Max Cavalera has reunited with his brother Igor, who left Sepultura last year. Igor and Max wasted no time at all in getting into writing mode, and then they headed into the studio with a handful of songs. The end result is Inflikted by the band dubbed Cavalera Conspiracy. I recently had a chance to talk with Max about the album, how he reunited with Igor, and the surprising answer on someday getting back on speaking terms with Andreas and Paulo of Sepultura. It was one of the most pleasant experiences. I hope you have just as much fun reading it as I had in doing the interview.

 

How long had it been since you spoke to your brother Igor?

 

More than ten years that we didn’t speak. It wasn’t until the last year that we started talking again, then we started to make the record you know. It’s been something like 11 or 12 years, man. It’s been a longtime.

 

Did it seem like an eternity?

 

It was a huge chunk of time man. So much happened in those ten years, the world changed entirely, with the internet, war, music it’s a longtime. My connection with Iggor in music never changed. We communicate the same, maybe even better now

For me it was very easy to make a record with him. Recording wasn’t the hard part, the hard part is waiting for the album to come out. That’s the only part that I don’t like. To make this record was very easy and a lot of fun.

 

How did you guys back on speaking terms?

 

(Pause) It’s actually ridiculous man, it was just a phone pretty much. Igor called me, but I think it was deeper than that. The timing was right, because it was a pretty bad split, which was publicized in every magazine across the world. It was crazy split from him. One phone call took care of it, one phone call, he came here and the next thing you know we’re jamming together then we’re making a record together. It’s unbelievable how something so simple that just needed to be done and all these years of agony and not talking and bullshit…it just goes away when we start talking again. We became brothers again, it was meant to be I think, I don’t question how or why things happen. It sucked that we didn’t speak for so long…it would have sucked more if something really bad would have happened, you know. I’m just glad to be back with him and recording, being his brother again and then being part of the family again, so it’s cool.

 

Max you have Soulfly did Iggor listen to any of your music while he was still in Sepultura? What did he think? Also did you keep track on what was happening with Sepultura since you left?  And if so what did you think?

 

(pauses) I never did listen to their stuff. I never felt…it was very difficult for me to do that since Sepultura was very close to my heart. It was a band that I was there from the beginning with Igor, then I’m not a part of it anymore…it’s a weird feeling. It’s just not a good feeling at all man, it sucks. So I didn’t listen to their records. I think Igor has heard Soulfly. What he thinks about it? I don’t care. I think it’s more important that we’re back together again, I mean if he likes it cool, if he doesn’t that cool too. I have many friends that don’t like my music, but their still my friends you know.

 

The Cavalera Conspiracy is this a project or will this be a longstanding band? The music sounds sincere, urgent and angry.

 

Yeah…we’re not really planning anything. One thing at a time you know, there’s no big plan with this group. The album has surprised a lot of people, we’ve been well received. I don’t know I have Soulfly, I love Soulfly, but with Cavalera I went back to my roots more thrashy roots and to get a chance to play with Igor that’s something special. I never plan things more that one day ahead, I just kinda go with the flow you know.

 

How long did the writing process take and what amount of time was spent in the studio recording?

 

The writing time I would estimate took something around a year. We took our time getting the right songs, once that was done we entered the studio and the album was recorded in about a month.

 

Were any of the songs or the ideas left from previous albums or writing sessions?

 

This was all pretty much new material, in fact one song one song was cut from the album, it’s “Inconspiracy.” It will probably be released as a b-side or something, I like the song, but it’s a very strange song. It’s not one of the popular ones, it weird, kind of like an odd song…hopefully they release it so the fans can hear it. We also did a cover of “The Exorcist” by the band Possessed, which will be on the limited edition or a b-side for Inflikted. Everything was new material that I wanted to make for the fans, so they can hear me and Igor play. I hand picked the riffs myself, when I saw Igor and he was into, I knew there was something special here. I wanted to do something that was different from Soulfly, this sounds different to me and I think that’s how it’s supposed to be you know. Soulfly and Cavalera Conspiracy are two different bands.

 

How much of Inflikted was influence by your Brazilian heritage?

 

Not much…not in the music. I think on the album there is one intro the third song. Igor added a Brazilian rhythm with the drum that is common in northern Brazil. That’s the only thing, but I think the album is very violent, musically and lyrically. That to me is very Brazilian but not in an obvious way, to me I been telling people…because I was watching City Of God while making this record…This movie had a big impact on the making of this record. I think on the violent aggression side of the Conspiracy the Brazilian side came out more… in a pissed off aggressive way. I think people normally see me doing more of the tribal stuff, there’s not much tribal stuff on the album, but it is very violent, the songs are very violent…that’s definitely Brazilian yeah.

 

What is your favorite track on Inflikted and why?

 

I like “Black Arc” which is the fourth track on the album I think. Why? I think it’s the future. It’s the future of metal or at least the future of Max and Igor metal. It has the type of signing like we had with Sepultura like on Roots. “Black Arc” is a futuristic metal song, it’s not a track that looks back at all, it’s really looking toward the future, from the name to the lyrics to it’s sound. That’s the future of metal and I think me and Igor will explore more of that in the future.

 

What are the plans for a tour to promote Inflikted in North America?

 

(Pauses) We’re working on that right now. They booked Europe first because of the festivals; we have huge demand to play at the different festivals. So we’re playing there first, but I think once the album hits America it will have a big impact. I think the impact will be so big that’ll we’ll be able to do a really cool tour here across America. So I’m excited, but right now we are waiting to get the fans behind the album when it’s released, have them pick it up, listen to it and support it. We will tour in the United States but I think it will be later in the year. I don’t care if we get to headline or if we’re doing stuff with other bands, whatever we just want to tour. I’m looking forward to this specially with Iggor; because it’s no like you see this everyday.

 

What prompted the change in Sepultura stylistically from Arise to Chaos A.D.? In retrospect do you think that was the best move? Some people were up in arms when their heard Chaos A.D.

 

We’ll always have that, you know, but that’s one of things about being in the band…when you set out to please everybody that’s when you actually fail. It’s just impossible to please everybody. I believe that all the changes that we made even the ones that weren’t accepted at first, but were accepted later…they were meant to be.

I don’t have a favorite record. I kid around that every record that I have made is like one of my kids or my dog, they are personal and a part of me. They all have different personalities some are more hyped up, some are quite, some are freaky (laughs)…but I like them all. Like from “Beneath The Remains” to “Roots” they are all different albums, they were important, they got me through a lot, what I was going through in my life at that time. I can say the same for all of the Soulfly albums and what I’m doing right now with Cavalera. That part of the thing you just can’t please everybody. I definitely thing we did the right thing man, all the time with all of the albums. There wasn’t one time were we didn’t do what we wanted, we did what we felt was right regardless of what people thought and I stand by it forever. I think it was the right thing to do.  

 

You were involved on the Probot, which is Dave Grohl’s side project. He did an fantastic job of getting metal musicians involved in that. You thoughts on “Red War” the track you sang on? And how was the recording for that track handled? Were you in the same studio?

 

No, we weren’t in the studio together, it would have been cool if that would have been possible. I had talked to Dave lots of time before I did “Red War” we had seen each other several time when we were on the road. I think at the time he was drumming for Queens of the Stoneage and we were sharing the same stage. We were talking and he said “I love your Brazilian accent, you’re accent really scare the fucking shit out of me.”  After he said “you scared the shit out of me on the Sepultura records and now on The Probot record.” He said Max “never change your accent” even if I wanted to I don’t think I could (laughs), I was born with that. Dave is a great guy man, that freak is so cool, that he put out a metal record. He showed his metal roots, a lot of people probably didn’t know that but he is a huge metal fan. I remember meeting him through the years at Sepultura shows from clubs to the bigger venues he was always there. The Probot record was a great idea, the only thing that I don’t like about it is that I didn’t come up with that idea first. It’s just a great idea, it’s like a metal dream come true you know. I did tell Dave that out of everybody the only person that was missing on that record, maybe was Tom Araya. Whatever he has Cronos, Voivod, King Diamond, Trouble that pretty fucking good you know…Lemmy, Lemmy’s fucking king right?

 

He sure is.

 

(laughs)

 

What is the likelihood that you, Paulo and Andreas will get back on speaking terms?

 

Sure, man. I will talk to them right now. We haven’t talked since the split, I don’t… I’m not the type of person that holds grudges. I know many people that are so proud that they can never let things go or put differences aside. Shit man, we all make mistake and we all fuck up you know. Yeah, I’d love to…not just to be on speaking terms but also let’s make some music for the fans too. Hopefully someday we can patch things up, I’d love to play that music with them again, even for some of the fans Sepultura has been the soundtrack of their lives, I know how important it, I’d love to do it. In the meantime, we might not have a Sepultura reunion thank God we have The Cavalera Conspiracy. When we go out on the road we’re going to be playing Inflikted, Sepultura, Nailbomb, you’ll get the entire album then we’ll fuck around with stuff from all the different ages you know. It should be pretty fun man.

 

Pick up a copy The Cavalera Conspiracy's debut album Inflikted on March 25th, 2008 on Roadrunner Records. Thanks to Nancy Sayle for setting up the interview with Max. And of course a big Thank You to Max, you rule.