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Interview
by SashaS
26-3-2003
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| Soulfly: riffs & beliefs rolled together |
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Maximum antitude
Soulfly defy emotional bankruptcy
With the Iraq perversion blanketing the media, we’ve been thinking what band could soundtrack Armageddon the best? We reckon that Soulfly would be an ideal choice despite its music and philosophy being directly the opposite. That’s what Soulfly’s music should do – remind people that they could have been ‘One Nation’, if only a tad more understanding, respectful, tolerant, supportive…
It could be heaven on Earth if we try harder and Americans don’t let ‘Chief-thief’ like Bush get into the White House; as it stands, it is like episodes of hell! Max Cavalera knows all about injustice: he’s seen it on the streets of his native Belo Horizonte, Brazil, as well as in his adopted country of the USA – he lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with wife/manager Gloria and their offspring – and not least during the numerous tours around the globe with Sepultura and Soulfly.
Cavalera’s rock-warriors are certainly fearless and they toured around Eastern Europe (Russia, Hungary, former Yugoslavia) and then, Greece, just before the Iraqi killing fields opened for business; very surprising when most Stateside artists prefer to stay locked in their alarmed mansions and, probably, glued to their wall-sized Plasma-screens watching this travesty that is treated like the latest Reality-TV!? Has the world, or at least – tele-programmers – become so emotionally bankrupt?
“Well, this has been the most amazing tour,” Max reflects on his world, “and playing these places was a revelation for us. It was very important to play these countries because we have a lot of fans there. When we played Belgrade (Yugoslavia) it was totally insane. People told me afterwards that was the best concert ever played in the city!”
We immensely enjoyed the London stopover (see Reviews/Rock or Search) for sure and wonder whether his belief in the power of music has been shaken with all the displays of ‘armament diplomacy’?
“I feel it is more important to tour now then at any other time,” Max’s words echo with resolve. “A lot of American bands refuse to come but I believe it is the most important to tour now, to give people chance to escape, to lose themselves in music but not forget how unjust and cruel the world is. Music has an incredible power and it should be active the most during the global crisis.”
Loudhailed messages
Max Cavalera has been around for 20 years – he formed Sepultura with his drumming brother Igor – but there is no loss of enthusiasm, no lack of energy to play every gig to the last drop of his ideological glands. He attributes it to the vibe, love and energy of the audience, every night: how else would you explain visiting 20 countries in 8 weeks!?
Cavalera’s credo has been all through his career that, despite all apparent differences, we are one kind of humanity, the Sci-Fi’s Earthlings; he expressed it with the ‘Tribe’ theory while fronting Sepultura (he was abruptly ejected from the band at the end of 1996) and ‘One nation’ with Soulfly.
“Yes, I truly believe that we are one and the same; we all may differ on surface, have different colour, different religion, different backgrounds but we all remain – human beings. We all have similar aims, ambitions, dreams, drive… Only the circumstances differ which can easily be corrected… And, the more I travel the world, the more I realise that it is true.”
And he pursues his ‘vision’ with dogmatic vigour. Knowing that he is a pacifist, born and raised in Brazil but now a resident-alien in the USA, does he understand the reasons for the Iraqi War’?
“No, I don’t because there are none. Not only that I’m against any and every war but this time the reasons are really questionable and it looks more like an unprovoked attack, an invasion of a (sovereign) country. Against the sanction of the UN… There is no way you can justify what is happening now and it shouldn’t be happening at all. We should all protest and demonstrate against it and try to stop it!”
“What I wish is that all the nations in the world disarm so that none of this can happen.”
The band’s leader is not only a pacifist but an incurable idealist… And we could certainly do with more of his ilk!
Slave New World
The current tour sees Soulfly performing, amid songs from the current album ‘3’ and other picks from different career periods, a cover of Nirvana’s ‘Territorial Pissings’ of which he says that it just happened (they picked it up), adding “I don’t know the words, I make them up every night!”
Family life and great music he makes with his band balance his existence that is full of questions where the world is heading; the inner and outer words provide plenty of topics and inspirations and songs for the next album have already started to take shape.
“We are touring America after we finish here (Britain), then comeback to Europe for the festival season. At the end of the summer we get off and then we’ll start working on some new songs. I don’t expect we can have a new album out until early in 2004. And, in meantime, I’ll be enjoying myself on stage, it is such a buzz!”
Soulfly combine meaningful lyrics with robust rhythms sprinkled with ethnic-icing for a colossally honest rock experience, anti-image, anti-corporations, anti-everything but heartfelt, passionate and inciting (internal) revolt… It sounds and feels R-E-A-L at this fictitious time, as Michael Moore designated it at the Oscars.
SashaS
26-3-2003
Soulfly’s album ‘3’ is available now on Roadrunner Records
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