MAX CAVALERA Says Brazil 'Doesn't Feel Like Home Anymore'

On April 3, Niclas Müller-Hansen of Sweden's Rocksverige.se conducted an interview with Max Cavalera (SOULFLY, SEPULTURA, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, KILLER BE KILLED). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Rocksverige.se: You've lived in the U.S. for quite some time now. Do you in any way feel American?

Max: Well, I learned to like American football. I've become a fan of that. It's quite different from soccer, but quite addictive once you get to know it. I didn't like it at first. because the game stops too much. I used to hate it when I first moved to America. I was so against it and I couldn't even watch it. It's hard with baseball too. and I still hate baseball. Baseball sucks! And golf? Golf is so boring. There was this big baseball player, Randy Johnson, and he came to see SEPULTURA on the "Roots" tour. He was very famous and very tall and he actually won the 2001 series with the Diamondbacks. The week they won, SOULFLY was playing and he came to the soon to get autographs and so on. A nice guy, but I still don't like baseball and I told him that. I said, "It's great meeting you and I'm honored, but I hate baseball." And he just said, "It's all good, man! I don't care." In a way, I'm kinda Americanized. A lot of stuff in America is cool, like water parks and [Las] Vegas. Vegas is so crazy and wild. It's a beautiful country, it really is. We live in the Southwest and there's mountains and then you have California and the ocean. We've toured a lot in the States, so we've gotten to know the country quite good. I like Colorado too. It's probably one of my favorite places. I'm still Brazilian though.

Rocksverige.se: When you go to Brazil, do you say you go home?

Max: Well, it's kinda hard, you know. It's changed a lot, but I think for the better. It's a lot more modern now and the World Cup should be good for Brazil. I do go back there quite a lot. I was there twice last year and we did a really nice tour of 10 shows and we did 3 shows in the rainforest with 20,000 people and a festival in Brasilia, the capital, and there was another 20,000 people there. We played in Rio with SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, which was very nice and I love that band! It's good to go back, but it doesn't feel like home anymore. Home is actually Phoenix. That's where I feel at home.

Rocksverige.se: And family is, of course, very important to you.

Max: It was like that when we grew up. An Italian family and we were pretty united and pretty close with big dinners on Sundays with the whole family and 20 people around the table eating pasta. Everybody screaming and being very loud. Italians are very loud. Then having my brother in the band and now I'm back playing with him again, which is great and also having my son playing drums with SOULFLY. I'm proud of our family and it's a metal family that lives for metal, which is great and I've always wanted a family that was involved in my activities. I wouldn't mind if they weren't involved and if my son was a doctor or a lawyer, but I kinda like it better that they're not. [laughs] Actually, our daughter is studying to become a lawyer, which is good. We need a lawyer for all the lawsuits. [laughs]

Rocksverige.se: Tell us about the next CAVALERA CONSPIRACY album? You've said that it's gonna be really heavy.

Max: Yeah, grindcore! I say grindcore, but it's not exactly like that. It's still CAVALERA, but heavily influenced by NAILS, TRAP THEM, ENTOMBED… all those great bands. We have Nate (Newton) from CONVERGE playing bass and he did a great job. I love CONVERGE and he's got that nasty, distorted sound. It was funny, because during the recording, Igor [Cavalera, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY drummer and Max's brother] kept trying to go into a groove and I would stop and say, "Fuck the groove!" Every time he got into a groove, I said, "Get the fuck out of that groove!" It's 90% fast, but some grooves got in there; it couldn't be helped. But I managed to get 90% fast stuff out of Igor. A good victory for me.

Read the entire interview at Rocksverige.se.