Sepultura's early days weren't exactly easy. Ex-Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera recently talked about the band's tumultuous trip to New York City when they tried to get signed, which entailed playing a crappy in-store performance and getting mugged for five bucks. Then in a new interview with Dr. Mike Friedman of the Hardcore Humanism With Dr. Mike podcast, Cavalera told the story of how Sepultura got their first microphone. It involved ingenuity, some precise timing, and theft from a local pop band.
"You know, even our first microphone that I actually got, it was like, there was a whole plan. We made a whole plan to go see a pop band at a free show in the city, and we went 'this is the plan. When it's when it's dark on the stage, one of you motherfuckers launch me on the stage. I'll jump and grab the mic and put it in my pants and jump back in the crowd.' And it fucking worked, man. I fucking jumped in, I grabbed the mic, stuffed it in my pants, jumped back and we were gone. 'Alright, we got a mic.' You know, 'Thank you pop band.' We got we got our first microphone, man. We actually had to do shit like that to survive."
Cavalera also touched on getting into metal after the death of his father. Cavalera said he used heavier music like a weapon at the time, as well as a coping mechanism for his loss.
"That's the beginning of Max Cavalera as what I become today, you know, because before that I was just like, a total normal kid that liked soccer a lot. I liked going to the beach on the weekend. I like girls, you know? When my dad died, we became broke. I had to start working like factory jobs. That's when music came in like a fucking a weapon – 'Here, use the Sabbath album! This is your fucking weapon. You know. Use this Discharge album! Use this Cro-Mags album!' You know? And when we started playing, now it's a real fucking weapon!"
Max and Igor Cavalera are currently out on the road performing songs from Sepultura's 1989 album Beneath The Remains and 1991 album Arise as Cavalera. Get those dates below.
w/ Cephalic Carnage & Healing Magic
6/16 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
6/17 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
6/18 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco
6/21 – Austin, TX @ Come And Take It Live
6/22 – Houston, TX @ Scout Bar
6/23 – San Antonio, TX @ The Rock Box
6/24 – El Paso, TX @ Rockhouse Outside
6/25 – Tempe, AZ @ The Marquee
