 7:37Speaker 1: we created this almost like a ritual piece of music.
- 7:40Speaker 1: You know, it feels like you're in a trance ritual
- 7:45Speaker 1: tribal environment, you know, with the heavy drums and the guitars,
- 7:51Speaker 1: and then there are all these noises going around and
- 7:56Speaker 1: I'm saying the names of tribes that are no longer
- 8:00Speaker 1: in existence. They're all and they're all being killed, you know,
- 8:04Speaker 1: just like they've been erased from the from the map
- 8:08Speaker 1: of the world by genocide. So yeah, I think it's cool.
- 8:13Speaker 1: It's like we use technology that we don't abuse it,
- 8:17Speaker 1: but you use it the right way so it matches
- 8:20Speaker 1: the organic tribal sound of the record.
- 8:26Speaker 3: It's actually good.
- 8:27Speaker 2: Can bring up Indigenous Inquisition because I wanted to talk
- 8:29Speaker 2: about that next, Like it's a very powerful song, Like
- 8:32Speaker 2: you say, you're speaking about the genocide and extinction of
- 8:35Speaker 2: the original American people, But what was the thought process
- 8:38Speaker 2: behind starting the album with that, Like it's such a
- 8:40Speaker 2: powerful piece of music.
- 8:44Speaker 1: Yeah, so I wanted to make an intro song. I
- 8:47Speaker 1: never had that one of those in Soulfly All the
- 8:49Speaker 1: record pretty much starts with the opening song, and so
- 8:52Speaker 1: we create a minute and a half two minute introduction
- 8:57Speaker 1: song that we can play live that's heavy as fucking
- 9:00Speaker 1: like real, just hitting you in the face with it,
- 9:03Speaker 1: but also with a deep meaning you know behind And
- 9:07Speaker 1: that became the idea of calling Indigenous Inquisition, you know,
- 9:11Speaker 1: because that's what happened, you know, that there was an
- 9:14Speaker 1: inquisition of all the indigenous tribes and happening in South America,
- 9:18Speaker 1: happen in North America, happened in Africa, happened in Australia,
- 9:23Speaker 1: and many tribes gott you know, extinct from this. So yeah,
- 9:28Speaker 1: it's a bit dark beginning, but I think it's necessary
- 9:32Speaker 1: because it's the reality of the world, you know. So
- 9:35Speaker 1: we wanted to pinpoint almost like you gotta teach your
- 9:41Speaker 1: sons or you gotta teach your kids about shit like
- 9:46Speaker 1: Holocaust so it doesn't happen again. You know, you got
- 9:49Speaker 1: to tell them the truth. Okay, these people all die
- 9:52Speaker 1: because of this madman called Hitler, same kind of situation.
- 9:57Speaker 1: You know, these tribes are extinct because of society, because
- 10:01Speaker 1: of bad governments, you know, and then we made it
- 10:04Speaker 1: into it. I've really all habits song man, it's real.
- 10:07Speaker 1: I can't wait to play that live. I think that's
- 10:08Speaker 1: gonna set the tone for the rest of the night.
- 10:11Speaker 1: You know, you're gonna come in with the guns blazing
- 10:14Speaker 1: on that one.
- 10:17Speaker 2: The pieces of music like that, that's that's very close
- 10:20Speaker 2: to your heart. That's sort of subject like, are they
- 10:22Speaker 2: difficult for you to write and perform pieces of music
- 10:25Speaker 2: like that?
- 10:27Speaker 1: It's difficult to maintain passionate about, you know, because you
- 10:34Speaker 1: sometimes you lose focus of what you're doing. Yeah, I
- 10:37Speaker 1: think the hard part is once you grab something that
- 10:40Speaker 1: you really love, stay with it, you know, and and
- 10:45Speaker 1: stay motivated. And I think that was kind of like
- 10:48Speaker 1: the the hardest part of this record was. But also
- 10:54Speaker 1: in the same token is one of the things I'm
- 10:57Speaker 1: most proud of the record is the message in some
- 10:59Speaker 1: of the song like Storm the Gates and No Pain.
- 11:04Speaker 1: It was no Power that actually can be related to sports,
- 11:08Speaker 1: you know, like football players or rugby players playing through
- 11:11Speaker 1: pain in order to get the power that they need,
- 11:15Speaker 1: you know, and to get the glory and uh, and
- 11:18Speaker 1: it was cool. I'm singing about more ship that I
- 11:21Speaker 1: know about it in real life, so it becomes uh
- 11:25Speaker 1: something that I believe in it, and I'm screaming. And
- 11:29Speaker 1: once when when you're screaming about something that you believe,
- 11:33Speaker 1: it's easier to it's easy for the fans to identify
- 11:38Speaker 1: with the real uh deliverance that you're given to them.
- 11:43Speaker 1: You know, you almost like you can feel my soul
- 11:46Speaker 1: on the on those screams that I'm giving, you know,
- 11:49Speaker 1: the real sometimes painful screams. They're hard screams, but they
- 11:54Speaker 1: mean they're meaningful. You know, they're full of power, They're
- 11:57Speaker 1: full of fire. And I think that was like the
- 12:01Speaker 1: thing about this record that cuts real deep is this,
- 12:05Speaker 1: you know, Uh, you believe in the lyrics and you
- 12:08Speaker 1: believe in the music, and you just just go for
- 12:11Speaker 1: the throat. You know. It was really kind of cool
- 12:14Speaker 1: to execute that way.
- 12:17Speaker 2: Now, says you past producing credits in creative direction, I
- 12:20Speaker 2: would get some zion. There's also been self drama for
- 12:24Speaker 2: ten years, but why is now the right time to
- 12:26Speaker 2: give him that added responsibility.
- 12:29Speaker 1: Yeah, I produce records before, like Prophecy, Dark Ages, And
- 12:33Speaker 1: I told him I don't want to produce his all
- 12:34Speaker 1: because if I produce it, it's gonna it's gonna come
- 12:36Speaker 1: out the way I want it, and I don't want that,
- 12:39Speaker 1: you know, I want something different, you know, I want
- 12:43Speaker 1: I want to be challenged. I want you to challenge me.
- 12:46Speaker 1: I want you to tell me my riff sucks and
- 12:48Speaker 1: I better make a better riff. You know. So that
- 12:51Speaker 1: kind of mentality kind of like I need somebody that
- 12:54Speaker 1: that is not a yazmin, somebody that actually challenges me.
- 12:58Speaker 1: And we did that. It was cool in the studio.
- 13:00Speaker 1: I'm busting my ass on the riff and he's like, no,
- 13:04Speaker 1: it's not good enough. You know, you better bring it.
- 13:09Speaker 1: And so it really challenged me as a musician to
- 13:12Speaker 1: come up with the best ship I could come up
- 13:14Speaker 1: and and it was cool to see. It was inspired.
- 13:21Speaker 1: And I think he's gonna have a great career of
- 13:23Speaker 1: producing record after this one because a lot of people
- 13:26Speaker 1: are gonna like this record, and I think he's got
- 13:28Speaker 1: a future in this area of music. And I think
- 13:31Speaker 1: was it was cool to to like give him the
- 13:35Speaker 1: keys of the car and let him drive the car
- 13:37Speaker 1: and I just sit in the back, you know, and
- 13:39Speaker 1: enjoy the ride. Kind of kind of situation. You know.
- 13:43Speaker 1: It was really cool.
- 13:44Speaker 2: And another one of his sons, Ego Das, played based
- 13:48Speaker 2: on some tracks, and he also helped write lyrics for
- 13:50Speaker 2: the title track as well as Favela this type. How
- 13:53Speaker 2: much of yourself can you see in your boys when
- 13:55Speaker 2: you write and create music together.
- 13:58Speaker 1: It's amazing. It's so cool, especially this record. We work
- 14:03Speaker 1: all together on it. And I remember in the studio
- 14:06Speaker 1: sitting down with Zion and Gor writing lyrics. I don't
- 14:09Speaker 1: like to write lyrics. I never liked it. You know,
- 14:11Speaker 1: so I'm having them help me find the best lyrics
- 14:15Speaker 1: I can find. And I remember I had like flashbacks
- 14:21Speaker 1: of them as young kids, like two three years old,
- 14:25Speaker 1: sleeping on guitar cabinets and Aussie singing in the background,
- 14:29Speaker 1: you know, during usfest and I was like, this is
- 14:33Speaker 1: so cool because it's a journey. You know. They've been
- 14:36Speaker 1: through this journey with me through all these years. They've
- 14:39Speaker 1: been through all these festivals, all these concerts. They slapped
- 14:42Speaker 1: in real shit venues, we ate shit food. It's all
- 14:50Speaker 1: been a journey, you know. And now we're doing this
- 14:53Speaker 1: together and preparing them for their journey out too, because
- 14:57Speaker 1: they're they're gonna be hopefully even continue so fly after
- 15:03Speaker 1: I'm no longer here. Hopefully they can even continue this thing,
- 15:05Speaker 1: you know without me. To me, that would have been great,
- 15:09Speaker 1: you know, I love that idea.
- 15:11Speaker 3: A lot of those longs.
- 15:12Speaker 2: Have you discussed the musical succession plan for one day
- 15:16Speaker 2: you need?
- 15:17Speaker 1: You just said last not really, I mean it's it's
- 15:20Speaker 1: we talk a little bit about it, and it was
- 15:22Speaker 1: actually was his idea. He said that hopefully like one
- 15:25Speaker 1: day he can continue doing soul Fly after I'm no
- 15:29Speaker 1: longer here, you know, and uh, that's I thought that
- 15:31Speaker 1: was a great, cool, great point. And uh, even without that,
- 15:35Speaker 1: even if they're in another band doing what as long
- 15:38Speaker 1: as they're happy and doing what they love from the heart,
- 15:43Speaker 1: because this, this music and this lifestyle requires sacrifice. You know,
- 15:49Speaker 1: it's not for the fainted heart. You gotta have a hard,
- 15:52Speaker 1: tough skin, and and you gotta you gotta really love
- 15:56Speaker 1: what you do because there's a lot of crap moments,
- 16:00Speaker 1: you know, but to get to a good moment, you've
- 16:05Speaker 1: got to have a lot of ship moments. So when
- 16:08Speaker 1: the good moments come, they are good. You know, they're
- 16:10Speaker 1: they're worthwhile. And that's what I try to teach them. Uh,
- 16:14Speaker 1: there's no easy pat you know, nothing is easy in life.
- 16:18Speaker 1: You know. To get to something good, you're going you
- 16:20Speaker 1: have to go through the bad.
- 16:22Speaker 2: Uh.
- 16:22Speaker 1: And that's cool. I think that's why I like a
- 16:24Speaker 1: life lesson that they have to learn and hopefully they
- 16:27Speaker 1: and I also start to enjoy the moments. You know,
- 16:30Speaker 1: enjoy every every every moment that you have in this world,
- 16:34Speaker 1: because it's it's a it's a it's a beautiful thing
- 16:36Speaker 1: to to be alive, to be playing music, to be
- 16:39Speaker 1: making music, to be sharing music with the world, with
- 16:42Speaker 1: the people of the world. It's a cool feeling.
- 16:44Speaker 3: Damns right rather damns right now.
- 16:46Speaker 2: The other news is that Soulfly a touring is is
- 16:48Speaker 2: trying next year with an album and not like I
- 16:52Speaker 2: know a value you brother, but that is probably one
- 16:54Speaker 2: of the best trifectors of bands that you could have
- 16:57Speaker 2: possibly put together to come here.
- 16:59Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be great. You know. Neilbom is Killer Live.
- 17:04Speaker 1: We've just done Europe a couple of months, a couple
- 17:07Speaker 1: of weeks ago. We set Europe ablaze. It was we
- 17:11Speaker 1: set all the festivals on fire. And then we have
- 17:15Speaker 1: so Fly with a new record, which is great. We
- 17:17Speaker 1: get to play a lot of Shama together with all
- 17:19Speaker 1: the hits, the soul Fly hits, and then have snot
- 17:24Speaker 1: of course it's not is connected to the early Soulfly man.
- 17:28Speaker 1: You know, Mikey played guitar with me on on Primitive
- 17:33Speaker 1: and sol Fly three, and uh yeah, it's not a
- 17:37Speaker 1: cool band. Mike is grey. I think the Australia fan
- 17:41Speaker 1: is gonna love it. It's gonna be an amazing time.
- 17:43Speaker 1: I can't wait. Actually, I love Australia. I love to
- 17:46Speaker 1: be back there and that's gonna be just just a
- 17:50Speaker 1: lot of fun. Man. I'm excited to be back in
- 17:52Speaker 1: Australia in January. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be hot,
- 17:56Speaker 1: right thinking hot, I think it's not.
- 18:01Speaker 3: It's hot for sure. So bring you a pair of
- 18:03Speaker 3: heavy mush shorts and you can you can rock out with.
- 18:05Speaker 1: It, please? I need that.
- 18:09Speaker 2: Did you realize how much work you've created for yourself
- 18:12Speaker 2: might putting soft F and album on together.
- 18:15Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's gonna be tough. But I'm up for
- 18:18Speaker 1: the challenge. You know. I'm actually like feeling actually kind
- 18:20Speaker 1: of good right now healthwise, I feel really cool, and
- 18:23Speaker 1: uh yeah, I think I'm up for the challenge. I
- 18:29Speaker 1: love both. Both sets are very different from each other.
- 18:33Speaker 1: New Bomb is all be easier. I don't have to
- 18:34Speaker 1: sing as much, so fly I do all the singing.
- 18:37Speaker 1: But I think the crowd's gonna be there. Are gonna
- 18:40Speaker 1: feed off the crowd, no problem, It's it's a done deal.
- 18:44Speaker 1: It's gonna be great.
- 18:45Speaker 3: I'll back you in, brother. Those shows start in Bricebood
- 18:50Speaker 3: on January the twenty sixth.
- 18:51Speaker 2: Then you had the Sydney on January twenty seven, Melbourne
- 18:54Speaker 2: on the thirtieth and other side of those dates, you've
- 18:56Speaker 2: got Froth and Fury Festival in fairth on January twenty
- 18:59Speaker 2: fourth and Adelaide on Januar thirty one. Say just say
- 19:02Speaker 2: someone's going to one of those festivals and they don't
- 19:04Speaker 2: know too much about now Bomb and Soulfly because there's
- 19:07Speaker 2: lots of other bands. They're like, what three songs should
- 19:09Speaker 2: they listen to get ready and what you're gonna bring?
- 19:14Speaker 1: Well, you should go definitely go listen to a nail
- 19:17Speaker 1: Bomb Vatomnuku. That's that's a second track of the first record.
- 19:23Speaker 1: Listen to Soul Fly, Jump the fuck Up, Yes, jump
- 19:28Speaker 1: the fuck up, and and go listen to Storm the
- 19:33Speaker 1: Gates brand New Shamas. You know in a couple in
- 19:37Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, we're gonna have more songs No
- 19:40Speaker 1: Hope hopefully uh Nihilist and No Pain, No Power. But yeah,
- 19:47Speaker 1: all of those do get you fired up for the
- 19:49Speaker 1: concert for sure.
- 19:51Speaker 2: Fast Max says very much for your time, bro, always
- 19:53Speaker 2: a place to chatting with you, mane. We'll catch you
- 19:55Speaker 2: as many shows as I can get you in January.
- 19:58Speaker 1: All right, man, take care brother, you said out hey,
- 20:00Speaker 1: Thanks broving
- 20:10Speaker 3: H