Soulfly’s Max Cavalera On Album 13 ‘Chama’

‘I’m a metal fan, I like a lot of the new bands. I’m a guy that grew older, but I still have a seventeen-year-old heart of a metal fan. Full on metalhead and I love that. That’s a great thing. I refuse to grow up, I refuse to cut my hair, stop listening to music. It’s awesome to support the scene, be part of the underground and be part of the heavy metal scene in the world.’

Max Cavalera discusses with me the inspirations, ideas and ‘piss and vinegar’ in Soulfly’s new album, Chama, out on October 24. As ever, Max is erudite and excited about the bands thirteenth album.

‘We can’t wait for people to hear it. It’s a very inspired Soulfly record, full of piss and vinegar. It’s raw, heavy, angry, fast, tribal, all of it! The first intention we had was to reconnect with the attitude of the first album, more in the vibe and attitude. In terms of the ideas and how the record was set up, to me feels very familiar with the early stuff. On top of that, you have all these modern noise elements throughout the whole record that makes the record modern as well. That’s the thing I find quite cool about ‘Chama’ is although it’s inspired by the past, it holds on to the present and what’s going on right now, and that to me is huge. I feel this record has something quite special about it and it’s a very inspired record for me and Soulfly.’

Chama isn’t a concept album however a theme touched on often throughout is of a character called Chama who escapes the favelas of Belo Horizonte and departs for the Amazon, becoming one with nature and one’s own spirituality.

‘The point of the story is that in order for Chama to find his true identity, he has to leave behind the things that were around him in the favelas. The violence, the aggression, the corruption, the drugs, all of that negativity and go through the jungle where it’s a pure place, a spiritual place and connect with the animals and the indigenous culture. Looking at the flame he finds himself and of course flame means Chama in Portuguese and I think that’s a beautiful story and I love that’s in the centre of the album.’

The ten track album roars through riffs, percussion, insane drumming and new sounds that present themselves with each listen. Within all that is the Soulfly tribe of invited guests.

‘What I think is most interesting about these guests is actually two things. They’re all friends of mine and from bands that I really like and they’re quite unexpected. You didn’t really expect Michael Amott to be on a Soulfly record. You didn’t really expect Gabe Franco to be on ‘No Panic = No Power’. That’s really left field even for Soulfly standards! Dino Cazares is a bit more expected. We toured with him and he was in Soulfly for a little bit and it’s from that time that I asked him, whenever we do an album, I’m going to bring you to the studio and you going to give me your best riff ever, man! I want you to give me the riff that in a year from now you’re going, ‘I regret that, I wish I did not give you that riff’ and I think it’s going to happen. I think a year from now he is going to come out to me and say, I gave you one of my best riffs.’

Having guests on Soulfly albums has always been around, especially since the self-titled debut. Back then Max was quoted as saying he wanted to create albums like hip-hop groups then who always had their friends on them.

‘It’s an idea that’s inspired by hip hop because hip hop used to do a lot of that in the nineties and that’s where the idea come from, but you see that way more in metal today like Gojira and Lamb of God. All of them are doing collaborations now with other people, which is great. They’re friends of mine. I happen to be fans of their bands, so yeah, why not? It’s a win-win to me. One of the coolest things is hearing people like Tom Araya on ‘Terrorist’, it’s totally different from Slayer. That’s a Soulfly song. Even Corey Taylor on ‘Jumpdafuckup’, it’s quite different from Slipknot. The idea is that the fans get something extra as well. They get something that’s unexpected and to me as a fan, I feel very excited to work with my friends/heroes as well.’

In what may become a pub quiz question in the future, there is a very important link between Soulfly’s work on this album and Elton John. The Focusrite Board of which there are only three in the world.

‘It’s a really rare board that came from South Africa and it’s actually the board where ‘Lion King’ was recorded. Elton John did the whole soundtrack of ‘Lion King’ on this board and it’s quite cool. We got something that was used for a movie like ‘Lion King’ and we are going to make a metal record out of it! It’s a huge board, it looks like a space ship. It’s amazing and we took full advantage of it. We went to town with sounds and ideas. Zyon Cavalera was holding the production but also John Aquilion doing the engineering and then we sent everything out to Arthur Rizk to mix. This team is actually quite cool. We were all crazy, everything goes kind of attitude, no idea is a bad idea. One of those type of situations where we’re just throwing shit at the wall, see what it sticks. That’s why there’s so much cool noise on the record. That made the record feel a bit more dangerous and a little bit more fresh even than if it was just the regular, typical riff drums, bass, there’s a layer of other shit on top of it that makes it way more exciting.’

Son Zyon got heavily involved in the creative process on this record, something that the elder Cavalera appreciated.

‘One of the cool things is that you have a younger mind on the project. To me it was really interesting because the riff is the riff and it’s there and I love the power of the riff, but if you can make the song itself more exciting by adding extra layer of whatever creepy noises or something, you enter a territory where it becomes something more modern.’

Storm the Gates and Nihilist have already been released, however tracks such as Black Hole Scum and the title track are sure to land with the power of an atomic bomb.

‘They’re very exciting. I love the groove of it. I love ‘Black Hole Scum’, it comes of course a little bit of dark humour on Soundgarden there, which I’m a fan by the way. It’s the heavy beat down groove that I love and I’m glad it’s kind of back in Soulfly. Also ‘Chama’ at the beginning, the opening riff, it’s so groovy. You can’t help head bang. You automatically go into head banging mode, which is great. I love that.’

Interview By Iain McCallum

Soulfly’s Chama is out October 24 through Nuclear Blast…

On tour on the following dates, tickets from The Phoenix…

Also, appearing at Froth & Fury in Adelaide and Perth, tickets HERE…