Rockezine.com interview with Sepultura on Apr 03, 2003

with Paulo Jr. on Apr 03, 2003


		First of all, how are you? Hangover… but pretty good. That always happens in Amsterdam (laughs). There’s no escape from it.
		Lots of Sepultura fans had to let the “new” band grow on them, with the arrival of Derrick. Have they fully accepted him as a new singer, now that the band is releasing their third album with Derrick? Well it doesn’t really matter. 20 years from now, you’ll still going to hear “I want Max!” But most of the people have, I think. There’s nothing we can really do about it. It’s not going to change. If they don’t accept it, too bad (laughs). We’re happy with Derrick and all the stuff that we’ve accomplished with him. He’s very well integrated in the band. And well, if you like it, good. If you don’t… there’s nothing you can say about it. We can’t force everybody to like it.
		With your last album “Sepulnation”, you took a step back and went back to the old roots of Sepultura a little. What can we expect of the upcoming album? It’s a little bit different. I think every single album we do, or are going to do, will sound different and there’s no difference with this one. “Roorback” is more raw and simplified. And it’s more…punchy. It has about 12 songs on it, and we try to get our point of view more straight. Basically it’s more in-your-face.
		The new album is called “Roorback”. What is the meaning behind this title? Roorback means when a politician does false propaganda about some other politician. Kind of like a stab in the back. So there you go… it’s pretty complicated. But that’s basically what it means.
		With “Against” and “Sepulnation” the band has made some definite political statements. It’s no different here! (laughs)
		Can you say that Sepultura has grown into a political band? Most of the stuff that we write is sort of a state of mind at the time. In the past two years a lot of things have happened and changed the world. And ofcourse the lyrics on this album reflect on that too. Sepultura is very down to reality and we make the material so that people can intertpretate it in very different ways. Each person has their own way to interpretate the songs. And we just put out our own point of view in a way that everybody kind of reflects on.
		Your EP “Revolusongs” was first set to be released in Brazil only, yet you have decided to release it all over the world now. Why the change of decision? Well, now we have different deals all over the world, so each market is different. SPV here in Europe thought the best way to do this is put “Revolusongs” together with “Roorback”. So it’s a bonus. In every territory it just works in a different way, so we try to follow that. And it’s going to come out in a totally different package, so all the Brazilians are going to go like “Uh-oh…shit!” (laughs).
		The “Revolusongs” EP contains covers of older songs. What made you guys decide to do this instead of writing a new album first? I think it was just more like a preparation. More like a laboratory experiment, to give us some new energy to write stuff and to present something new to the labels that we were searching for at the time. And to show them how we work. I think it’s a positive thing too, because we were attached to a record label for so long. Now everything is different. It was a very different experience. And it was good for us too, to bring all this different music and play an album only.
		Why did you choose to do a cover of a U2 song? Because it’s a very strong song. We did it because of the whole song, everything in it. The song was written like 15 years ago, but still it sounds fresh and new.
		Last year you split with your long time record label Roadrunner. Isn’t it a big change for you guys? Yeah, we change everything. We don’t know these people very well…yet. We’re starting new relationships and we’re trying to have things done right.
		Is there an influence in the music as well, when changing labels? Definitely! It gave us more energy I guess. Now we got some new, fresh people that really want to work with us. They don’t see Sepultura from what we were in the past. They see it from now to the future. That’s why we had a problem with Roadrunner. They always wanted to force us and we would be like “No, everything’s got to change”. We’re a different band now and we’re not going to stop that. They never really believed in Derrick’s potential. Because he wasn’t very comfortable at first. But now everybody sees his potential and they look to the future of the band. So far, we’ve been getting good feedback. So we’ll see what happens when the record’s released.
		I also read that Derrick has done some of the guitar work on the new album… what was that like, since he mostly concentrated on the vocal duties on the past two albums. It’s good! He’s been playing more and more. We never force him to do anything. He picked up the guitar naturally. He can play the whole show. In time, he will adjust and he will get that chance, but it’s something that needs to come naturally. We don’t need to be like “Oh you have to do this”. His first priority is singing and if he gets comfortable with the guitars, that’s fine. We appreciate it. He did put a lot of influence into the new record, you can see that when you hear it. He’s a guy with totally different ideas and very refreshing, you know? So of course he’s going to reflect his influence on the music.
		How do you guys look towards the Internet, since a lot of bands are pretty pissed that their new material is distributed all over the net before its actual release. That’s why we’re trying to protect it as much as we can. The record’s going to be released in like, two months from now, and everybody has been asking for an advance copy, and we’re like “no, you’re not gonna have it”. You’re going to listen to it, but you’re not going to have a copy. We gave the people one song, and that’s it. All the work that you’ve been doing for the past two years can be on the Internet in five minutes! And there’s a drastic change in the record industry because of the Internet. But still, I like to use the Internet. I use mp3 and all that stuff. And like 99% of what I do have on mp3, I also have original. It’s handy to have on the road, so you don’t have to carry like a thousand CD’s, so you can use the Internet and search for something you can’t get. For example when I hear a name of a band, I use it to see what type of music it is, before I get it. And if I don’t like it, I just don’t buy the CD. It’s good for searching, but it’s being used a lot in the bad way.
		So do you think that it also has a positive side, like getting more people to listen to your music? Yeah, it’s good. It’s the easiest and the fastest way to get music. So it’s good for the fanbase. But you still have to protect the album from leaking. If it comes out on the Internet a week before the release date, that’s fine but not too much! (laughs). So we try to protect it as much as we can.
		What is your opinion on the war that is being fought this very moment in Iraq? It sucks, hehe. It’s something that’s going to reflect in a bad way. In a few years from now, in a few months maybe, I don’t know. Nobody knows. The real bad thing about it is that a lot of innocent people are dying for other people’s (politicians) interest. They want power, they want money. That’s what they want.
		So does it reflect on the music as well? Definitely! It reflects on everybody. Everyone’s scared to get in a plane to somewhere. And that’s the biggest scare that I have. To be somewhere and a terrorist bomb explodes and I get killed, or somebody else. It’s a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time (laughs).
		What can the fans expect of Sepultura in the future? A lot of music? (laughs) For this record we’re trying to play as much as we can. And we’ll come back to Europe at least two times. This is only like a promotional tour. We’re only going to play 2 songs from the new album tonight and a few songs from “Revolusongs” and ofcourse when the record comes out we’ll play more new material. We’re also going to play some festivals this summer. I don’t know if we’re going to do some festivals in Holland yet, but I know we’re Graspop in Belgium. And With Full Force in Germany. That’s it so far. There are a lot of expectations, but nothing’s confirmed yet. But we want to play! I like to play anywhere.
		Tonight your playing here in the Melkweg in Amsterdam. A smaller venue than you’d expect of such a huge band. What’s the reason for this “club tour”? That’s the whole idea. It’s a promotional tour, just playing in small places. It’s more like a warm-up for everybody. We’ve done it before. It’s like a try-out gig before the actual album comes out.
		Agresion is opening for you tonight. I heard that you are already familiar with this band for some time? We’ve known those guys for quite a long time. But this is the first time that they’re opening for us.
		Well that’s all I got for you. Thanks a lot for taking the time to speak to us. Do you have anything to add? Uhm, basically everybody’s happy with the final results of the record and we’re looking forward to come back and do a real tour.
(Robert Graalman)