You are touring in the US for almost a month now. How has it been so far?
Really good. We have made good friends with everybody. They are good bands, legendary bands: Death Angel has been around for a long time. CoC [Corrosion of Conformity] is classic, I love the records “Blind” that they are playing [on this tour] and Lody Kong is my kid’s band, and they are opening the whole show. And Igor and I are of course having fun, playing together all the stuff that we play. It’s just short… it ends tomorrow. It went to fast… this only happens when you have a good tour…it goes fast.

How have the crowds been reacting to the new material live?
We don’t play a whole lot of new stuff… we are not like those bands that go out and only play new stuff. We don’t like that. We play a little bit: “Babylonia Pandemonium”, “Cramunhao” and “Not Losing the Edge”. But, it is mixed with all the old stuff: old Nailbomb, old Sepultura, and old Cavalera. So, it is all mixed up and when is mixed up like that you can’t tell them apart… it all becomes part of the show. I think the show is really energetic… that’s the best word to describe it.

You released Pandemonium last year, first I need to ask you about the album’s art work. The cover is very interesting… any special meaning for you?
Well, the artist is a very famous Brazilian artist, Stephan Doitschinoff. He is Igor’s friend. He’s got a style of painting that is very unique, with colors and the skulls that he creates. He has his own trademarks going [on]…

We first came up with the idea of the design. We told Stephan to do a tank with the tower of Babylon on top of it, because of the song Babylonia Pandemonium. But I think Stephan thought it would be better to just do a tank with a skull, it would be more powerful… with the flag of Sao Paulo and factory with crosses on it and little details. I love the cover! I think it is beautiful and I think Stephan is an amazing artist. We are very lucky to get him to do the cover.



You guys released your third album last year…. Does it feel like family reunion when all of you meet up for the recording sessions?
It is very easy to work. We know each other very well. Especially [for] Pandemonium… it was a lot easier and faster. I think we recorded the record in record time. It was like… in 17 days for everything, which is like, unheard of… It normally takes a month. Igor even finished earlier. He finished 4 days earlier and went back home.

It’s great when you know each other. And of course, the only thing that has only been a problem in Cavelera [Conspiracy] is the bass player. I don’t kno

w… we have “a curse of the bass player”. We had Joe [Duplanier] from Gojira playing on the first record, then Johny Chow who was a member but then he joined Stone Sour but he is on this tour now (laughs)… it’s crazy! It goes in circles, you know? On this last record, Pandemonium, it was Nate [Newton] from Converge, who plays the base.

Hopefully, one of these days, we will find somebody to be the official base player and stay with that person… I don’t know. But if not, we will keep doing like this.



Some of the titles of the album are in Portuguese: Cramunhao and Porra. Do the fans try to understand what it means?
Oh yeah! People go to Google to see what Cramunhao is (laughs). I don’t know if there is a response for that because it is a slang from the north, you know? I actually never really heard that name before when I was living there. One of Stephan’s designs was called Cramunhao so, I asked him what Cramunhao was: it is a Brazilian slang from the north, it means devils in backyards… crazy kind of thing so, I just thought of making a song out of it… sounds cool! Yeah! It is fun to have the fans searching for things like that. It makes them curious (laughs).

I remember reading about the album and how you wanted to make it more based on grindcore… do you think people in general got that feeling from the album?
I think people like the album because it is heavier and more aggressive so, I think they are satisfied, specially the people who like heavier stuff (most of my fans tend to be like that). I see every day more fans in the show wearing t-shirts of Aborted, Behemoth, and stuff like that. In the past it used to be more Slipknot and Korn t-shirts… now is heavier stuff. I can notice the difference. So, I think they are happy with that.

As far as the grindcore: we could do a couple of songs a little shorter and really go for the full grindcore effect. I think that the grindcore idea was really [about] the power, the violence of the music, not the length of the songs. So, we kept the songs at a “normal” length. But, I think it works. I like that. I will probably do more of that: influence by a style [album]. It would be kind of cool…do a black metal album with black eyes and shit (laughs).

Ok so, as a Brazilian, I have to ask you this: every year I hear rumors or people wishing the old Sepultura lineup would come back together. Do you think the fans will ever let that go… that hope that you guys will get back together one day?
Probably not (laughs). And it probably never going to happen. I don’t see it happening. I almost think that is almost a good thing, because I don’t think it would be as good now as it was [before]. It wa

s really good! It was something really magical and for some reason it clicked at the right time. Kind of like Pantera… They were kind of like that: a unique band. Sometimes you look at the reunions and it is not so good and you wish they wouldn’t have done it.

In a weird way I made peace with it. [I] made peace with the idea that we are not having a reunion. That’s why I have three bands: Soufly, Cavalera [Consipracy] and Killer be killed: so I can be busy all the time and stay producing music, living for music. I might even do another project. I have always wanted to do a dub metal record: a mix of reggae and metal, very very good and well done… that’s the future plans but, because I have all that, I don’t miss the reunion.

Maybe it would have been good… maybe… I don’t know… maybe it would be bad, you got to look at it both ways you know? What if we do it and it is not there anymore, you know? The emptiness comes and it is like… this sucks, maybe we shouldn’t have touched it (laughs). By not touching it, it stays sacred. People can go on youtube and see the videos [from that time] and relive it there. I mean, if they want to get close to what it was, Cavalera Conspiracy is the closest thing to the early Sepultura, because we play “Troops of Doom”, “Desperate Cry” and so on…. It is full on. And I think it is great that Igor and I play that because we are the originals from that group… we formed that group. So, we play those songs with conviction, you know? (laughs).

And the lyrics… specially the lyrics! Like “Inner Self”: it is about us living in Sao Paulo at that time. I find it difficult to imagine other people singing those lyrics, because they are so personal, you know? So… that’s why we do it. People love it. After the shows we meet the fans, and especially on this tour, the comments I hear are: “I love the show” and “thank you for playing the old stuff”.

After this tour you have a Latin America tour. What is after that?
Some festivals in Europe: Hellfest, Dowload... And then, I switch to Soulfly because the new album comes out in August and it is our 10th record so, it is pretty cool. It is kind of good to switch back and take a break from Cavalera [Conspiracy], because we hit hard with and Igor doesn’t like to tour that much, and I don’t blame him. I think this is the most we have done in a long time: US, South America and Europe almost one after the other, just a couple of days off. It’s going to be good, I’m excited for it. And we are already talking about the next [album] Cavalera [Conspiracy]…

Any messages for the SOM viewers?
Thank you to all the fans. Great years of metal and yeah… show up at the shows. Let’s have fun together!