It’s being proud of the past, but moving into the future.

At Graspop 2017, I had the pleasure to talk to Iggor Cavalera again, about his (then) upcoming new Cavalera Conspiracy album.

Great to see you again! How are things in your world?

Good, good man. Busy! Super busy, but all good!

Yeah? You do look a lot more relaxed even than last time we spoke, in the tour bus in Tilburg.

Maybe, yeah. I can’t remember *laughs*

I get it, you must talk to a lot of people. You just got a haircut before that video interview.

Oh, yeah, yeah. That was cool.

So, the Graspop festival! Are you excited to play here?

Yeah! I mean, Graspop is one of the biggest and coolest festivals for metal, so it’s always good to be part of it. We have been many times, and it’s always a pleasure to be back.

I’ve seen you play here with several different projects! It’s always fun to see you on stage here.

Yeah, I mean, we were really looking forward man. This is going to be a lot of fun.

How is it to play the same stage as your old band, Sepultura?

Cool, cool. It’s fun. We are doing our thing, you know. That’s what it’s about.

Exactly. And speaking of your own thing, you’re working on a fourth album! What can you tell us about that?

It’s amazing. We are really, really happy. There are twelve new songs. The producer who worked with us is this guy called Arthur Rizk, and he’s amazing. He does, I don’t know if you’ve heard of this band called Eternal Champion?

I don’t think I have.

It’s kind of like old school Metal, and he plays in this band and is also a producer. So, it’s very exciting times. We are really happy with the record.

He’s a good friend of yours, right?

Yeah, yeah. He’s a good friend, and he plays in different bands, so it’s good to have him on board to do the record.

What kind of thing does he bring to the table, where it comes to this record?

I think, the cool thing with Arthur is, he is pushing especially me and Max to do certain things that… Like in the last few Cavalera records, we had more of an engineer than a producer. More someone who was like recording our ideas. This time, Arthur is actually involved in the process of the ideas.

Alright!

Sometimes when me and Max were doing something, he would come out with even more ideas. Like you should try this. And some stuff yes, sometimes no, but it was good to have a fresh brain come in and help.

So you could say he’s like a temporary band member at the moment?

Well, yeah. Usually the producer can do that. He can be in the team somehow, helping to bring the best out of the process. That’s the important thing of a producer I think.

Well, you always had a thing for fresh takes on music, I think, with all your projects so far. So, it makes sense for you!

It does, it does, because, again, it’s something that takes you out of your comfort zone, and that’s important. It’s the only way you can get more creative. When you’re too comfortable, you become a little lazy, so it’s always good to have someone pushing you to do extra.

Yeah, and I feel like that’s something you do naturally. Even with your current Roots tour, you have an updated version of the title track.

Yes. It’s good to try new things and to explore a little more, so that it doesn’t become too boring.

Exactly. In what ways is the sound of the new album going to be different from your third album, Pandemonium?

Very different, actually. Sound wise, very very different. Like, a completely different studio, a different producer, engineers, so the whole thing has a very unique sound to it. I’m really excited about it.

Can you already lift a tip of the veil on the subject matter on this album?

It’s hard, because right now we are still finishing some of the vocals on the album. So, we have all the instrumental parts done, but Max still hasn’t finished. I think that once we have all the vocals, it will be an easier task to try to see how the album is going to come out as a whole.

Yeah. You already explained last time how Max works with his vocals, how he first rhythmically does something and then fills in the words later.

Yeah, yeah. It’s cool, it’s almost like a percussion instrument. Of course, it’s one of the formulas that he has, that really works.

It also means that lyrics come later in the process, I get that.

Yes. Usually that’s one of the last things.

Well it works!

Yeah, it works man.

I was reading a Metal Injection article, that read like a gossip story. It said something about a Sepultura Endurance movie and they say that you blocked the usage of music. What’s going on there?

It’s just a documentary they did, and me and Max were not a part of that documentary. We were not involved in the production of it, so we decided if we are not involved, we don’t want to be a part of it, so we took out all our parts in it. For me, if they want to do a documentary from the day we left until now, that’s fine. But if it’s about the past, then everybody should be involved. Otherwise it’s just someone’s opinion.

Right. It’s not your story.

Yes. I’m not part of it.

I get that completely. How do you feel about this tendency of a lot of these Metal media outlets, to start gossiping about things? You know, the big headlines you see more and more? How do you deal with that kind of stuff?

If I’m completely honest, I don’t really read that. I prefer reading stuff that I can learn something from. Like a good review of a record that makes you go like hmm, let me check this record out. Something that brings up some keywords that drag you in. For me that’s more positive. The gossip, it’s fine. People like it, but I’m definitely not one of them. I don’t want to know. Whatever man. Give me something cultural. I don’t loose time with that, man.

That’s the best way to deal with it! So, are you just here at Graspop to play, or are you also going to watch some music?

I hope I can watch. I am really excited to see some bands like Gojira, Mayhem, Ministry, Code Orange is one of my favorite new bands.

Very cool!

Yeah, so hopefully I get a chance to check some of that stuff out.

That should be cool. It’s always nice to have a festival like this with so many different kinds of Metal music.  

Yes, so, hopefully!

So, you’re almost finishing up the Roots tour I guess?

Yes.

So what’s up after that, just finishing up the album and then tour with that?

Then touring with the new record, that’s the plan.

Any specific dates planned already?

No, no. It really all depends on the label. Once they have their plan together for the record, then we come in with like a touring plan. One thing needs the other! So we’re finishing our work so they can do their work.

As soon as you’ve finished the album, I’d love to hear it and I’m sure we will talk again on the road somewhere!

Definitely.

That leaves our standard last question; do you have any last words for our readers?

I don’t know, it’s hard, but the cool thing is, of course we’re really proud of playing Roots, but we’re also really proud of putting some new music out. It’s being proud of the past, but moving into the future. That’s very important.

Yes. And knowing you, you’ll do that well.

Thank you!

Thank you very much for talking to us again!

Thank you brother! Hope to see you soon.