Soulfly leader Max Cavalera has revealed that he and Deftones singer Chino Moreno once buried the master tapes of his band’s debut album on Native American turf.
In a new interview with AlternativeNation.net, Cavalera, who found fame as the frontman of Sepultura before starting Soulfly in the late 90s, says that he and Moreno dug multiple holes in a former Native American burial ground before dropping the Soulfly tapes inside.
The goal was to give the songs an “Indigenous power”, as much of Cavalera’s music draws influence from the Indigenous music of his native Brazil.
“We buried [the tapes] in Indigo Ranch,” Cavalera says, referring to the California studio where Soulfly recorded their debut. “We knew there was a burial ground there – like, Indian burial ground from 300 years ago.
“So, I wanted to capture the essence of the land, of the Indigenous power. So, me and Chino from the Deftones, we dug big holes, put the tapes there. We closed it, let it spend the night. The next day, dug them up. It was cool. It was kind of crazy, but fun at the same time.”
In the liner notes on CD copies of Soulfly, there’s an image of Moreno holding a shovel, and Cavalera says that the picture was taken as the two men were burying the album’s tapes.
“That’s why in the album, there’s a picture of Chino with a shovel, and the shovel is from when we were digging the holes,” he adds. “That’s why he has a shovel. People are still like, ‘Why is he holding a shovel in a picture?’ That’s why. Because we’re digging holes in Indigo Ranch, in the Malibu hills.”
Moreno appears on the Soulfly album itself, singing guest vocals on the track First Commandment. The collaboration came out less than six months after Cavalera appeared on Deftones’ album Around The Fur, where he helped sing Headup. Cavalera shouted the words ‘soul fly!’ during Headup, and he later named his band after that lyric.
Even before Cavalera met Moreno, Deftones were a major influence on the musician. Deftones’ 1995 debut album, Adrenaline, was produced by Ross Robinson, and Cavalera was so impressed by the producer’s work that he hired him to oversee Sepultura’s Roots (1996) and Soulfly’s debut.
Soulfly release their 13th studio album, Chama, today (October 24) via Nuclear Blast. Metal Hammer journalist Paul Travers gave it three-and-a-half stars in a recent review. “Soulfly remain eclectic yet instantly recognisable, which is an admirable trick to pull off,” Travers wrote.
Soulfly will kick off a headline tour of North America on November 1, and the band will play five dates in Australia in January. Meanwhile, Deftones, who released their new album Private Music in August, will headline their festival Dia De Los Deftones in San Diego on November 1 and are set to tour Europe in January and February.
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