MAX CAVALERA: I Don't Need A SEPULTURA Reunion, But I'd Like To Do It For The Fans

Nyna of MetalSickness.com conducted an interview with SOULFLY/CAVALERA CONSPIRACY mainman Max Cavalera on November 18, 2010 at Elysée Montmartre in Paris, France. You can now watch the chat below.

On the possibility of a reunion of the classic lineup of SEPULTURA, featuring Max on guitar/vocals and his brother, Igor Cavalera, on drums:

Max: "People are asking me about this reunion thing. I've said many times before that I'd like to do it and I don't even need to do it because both of my bands are doing really good — CAVALERA CONSPIRACY and SOULFLY are doing so good that I don't even need a SEPULTURA reunion for my life. But I'd like to do it for the fans because they're asking for it so much. But I think the person that they should ask is mostly Paulo [Xisto Pinto Junior, SEPULTURA bassist], because he's the one that's been telling people that it's not gonna happen. So, I don't know, really. If people want to know, they should ask him. They should ask him straight up, 'Why are you saying it's not gonna happen?' and get an answer from him. Because I can only do so much. I did try already. And, actually, I got my brother convinced to do it — Igor said that he would do it — and I talked to Andreas [Kisser, SEPULTURA guitarist] and Andreas was, actually, like, 'OK, I'll do it. Let's do this reunion.' And then Paulo becomes the problem. It's kind of ridiculous, actually, 'cause... I mean, in that band right now, there's nobody original. I created that band, I gave the name. I started that band when I was still in school with Igor. Nobody from that time is in that band right now, from when we first started. I don't know... It's kind of weird to have them around carrying the name like it was theirs; they act like it was their band. Really, it's not. That was my and Igor's band in the beginning."

On the recent departure of SOULFLY bassist Bobby Burns:

Max: "Well, we're still friends. It was really a friendly split. SOULFLY is a very demanding band that demands of you to really... You've gotta be some kind of soldier to be in SOULFLY and it's really not an easy band to be in, and I'll be the first one to say that. We go to places a lot of people don't go, and we play places a lot of people don't play. But on the other side of the coin, we get to see the world and get to travel the world and meet many people and it's great life for a musician. It was my dream from the beginning to do this. And when somebody is not feeling the same way as us... I always said from the beginning: If you're not 100 percent here with us, then you should not be here at all. And Bobby wasn't like that anymore; he was, really... It was a situation where nobody was even talking to him in the end, and he was not talking to anybody. It was really strange. I never had that in a band before like that. It was really kind of, like, 'What's going on with this guy?' And it got to the point where he started to drink a lot, too, and that was another problem. He started missing a lot of notes and not playing the bass so good live. That's another thing that cannot happen; we have to make sure that we play good at night — a lot of people want to see us, so we've gotta be... If there's 10 people at the show or 10,000, I want SOULFLY to perform the same; I always that to the other guys. Even though it's hard sometimes — if there's less people there, if there's no vibe, or the vibe sucks, you still [get into] it. Those people there are your hardcore fans because they came here. Maybe there's only 100 of them, [but] they are 100 of your most hardcore fans that came to see you, so it's very special that you play the same. And Bobby was not feeling like that anymore, so it was better for us to say to him, 'We think it's better for you to go and we'll get somebody there that's gonna be hungry again to be in the band,' and that's what we're looking for right now."

SOULFLY has just completed a U.S. tour with STRAIGHT LINE STITCH and INCITE.

Bassist Johny Chow, who has played with SOULFLY's Max Cavalera and Marc Rizzo (guitar) in CAVALERA CONSPIRACY and is a member of FIREBALL MINISTRY, is loaning his skills to SOULFLY tours for the immediate future until the position is filled.

SOULFLY's latest album, "Omen", sold 6,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 73 on The Billboard 200 chart.

SOULFLY's previous album, "Conquer", opened with 8,400 units back in August 2008 to land at position No. 66 on The Billboard 200 chart. This number was in line with the opening tally of the CD's predecessor, "Dark Ages", which shifted a little more than 8,000 copies during its first week of release in October 2005 to enter the chart at No. 155.