Max Cavalera – Cavalera Conspiracy/Killer Be Killed

It’s not everyday that you get to casually skype with and pick the brains of  one of the greatest musicians that ever lived. I’m talking about the mighty Brazilian beast Max Cavalera! This man quite literally has eras in his life that stand as solid proof of his influence and ingenuity in the world of metal. This time around I got the chance to talk about his latest masterpiece, Cavalera Conspiracy’s ‘Pandemonium’. We spoke about the making of the new album, how it was to be working with his brother Iggor again, Killer Be Killed and heaps more!

We got straight to talking about the new Cavalera album and how psyched he is about it! ” I’m really happy with what we’ve done. It really represents the kind of people Iggor and me are, and the kind of music we love to play – raw, aggressive and just putting all our energy into the music. I know that a lot of people are gonna like this one – it’s heavier and more brutal than anything we’ve done before in Cavalera Conspiracy!”

This is the third release by the Cavalera brothers and is hands down the heaviest of the lot, possibly even one of the heaviest records Max has worked on till date! “ All we wanted to do was make the most brutal, fastest album we’ve ever done and I think that’s exactly what we’ve achieved with ‘Pandemonium’. For us, the main idea was to create more aggressive music and also with the idea of something that was louder with a lot more thrash and faster sections. So we just took those ideas to the studio and made something which is the most direct album we’ve done. There’s a lot of heavy stuff but we also have some tracks which have lots of groove, even some death metal stuff here and there. But it’s a 100% metal album and that’s exactly what we wanted.”

The writing process for ‘Pandemonium’ was also fairly straightforward according to him. ” All I do everyday is write riff after riff wherever I am and this takes me anywhere from a few weeks to a two months. When you keep writing riffs like that you eventually find the best ones that you think are good enough to go on an album and that’s what I did – took it to the studio, showed it to the guys and then we start putting everything together till we have a solid track ready! When we recorded we did it live in the studio together so that really gave a more natural feel when creating ‘Pandemonium’. Once we were ready with a track we recorded Iggor’s drums after which is why his drums sound killer.But the fact that we recorded the whole thing together as a band is what makes it awesome.”

The album title as well as the tracks represent the sheer strength of the Cavalera brothers and of course is reflective in the music as well. Based on a vast range of themes that float in the mind of Max Cavalera, trust me, this is the album to listen to if you like your metal with a touch of  history, philosophy and ancient folklore. ” There’s a lot of stuff that I was thinking about when I was writing for ‘Pandemonium’, that influenced the lyrics. ‘I, Barbarian’ for example is about man who is a powerful savage and a barbarian, as is most of humanity while ‘Bonzai Kamikaze’ (my personal favourite) is about the WWII Japanese Kamikaze pilots.   So really there’s no concept that ties together each song and that’s the cool thing about this album – it talks about a lot of different themes, things that I think about a lot but are tied together musically on the album. “

And the name Pandemonium holds what significance you may wonder? ” It’s the current state of the world man. There’s so much chaos everywhere, there’s no balance at all and that really is the best way to describe the current state that we all live in, that this world is in. Complete Pandemonium.”

‘Pandemonium’ out now via Napalm Records

The new album also features Converge’s Nate Newton on bass and Max couldn’t be happier with him and his musical skills. “ Nate is a crazy guy, a really great musician and plays some killer heavy bass parts on the record. He joined us when I invited him to play bass for us so this was after we had pretty much finished composing the album so he didn’t write or record with us because he was somewhere else. Even though he wasn’t recording along with us, he did what he had to and the bass parts came out really well. I’d definitely want him to work with us on the songwriting process the next time. I actually asked him to do vocals on one song which is ‘Crucible’ and there’s a cool story about that because the song is about the Salem witch trials and Nate told me that he was born in Salem. Crazy shit but everything turned out great, we’re really happy with him and he’ll most probably join us on tour.”

Max is known for being a family man and at the time of the interview he was on tour and had taken his son Zyon along! ” For a 21 year old guy, Zyon is doing really well! He has so much more energy than us , he always wants to practice and sometimes it’s hard to keep up with him [laughs]. Having my son by my side, on tour and on the record is awesome, especially as a dad!  This is a great learning experience for him though but he’s very focused on the music even if I tell him to just have fun with it. It’s awesome because my other kids are also in their own bands and it makes me proud of the fact that my whole family loves metal as much as I do. They will carry on the Cavalera legacy [laughs].”

Even metal legends are not strangers to family feuds – after a whole decade of absolutely no contact with his brother after he left Sepultura, Max spoke about how it was to be working so closely with Iggor again. ” That was a very difficult period in our lives for both me and Iggor and I was very sad that I couldn’t speak with my brother. We wanted different things and had different ideas, I was always asked why it happened but it just did. So after all that time, talking to him again, being brothers again, it was awesome, something I can’t describe. Working on Cavalera albums together really brought us closer together doing the thing we love the most – making crazy music so this album is definitely something special.”

Like I said this man has bands to mark each phase of his life and he’s recorded a ton of it in his autobiography. ” Gloria was the one who came up with the idea! She thought I had a cool story to tell and I thought to myself that I’ve been on a crazy journey – from being in Brazil and struggling to where I am now, I want to tell my story. We started making calls and that’s when Joel McIver came to us  and everything just took off from there. Joel (McIver) is a brilliant author, writer and person and I was stoked to be working with him. He’s worked with Slayer, Metallica and so many others so I knew he was the right guy. The book is basically about how I ended up making my life all about music, a dream come true for me and all the crazy things that happened along the way. It even features Mike Patton, Dino Cazares and many other close friends of mine so there’s definitely a lot of laughs but definitely an emotional and inspiring story.”

Max’s latest project, Killer Be Killed has gained a horde of fans in the past year since their epic debut release and Cavalera reckons this is just the beginning. ” The response has been awesome, we didn’t expect that kind of appreciation! We really had fun making that album  because each one of us has a different style, different approach to music and it worked so well when we put it together. KBK sounds so much more melodic than what I’m used to but it’s balanced out with some heavy sections as well, so it sounds crazy! I have so much respect for Troy, Greg and Dave as people, as musicians and I’m a big fan of all the music they make with their respective bands. We’ve talked about another album and it will definitely happen but right now we want to tour with this one as well as with our bands so we’ll be busy with that. But a new album will happen!”

‘Killer Be Killed’ out now via Nuclear Blast Records

We know Max is headed to our shores with the awesome Killer Be Killed but what are his plans for Cavalera? ” I love Australia, it’s an amazing country man! Really looking forward to playing with Killer Be Killed for our first live show and hopefully I’ll get to come back there again with my brother to play some Cavalera Conspiracy. But I can’t wait to play in Australia!”

Don’t miss Max Cavalera and Killer Be Killed live at Soundwave 2015!

Saturday, 21st February & Sunday, 22nd February 2015
Adelaide, South Australia

Saturday, 21st February & Sunday, 22nd February 2015
Melbourne, Victoria

Saturday, 28th February & Sunday, 1st March 2015
Sydney, New South Wales

Saturday, 28th February & Sunday, 1st March 2015
Brisbane, Queensland

1 DAY FESTIVAL TICKET $132.00 + BOOKING FEES

2 DAY FESTIVAL TICKET $188.00 + BOOKING FEES

For tickets and more information head to the links below.

 soundwavefestival.com / facebook.com/soundwavefestival / twitter.com/soundwavefest

Soundwave 2015

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