by John Foxworthy

When you think of social outcry, freedom of speech or even just heavy metal, Brazil's Sepultura may not be the first name to come to mind, but that's okay with now front man Derrick Green. A relative newcomer in the the band's saga, Derrick's got no bones about jumping in head first ... inadvertently reshaping the direction of what most people would consider the world's most brutal thrash metal band. Now, with a new album and a fresh approach, Derrick Green and Sepultura may be on the high road from an historical underground existence to the forefront of the metal scene and a huge record.

So tell me ... how'd a kid from Cleveland end up fronting a Brazilian thrash metal band? Was it like answering an ad from Roadrunner?

Derrick Green: Basically, I've always been into heavy music. I guess I'd been going to shows since I was 14-years-old ... pretty much hardcore and punk shows and that was pretty much my entrance into really enjoying playing heavy music and I played in a band in Cleveland for 8 years. Once moving to New York, I had a friend that started working at Roadrunner Records as an A&R person and he suggested to me that I try out for Sepultura. He said that they had a tape of one song with no vocals and they were giving it to everybody to do their own thing on it, so I decided that I wanted to try it out ... you know ... in my own vocals and send it to them. A couple months later I was in the band pretty much.

Were you already a Sepultura fan?

DG: Yeah. I mean, I already had a few of the albums. I didn't have a lot of the older stuff. I was already familiar from Arise to Roots ... I had those albums, but I wasn't fanatical. I didn't even know the names of each person in the band.

When the guys told you they wanted you, did you speak Portuguese or have you learned it since then?

DG: No. I'd never spoken Portuguese, I'd never been to South America and I wanted to do a lot of research before even going to Brazil because it all happened so quickly. I just wanted to have an idea when I got there of what to expect. You know, there's no way to prepare for that. In a lot of ways it can be a culture shock.

You have a wide range of musical tastes. I've read that your first album was Rush and that you're an educated guy. What is it about hardcore metal that attracted you?

DG: I think the main thing with the hardcore music ... the time that I was growing up ... especially the pop music and MTV and a lot of stuff that was going on ... I just didn't feel a connection with it at all. A lot of the stuff wasn't believable. I mean, I didn't understand the big hair and the really bad glittery clothes and all these bands that were being called metal or heavy rock. I wasn't really into that ... like I couldn't find my own identity or connection or something. The lyrics were usually pretty bad and as I got older I really started to realize more and more about lyrics and songs. For example, Kiss. I was a huge Kiss fan as a kid, but as I got got older and I started to realize the connection with lyrics and music it just became a little more serious after a while. And with my connection with hardcore and stuff like that, I got into it because a lot of hardcore and punk rock songs are talking about a lot of social issues and very personal issues ... and then I would see the bands and they'd be all tattooed up and really believable. They were writing about a lot of the things in their life, and so that I could relate to because a lot of those things they were writing about ... I was having those same problems where I could identify with it. It was just a lot more believable for me. I just wasn't into the whole pop world. I just felt like sort of an outsider I guess.

So it was basically just more real for you.

DG: Yeah. It was definitely the reality factor. I just didn't want to see a guy up there singing about being in love forever or like elves and wizards and things like that.

What would you say to those who tell you that thrash is a dead genre or just noise?

DG: That's okay. I mean, that's the one thing that I really like about underground music. It's that not everyone likes it. You have to open your mind and investigate. You have to read lyrics to really know what the person is saying. There has to be something that really grabs you about it. I think it's great that people can have their own opinions. I think it's these opinions that really feed the fire of wanting to do something different. At least when you hear people saying, "I'm not really into that," and I'm like, "Yeah ... you don't have to be, because there are a lot of people that are." It's not the type of music where you're trying to please everybody. I think it's something you do foremost for personal satisfaction, where people relate to it and it becomes better. It becomes something flowing.

When you hooked up with Sepultura, did you feel like you had some big shoes to fill?

DG: Definitely. Consider the fact that they had so many years as a band ... and so many albums. They were from the same country with the same language. They had time to grow and evolve. They didn't start off as like Sepultura just starting off. It's like they started off as people saying, "God, this is horrible!" like they did in Brazil. People weren't listening to that style of music. They had all these different factors. It wasn't just the singer. It was much more than that, because the band has always been "the band," not just one person. I felt this immense amount of responsibility and I thank that this happened gradually to really grow into it because I was lucky enough to not really know how big it was ... I think that in that way it was really lucky for me. As time went on I think that we all knew it would take time to evolve and grow. It's really like starting over again with a different combination of people and just getting used to playing with a different structure.

Speaking of that ... after 8 years and going on your 5th album with 'Dante XXI', do you think the old school Sep fans are in tune with you now?

DG: I think they are a lot. I know that people talk very straightforward with me, especially Sepultura fans ... like old school fans ... a lot of them said they didn't like the first albums we started doing and afterwards it kind of grew on them. Other people have said they saw the first shows and after seeing us play live. I think it's many different opinions from different fans, but I think there are old school fans that are into the whole lineup change. Even our fan club ... they were there from the very beginning of Sepultura and they're still there 100% and behind us.

Let's talk about now. You read Dante's Divine Comedy back in college...

DG: Actually, it was high school.

Oh. I thought it was college. When did you get the idea to write an album based on Dante's work?

DG: The Divine Comedy? The idea actually came about when we got to the point where we had to write a new album a couple of years ago. We're going to practice and it's like, "Okay ... there's no inspiration." And we're in a band and you have to have some sort of inspiration to write off of. I think with every Sepultura album, there's that need for some kind of focus and we'd been working on some films, so we were doing some soundtrack ... working with directors and scoring the films ... and it was a lot of fun because it was so easy for us to have this vision of the film. It was like, "Okay, here's the murder scene. Let's write the part." It would just flow naturally without even thinking about it as a group. So we wanted to go into the writing process with that same idea, like "Let's do a soundtrack for something ... maybe a book." So we came about with that and we started thinking of books. And, I thought of The Divine Comedy because it was a book with so much material and so visual that we could come up with something very interesting ... since there're three parts in the book. I didn't know if those guys would be into it until they started reading it and they just started flowing more and more. We started talking about doing this and this and then practice changed. Then it was like, "Okay, let's write the Hell part." So it really brought about a lot of communication between us and it really started the process of writing ... and that's how it started.

How long did it take to write it?

DG: You're going to ask me that [laughs]. It was pretty intense as far as we were doing an updated version of the book, taking pieces from the book ... not literally interpreting every single part, where we'd have a rock opera. Just taking various parts that we felt we could relate to the 21st century. That's sort of the main idea.

Yeah ... and I totally caught that.

DG: Wow! That's great ... and most people have gotten it and I'm surprised, but it's great to hear that. We've been taking certain similarities to stuff like political corruption, which is something I've seen ... especially in Brazil ... so it was easy to relate certain topics like that. And that was like the first 5 songs, then the next 4 were Purgatory and the last song was Paradise. They were divided up sort of like the book, but our interpretation of it.

Besides the conceptual idea, musically Sepultura's made huge leaps. Do you feel like, on this album, you guys have totally evolved as a band?

DG: Definitely. In every aspect. It's the first time we've actually produced the album ourselves. We brought in orchestra strings and horns and really wanted to create the soundtrack vibe, the vibe of the book ... the sinister feeling and I think we pushed ourselves in every aspect. We had no idea what people were gonna think. We were here in Sao Paulo, working away in the studio with this crazy idea. I think that's the best part, not thinking so much about the outside. We could have told people ahead of time they're just like, "What? That's nuts!" I think the fact that we're able to trust ourselves and have that confidence really shows that we've evolved.

You've never been into catering to the mainstream. I'm thinking this album's going to appeal to a wider audience than Sepultura's used to. Do you think this'll attract a lot of new fans?

DG: Definitely. I think that's the one thing that's so exiting about growing with the band. There were all these new fans coming about, as far as really young kids. And, for a band that's older ... like 22 years ... there aren't that many bands out there with that many years that are able to attract younger fans. That's amazing to me! I love that factor, because I remember being that age and being a fan of music. I know how exciting it can be. I've actually watched it grow as far as younger fans ... especially in Brazil ... and I think it will attract, I hope it really does attract a lot of people.

You guys have been working on the video for "Convicted In Life." What made you choose that particular song?

DG: It was the one track that hit people in the face. Especially us. It's the one song, with the combination of the record label ... we have a pretty good relationship with SPV ... talking with them and sort of agreeing with them and sort of giving it to them. "You tell us what song you think would be great for a video." They pitched like 3 or 4 songs, but that was the one on the top of the list that we all agreed, "Hey, you know what? This song is straight to the point, has a lot of classic Sepultura, a lot of newer, hardcore, straight-to-the-point sound, great solo and it was all around a short but sweet song," as sweet as it could get ... but it was straight to the point.

You guys were all fitted up with some gory prosthetics for the shoot. Was it hard to perform with that stuff on?

DG: It was only a few certain things, but for us it really wasn't. We're not going to be the main focal point of the video. In the video there's a lot of other things going around that we wanted to focus on, so once you start the editing process it won't be just us. I mean, we're the focal point, but I thought it would be cooler where we're not the actual main characters of the story. It wasn't really that hard to perform. There wasn't really that much footage of us shot, but it was pretty easy actually.

Out of the entire 'Dante XXI' album ... what message, if any, do you want people to get?

DG: The meaning I think that I get from it is respect for your yourself. It's a book primarily about discovering yourself and kind of conquering demons. Everybody's like, "I don't wanna go there. I don't wanna deal with it," but it's about dealing with certain demons or monsters you have. About certain things you may not like about yourself or things around you and wanting to make a change and being aware of it and wanting to move forward. I think people discover that within themselves and that's the first step in really changing. A lot of things are going on in the world. When people start to change things within themselves and stop pointing the finger at things all around them. If it opens up an opinion or somebody's voicing an opinion or somebody's thinking about something, I'll be very satisfied with that.

That's extremely deep. I want to thank you for taking the time out to talk...

DG: No ... thank you.

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