In a new interview with Finland’s Chaoszine, SEPULTURA frontman Derrick Green was asked if there were any particular albums that he could pinpoint where he felt that he book big steps forward as a vocalist and learned something new about himself. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “That’s a good question. I think every album I’m learning something new because you’re usually working with producers that — we’re fortunate to work with producers that bring out a lot in yourselves. I think that’s a number one goal of a producer is to have that ability to bring something out that you never imagined.”
He continued: “We worked on the last two albums with SEPULTURA [2017’s ‘Machine Messiah’ and 2020’s ‘Quadra’] with [producer] Jens Bogren, and he lives in Sweden; he’s Swedish. I had heard about his work through OPETH — I’m a big fan, and other stuff they had done — and I was always, like, ‘Who is producing this? What’s going on here? I think we need to work with them.’ And we contacted him and ended up recording the last two albums in Sweden. And it was an unbelievable experience, I think, for all of us.”
Derrick added: “Jens really became like a member of the band in a way. His work ethics are so strong, and his ability to hear the artists and to elaborate on top of that, it’s incredible. So he brought out a lot of things that — pushing me, especially vocally, singing, doing things as harmonies, having ideas with like choir. It just was super challenging, and I never imagined myself being able to create like a basic chorus line for a choir. And that was something that we did on the last album, where we ended up taking that idea that I did in the studio and to an actual church with people singing and, like, ‘Hey, you guys are gonna sing like this, and it’s gonna work really well on an album for SEPULTURA.’ [Laughs] And we were able to do that. And that was something I never imagined. Also doing a song in Japanese [‘Ultraseven No Uta’, on the deluxe version of ‘Machine Messiah’] where it was just like a bonus track and having to sing in Japanese and having a Japanese exchange student come in and help vocally do that. And that was super challenging, and I never imagined doing that in a recording session. But that was something that was very special that I remember from the last recordings… That’s the goal of being an artist, I think, is pushing yourself to do those challenging things.”
Asked if his parents were always supportive of his decision to become a musician, especially when they heard him “screaming [his] lungs out for the first time”, Derrick said: “I think they were always supportive, because, as much as they might not have understood what we were doing, and screaming and the loud music, but it was done in my parents’ house in the basement, and so they kind of knew where I was. It was doing something that was very positive. And my mother, being a music teacher, understood the importance of being able to establish a personality through music. It was just something that not a lot of kids, I think, were doing, but it was something that was very special to us and it brought us a lot of happiness. So they didn’t really mind that. And they actually got to see a few shows, which was shocking to ’em. But they liked the fact that people were into what we were doing, or at least what I was doing, as well. And it was just something very special. But [they were] very open-minded. And that was something that was super important, I think, in all of our lives. Everyone in the band, we had very supportive parents.”
Cleveland native Green went from fronting hardcore band OUTFACE in Ohio to relocating to New York and then joining SEPULTURA in 1997 and living in São Paulo, Brazil for nearly two decades. He currently resides in Los Angeles.
SEPULTURA launched the massive “Celebrating Life Through Death” farewell tour in early 2024. The band is playing a career-spanning set that honors SEPULTURA‘s 40 years of existence.
SEPULTURA is putting together a live album commemorating their last run of shows. The band is recording 40 songs in 40 different cities for what will be a “massive compilation of our best, most energetic moments on stage,” according to a statement released by SEPULTURA in December 2023.
SEPULTURA kicked off its farewell tour on March 1, 2024 at Arena Hall in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The sold-out show marked the band’s debut performance with drummer Greyson Nekrutman, who previously played with SUICIDAL TENDENCIES.
SEPULTURA announced drummer Eloy Casagrande‘s departure on February 27, 2024, explaining in a statement that he was leaving to join “another project”, with Eloy later confirming that he is the new drummer of SLIPKNOT.
The news of Eloy‘s exit from SEPULTURA came just two months after the band announced it would celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2024 by embarking on a “farewell tour” which will cover the entire globe.
In SEPULTURA‘s statement, the remaining bandmembers expressed their shock over Casagrande‘s departure, saying they were “taken by surprise” that their now-former drummer would “abandon everything related to SEPULTURA” less than a month prior to the start of the tour.
Photo credit: Edu Defferrari
