MAX CAVALERA Talks About Music He Has Written For ESPN's World Cup Coverage

David E. Gehlke of DeadRhetoric.com recently conducted an interview with Max Cavalera (SOULFLY, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, KILLER BE KILLED, SEPULTURA). A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

DeadRhetoric.com: In working with Greg [Puciato] and doing KILLER BE KILLED, did you have any NAILBOMB flashbacks?

Max Cavalera: It started like that. It was very similar, especially how Greg [Puciato] approached me and how he sold me on the idea of KILLER BE KILLED. I wasn't interested at first because I already had SOULFLY and CAVALERA CONSPIRACY and I was really busy. I was, like, "Nah, I'm really busy, I don't know if I can do this." And he was like, "You gotta do this man! It's going to be like NAILBOMB, remember? You had fun with that shit!" He convinced me. I said to him, "Come over to Phoenix and hang out. It's gotta be like NAILBOMB — you have to come over here." He came for a whole week. We wrote riffs, sang on a bunch shit, wrote the first two songs which was "Illuminati" and "Chloroform". None of them made it to the record; they're pretty punk rock and dirty and more raw-sounding, but it had a start. Then Greg said he knew this great drummer, who was Dave Elitch who used be in THE MARS VOLTA and he sent me a link. I watched him play and I was blown away — this guy is fucking amazing. I came to L.A. to jam with them and Greg was playing guitar at the time, which he doesn't do in DILLINGER, which is killer. He's a pretty good guitar player. Lots of cool riffs came out of him. At the beginning, it was two guitars, me and Greg singing, and Dave on drums, but we needed one more guy, and we thought the best guy would be Troy [Sanders] because he can play bass and sing, and that's when this became a supergroup. When Troy joined the band, we kicked to a whole new level. It became super-cool and super-serious. I realized when Troy joined the band that this is moving away from NAILBOMB and become something different.

DeadRhetoric.com: The World Cup is coming up, and you were asked by ESPN to write some music for them. Any hints as to how it's going to sound?

Cavalera: I was so nervous to do this because it was a big request from ESPN. The guy is a fan in ESPN; he's a big-wig. He called me. When [Max's wife/manager] Gloria told me the news, she was like, "You're going to like this one! This is one going to be close to your heart: ESPN wants you to write ten two-minute songs with riffs so they can use it for the World Cup." And I was, like, "No way!" At first, it was excitement, but then the nerves kicked in. It's a big order. What am I going to write? I jammed with my son Zyon, and we prepared some of the material and they loved it. They're going to use a lot of it, even for stuff outside of the World Cup. I can't wait to hear that shit. It was definitely weird, off-the-wall stuff I don't do all the time. I was also asked a few years ago to do the voice of the mummy on "Mummy Returns" with The Rock. I did a lot growls for that, and I can totally hear some of my screams. They put my name at the end of the movie, and I went to the premier. It was really fun, and again, it was a fan working the movie. From time-to-time, you get to do out of the ordinary shit like the ESPN thing, which was really cool. I was really happy. Marty Friedman did one for hockey for ESPN, and I was, like, "It's the World Cup, it's Brazil." I took it seriously and I did my best. In fact, some of the riffs could be used for killer SOULFLY songs. I was like, "Ugh! I should have saved those!"

DeadRhetoric.com: Wrapping up, what can you tell us about the new CAVALERA CONSPIRACY?

Cavalera: It's crazy shit. Igor [Max's son], I want him to play fast like he was 18 years old again. I was on his case; I was his tormentor, and I think I drove him nuts, but it was for the good of the record. I was like, "Treat it like it's 'Reign In Blood' or 'Beneath The Remains'. And fuck the groove." It's almost like we're going to call it that, "Fuck The Groove". Every time Igor went into a groove, I was, like, "Fuck the groove. Get out of it and go into a fast part." This shit is fast and brutal.

Read the entire interview at DeadRhetoric.com.