ANDREAS KISSER: SEPULTURA Is 'In A Much Better Place Today' Than It Was 20 Years Ago

Maximum Metal recently conducted an interview with guitarist Andreas Kisser of Brazilian/American metallers SEPULTURA. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On SEPULTURA playing with Steve Vai at the Rock In Rio USA festival in Las Vegas:

"We've known each other for a long time, but more like backstage type of vibe, in Brazil. He's played there many times and every time he's there, I'm there because I'm big fan of his music. I've followed his career from Frank Zappa, to David Lee Roth, of course, when he exploded into the world, and then his solo career. And then to have him together to play with us was amazing. Everything was so 'right!' Much better than we already expected. And also, we have people who work together with SEPULTURA and him — lawyers and people from labels, like that. Actually I talked with him a few years ago; there was talk that our album was to be released through his label. But, that was before we signed to Nuclear Blast. But that was also a cool time to talk about different stuff, too. He's a gentlemen, he's a genius. We love his music so much and for him to accept this challenge for him to play with us on stage was amazing. He had a great time as well. We did the percussion song 'Kaiowas' for him to improvise on the guitar and it was great. We also did a little bit of one of his songs, 'Bad Horsie', which is very heavy, very groovy. I think it fit so well for the stuff that what we do and it was great to represent both bands, not just Steve Vai playing SEPULTURA music, but we playing his music, as well. It's great, because we did so many different things with so many different groups; percussion groups from Brazil and Japan, we've played with Mike Patton and Jason Newsted, so many different musicians. And now to celebrate our 30 years with such a special show, Rock In Rio, in Las Vegas, the first time this Brazilian brand was brought to the States, is such a big honor for all of us. And it was great kickoff the tour, too. It was broadcasted to the Internet and millions of people saw that, so it was a real great start. And we thank Steve Vai for all his energy and professionalism, and love and passion for what he does. It was amazing. We were so privileged to have an opportunity like that. It was awesome."

On whether he has any regrets about Max Cavalera leaving SEPULTURA:

"It's not something to regret or not; it's just something that happened. And it's unfortunate, because he left at the peak of our career. SEPULTURA was touring around the world, we were playing arenas in Europe, and we had an amazing 1997 ahead of us. But, we couldn't go on with the way things were. Everything was so confusing, things were happening so fast at the time and we had different plans. We fired our manager, we tried renegotiating different terms so we could work as a band, but it didn't work out that way. It was his choice to leave, you know. That's what's very unfortunate. But I don't regret our move or attitude at all. It was a professional move that we had to do… I tell you, in dark times, when one door closes, 16 doors and windows open at the same time! You cannot really be there crying and let life pass through, so we never lost our aim or urge. We respect each other and what we're doing and what we learned throughout the process, like how to be more careful with the business end of it. We are in a much better place today. Of course, the 'Roots' period has passed, unfortunately, because we lost our momentum with Max leaving and everything. But we're in a much better place now. We're in a much more relaxed atmosphere. We're really together. We talk to each other, not just about music. We talk about family, football, women, whatever. We're really friends and we're doing what we really believe in."

Read the entire interview at Maximum Metal.