Soulfly: The Mighty Flame Keeps Burning
Chama, the new album from SOULFLY sees the band embracing the future as well as their past on an album that demonstrates exactly what the band are all about, and always have been. To celebrate the forthcoming release of Chama, we caught up with frontman Max Cavalera to get an insight into the record and the rebirth of SOULFLY.
We begin with Max telling how it feels like a new beginning for SOULFLY and their sound, even though it is the band’s thirteenth album since their inception. “It does have a special feeling to it. After you do so many records like me, for so many years, you know you have to do something extra, something special, Chama does that, and I’m excited for it, It’s a cool record in SOULFLY‘s career. We borrow some inspiration from the early records and mix with modern stuff that’s going on right now in the world of metal. There’s a lot of really cool guests on the album as well, just like the old days.”
Max then tells of what the title of the album relates to. “Chama means flame in Portuguese, but it’s actually a catchphrase from UFC fighter Alex Pereira. He uses that a lot, and me and my son are. big fans of UFC, and we’re fans of Alex, we watch a lot of his fights. He comes out with one of my songs from Roots, Itsari, so I thought it was cool to return the favour. It comes from that spark, that moment in the fight, and I was looking for something like that, that translates into music. I always wanted to make one of my record titles in Portuguese. I’ve never done it, throughout all these years, all of them have been in English. So it felt like the right time to do one.”
With Max’s other bands, NAILBOMB, GO AHEAD AND DIE and CAVALERA all being active recently, he details how that constant musical activity has fuelled Chama. “All of that inspired going in the studio, especially when you come from very cool tours, and all of that translates into inspiration in the studio, because we make songs so we can play them live later, and we are hoping that when we play those songs they’ll have the same amount of excitement that we do. The trick is, the studio is a very different place than a show. It’s very cold, there’s no people there. You have to use your mind. I do a trick where I close my eyes and play the song, and I visualize the crowd going crazy when I play the song, so I think all those tours and all those projects, they all inspire each other.”
The tribal influence that SOULFLY have had since they started is also very evident on Chama, as Max explains. “Chama came a little stronger with more tribal things than the other records. I am still fascinated by the indigenous world and the inspiration that they give to me as an attitude, and the magic and the vibe you get from the indigenous world is quite unique.”
Much like the band’s self-titled debut album, Chama features a plethora of guests.. “The early records were full of guests, especially the first and the second album, almost like a hip hop record. I think that’s where the idea came from. Having Todd from NAILS, even though he only says one line is the coolest line on the record the heaviest line on the album. ‘I don’t believe in anything’ it’s so heavy. Michael Amott doing a solo on Ghenna was amazing. Gabe from UNTO OTHERS, and Ben from NO WARNING are on No Pain = No Power, which was created with Dino Cazares, he played with SOULFLY for a little bit. So that was really cool to reconnect with Dino in the studio and made a whole song!”
Max is also extremely excited about going out on tour and unleashing the songs from Chama onto a live audience. “I think this is one of those records that will translate really well live. It’s gonna be fun to play live. We do have the North American Favela Dystopia tour coming up in November, and that’ll be cool. I definitely look forward to play the Chama material live. I think we can play a lot of stuff from Chama, and it’ll be really cool to mix that with the other, other SOULFLY songs.”
With Chama being the band’s thirteenth album, Max talks of the challenges of trying to encapsulate so much of the band’s extensive material into their set. “It’s impossible to please everybody but we do try to find a balance where we play the songs that people love about SOULFLY and play some deep cuts too.” On their upcoming tour, SOULFLY are playing with another of Max’s bands in GO AHEAD AND DIE and he speaks of the challenges in playing double duty on the tour. “I’m up for it. They’re quite different vibes. I get to share the vocals with my son Igor in GO AHEAD AND DIE, so I don’t sing as much. SOULFLY sets are the one that I sing the most. I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’m feeling pretty good right now, I’m feeling up to the task!”
With both bands featuring Max’s sons Zyon and Igor, Max tells of his pride at playing and making music with his family. “That was the most rewarding thing of the new record. The coolest thing to me was having both of them in the studio. It was a wild scene, if you would have told me when they were born, that I was gonna be in the studio with both of them working on a record together!”
Chama is out now via Nuclear Blast Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS125 here:
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