INTERVIEW: INCITE

Ace Sims of RockRevolt Magazine recently sat down with Richie Cavalera of Incite to discuss the recording of their new album, Oppression, that comes out April 22nd, as well as tour life and being raised in a musical family.

How you doing, bud?

Doing good, man, enjoying this California life after freezing our ass off over in Europe.

I hear you, man. I am in Kansas City, and we had snow yesterday; it was 70 the day before that.

I can’t wait to be there; it’s going to be nice when we are in Kansas City with DevilDriver.

I was looking for the tour to back the release of Oppression that releases on April 22, but couldn’t find much.

Yeah we start off the tour on the 27^th in Las Vegas with DevilDriver, Holy Grail, and Hemlock.

So kicking off April 27^th ?

Yup April 27. We just did shows from January 10 to March 13^th so were all kind of beat from that whole tour right now, but we’re getting ready for this US run.

Got to ask. How did you like Europe?

Oh Man, it’s incredible! They’re packing them in right now. Huge crowds and they are really feeling Incite, and they are raging, man.

I would love to see a show in Europe; it’s a whole different ballgame over there. 

They are passionate about all the different genres; they don’t just cling on to a certain band. It’s really open. It’s really cool.

They are not into the over-saturated pop bullshit that dominates the airwaves today.

They might listen to some of that, but then they will go turn on Reign of Blood.  It’s got a different vibe to it.  You are allowed to like that kind of stuff, but then you can go be a metal head or whatever at the same time.  It’s cool that they do not get frowned upon for liking other things.

What do you think about the traveling outside the U.S., the different kinds of lifestyles?

I think it’s about becoming the same.  I think when I first went over there about 20 years ago there was definitely a huge difference.  Now, it’s becoming more westernized and feeling more like America the more and more that I go over there. It’s a crazy thing to kind of see that happen.  At the same time, you have the architecture and the history in Europe. It’s really ancient compared to America; man, it’s cool in all aspects.

You are releasing your 4^th full length album, Oppression, on April 22^nd.  What do you think about this one?

In my personal opinion, I think every record has been great in a sense of each one with a killer song or some killer vocals or killer riffs or whatever.  I think this one, this is the record everyone has been waiting for from us.  Everything fell into place.  The producer was the right guy; the songs were written how we really felt comfortable with.  The whole vibe man just really worked.  I think having the consistency of the members from the last record to this record now really helped grow a vibe between us; it’s going to be a kick ass record man.  People are going to get real fired up about it, and hopefully light a fire under metal’s ass. That’s what we’re hoping for.

I have listened to “Stagnant”, great song, man, killer song.

Thanks, man, that’s great. That’s the one we wanted to put out there for the vibe of where we are heading, and then were going to blow the roof off with the next one.

I think you chose wisely with that song.

With that song, we thought we got a great vibe with the growth that everybody went through.  The drum rolls and the snare sounds; all on previous records, it kind of had that computerized sound.  I think the vocals always sounded kind of monotone, very synthetic.  I think with this one we have more natural sounds coming out.  You have Dru Tang’s soloing and lead work and the rhythm work that he lays down in the background for the harmonics of the guitar work is just incredible, man.  We jam the whole thing with some headphones on, man, and the things you hear in the background will just blow your mind.  Those are things that we have really never had on our records.  It just finally became a complete piece.

What do you thing contributed to that?

I think the three main factors were, number one, obviously, the producer.  This time around, we did a preproduction where we flew him out to our rehearsal space, and we kind of jammed the songs with him for about a week, just really got to work on things that we had never done before. So, that was right out the gate starting us off on a good step. Second, I think having the same members was huge, and third, everybody just pushing themselves to make it a pure metal album from beginning to end just from every aspect. Even the bass with EL, he brought the thunder; it kind of has that Rex Brown feel to it, which is great with only having one guitar player we need to have that. I think it just finally all just lined up man; it happens sometimes.

Yeah, man, sometimes things just come to fruition and just fall in to place.

I have seen a lot of trial and error, so it is cool to finally be in a place where I am happier than I have ever been with the guys and that is probably the coolest deal.

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So, what are you doing with this short time off?

I am enjoying the married life. I got married like three months ago and then left basically left two weeks after I got married.  I am catching back up with my beautiful wife, and my little hairy puppy son; he just turned one, and he has been missing his dad.  Man, it’s just good; it’s just been good.  We just moved out to California, so we’re just trying to enjoy this incredible weather we have. It’s just been amazing to just be home and enjoy it all.  We have been doing the interviews as well to try and get people on the front about this new record coming out, so it’s never stopping.

Music has been in your blood for a long time.

Man, since birth!

Of course with your father being Max Cavalera, has his music been an influence on you?

His main thing on me was the not singing part. Even my heavy metal/metal, my voice attributing to how the metal is throughout his career.  You know, I think that was a big thing for me.  I tried to sing and just couldn’t do it, so I think this is the natural path for my musical career.  To have someone like him to watch and learn from, seeing how he interacts with crowds.  It’s been a major influence on my career as being a front man.  To have people like him and the bands he has toured with, like Pantera in their prime, you know all these great bands, to see them doing what they were doing when they were coming up.  Just being able to learn and take a little bit from everybody and put in to what I do.  It was a great lesson; it was like the best School Of Rock that you could go to.

So, you enjoyed being the musician’s son, the front man’s son?

Yeah, man, you grow up and you love music, so to have that and when you get older and realize it you are just like, “holy shit this is cool as hell.”  I mean, I loved it to begin, with but now it’s even that much cooler.  It’s just come to life, man; I am very thankful for it.  I definitely learned everything that I could, and when it was time to start Incite, I felt like I had prepared enough, and actually I didn’t know shit.  It was a lot of fun man it’s been a lot of trial and error with myself, and I don’t think whoever your parents are can set you up with what a band is.  It’s really about who you are with out there on the road; it’s those four to five guys that you are with day in and day out.  We’re the ones that are doing it, so we’re the ones that have to make it work.  It’s cool to have that as an influence going up, but now it’s all about what we can do, and that’s what is cool about music.

You are probably looking forward to the day of doing the same thing with a little one of your own.

Definitely, my dad has told me how proud he is that were doing it. I know I would be just as proud to have my boy or my daughter to be doing it.  I think it is at least a fun thing to try; it makes you learn a lot of things in life about patience and growing up.  You learn a lot about family; you learn a lot of things that you don’t realize that are important to you until you’re gone from home several months at a time.

Alright man. Let’s get you out of here. What you want to say to the fans out there?

Thanks for supporting the metal, and we will see you all in the pit.  Stay safe!

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