IGOR CAVALERA: Playing With SEPULTURA 'Felt Like A Job, Like I Was Going To The Bank'

Perú21 conducted an interview with former SEPULTURA and current CAVALERA CONSPIRACY drummer Igor Cavalera when the latter band played in Lima, Peru on June 2. You can now watch the chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On how he reconnected with his brother Max Cavalera after not speaking to him for ten years:

“Actually, it’s funny, ’cause my wife, she came up to me and she was, like… I already had left SEPULTURA, and we just had our son. And my wife was, like, ‘Man, this is crazy. Max needs to know our new son. And you don’t talk to him. You should call him up and get the family together.’ And I was, like, ‘Yeah.’ So I decided to give him a call. And then, from that phone call, I paid a visit to him in Phoenix, and then our family got a bit together. And then, after that, he invited me to do CAVALERA CONSPIRACY. But, at first, I didn’t wanna do any music; I just wanted to have him back as my brother. That was the main thing.”

On whether he was nervous before he called Max in 2006 after not speaking to his brother for a decade:

“Not really nervous. ‘Cause I was, like, ‘I have nothing to lose, because life is too short. So I need to do this.’ So I was not really nervous. I was more focused on doing it.”

On what his first thought was when Max asked him to launch CAVALERA CONSPIRACY:

“Well, I kind of had a feeling he was gonna ask me, ’cause Max is very musical in that sense; he never stops [and] he always has [ideas]. So I was, like, ‘I know that’s gonna…’ And I also had in the back of my mind, ‘Man, I hope we can do something that is new.’ ‘Cause, otherwise, I didn’t wanna do it. ‘Cause I just left SEPULTURA, and I didn’t wanna keep doing what I was doing for the last years. So I was really glad when he called me, and he was, like, ‘Let’s do a new project — just me and you. And then we can invite some people to be part of it and play whatever we want.’ And then I was, like, ‘Yes.’ I accepted right away. ‘Cause it was, like, ‘Okay, this is the future.It’s not the past. And for me that’s very important. We’re really proud of our past, but we don’t wanna be slaves to our past and just play whatever we did twenty years ago. We wanna write new music and put [out] new records and then move on. So that was the main idea behind CAVALERA.”

On whether he was bored playing with SEPULTURA when he left the band in 2006:

“I was really bored. It felt like a job, like I was going to the bank. And I was, like, ‘Fuck! I have to go. And I really hate it.’ To the point that I was, like, ‘I don’t wanna do this anymore.’ So that’s how I felt. With CAVALERA, it’s a completely different thing. I really enjoy doing the tours and playing the shows. It’s tough sometimes, like with the traveling and everything, but the shows [themselves] are always amazing. It’s always fun.”

On whether he was tired of SEPULTURA‘s musical direction at the end of his tenure with the band:

“Probably, also. That’s one of the reasons, also, I jumped into doing MIXHELL [the DJ/hip hop/electro project featuring Igor and his wife Laima Leyton]. I was trying to make different things. I was a bit bored with the whole music scene.”

On what his favorite Derrick Green-era SEPULTURA record is:

“I don’t know, man. I don’t have a favorite record of any… I have favorite songs, but not a full record.”

On whether he had a chance to see SEPULTURA perform with the band’s current drummer, Eloy Casagrande:

“No, man. I don’t like talking about dead people. They’re dead, you know. It’s not fair.”