Sepultura

Against (Roadrunner)
An interview with Igor Cavalera
by Scott Hefflon

Against opens with the title track, perhaps the most aggressive song you’ve done in some time. What was the reason for that?
We thought we needed to start with something very strong. For the last year and a half there’s been a lot of bullshit, so it was important for us to start out the album like that. In the past, we’ve often started with really fast songs, like “Beneath the Remains” and “Arise,” and we thought we should do that again with “Against.”

I only have an advance, so I don’t have lyric sheets. What, specifically, are you against?
The title can have a lot of meanings, and I like that in an album title. People can have different reactions to it. Our main reason was that once you fight for something you believe in, there’re always going to be tons of things against you. The song itself deals with that, about struggling and going for the kill, not leaving things behind.

I found very interesting the way your bio describes the last year or so as “having survived the most difficult period of their careers.” Obviously, the split with your brother (Max, former vocalist, who recently formed Soulfly), and management (Gloria, Max’s wife), has been tough, but this hasn’t really been the biggest hurdle you’ve overcome, has it? I mean, this was all just financial, credit, power…
I dunno… This wasn’t really a financial matter, it was really just another period of proving ourselves. We’ve always been about challenging ourselves and breaking barriers. We see it as another challenge, not the biggest challenge.

Can you summarize why you and Max split?
It was very simple, but it took on a lot of complicated things. It was not working out with Gloria, especially for me, his brother. Max was involved in a lot of things, and he didn’t have the right respect for me or the other members of the band. Management was portraying Sepultura as Max’s solo effort. It hurt a lot, to the point where we couldn’t work with Gloria anymore, and that made Max’s decision to not work with the band anymore.

So the order is you fired the management, and Max chose to quit. He choose his wife and manager over his band and his brother?
Yeah, if you were to put it as simply as possible. The choice was up to him. For me, I couldn’t deal with it. Especially coming from Brazil, that’s not how we do things. Everything we do is very clear. It either is there, or it isn’t. Sepultura was never about one person, it’s about people putting all their ideas and influences together. But that’s not how people were seeing it.

From your point of view, did he betray you, or do you think he’d have any grounds for thinking you betrayed him, or was it just a decision that had to be made?
I don’t think it was a betrayal, I think it was just a decision he had to make for his own reasons. Not only me, but the whole band, would work with him again. Our problems were never with him.

Moving on to your new singer, Derrick Green – he’s from more of a hardcore background… How’d you hook up with him?
We were introduced through someone at Roadrunner, Mike Gitter, an A&R person who’d seen Derrick with his bands and knew his background. He thought it would be good to have Derrick involved in Sepultura.

What was the last band he was in?
Alphajerk, on Revelation. They weren’t doing anything at the time.

Derrick is the first non-Brazilian in Sepultura. Is it weird to have someone in the band you didn’t “come up” with?
Over the years, we learned to keep Sepultura a very universal band, so when we opened up the doors for people to try out, we wanted to give a chance to people all over the world. And that’s how Derrick came into the picture.

Did he help write any of the songs?
Most of it was written already, but he helped rearrange things. A few songs we went back and redid.

He’s a guitarist as well, right?
Yes, but he didn’t play any guitar on the album. He really wanted to concentrate on the vocals.

In the future, do you think he’ll play rhythm while Andreas solos?
Yeah, live, definitely. And for the next record, I’m sure he’ll write some stuff with Andreas.

Against has more soloing than I’ve heard from you guys in a while.
One song, definitely, but on the whole, I don’t think it’s all that much more.

What other changes, or evolutions, can you point out between the Sepultura of the past and the Sepultura of the present?
I think we’re really trying to keep an open mind about working with new people and new ideas. Sepultura was never a band that repeated itself, and we aren’t about to start now. It was important for us to work on something new, but without really paying attention to what direction it was taking.

I like some of the vocal stylings – it’s got the roar that we’re all used to hearing from Sepultura, but it’s got some screamcore, a little shrieking going on there as well.
It’s cool because that came from Derrick, a fan of the band, who brought to the songs what he heard, and what he thought was missing. It’s like having a fan change the band to what they want it to sound like.

There’s less ambient tribal groove then there was on Roots.
Roots was more of a conceptual album. Against is more open to different ideas and different kinds of percussion. Roots was very Brazilian-oriented.

Against has a song, “Kamaitachi,” that’s Japanese-oriented?
We went all the way to Japan to work with a percussion group, Koto. We were on the island where they live for a few days, it was awesome. They’re a band that we really enjoyed over the years.

It’s been two years since Roots, what’ve you been doing?
Writing the material for this album.

It says in the bio that you didn’t want to rush the decision you were faced with – breaking up the band, continuing under a different name, or continuing as Sepultura – that you took a long break to think about what had happened and what you wanted to do.
I spent a lot of time in Brazil. It really helped. And it was good to be back home. It really helped me to experience different things, away from the band, with my family and friends. We’d been touring so much for all these years, that’s one of the sacrifices we made – losing touch with family and friends.

Do you have other any brothers or sisters besides Max?
I have a sister.

Is Max’s family kind of like an extended family to you?
Yeah, but I can’t really call his house because of her, it’s very ugly. Especially coming from a Brazilian/Italian family which has always been very close. It’s very painful for me not to be able to see my brother and my nephews because of a business decision.

How do you see this getting resolved? Business comes and goes, but family is forever…
Definitely. I hope it’s resolved…

You changed producers again for Against. While you guys always co-produce, you had Scott Burns do Arise, Andy Wallace do Chaos A.D., Ross Robinson do Roots, and now Howard Benson do Against…
Sepultura has changed with each album, ourselves, our styles, our producers. The only person that’s been involved for some time is Andy Wallace. Since Arise, he’s been involved.

Max stuck with Ross when he did Soulfly, right?
Actually, Max went for the same everything that we did on Roots – same studio, same producer, same engineer, same mixer, same everything…

How was working in the studio different with Derrick than with Max?
The main difference was Derrick tried different things. With Max, we always kinda knew what he’d go for. With Derrick, it wasn’t uncomfortable at all. He’s been in the studio before, so we didn’t have to show him what to do or anything.

What’s the one most obvious difference between Sepultura then and Sepultura now?
The feeling of being a band again.
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