Interview by Rachel Jablonski
No matter your opinion of his music, you must recognize that Max Cavalera is undeniably a good soul. Working hard throughout his musical career to create heavy songs while incorporating a vast array of sounds, instruments, and cultures, his world vibe is captivating. I found myself enlightened while speaking to him about his musical endeavors in other countries. And I found myself almost in tears and strongly affected the rest of the day hearing him speak about the recent death of his 8 month old grandson as well as his friend Dimebag Darrell. With a new album and DVD coming out this year, as well as an upcoming tour, Max was quite enthusiastic and we had plenty to discuss.
Rachel: Hi Max, how are you?
Max: I’m good, how about you? Where are you calling from? Are you in the states?
Rachel: Yeah, I’m in Iowa. Where are you at?
Max: I’m at home actually in Phoenix, Arizona. I just got back a couple of days ago.
Rachel: Cool, where did you go?
Max: I’ve just been doing the recording of the record. I did some stuff, most of the stuff, here in December and then I flew to Eastern Europe and Russia and Turkey to add to it. And I’ll get back to the studio tomorrow to try and finish.
Rachel: What kind of stuff did you go there to add?
Max: It’s pretty much similar to what I’ve been doing with all the records – kind of like war music elements. I was really happy to find some really cool people in Moscow. I used some strange Russian instruments. I spent three days in Turkey, in Istanbul, I had never been there, and put some of that – I cannot even pronounce the name of those instruments. [laughs] They’re really old instruments, ya know. It’s kind of like the world music vibe that Soulfly has. I’m trying to keep that alive as much as I can.
Rachel: Cool, did they teach you how to play or did you have these people play the different instruments?
Max: Yeah, I actually didn’t really play anything. They’re very, very difficult instruments. A lot of them were some really strange kind of like flutes and things like that. I can’t really play that. The one thing I did was in France I caught up with a Brazilian guitar player that lives there. We did a song together for Soulfly 5 which is an instrumental song. That turned out pretty cool. I play with him on acoustic guitar and stuff.
Rachel: When will this recording come out?
Max: Right now we’re looking at trying to get this album wrapped up. Like I said I go back to the studio tomorrow here in Phoenix. I’m hoping I can get the mixes done by next month because I’m going to be on tour. Hopefully they’ll be done next month in February and the album will come out some time in July or August. That’s what we’re trying for at least.
Rachel: Do you have an album title yet?
Max: No, actually I’ve just been writing lyrics. A couple songs are even without a name yet. It’s a little bit unusual the way I did this record compared to the other ones. Maybe a little bit similar to Prophecy, but a little more wild because I stopped recording the music in December, then went to those countries to add new stuff, then I go back to the studio tomorrow. So a lot of the songs the guys came and we jammed together, but the whole band hasn’t heard any vocals yet. So I still have to put vocals in eight or nine songs, but the music is all there so eventually it will come out and I know I’ll find a name. I was joking the other day that I won’t call it Soulfly 5. [laughs]
Rachel: [laughs] So you have this tour coming up. What are you expecting with Morbid Angel as co-headliner?
Max: Um, I think it’s going to be a really cool tour. We’ve played together before many times. When Soulfly opened for Pantera, Morbid Angel played with us. We just saw them in Europe doing a lot of the festivals that we did. So we have a good connection. I think it’s really cool. What I’m trying to do is maybe show the people that in music the worlds do kind of combine and at least in music there’s less prejudice in terms in everything. Although my beliefs are a little different from Morbid Angel’s lyrics that doesn’t stop us from playing together because the music is really what’s the bottom line. And the same with Slayer. When we went on tour with Slayer a lot of people were like ‘How can Soulfly go on tour with Slayer?’ Ya know it’s so opposite, but Slayer was so cool and you get two very different bands pretty much saying different things. The night doesn’t become boring because you have a really big change from one band to another and for the fans it’s really cool. In Europe people are really mad because they wish we were having this tour in Europe ya know. A lot of places I visit say ‘ah man it sucks this tour is not coming to Europe,’ at least not as of now. So I’m very excited. I think it’s going to be a really cool tour to be part of. I like them a lot, I like their music and I think the fans are really excited to get to hear some new Soulfly as we get to play some new songs for each city. We have a DVD coming out in February so it’s a really exciting beginning of the year for us.
Rachel: What kind of set lists will we see on this tour?
Max: Well, it’s still perceived as the Prophecy tour even though I’ve been working on the new album. So it’s going to be based on all of the albums and of course also Prophecy a lot. But I’m going to try to play at least three new songs so people can have a first idea of what kind of stuff we’re working on. The band is really comfortable coming in and doing the new record. I think it’s going to please a lot of the fans that like Prophecy, but want to hear more. That’s what I feel about the new album, it’s a lot like Prophecy, but going even deeper. So yeah, I think it’s going to be a really cool tour. I’m really excited.
Rachel: You talked about the band. What’s it like working with Mark Rizzo and Dave Ellefson and those guys? How do they fit in?
Max: It’s a little bit easier now and better because Mark and them have been in the band now for an entire album cycle. They came into the studio with a lot more ideas and are really excited to be part of another Soulfly record. So I think it was easier to make this new record, but at the same time we push ourselves further. I really push me and the other guys to come up with something that’s even beyond everything we’ve done which is the way I do things. I create something and at that time I think it’s impossible that I can go any further. But by the time the new album comes out I’ll go do the same thing again and go beyond what I’ve already done. I don’t want to just repeat what I’ve done. I’ve always been like that in all of my bands. This is the same kind of situation. This has trademark songs but it has more, it has some stuff people haven’t heard yet from Soulfly and they’re going to be really excited when they hear it.
Rachel: Are there still two bassists in the band for this new album?
Max: Yeah there’s still like gaps and stuff. I’m going to do a song with my son; it’s a song with all those war music elements. There’s a song that Dave Ellefson comes in and puts some bass on. Also, we might be working with a Brazilian artist called Soulflinger who is into a lot of different kinds of music. So those things are gonna make the album a little bit different, but the actual core of the band going live is me, Mark, Joe, and Bobby which is pretty much the same line up from when Prophecy kicked off.
Rachel: Tell us about this DVD that’s coming out. What type of footage does it have and do you think it really captures Soulfly over the years?
Max: I wouldn’t say it captures the entire thing because it’s almost impossible to do that. I realized that when we actually started talking to the producer. He was going holy shit you guys did so much in these four records. He needed like three DVDs to really show everything that we’ve done so we made a compilation of the bands and the moments that really define Soulfly. It shows a lot of the collaborations, a lot of the line-ups, a lot of cool shows and festivals, stuff a lot of the American people haven’t seen that we do outside the states. There’s also footage from the states from touring and there’s a lot of personal stuff which I think for a lot of people that’s their favorite. They get to see stuff that I filmed either with my camera or somebody inside the Soulfly camp had a camera and captured some of those moments. Like when we went to South Africa you know sleeping on one of those safari camps type things with lions and shit outside your door. There’s a lot of crazy shit like that. People don’t know that we go to those places. And there are some interviews with fans, with some of my kids, so yeah I think it’s a really cool DVD. Everybody that has seen it has liked it a lot because it is very natural, nothing is forced. It’s exactly how we do things. Not trying to be anybody else, just the way we are, just the way I am on an everyday basis. The only thing which is really strange is that Moses, whom I wrote the song Moses about on the last album, was my grandson and he passed away while we were doing the DVD, he was eight months.
Rachel: I am really sorry to hear that.
Max: Yeah, that kind of freaked me out a little. It was like wow I never really thought that would happen. The thing that changed the DVD for me a little bit, when I see that footage – there’s footage of me and him inside the tour bus playing and stuff – it’s hard for me to watch that still. It’s almost a flashback of pain like the day he died. It was really strange because it was the day after Dimebag got shot. It was a really dark week. The end of the year in December was probably one of the darkest ones I’ve seen in a long time. And it’s strange because you’re doing something like a DVD and you’re all excited and you’ve got all the projects and then something like that happens. It brought me down. But on the other hand that’s why a lot of Soulfly stuff is to give people inspiration in moments like that. So I use that and there’s going to be some lyrics on this record that deals with that again. Overall it was a loss and I’m really sad, but I also manage to use that somehow to give me and people that listen to this music some kind of strength to carry on because we all need it from time to time. Music has always been there for me for that and I hope I can just keep passing that to the fans.
Rachel: That just breaks my heart. What’s the foundation that you have set up in the name of your grandson? How can people donate?
Max: He was born in Serbia which is a really poor country. It’s in Europe but it’s kind of third world and they have orphanages for kids without dads and moms and without families. So they somehow contacted Christina, who is Moses’ mom, and through the band we wanted to help somehow. It’s been really cool. We’ve got a lot of feedback by email and a lot of presents have come to the orphanage. It’s something that is done in a really great spirit and gives these kids some kind of hope. So I like that a lot. The same with my son that has diabetes. We’ve been helping the diabetes foundation since he was two years old and he is 10 now. Things like that apart from the music we can do to really help some people that sometimes can’t do it on their own. So I think it’s really cool and I’m all for that. I really enjoy helping out.
Rachel: That is really cool. You produced Prophecy right?
Max: Yep.
Rachel: What were the challenges you found with that?
Max: With the second record I was producing for Soulfly, I did produced Soulfly 3 as well, I felt more comfortable. Working with the engineers, we are clicking really well and I really love the whole experience. I love the way the in which I go out of my element turn out. I went to Serbia for Prophecy and this time I went to Turkey and Russia and France and yeah it’s kind of like our own way to make records. I don’t know anybody that actually makes records like that. It’s really unusual and the results are always different because you just don’t know what you’re going to get when you write stuff in those parts of the world. It’s completely impossible to imagine what’s going to come out of it, it’s always a surprise. But I really like that and I think for the fans, it’s going to be heavy they don’t have to worry about that [laughs], there’s something more in having this element in Soulfly. Little by little people are catching on and realizing that it is cool. It’s real heavy, it has all the elements of metal, but it has something that we don’t see anywhere else. So that is my job, to keep that kind of idea alive. As a producer that is what I try to do apart from the sound. Guitar sound and drum sound is also stuff that I like to do and I always try to get a better sound each record. Producing Prophecy and producing the new album has given me a lot of encouragement to keep going. Maybe one day, who knows, even produce another band. I don’t have anything in mind right now, but I wouldn’t mind one day because I actually enjoy working in the studio.
Rachel: When you go to these foreign countries does the record label or your management help you out financially?
Max: No, that’s actually from the album; it’s like a separate budget from the album. Without going to these places the album is different so I consider it to be an essential part of the album no matter how crazy it is or what kind of sound I’m getting from those places. The label does help in finding people. In France our label RoadRunner France helped a lot to find the studios because I don’t know the studios in those places. We found some really cool studios in Paris and in Moscow to record. Gloria helps me a lot and tried to organize as well. A lot of things are very difficult, you know, because like in Turkey you don’t know their language at all. It’s completely crazy, the whole society is different. You go there and think ‘what’s going to happen? I have no idea.’ But it’s exciting cause you meet people that completely freak out that you’re in their country. They’re like ‘wow it’s pretty crazy that you’re actually here right now’ [laugh] so that’s cool. Once the album comes out I think, for worldwide fans, for my fans in Brazil, for my fans in the U.S., they get to hear stuff that they normally wouldn’t hear anywhere else because those sounds are very difficult to find. You really have to go to those places to find them. I don’t want to just go to World Music and buy CD and just sample some stuff. That’s cheating, you know? That’s the easy way. For me I actually have to be there, physically be there talking to the people. It’s scary sometimes. Like flying to Turkey was a little bit scary with the whole situation with the world right now. But I live life kind of like if that should happen and I’m going to get blown up in the airplane then that’s it that’s the way it’s going to be. I won’t stop doing my things because of that.
Rachel: Right on. Is there anything else you’d like add?
Max: No, that’s awesome. Thank you for your time and I hope to see you guys on tour.
Rachel: I’m going to come see you in Minneapolis February 19th so I’m excited.
Max: Awesome. Thank you again for your time.
Rachel: Thank you, have a good day.
Max: Take care.