Before their incredible performance in Glasgow recently (reviewed here), Pit Troll and I had the chance to sit down with the band for a quick chinwag. On arrival we were offered the choice of Andreas or Derrick to talk to; sort of like a Sepultura-esque menu. Given that I’d spoken to Andreas in 1996, we opted for some time with Derrick. After all, nothing much has happened in the last 19 years of Sepultura history so I doubt Andreas would have had anything new to say… 😉

Derrick turned out to be a great guy. His gruff voice and off-stage persona completely at odds with his thoughtful answers and aggressive front-man appearance which we would enjoy later in the evening. Mind you, he’s also the first band member I think I’ve met who could give Pit Troll a run for his money in terms of height!

Does it surprise you that the band is still going strong after over thirty years, almost twenty of them with you on vocals?

It kind of is, yes, but I always felt that we could keep going as long as we wanted to. It was difficult at first but we’ve had a lot of support, especially from the fans in places like Brazil and around the world, and it slowly evolved into something that people were comfortable with. There’s a lot of correspondence now, especially compared to when I joined. There’s the internet now, and back then I don’t think I even had a computer!

I had no idea of what was going on in the way that I would now. I just knew from going to shows and seeing people face to face, watching their reactions – reality. That was my perception of how things were going.

The reception [of Derrick taking over vocals – Mosh] was quite positive. A lot of people were very sceptical at first, you could see. Just stood there listening, but we were able to “capture” a lot of these and have them anticipating the next album and the next show.

You’ve never gone away, either. Many bands over the last thirty years have taken a break then come back – you’ve never stopped.

No, because we truly love what we do. We’ve never wanted to walk away. We enjoy playing, we enjoy writing music, we enjoy being on stage. There was no reason for us wanting to leave. This is something we’ve strived for and something we have a lot of respect for.

This is a thirty year anniversary tour. You yourself have been with the band for just under twenty years. Can you think back to 1996-7 and tell us how you came to join the band?

It came from knowing people and having a desire to do music in general. I started in Cleveland – I was born there – and had been in punk and hardcore bands. If I hadn’t done that and moved to New York, I’d not have met Mike Gitter [Hope I have that spelling correct – Mosh] who worked for Roadrunner at the time. He was a person who went to a lot of shows. He saw my old band play and he thought I’d be an ideal person to audition because a) I was nothing like the old singer and b) they couldn’t go back and try to find someone to imitate him, or try to have a clone. It wasn’t going to work with this band.