SOULFLY INTERVIEW

Andy Whittle catchs up with Soulfly’s bassit Bobby Burns before their headlining show at O2 Islington Academy, London to talk about being back in the UK touring, their brand new album ‘Omen’ and much more.

Hi Bobby, how are you?

Good man.

How’s the tour going so far for you?

So far, so good! Tonight’s the 3rd show of the tour. We started off in Switzerland, we played Southampton last night; that was a great show last night and we’re here (London) today.

Are you excited to be back in the UK?

Definitely, sometimes in the past we’ve skipped the UK all-together for a whole touring cycle, for some reason. The past couple of records we’ve been doing the UK every time, which is cool. We’re always excited to come to the UK.

How do you find the audiences over here?

They’re awesome, man.

Max recruited a new line-up including you at the end of 2003. Do you all get on as a band?

Soulfly is its own monster. We actually did our very first interview with the 4 of us in the same room in New York City on the last tour; we didn’t even realise this. The radio DJ was like “You know, I asked for all 4 of you and I got all 4 of you. But I wanna tell you something: this is the first time that the 4 band members of Soulfly, the longest band of Soulfly, have been in the same room at the same time”. I mean, I don’t know if that’s a bad thing, it’s just the way we’ve always been. I do my thing all day long, and then I see the guys on stage. I take it that they do the same thing.

Do you have much creative input in the writing process yourself, or is it something that’s mainly left to Max?

Yes. We’ll always meet up at the studio with Max. We never practice or jam or anything; we fly out to Europe or America or wherever and start to tour. We make a record the same way. We meet up at the studio, Max will come in with about 4-5 CDs of jams and rough demos of songs and we’ll go through them and be like “Yeah, that one’s cool, this one’s cool, we’ll do that there” and we all just start jamming in a room. We all have the freedom to do our own thing; Mark gets to play his guitar parts, I get to play my bass parts.

Do you feel that makes things a little more raw and authentic?

I definitely think it makes it Soulfly. I don’t think that kind of recording process could really work for a lot of bands. I used to be all about practicing, and I won’t even practice with my other projects now. I don’t know if I’ve gotten lazy or old; but it’s one of the two. (laughs)

You have a new album coming out soon ‘Omen’. What can you tell us about it?

What’s already been said, man? I hate talking about albums before they come out because it seems like shit. The typical thing (which is the truth as far as I’m concerned) is it’s faster, it’s heavier and it’s way more straight-forward. Fans of the experimental Soulfly with the fuckin’ weird instruments and stuff like that, MAYBE they won’t like it. We’ve taken the (song) ‘Frontlines’ approach to this record, except we’ve taken it way over HERE, you know? The fuckin’ record starts off and it’s just like a punch in your face, there it goes and then it ends.

How do you describe the sound of the new album? Is it a natural progression from previous material or is it completely different?

It’s definitely a natural thing. It blows my mind, I think ‘us’ as a band finally came into form on the ‘Dark Ages’ record, because at the end of ‘Prophecy’ we were touring a lot and still getting to know each other. When we went in to do the ‘Dark Ages’ record, we kind of took off with songs like ‘Frontlines’ with some faster and heavier and grooves with less experimental bongo playing and shit. I think over the years that we’ve played together; it’s now just one of those things where we nod at each other and just ‘get it’.

Your new album features some unique and quite interesting artwork. Is there some kind of explanation behind it?

I saw it about the same time as the last guy saw it; I had no idea what it was. Somebody emailed it to me or I think I fuckin’ saw it on the MySpace or something. I don’t even know what the fuck it means, really, but I love it. I think it’s the coolest one, but I’ve also read everyone on the internet saying “Ah, this is the worst Soulfly cover ever”, which is cool. I don’t know, it’s MY favourite so it probably IS the worst (laughs).

You’ve recently released a new video for ‘Rise of the Fallen’. How has that been received so far?

Killer man, it’s real fresh. I don’t think it came out publicly until the week we were leaving so I think it’s THAT new.

I think it’s nearly 2 weeks old now?

Oh, really? See. I’m always a day late and a dollar short, but I really love the way it turned out, you know?

Your new album features guest appearances from Tommy Victor (Prong) and Greg Puciato (Dillinger Escape Plan). How has it been to work with those guys?

I LOVE Prong, I’ve always said it. I think Prong is a great band. Tommy Victor is a guy after my own self; he plays with everybody and just makes records. He’s toured with Ministry, Prong and fuckin’ Danzig. I do the same fuckin’ thing, so me and Tommy just totally hit it off and clicked and we got him to do 2 consecutive tours in the states with Soulfly; which has never happened before. I don’t push for much, but I was like “fuck, I love watching Prong every fuckin’ night”.

Are they people you’ve always known as friends or just something that happened from you getting in contact?

I’ve known Tommy, not on a personal level but in a kind of passing musician way, for years. When I wasn’t doing anything one time and he wasn’t either he was like “What’s going on? Maybe we could do something sometime…”  and I was like “Well, I’ve got a call. I’m gonna go play in Soulfly”. Greg was the same way. Max met him at a benefit for Chi (ex-Deftones) in Los Angeles when we were making the record. The Deftones did a show there to raise money for his hospital bills and Max met Greg there. He saw Greg do his thing and he was in the studio the next day.

Are there plans to come back and tour to support the new album once it’s out and people are more familiar with the material?

I hope so, the tour we’re on now is 9 and a half weeks, then we go home for like a week and a half and come right back. So I have no idea after being in Europe for 9 and a half weeks what’s left to play, but I know we’re coming back for another 3 weeks.

Will they be headline shows?

I think so, yeah.

You’re playing some of the biggest festivals in the heavy metal scene this year. Do you think it’s a peak for the band?

You know, I heard the other day about a festival we’re doing where it’s Aerosmith headlining Friday, Soulfly headlining Saturday and KISS headlining Sunday. I was like “What the fuck?” you know and “How the fuck do we get Saturday?” That kind of fucked me up because it made me think “Maybe this IS the top”, you know? Aerosmith last night and KISS tomorrow. I was like “Wow”.

Do you prefer playing festival shows or indoor headlining shows in more intimate scenarios?

It’s the best of both worlds, really. It’s really good food usually at the bigger festivals and you can fuckin’ hang out with your friends and see good music all day, as opposed to today where it’s just us and one band opening. So it’s kinda like “Yeah, fuckin’ boring, I’m gonna go walk around all day”. That’s the other good thing, you can’t go and walk around all day at a festival, but here in London I can just hit the streets and do whatever. So they both have perks, man. I like our own shows because they can go on as long as they have to as long as it’s cool and there’s so many time constraints at a festival that you don’t really get to do that kind of shit.

Yeah, I guess it’s a far more strict running order.

Yeah, I mean if your time’s over they’re like “Nope, you’re done”.

There’s been quite an evolution in the sound of Soulfly, starting off nu-metal and got a bit more experimental with the groove metal sound. Now it seems to have returned to a kind of old-school thrash/heavier sound. Has it been a conscious change or just something that’s happened naturally?

It’s one of those weird fuckin’ things, man. Like I said, we don’t talk about it. When we play it’s like “That’s it”. The first couple of songs we wrote for this record I was like “That’s it? We’re not gonna do some crazy thing right now?” and Max was like “I don’t think so” and I was like “Fuck! That’s badass!” It’s just one of those things. It’s Soulfly, that’s the only thing I can say; the only way I can put it. I don’t know if any of these records would turn out would have turned out any differently if we took a member out of the equation, if it would change the sound too much. I don’t know. Maybe it’s us, maybe anybody could do it.

Do you think it’s the kind of sound you’ll continue or is that just something that only time will tell?

You never can tell. I would love to keep the shorter songs and stuff, man. The main reason, like I said, we never practice or jam? When you’re getting ready to start your first show in Europe and it’s a fuckin’ festival like we did in Switzerland the other day after having not played together, it’s weird to remember some of the songs. Sometimes it’s got like 15 fuckin’ changes or something. The simple songs are WAY easier; we just go there and belt them out.

Who would you say the main influences of the Soulfly sound are?

Shit. That’s where it comes down to those 4 individual people thing, everybody would have SUCH a crazy answer, me, Mark, Max and Joe. It’s hard to tell what the fuck those guys would say.

My next question was who are your personal influences as a bass player or just as a musician?

I’m not really influenced by bass players or guitar players or anything, I love bands. I think the new Deftones record is fuckin’ God damn amazing and I don’t know how the rest of the world is gonna feel about it; I don’t really give a fuck. I LOVE Helmet and I LOVE Quicksand and I still listen to those old records all the time. So it’s like I’m pretty much all over the board with what I like and what I enjoy. I’m listening to El Bronx right now and I love The Bronx, so, I’m fuckin’ weird like that. Me and Max are basically the same way, as we do listen to such crazy fuckin’ spectrums of music and Mark and Joe are definitely ‘metal’. So there’s me and Max over here putting a bit more roundness to ‘the ball’, you know? (laughs)

That’s all the questions I have for you today, thank you very much for your time. Do you have anything to say to your fans in the UK?

Check it out, man. It’s gonna be a LONG, busy summer and I definitely hope we can come back here and play some more songs off the record once it comes out and there’s a little more life to the record.

For more information on Soulfly visit : www.soulflyweb.com or www.myspace.com/soulfly