MAX CAVALERA : FUCKING ME(N)TAL!

-MC : I really wanted to come up with a new record that different, with the same style, because it’s Soulfly, no matter what, take the music further necessary to change the members and bring something more different inside it.

-So, could you introduce us to those new members ?

MC : Mark Rizzo plays guitar, Dave Ellefson (from Megadeth, ndlr) plays four songs, Joe Nunez was the drummer on ‘Primitive’, so he’s back in the band, and Bobby Burns, (ex Primer 55) plays bass on the record.

-And, with those new members, what is the color, the tonality of ‘Prophecy’ ?

MC : I wrote all the songs and went into the studio with them and we had things ? some guitar parts, some cool bass lines, some productions ideas, jam sessions I kept I think they belong to the album, and this album is, from beginning to the end, like a journey, he visits many different places, and I like that, it’s very interesting today to make a record like that, with all that spirit, almost like Led Zeppelin, musical journey.

-Talking about journey, you’ve been to Serbia for this record ,to work with several bands and singers : why this choice of this country in particular ?

MC : with Eyesburn, ‘Moses’ which a combination of dub and metal, and also I ended up recording with gypsies, who came from the countryside, and I also worked with a professor of music, an old guy who plays a lot of very different instruments, from the middle ages, very cool instruments, and I think that gave some of the ambiant parts of

the album, this unique flavor and this kind of mystic sound.

-Will you tour with them in Europe ?

-MC : I’m trying to put something up with Eyesburn, I would like very much to bring them on tour for a couple of shows of whatever.

-Was it your choice to produce ‘Prophecy’ ?

-MC : Non, I fell up to, I produced the last one and felt more comfortable coming into prophecy, I have many ideas, I

would work with a very good engineer, so I knew the sound would be well recorded, all that helped me a lot ? finding the musicians and organizing the studio and stuff and in the end we had Terry Date mix the album, like last time ; we are a good team, a very good team, I like the way the album was done, it was the right flavor to record ‘Prophecy’.

-Talking about Terry Date, what are your feelings about the split of Pantera ?

MC : I was surprised and not surprised at the same time, because I think that Phil was doing his own projects and stuff, in a way it was something that was not totally a shock. I’m not in their camp, I’m not sure. But, in general, if it’s not working, like it did with Sepultura, it’s better to go your own way, which I did.

-I’ve heard that ‘Prophecy’ was like separated in two parts, with two kind of songs, the second one being more

religious inspired

MC : I can see why people think that because we have five heavy songs and then there’s tunes more spiritual and melodic songs, but then there’s more stuff like ‘Porrada’ or ‘Born again anarchist’, which are pretty heavy, and ‘Wings’, which is more melodic : for me, it’s not really divided in two, it’s more like a journey

a do some stuff back to heavy and with a melodic end, more spiritual. I think it’s a real journey.

-I’ve read that a live DVD would be joined maybe to the special edition of the album ?

-MC : I’ll have a DVD, but not together with the album, and we still have to work on it. It will be issued sometime in the middle of the year, I think. It will contain live stuff, but also video clips and some interviews also explaining some aspects of Soulfly, all that it represent to me and to the fans, so it should be pretty cool. Before, we’ll realized ‘Prophecy’ and concentrate on the touring. We’ll be in France at the end of April.

-What do you think of the Internet as a media ?

-MC : I’m not a big user I use it more now, when I was making the record, to see ? work and to get things like yesterday we used Internet to see videos from America, now I use it for work reasons, I never go there to chat and things like that. I’m not really into computers myself !

-4 records which changed your life ?

-MC : Queen’s ‘Killer’s’ was the first one, and Black Sabbath, ‘Sabotage’, a very influential record, Bob Marley ‘Exodus’, a great album, and Dead can dance, for all the musical aspects.

-If your life or your band was a movie, which one could it be ?

-MC : Difficult ! I would say ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, because it’s an epic journey too, no ?

Interview made by Jean Paul Coillard, February 2004, in Paris.

Thanks to Anne Claire for her help.