Eamon O'Neill of Eonmusic recently conducted an interview with guitarist Andreas Kisser of Brazilian/American metallers SEPULTURA. An excerpt from the chat follows below. Eonmusic: [SEPULTURA's new album] "Machine Messiah" [is] incredibly your eighth album with Derrick Green fronting the band. Andreas: "Yeah, still here! I think of the whole catalogue, we feel we're in one of our best moments. Of course, during 'Chaos A.D.' [1993] and 'Roots' [1996], we sold a lot of albums, and we played big places and stuff, but our situation backstage was a mess; we didn't have a relationship, and management was totally confusing, so we couldn't really enjoy that much what we were doing. Eventually, of course, Max [Cavalera, guitar/vocals] left the band and we had to change everything; management, labels, and we learned a lot throughout the process. So I think we are in a much better place now, in our whole career, and I think it reflects on the album; we have a great label, we have a fantastic formation with this lineup, and we have an amazing following and fans. We celebrated thirty years of career, which gave a great motivation for us. I think it's one of our best works; I mean, we say that very new album, but it feels like that, and the response we're getting, it's overwhelming." Eonmusic: Derrick was seen as quite an unusual choice to replace Max, but clearly after all this time, you chose the right man. Andreas: "I hope so! No, we definitely did, because Derrick was the one who was showing the future for the band. We were not interested to find somebody who could copy Max or look like him, or try to emulate his voice. We wanted to run away from that, because to try to find a clone would be stupid. So we heard a lot of new singers — even singers like Chuck Billy from TESTAMENT who tried out — but we wanted somebody new that the business didn't know at that point. Derrick was a suggestion from somebody that worked at [record label] Roadrunner — a mutual friend that we had, Mike Gitter. When he sent his tape, we felt that he could sing very harsh and tough — guttural, very heavy, but he also had a lot of new possibilities, like a great voice, a great melody. He was also a guy that could really interact with us, because it's not only technical, you know? We have to live together; we travel so much, it's like our second family, so it had to be somebody that really could get along. And we're still here, enjoying ourselves and he grew up so much, and he made this band be here today." Eonmusic: Is it frustrating to come up time and time again with the question of the Cavalera reunion, given all you've achieved with Derrick? Andreas: "We get used to that. People have certain types of expectations and ideas, and most of the people who want to see it obviously never seen SEPULTURA with that lineup. I mean, it doesn't bother us; it's just a part of what we are. That's something that we're not working on, for sure. We're so busy here working with the new album, doing what we do, and this is something that is not a part of our plans, in any respect. But I mean, we just address the subject and that's it. I know a lot of people have a curiosity about what's going on and stuff, but there's nothing going on — it's very focused here on what we're doing, and enjoying everything." Read the entire interview at Eonmusic.
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