What can you say about this new european tour ? You were in Ris-Orangis and Lille, how were the concert?
There were great! We started in England and went to Ireland and the shows were incredible there, I didn't think it would get any better but France is an amazing place to play. Every place where we played, the energy and the people were amazing, it really helps the playing so it's great to play in France, there's always good reactions.

About "Roorback", it sounds very urban with an hardcore touch as if it comes from a street of New-York. Is it your hardcore influences which rises?
Definitly, especially on this album, I felt a lot more comfortable than any other albums to really contribute and each of us always tried to push each other to do more, every time we were goin the writing process. It was "come on, put some ideas" like pick up the guitar and started really coming up with simple riffs, very basics, straight to the point. We just work on from that way and it just became more direct, and it came of very hardcore and very aggressive. Also because so many things were goin' on at the time of the writing : we didn't have a record label, we left our management… So there's was a lot of agression goin'on, as far as right after september 11, the elections in brazil, the situation was pretty violent, that really contribute to the lyrics and the power in the music and living in Sao Paulo which is a big city, the fourth biggest city in the world so there's a lot of chaos goin'on there. That definatly influenced the lyrics of the album. We wanted to do something more different from our last album "Nation", we had no guest really except for one, the songs are shorter and just straight to the point.

"Roorback" is the 10th Sepultura's album since "Morbid Visions", and according to you what's the most evolution on this album?
I think just from the rehearsal studio taking that sound and just keeping it. Usually when we did this in the rehearsal studio, we end up changing things in the studio, lots of things like "oh coming up with ideas". We really captured the sounds first in the rehearsal space, like came off with very powerful things, we didn't really need to change that much, and so that was like a big difference on the album I worked. From the demo tape to the final product it's pretty sound the same. We haven't been doing that in the past, we've been changing lots of stuff in the studio and coming up with ideas which happened, but with this it is just straight on !

Are you satisfied with this album after playing the song's live? And if you could change something on it, which one?
"Roorback"'s songs are great just because it feets so well, like the very powerful songs. We know that reaction while playing the songs, people are into it immediatly, more than on "Nation" and "Against". All the songs we play from "Roorback", people seem to really really like, we keep picking new songs from the album to test them and each one's been really good. We're very happy with the result. And I think it will continue to get better, 'cause the album just came out.

About "Under A Pale Grey Sky" which is Max's last show. Was it Sepultura's choice to release it or just a Roadrunner idea?
It was definitly 100% a Roadrunner idea, we didn't want to release it and they wanted to make money (laugh). Even if it's years old. I mean for us it's just kind of ridiculous and I know those guys are a bit upset just for the fact that it wasn't the best show of their "Roots tour"; and the have no saying in the artwork and the people who put out that album had nothing to do with Sepultura, it was coproduced by some guy that nobody has ever heard of. It's just show you the way that big label, major label are just falling apart, they can't come up with any ideas and put anything together to make money, you know, reissue of this, and that, just because they have no imagination and they have forgotten what it's all about. Independent labels are rising up and getting a lot of interest from people. People are buying more stuff on the independent labels just because they have a better quality of music. That's a fact you know! So for us living Roadrunner for a label that might be smaller is the best thing we could do. First we have total control and second these people have no relation to the past of Sepultura. They can only see it in the future, like they believe in us now. They want to sign us because they want us to continue making good stuff. That's what we needed, there was just a too long relationship with Roadrunner, and just the fact that they put that out was just another reason why to leave. We had one more album to do with Roadrunner, we had the option weather to do it or leave. So we decided to leave. What's the point of doing another album if they are not going to work on it properly. So now we are in a much better position already, things are going a lot better.

We've read that it was Max that had chosen the title "Under A Pale Grey Sky", so it's strange to see that he had something to say about that therefore he's no longer in the band, whereas the rest of Sepultura had the right to say anything...
I don't know, maybe he did. What I know, is that us as a band, we hadn't anything to say. They gave everyone a copy except me, I didn't received one. That's the truth. It's like "here it is, we're putting that out, no matter what you say". Maybe they talked to Max because he's still on Roadrunner, so maybe that happened. But it's fine, they can do whatever they want, we're just a lot happier being able to do what we wanna do, being able to represent ourselves. And I really like to work with SPV. It's a different label and it's just better to work with new people, new ideas. And so far so good !

In Brazil what changes have happened with the Lula's government?
Well right now it is slowly putting in hunger programmes, there haven't been any radical changes, it is not possible in Brazil cause it would cause a lot of confusion, but its great because people have big hopes and anticipation for the future. Another great idea is using music in politics to campaign serious issues like hunger and aids. They have asked Sepultura to perform commercially and to use our music for something important, like opening their minds and using different ways to talk and to communicate with people. It has been great but more time is needed as they only stepped in, in January.

What do you think of the European scene, can you name any bands you like, any French bands?
Hahaha French bands that's difficult because so many things change rapidly. We spend a lot of time in Sao Paolo and a lot of European things like types of music don't come to Brazil. Before Sepultura I was in a hardcore band and I came here in 1993 and the hardcore scene was big a lot of shows, a lot of people at shows, even if you weren't a big band people would go see the shows there was a scene and I think this is coming back. We've been doing small, hot, sweaty places with no barricades and it's been great, the energy, the level, the reaction, the close interaction is much more that the big shows. You can feel that in Europe. People want something like that more, instead of a flash, a big stage, a festival, where you see 20 bands and that was it. I still love touring here its still one of my favourite places to tour. Hopefully we can keep coming back and getting more and more of a reaction and this time it's been really really good!


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