It goes without saying that the global metal scene would not be the same without SEPULTURA. For 35 years now, the Brazilian icons are not only a band revered worldwide; they have been, are and forever will be at the very forefront of Thrash Metal, trailblazing ever since they released their long-since legendary debut album “Morbid Visions” in 1986.
While quickly establishing themselves as leaders of the second wave of Thrash already in the late eighties, to this day they never came even close to stagnation. “Quadra”, their mighty new undertaking, is proof of a will unbroken, a thirst unquenched and a quality so staggeringly high it’s a wonder this band doesn’t implode. Now three albums deep into what may very well be their strongest incarnation yet – uniting the talents of old-school members Andreas Kisser (guitars, vocals) and Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. (bass), vocal force of nature Derrick Leon Green (vocals) and drummer Eloy Casagrande – SEPULTURA are an unleashed power to be reckoned with, uniting bucketloads of experience and youthful vigour in a totally revived way.
We speak to frontman Derrick Green about the new album “Quadra”, how it relates to today’s world as well as how he first got involved in music as a kid.
Andrew: Thanks for your time, really appreciate it. So the new album “Quadra” I had a quick listen through the other day and it sounds fantastic, you guys always seem to nail it on the head. You guys must be pretty happy with how it’s turned out.
Derrick: Oh yeah I mean we’re all very excited. We worked really hard on this, we always work very hard on our albums but we really had the time this year to really plan things out so I think that made a big difference knowing that we weren’t being rushed or having that feeling of being rushed but actually have a lot of time to prepare for the making of it.
Andrew: Well it didn’t seem too long ago since the last album “Machine Messiah” came out, it was only a couple of years ago so at what point did you start putting these songs for this album together?
Derrick: It started around February-March, just small ideas and then I ended up spending a lot of time in L.A. so Andreas (Kisser, guitars) and Eloy (Casagrande, drums) went to write certain parts and sent ideas to me and then I would start working on vocal arrangements and lyrics. So having that space really helped in thinking of where I wanted the vocals to fit and what I wanted to write about and I became a lot more comfortable what I was hearing, I believe everybody felt that way as well. But it was early in the year when we started the ideas and the topics that we wanted to write about and I shared those ideas with Andreas and it just went quick very well.
Andrew: It’s an interesting concept as well, Quadra. Tell me the idea of Quadra and where it came from and what inspired you to write this album in particular.
Derrick: Well Andreas came up with the concept, he was reading a book about numbers – I can’t remember the name of the book off the top of my head – but anyway the concept of the idea is that each number has a representation and the number 4 manifests like kind of seizing the day, the moment. So we felt that way as a band, we’re seizing the moment on stage, on tour, travelling and when we come together and then we’re able to create things within the moment, things that are very powerful and so this was something that was very connected with the album. The name itself “Quadra” is Portugese and it’s actually what games are played in, like a court which is also 4 sides as well and within that quadra, you have certain game rules of the game or certain laws. It’s kind of like a metaphor for everyone that has their own place where they’re born in their own quadra and their taught certain things and laws that they abide by and it’s about questioning those certain things that are given to us that we just believe in and a lot of times people are very extreme about their beliefs even though they never question their beliefs, never question themselves, why do they believe in that. So this is really all about getting down to many of those things that happen within society around the world.
Andrew: Yeah it’s quite fitting considering what is going on around the world today and obviously quite fitting in the fact that there is 4 of you in the band. The number 4 is a very satisfying number I suppose.
Derrick: Oh yeah like the Four Horsemen as well..of the Apocalypse [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] Exactly! So you were saying that everyone in the band had their own role in how these songs came together but as far as you were concerned, what were you bringing to the table and what did you want to put in these songs and what did you ultimately want to achieve with them?
Derrick: Those guys are really powerful players so I knew that vocally I had to come up with something that can cut through! The drums, the guitar, there’s a lot of powerful sounds so I wanted to try all different elements of my voice, from high to low to singing and just really use as much as possible and also come with very strong lyrical content as far as the topics. We’re talking about “Isolation” as the first song and it’s about the American justice system and how completely screwed up it’s been for a long time. There’s a song we have about depression, there’s a lot of depression going on probably having to do with the type of society that we’re living in now and also the lifestyle and also mental illness as far as surrounding that. So a lot of this depression that is happening and also my Mother suffered from depression as well. There’s also songs that we wanted to write about, there’s a song about Muhammad Ali, it’s called “Ali” and it’s just how much of an inspiration he was. Actually for Andreas and I we are really into sports and just the fact that he was such an inspirational person outside of the ring, not only for his absility of being the champion of the world but for his stance and his belief and his faith and sticking behind that even though he lost everything in the prime of his career. So this is something that a lot of people don’t really ever conceive of ever doing that nowadays but it’s very inspirational.
There’s also a song about the rainforest that we wanted to write about, actually a song about the guardians of earth, they’ve always protected the rainforest and kind of been this type of guardians and I wanted to really put their voice out there that can be heard so that the truth can be told on how they’ve been killed and nobody seems to really know about it or they’re starting to know about it now but it’s the place that they live, it’s lawless in the middle of the Amazon so a lot of people don’t realize there’s noone to protect them. So the truth is the only thing that’s going to help save them and save the actual rainforest because the rainforest is important for the vitality of this earth and everyone knows this and I think everybody can really get behind that and understand about how important that is. There’s also a song about addiction that I wanted to write about, I moved back to the US and I realized there’s a huge problem with pharmaceutical drugs that people are taking and dying at extreme rates so I thought this was something that was really unbelievable that was happening in this first world country but it usually seems that’s where most of the problem stems from is addiction and America being the most addictive country in the world. So there’s a lot of things to talk about [laughs] and it just kept building on with more things coming on and more things happening through friends and family and even to myself, it seems endless this last year.
Read the review of Quadra here
Andrew: Yeah there’s a lot of inspiration to draw from and obviously a lot to discuss and even musically as well. I mean Sepultura has always been known for having diversity in the albums but this seems diverse in that it almost seems like it was seperated in again, 4 parts. There’s the thrashier aspects, the more melodic sides, the tribal side and that kind of stuff. Was that intentional as the first half does seem quite different to the second half?
Derrick: Oh yeah this was something before anything was even written, that we wanted to break it up into 4. Like we were saying we wanted to stick with that idea of 4 and so basically we were thinking of it as like albums, instead of it being 2 albums, new release so it’s going to have an A side and the A side is going to be showing the thrash elements of Sepultura. we wanted to show the different characteristics of the band, the different personalities of Sepultura so the very first part is the thrashier, older style of Sepultura and then we mix it up with more of like a Roots style rhythmically and then there’s more of an instrumental, experimental side of Machine Messiah style and also the more melodical towards the end of Sepultura which we’ve done in the past and I think we feel more comfortable doing that. I think we were pushing ourselves in ways where we never have, especially for example with Andreas he’s always played classical guitar and I felt and he felt that it should definitely incorporated more into the music because it’s part of our personality. I studied singing and I love to sing and I sing where we are able to mesh it together where it’s still kept elements of Sepultura but pushing us in a forward direction, kind of Sepultura 2.0.
Andrew: Yeah it sounds fantastic and I’ll definitely give it more listens as time goes on especially after it’s released.
Derrick: Yeah it’s really a lot to listen to so yeah it will take a few spins [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] Now you mentioned there that you studied singing, I’m curious then how you actually got into singing in the first place?
Derrick: I didn’t really want to be a singer actually [laughs]. It’s kind of funny, when you talk to kids and people who want to be in a band or do something musically, you don’t really meet too many singers. People like, ‘I want to sing’, at least I haven’t especially in metal or in rock it’s a really tough position physically using your body a lot. So I had to take choir in junior high school, I was probably around 13 or 12 and I was forced to. There were no other classes left and so my music teacher at the time told me that I had a very unique voice, a baritone bass and not many people have that voice and I was a teenager so she thought it was extraordinary and felt that I should really go on to do other things with my voice. My mother was also a music teacher so I was always surrounded by music in my life, either from church or from school or at home after school listening to MTV coming out at the same time and being completely into rock music. So it was a mixture of all those things that really got me into the music.
Andrew: OK that’s interesting! So why specifically rock and metal? Because that’s something that I guess most people don’t necessarily jump into which still to this day has kind of a stigma attached to it, so how did you get into this whole world?
Derrick: I thought it was so amazing at the time because I felt kind of like an outsider as a kid and so punk and hardcore music really drew my attention because most of the people involved in that were feeling on the outside not so well received at school or in that type of society. Questioning a lot of different things around us, just like in the 80’s you had to question everything, especially in the US it was Ronald Reagan and everything was just up in shambles so there was a lot of political and social unrest going on. At the same time a lot of people were doing cocaine and spending a shitload of money. But I was a kid and for me I felt very comfortable in that [music] scene and I loved the fact that going to my first show and seeing people physically move their bodies to the music was something I felt was magical and something I had never seen. Like watching a concert of classical music or anything like that or a jazz show, you wouldn’t see people physically throwing their bodies around and so this was something that I felt uninhibited, completely open, completely honest style of music and that’s what drew me into the heavier side of music. And then as I got older and I started to have an appreciation and actually playing instruments and hearing them well played, then I got much more into rock and classic rock at that.
Andrew: Yeah and it’s been amazing to see you part of Sepultura all these years. So obviously bringing it to the road and touring the world, I believe we saw you in Australia in 2018 with Death Angel as well.
Derrick: Yeah that was a lot of fun! I mean I love those guys and I love doing tours with other bands in Australia and New Zealand, I think that’s something I want to keep doing, going with other bands that people really admire. But it was fantastic as always, I mean there’s always never enough time coming to Australia. I always feel we could do a lot more there, I’d love to either at the very beginning of a tour or after a tour just do very unique things especially for Australia just because it’s so far away! It’s always intense and it’s great to do something very special so hopefully we can come back, we’re looking forward to coming back to do another great tour there.
Andrew: We are definitely looking forward to it and also looking forward to hearing these new songs on the road live as I think some of these songs would go down really well in the live set
Derrick: Oh yeah I mean we’re going to be practicing the whole album, we’ll get it down to where we can play every song on the album live and well so we can switch it around and see what works best. It’s going to be a lot of fun because I agree, I think these songs are going to go down very well with the classic Sepultura songs.
Andrew: Well it’s been a pleasure speaking to you today, thanks for your time Derrick. Really appreciate and congratulations on the new album.
Derrick: Thank you for the interview, I really appreciate it. Take care!
