Mar. 24, 2010 - Issue #753: Zion I

On the Record

SOULFLY

Reading the Omen: Max Cavalera gets deep into Soulfly's latest

Max Cavalera has been hammering out the metal for a long time now, beginning with Sepultura's 1986 debut, Morbid Visions. Since splitting with that band after 1996's Roots, Cavalera has released six albums with Soulfly and one with Cavalera Conspiracy. Cavalera spoke to Vue Weekly recently about Soulfly's upcoming seventh album, Omen.

VUE WEEKLY: How long did it take to make Omen?
MAX CAVALERA: Probably about a year and a half all together, but the studio time was about a month in the studio for everything.  Recording time was about 17 days that we used to record everything and then the rest was used to mix, so I did it in pretty good time.

VW: Do you like to work quickly?
MC: Yeah, I do. I like a lot of the original ideas. I don't like to change the stuff too much 'cause I think you ruin the song when you start changing it too much and when you start thinking too much about it. I think the original idea gets lost in the process, so a lot of the stuff that you hear in the Soulfly record, it's the original idea, so it's very close to where it first originated, when the riff first came out. We like to keep it like that, and that's why our recording is a little bit faster than other bands.

VW: It's like capturing that moment in the band's life, then?
MC: Yeah, it's that moment of the album. The style that the album represents is where the band is at the moment, and it's fine with me because I look back at the older albums, all the way from Sepultura to Soulfly, and I can see where my head was at the time and where the band was. Back a long time ago we used to take a little longer time in the studio and that just fucked everything up, ruining the song to the point that we didn't like the song anymore, and that was a drag. I learned from the early days not to do that anymore: if the original idea is good, is exciting, keep it and go with the flow and just move it along.

VW: Did you hit a point where you said, "OK, it's time to make a new album," and then start writing songs or did you have anything from the past that you dug up for this?
MC: I dug up a little bit from the past. Maybe 20 percent of Omen was material from before and then the rest was all new that I went and recorded knowing that it was going to be for the Omen record.
I was just writing and writing and writing non-stop until I knew I had enough stuff, and I just stopped writing at that point and went into the studio with the material and turned everything into songs. Normally how I do this is I write the original riffs on a four-track with a drum machine so they're almost like songs. They're almost complete songs with all different parts and stuff and then the band learns those and from those four-tracks each one of those songs becomes a song on the album and we just change a little bit more, like we add bridges and add solos and choruses and things like that, but the actual song is created on this four-track. The four-track spirit is actually very important to making the album: it's where the feel of the album is going to come from.

VW: Did you write more songs than you needed for the album?
MC: Yeah, I did write more than I need, so there are a couple things left that I've been thinking I might use for Cavalera Conspiracy. I've got to listen to them again and make sure they fit Cavalera Conspiracy, and if they do I'll probably use it.

VW: When you're writing, do you know right away that a song is going to be for a particular band?
MC: Sometimes, and sometimes I listen to them again and I can actually change them so they fit the other band. So they can fit Cavalera Conspiracy if I change them a little bit knowing how Igor [Cavalera, brother and drummer in Cavalera Conspiracy] plays, because Igor plays different. It's pretty easy to do, actually changing the song to fit Cavalera Conspiracy.

VW: You recorded some covers for B-sides with Omen. How did you decide on the songs?
MC: Those were picked by my sons because they played drums on them. Zyon, my oldest son, picked "Refuse/Resist" by Sepultura, and Igor, my youngest son, picked Excel, "Your Life, My Life", a hardcore band from Venice that he likes—pretty underground stuff. It was their choice and it was kind of cool that I didn't have to choose them because I've been choosing cover songs my whole life and it was good to take a break.

VW: Was this your first time recording with your sons?
MC: In the studio, yeah. It was great, it was really exciting and they delivered. They knew the songs, they practised, so they were ready for it. And just being in the studio with them was really a great moment. They don't have bands or anything yet, they just play drums because they like drums. Both of them picked up drums—I don't know why one of them didn't pick a different instrument so they could be in a band together. But they both picked up drums so I recorded with both of them playing drums on different songs.

VW: You've always invited guests to record with you. What is it about collaborating with people outside of the band that draws you to that approach?
MC: I like it a lot. I always liked it back from the Sepultura days. Collaboration was always a huge thing and it's just something that brings another level to the song, and you get to hear the artist in a different way than you normally do. For example this album you get to hear Greg [Puciato] from Dillinger Escape Plan singing in a normal structured song, not a chaotic structure like Dillinger Escape Plan, so it's kind of cool to hear his voice in the normal setting of a song.

VW: Magic can happen when you take people who are not used to playing with each other every day and throw them together.
MC: That's exactly right. One of the reasons that I do it is a lot of great things come out of that. It's unexpected, like this is really exciting. V

Sun, Mar 28 (8 pm)
Soulfly
With Prong, Incite, Rotting Corpse
Starlite Room, $28

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