Killer Be Killed which features some of metal’s most well known names including Max Cavalera (Soulfly/ex-Sepultura), Ben Koller (Converge/Mutoid Man), Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan/The Black Queen) and Troy Sanders (Mastodon/Gone Is Gone) return with a brand new album, “Reluctant Hero” which comes out November 20th. We catch up with Max Cavalera to find out what it was like for the band to regroup again and how the band have evolved from the first release.
Andrew: So hows things, how have you been dealing with all the stuff happening around the world at the moment?
Max: Yeah we just want to stay as busy as we can and of course there’s no shows going on but we’ve been doing some writing, writing some music. Been busy with Max Trax which I do live on Facebook every Tuesday and Saturday playing some riffs live for the fans. Apart from that, just writing new Soulfly material and getting ready for Killer Be Killed, really excited for the new Killer Be Killed record.
Andrew: You always seem to be a busy guy, what’s the motivation to always keep doing different projects all the time?
Max: Yeah I can’t stand still man, I gotta keep making things, keep creating. I’m addicted to metal [laughs], it’s a contagious disease and a lifelong disease and I’m never going to be cured of it but it’s a good disease [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] Well it’s a good time to be busy, you got the new Killer Be Killed album coming out and I had a chance to listen to it and it sounds fantastic. It’s a nice follow up to the first album, what seperates this one from the first album you did?
Max: To me this record sounds like a real band, we did spend 6 years on the writing and making of it and I think it kind of shows on the music of the album. We did all the sessions here in Phoenix, Arizona, I call it the Desert Sessions and they’re like 3 or 4 days long, we did about 5 of those where we wrote the whole record and then we went in the studio and recorded everything. I think it’s a step up from the first one and I also think it’s an album that kind of threw the rule book out of the window, there’s so many crazy contradictions on the album. There’s a song that’s a minute long and there’s a song that’s 7 minutes long so it’s like we’re going to have 7 minute songs and we’re going to have 1 minute long songs and we’re going to have melodic closing songs and we’re going to have heavy stuff, fast stuff, thrashy stuff, which was the formula of the first one it just feels sharper, more focused this time around and more complete. So I think it’s definitely a stronger second record for the band.
Andrew: I suppose the first album was kind of a testing period to figure out what you guys wanted to do musically and I guess this second album you kind of figured out what you really wanted to do, really hone it down.
Max: Yeah the first one we were still in shock of the whole thing ’cause when we put the idea together of creating this group, we started with just me and Greg [Puciato, vocals] and it was going to kind of be like Nailbomb and then it switched when Troy [Sanders] became the band and became a supergroup and then it just kind of changed, you had different vibes going on, we had a little more…It was still heavy but it had different ideas where we were still in shock on how the first album came out and how the voices were going to work together and by the time we entered this second record, by the time we started writing it, I knew the guys a lot better, I knew what they could do with the voices and I knew what kind of riffs I should write for them to sing on it so I spent a lot of time writing the best riffs I could make for this record and I think we chose our parts really well on this one. Greg chose a lot of great choruses to sing, on this last single “Dream Gone Bad” I love my part because I’m singing on a Troy riff that’s a very kind of Mastodon riff and I get to sing like the heavy Max on top of it. So it’s a fun project, it’s fun to make, it’s fun to be part of it and like I said, there’s no rules man. We threw the rule book out of the window and just go for it, every crazy idea is welcome in this band.
Andrew: Yeah all the ideas come from everyone, it’s a real collaborative effort in this band.
Max: Yeah everybody really brings something to the table. There’s a lot of riffs, Greg riffs, lot of Troy riffs, there’s a lot of melodic vocal lines from those guys, there’s a lot of vocals that are my ideas. We just kind of mash it all together and just went for it but it’s what makes Killer Be Killed fun. It’s the thing that should not be, that’s what the record should be called [laughs].
Andrew: Speaking of, the new record title [“Reluctant Hero”], where did that name come from and what does it mean?
Max: That’s a Troy title, he named the record so I think you would have to ask specifically him what exactly it means. To me I think it means somebody that has to be a hero in a moment where he doesn’t want to be the hero, in a situation where he was never born to be a hero, he never really thought in his head he was going to be a hero and he’s put in a situation where he totally has to become a hero so he’s a reluctant hero. So I think it’s kind of cool, I like the album cover a lot that goes with that, the imagary of the saint with the sword and the black tears. It almost looks like a black metal album cover, like a Norwegian black metal album cover. But I think that black and white cover with the name, it works really good so I’m happy that Troy found the title for the record.
Andrew: Definitely and it seems like a good summarisation of how the world is in these times, we do have these reluctant heroes that kind of come in and do their job as best they could.
Max: Yeah you can make a case with a lot of the social workers and people who work in hospitals are all reluctant heroes as in they don’t want to be heroes but they have to become heroes. The title on this record was made before the pandemic so we never really knew that this was going to happen in the world, when we wrote the record there was no pandemic and when we recorded the record there was nothing going on and now we’re in the middle of it. But yeah you can definitely maker a connection to it.
Read the review of Reluctant Hero
Andrew: Now you mentioned that you started working on this 6 years ago so I guess the length of time was really trying to get the schedules with everyone because I suppose everyone in the band has their own projects and stuff. So it must be really difficult to get you guys together on the same page and same time schedule.
Max: It’s difficult but it’s really exciting when it happens and that’s the magic of it, thats the beauty of it, is that it doesn’t happen all the time and we’re never in the same room a lot all the time but when we are, we make the best out of it man, we go for it. Those Desert Sessions were completely necessary for this record to be made and they were amazing, they were just pure going out there for like 6, 7, 8 hours a day just bashing music non-stop. Of course we all have our own stuff, I’m busy with Soulfly a lot and Cavalera and my brother and playing the Sepultura stuff. Of course Troy is also busy, Greg is now with his solo career, Ben with Converge but we all set a little bit of time aside to make this record happen. We knew how important this record was and we made sure that when we got together that it counted, bring the best that you can bring to this album and I think we did that.
Andrew: Yeah definitely and congratulations on the new album, we look forward to seeing what everyone else thinks about it. I want to ask you something and it might be a little off topic but recently read a story where you apparently had cut off your infamous dreadlock, is this true?
Max: Yeah it’s gone [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] So what happened, what’s the story? How did that whole thing come about?
Max: I’ve been thinking of that idea for a little bit in the last year. It was really heavy and it was pulling a lot of my hair so I just decided the last thing I was going to do was the Killer Be Killed videos so we did “Dream Gone Bad” which I guess I got to sleep with my dread on the video [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs].
Max: There’s a scene where I am sleeping and the dread is right by my head the way I normally slept with it so that’s the last video with my dreadlock. Then one afternoon I just told Gloria to cut it, we went to the backyard and she cut it but she did take a picture and put it out and that was like fire. It exploded on the fucking viral world and I had no idea it was going to do that man, I knew it was interesting and it was something that people knew about but I didn’t think it would get that big. It was actually overwhelming, the reaction of it! But it’s cool, it shows the fans care and there’s a lot of funny jokes also. I make fun of myself, I’m not a serious guy so I was laughing at some of the jokes. Some people were saying it looked like Groots arm, one guy said it looked like a dead racoon and I was just laughing about that man, it was funny to hear that. But it was time to move on man, new things, new era next year coming up. We have a new album coming out and sometimes you just have to part away with some of the things that you did for a long time.
Andrew: Do you think you’ll miss it, having the dreadlocks?
Max: It was definitely weird that first week, it felt crazy like taking a shower I could actually feel the water on my head. Sleeping, I didn’t have that thing behind me anymore because it was almost like a second pillow. I mean that thing was huge and it was a mono dread, it was only 1 big piece of dread. Na I would not regret, it was time and it’s cool. Hopefully we get to do something cool with it like an auction for a charity or something cool like that but now I just have my normal long hair, just let that grow and I’m good.
Andrew: Awesome! So what now for Killer Be Killed? Obviously there’s not much touring these days at the moment so what’s the plan for you guys?
Max: Hopefully touring next year once the record drops and I think everybody will be excited for the album to come out on November 20. Hopefully it will make people’s list of their favorite records for the year and all that but eventually touring will be the next main goal, hopefully we can hit the road with that next year and hopefully come back to Australia. Australia was the first place, ONLY place we ever played! Hopefully we can come back with the new record, that would be great.
Andrew: That’s right, it’s quite interesting how you guys only toured Australia and nowhere else. Again that must of been a scheduling thing right?
Max: Kind of, yeah it was the schedule. We had some offers but nothing really came through and we ended up busy with our other bands so Australia became the only place, everybody else was pissed off at you guys, very jealous of you guys. But I thought it was great, the Soundwave shows were fantastic, the shows with Lamb Of God were fantastic and I can’t wait to get back. Hopefuylly with this new record, it would be even more amazing.
Andrew: Before I let you go, what’s the latest update with Soulfly? You guys working on new material?
Max: Right yeah, right now I’m going to the same jam room that Killer Be Killed was with my son Zyon. We are writing the riffs and gathering ideas. I’m trying to come up with a topic, some kind of idea behind the record, I love having those before time. Then we got to find a co-producer, somebody that’s maybe different to work with this time and hopefully record it next year. That’s the plan and then in the meantime I keep doing my Max Trax every Tuesday and Saturday, those are a lot of fun. I do a lot of work for those, learning all the riffs and sharing them with the fans every Tuesday and Saturday live on Facebook and that’s about it man. Doing interviews for this record for you guys, it’s been pretty cool, I’m pretty excited for the record.
Andrew: Well congratulations on the new Killer Be Killed album, it’s good to see you guys back again and I look forward to hearing more stuff from you as well. So thanks again for your time, always appreciated!
Max: Alright brother, nice talking to you man.
