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I sit in the back of a bus, around me are a few lit candles, one my right is my dad, who is a shadow for the next twenty minutes. On my right, the man who speaks is Marcelo Dias, the man behind the bass for Soulfly, possibly the greatest (and I think the only) tribal metal band to hit mainstream crowds. But nothing about this band is mainstream, and I get the chance to ask Marcelo himself a few questions before the show.
First of all, if you could do a tribute album for one person, who would it be?
Led Zeppelin, no question.
When you were recording the track Mulambo, did you run into any problems with having so many people doing vocals?
Well that's why we hired Toby Wright, because he's just a totally straight-up professional person. Whatever we want to do, he knows how to do it. You know, we had a hundred people, and we were like "Okay, you know how to do this", and he just put a bunch of mics around us and we'd just scream Mulambo. Piece of cake for him.
On the track Back to the Primitive, was there any hidden meaning behind the whole primitive concept, or is it just straight out what it says, keeping everything pure and simple?
That's it, you got what Max was trying to say. It seems like he's pissed about some stuff. It seems like they say that technology is supposed to make your life easier, but it's so not true. It just makes everything complicated, and it seems like they're just trying to make more money off of you. So I guess the meaning is basically just to come back to the primitive, you know? That was the fun time. Primitive was the easy time, when everything was easy. Now this is supposed to be easy, but it's not, it's just a pain in the ass.
When you have a lot of guest singers on the album, does that affect how you write your music?
Not at all. As a matter of fact, that's one thing I want to make clear for a lot of fans. I hear people saying that Soulfly is not able to write their own music, and that they need help from other artists, but that's a total lie. The reason we do this is because Max has already worked with his own stuff for fifteen years, and now we wanted to jam with other musicians, just for the fun. Basically, what all these guests are bringing to the album is a different range of vocals, the music is still 100% Soulfly, and they just add what they can add. I don't think Max has to prove himself at this point, he could fill the whole record himself and it would kick ass. We just wanted to do this for the hell of it. And we'd all think, "what would happen in Max and Sean Lennon did a song, and one day we were just like 'Let's do it'". Half of the people that were on the second record had some relations with Max already, and some we had just met. No one was picked by their status or their name, none of that bullshit. It's just really down to the tribe, down to what we do as musicians.
What's it like working with someone on as high a scale as Max (due to his 15 years with Sepultura)?
Well, we all knew each other when we were your age, so we grew up doing this same thing, 15 years ago. So this is hard to explain, because I've always seen him as a friend. I used to work with Sepultura, I did the whole light show, and so I know how the music worked and that, I had just never been under the spotlight myself. For me, I'm really grateful to be here right now. I've learned a lot through the years with Max, and we've done a bunch of side projects just for the hell of it. We always did experimental shit, and I think that's why Soulfly has the sound we have now. We haven't tried to define our music as one solid thing. So I believe he's doing his own thing now, he's happy, I like this a lot too. Music for me is like a portrait of a moment, so everything I hear on that record reminds me of the past.
What equipment do you use, both live and in the studio?
I use Custom ESP basses on tour, they usually take about 6 months to get done, because some of it comes from the US, some from Japan, and they have to ship it all over and put it all together. So for the tour I've got 4 of the ESP's, I use 4 Ampeg SVT II Pros, 300 watts each, so I have 600 watts for my main power, and 600 watts backup, in case something goes wrong. For compressors, I use Banger compressors. I just got an effect a few days ago that I've been trying out, the G-Force (top of the line rackmount from TC Electronics, also used by Peter Steele of Type O Negative). For preamp I use a Sans Amp PSA 1, and I use the SVT's for power. A use a Nady wireless system. In the studio, I use an '85 Music Man Cutlass 2. I've got Alembics from '78. It's like wine, the older it gets, the better it sounds. I've got this sick Fender P-Bass, it's really smooth. I mainly use the Music Man and the Alembic though, same amps as I do live are used.
Was bass your first instrument, or did you start on something else?
Acoustic guitar...I had gotten one when I was six. My dad gave it to me, and no one else played music in my family. It stayed with me until I was ten or twelve, then I got my first electric guitar. Around that time I tried to put a band together, and by the time I was thirteen, I got my first bass. I loved it, it was a lot easier...less string to figure out, I loved it. So I got to the bass when I was thirteen/fourteen.
Did you ever see yourself playing bass in a band as big as Soulfly?
I think that anyone with hope can do it. I was one of those kids that never gave up. I just put my head into it, and here I am today. I was the only person that was born in my family that was really into music, I can't explain why. My father never really heard music, and my grandparents never heard it much either. For some strange reason, I knew since I was five I would be doing this.
If you weren't here playing music for a living, what would you be doing?
I'd probably be dead. It's just, you go through so much shit, and my life was really hard when I was young. Believe it or not, music was something that really kept me busy, trying to write lyrics and learn shit. If I wasn't doing that, I'd probably be on the street with my neighbors doing drugs or something. I got really lucky with music. I was a weirdo, I was down with music, I was usually in my room writing stuff. Unless you can find someone to really connect with you at that age, you're going to be a loner. A lot of my friends have been killed or jailed, I've been lucky.
When you were recording for NIB II, did you try to keep the original Black Sabbath sound, or did you want to add your own touch to it?
I don't think about that, I jus record the music. Tone-wise, that's mainly the producer's job. The drums were completely different, we sounded a lot on that track like that we did on the first Soulfly album. There's nothing wrong with that if you ask me.
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