SEPULTURA Frontman Says His Band Is Better Off On A Smaller Record Label

October 5, 2003

SEPULTURA frontman Derrick Green recently spoke to Apeshit.org about the group's switch in record labels from Roadrunner Records to Germany-based SPV prior to the release of their latest effort, "Roorback".

"[SPV is] a smaller company so it's easier to get a hold of people and get things done," Derrick said. "You don't have to go through a hundred people in order to get something very simple, an idea, across. At SPV, you talk to two people and it gets done. They work their ass off. They have no past with SEPULTURA so they're not trying to create something that happened years ago. They're trying to create a future. They have a lot of confidence in the band so that's something that is a 100% turnaround. They work their ass off like we work our ass off so it feels like we're working all together. With our old label [Roadrunner Records], it's just a lot of people working there. It's totally turned into something where they forgot what it's all about. We think that it's about them. They forget that it's about the music.

"[Roadrunner have] been [trying to capitalize on more mainstream-sounding bands] for years," he continued. "They've been really exploiting a lot of different bands and they've pretty much taken all the things that they've worked for years and just robbing them straight up. Their merchandise, their music, just keeping it for themselves. And it happens all the time. You hear about bands getting robbed all the time and it's true, especially with them [Roadrunner Records]. They've built up this catalog and then they sold it to a major. So now they're lost for ideas and creativity and they have a bunch of crap. They have a few good things and they're hoping that they pan out. And it's not at all where they started. It's like in another dimension. It's like NICKELBACK...that's what makes the money for them now.

"Luckily, we only had one more album to do [after 2001's 'Nation']. We had the option to leave or make another album. With 'Nation', [Roadrunner] didn't even promote it really and they wanted us to make another album, go right back into the studio. 'We're not going to pour our heart into an album that you're not even going to promote for a second time.' Forget about it. We're better off with 'you guys do what you want to do and we'll do what we want to do.' No hard feelings but we've learned a lot. We learned never to do something silly like that again (laughs). And not to sign to a big label just because they are a big label...that's the worst mistake that bands make, unfortunately. They think 'Yeah, it's going to be great!' But in most cases, all those big labels are suffering and the smaller ones are doing very well. And the smaller labels have the best bands now anyways. That's where I want to be. I want to be where you can survive, not where they're going to kill us. You should have integrity and respect for what you do, that should make you survive not selling yourselves out for one minute of glory and then it's over. SEPULTURA's always been able to survive."

SEPULTURA's latest effort, "Roorback", has sold 10,630 copies in the U.S. after five weeks of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The group's previous album, 2001's "Nation", has shifted 62,065 units, while 1998's "Against" has achieved a sales tally of 129,856.

"Roorback" was released in the U.S. on August 26 and moved 4,186 copies during its first week of release, a figure significantly lower than the 10,000+ first-week sales tally of "Nation" and the 18,000+ figure achieved by "Against".

SEPULTURA w/ SUPERJOINT RITUAL, DEVILDRIVER tour dates:

Oct. 16 - Columbus, OH - Al Rosa Villa
Oct. 17 - Detroit, MI – Harpos
Oct. 18 - Flint, MI - Machine Shop
Oct. 20 - Indianapolis, IN - Vogue Theatre
Oct. 23 - Chicago Heights, IL - Oasis One Sixty
Oct. 25 - Milwaukee, WI - The Rave/Eagles Ballroom
Oct. 26 - Clearlake, IA - Surf Ballroom
Nov. 01 - Baltimore, MD - Thunderdome Live
Nov. 05 - Providence, RI - Lupo's
Nov. 07 - Worcester, MA - The Palladium

More dates will be added soon.

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