By Andrew Bansal
Whenever the word Sepultura is mentioned, talks of the classic line-up and reunion invariably become part of the discussion. But that doesn’t take anything away from the current line-up of the band. Their latest studio album “Kairos” was released this year on Nuclear Blast, and has been very well received by everyone. There is no denying the fact that these guys are excellent musicians, on stage and in the studio, and this album is solid proof of that. Just before the release of the album, they did a North American tour, and after the release they’ve been touring in other territories. Just a few days before they played the ever-amazing Rock In Rio festival in October this year and embarked on a new touring cycle, I spoke to guitarist Andreas Kisser to talk in detail about the recording process and things like gear set-up, production, label support, touring plans and even industrial rock influences. Read the conversation below, and check out the band’s official facebook for the latest tour dates.
You’ve been extensively touring behind your latest album Kairos. How has the response been from fans and critics all over the world?
It’s been overwhelming, man. We’ve been getting a great response from all over the place. In North America we toured when the album hadn’t come out yet, but even then we played some new songs, and the response was already great. These songs are working fantastic on stage. In Europe, we play a lot more of the new stuff. It’s a great push of energy. Our label Nuclear Blast has done an amazing job all over the place, really pumping the album. We’ll be playing Rock In Rio soon, followed by a short tour with Machine Head in South America, and after that we’ll be touring Europe with Exodus, Heathen and Destruction. So everything is really cool, well set and we have a very exciting cycle ahead.
It must a great feeling to work with a label like Nuclear Blast who still promote a lot of good old-school metal bands.
Yeah it’s perfect, man. Nuclear Blast have an amazing history as well, specially for a label. To survive all the changes, the download thing, from vinyl to CD, and stuff like that, I feel that they are people that really love what they do. They understand the music, and they are fans of the music. It works really great, and we are very happy with the result. Since last year, all the plans we made fell into place. The timing is great and the response, like I said, is awesome. Everybody is very satisfied, so it’s pretty good. It’s a very good beginning.
Roy was amazing. He was kind of the mentor and made everybody really feel the concept. We were talking about Sepultura and how we’re influenced by ourselves for everything musically and lyrically. A little bit of everything is already there in the new stuff we have now. Roy is not only a producer who works in the studio. He is very active as a live musician and a touring musician. He tours with Rob Halford all over the place and works with the big names in this musical style. He even had a Latin project, and he also played on stage for that. So he is the best of both worlds. He is not like a frustrated musician that ends up being a producer, which most of them are. I mean, there are some kind of musicians that really didn’t go on stage but contribute with music doing some other stuff. Somehow they are around music. But with Roy on our side, it was great because we wanted to bring the Sepultura on stage to the studio. He was ready to try anything with his knowhow. He came up with little details and advice all over the place. I’d say it was a very successful partnership between the band and him. We are kind of the same age as well, and have the same kind of background musically. We speak the same language. So working with him was great, it was amazing.
On the new album, the guitar sound is very solid. Did that just come about naturally or was it a conscious effort?
Well, a little bit of both. Of course I have an idea, and I have a sound that I’ve been using since forever, the Mesa Boogie, the EMG pickups, the DiMarzio, Seymour Duncan, I have a lot of stuff. In the studio I always try different things here and there, but I guess what helped a lot this time was our concept. We wanted to use what we use on the stage, and I didn’t want it to look crazy by bringing 20 guitars, 50 amps and spend time trying things here and there. I had my stuff that I always use in the studio. I had my three or four guitars that I always bring with me on the road. We did it with that. So, I guess it was more natural for us, and it was not about trying to invent too much. And of course, Roy brought a lot of different ideas, and pedals and combinations. We have some heads from the studio there that we tried and they worked out great. So a little bit of both. Some basic idea about the sound, and we also left room to try out some different stuff that might work, stuff that we didn’t think about before. Recording guitars is always fun, you know. Because of Roy himself being an amazing guitar player, it was great to build solos. I spent more time constructing leads. In the past there was too much jamming, and it was like, if it happened it happened. So little things like this really made this album special, and he was very involved in everything.
You said that you always experiment with gear while recording albums. Would you say you did it more for this album than on previous ones?
Actually, I did it less on this one. For previous albums, I was trying too many things just for the sake of trying. We lost focus and momentum by doing those things. We spent too much studio time on those experiments. But this time we knew what we wanted to do, which was to sound as “live” as possible. That’s why we ended up using the stuff we use on the stage, and brought that to the studio and worked with it, without going crazy. On albums like Nation and Against, it really was crazy, trying out lots of different stuff and going with new amps, and things like that. This time it was a little bit more easier, much more straight to the point.
The Fender Stratocaster is your main guitar, which is not very common among thrash musicians. How did you first decide to pick up that guitar as opposed to anything else?
I have a mixture of guitars that I’ve been using lately, but of course the Fenders have always been there. I first started using them around 2001-02 I think. As a guitar player, Stratocaster is just a dream (laughs). It’s a guitar of fucking great idols. Gibson also has guitars that are played by our idols, our Gods. I always wanted to jam on them. When I had an opportunity to have a guitar that had very aggressive pickups, I tried them and they worked. I didn’t use my Jackson in those days and I sued the Charvel. I’m making a guitar here in Brazil with this guy called Seizi and he has given this guitar to me that I’m always using on tour with Sepultura, and for the Big Four shows. It’s working out great. I’m even going to put out a line of guitars to sell here in Brazil, a signature model. Just for the Brazilian market I’ll have those, and I’m very excited about this instrument. It’s the first time I really have something really cool. We haven’t had such guitars in Brazil, so it’s cool.
Coming back to the album, one of the tracks on it is a cover of the Ministry song “Just One Fix”. How did that idea come about?
We just did it just as bonus material for the special edition. Sepultura did so many different bands. We did Black Sabbath, Motorhead, and hardcore bands. We even did Bob Marley, U2, Massive Attack, and so many different bands, that we sat down and tried to come up with a band we didn’t do before. We started talking about the history, and Ministry is a very important band for the Sepultura sound, specially on the music on Arise and Chaos A.D. We toured with Ministry in 1992. I think they made a huge impact on how to make things simpler, how to use drum loops and stuff, more of that industrial sound and heavy riffing. So I think it fits with the concept of our history and we finally had a chance to pay our tribute to them, a great influence on Sepultura’s music. And Prodigy, a band that is not necessarily as close of an influence on our music, but they are very heavy as well. They have a lot of hardcore, punk and even metal influence, specially live. The live version of “Firestarter” is very aggressive and very noisy. That’s why we did our version of that. They are a great band, and it was a challenge for us to do a song by them, and I think it came out great.
That’s very interesting. You were mentioning that you toured North America when the album wasn’t even released. Do you plan to do more touring, now that the album has been out for a few months and people are more familiar with it?
Yeah, definitely. Like I said, we have some touring to do in October, and throughout November and December in other parts of the world. But then next year, we have plans to go back to the States and Canada. It was great to be back after so long. Now with the album and the response we’ve been having from the stage, it’s amazing. So early next year we’ll do the States. It will be a special new tour. We’ll play a lot of the Kairos stuff which is very alive and welcome. Those songs were written thinking about the live situation, and they are working out great on stage.
On that US tour you did this year, I read about a couple of problems you faced, with cancelled shows and support bands. Have you gotten used to dealing with this kind of stuff on the road?
Yeah, it happens, but this year it’s been very smooth actually, specially in Canada. We hadn’t even played in some of those places for almost ten years. And there were other places we had never been to. We didn’t tour in the States for a long time because we just couldn’t make it happen. Now we have a crew going, we have a label Nuclear Blast who’s doing an amazing job worldwide, specially in the States. Now it makes sense to tour, and to do all this stuff. We have the support, I’m doing interviews, talking to you and people like you. For us it used to be a problem just to “be there”. There was no support, there was nothing. We were trying to be on the road without proper management, label, etc. It feels better now that we waited through that and now it’s time for us to enjoy the touring process. Little problems here and there are always going on, but usually it’s very smooth for us these days.
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