One minute we were all laughing and loving at
our wedding!! 12 hours later, we were all crying and tense. Did all the 6's in
a row curse our family? Did we laugh at the warnings, the coincidences? Because
of the upcoming Sepultura recording schedule, there was only one weekend to
have our wedding. 6-6-93 was our wedding date. 6:00pm was the time of the
wedding. Our friend, Eddie, pointed out that the wedding was at 6-6-9 minus
3=6...6-6-6. We laughed and shrugged it off. Party as planned.
The phone woke me in the morning at the hotel.
Mr. and Mrs. Max Cavalera snuggled up for the first night of the rest of their
lives, jolted awake by the phone. I looked at the time..6:00am. Christina's
nervous voice startled me. "Mom I have a big problem." The baby
didn't feel right; something was wrong. I asked my brother Paul to take her to
emergency and we would head to the hospital immediately.
I walked into the hospital and hours later,
helped deliver my first grandchild. Adam died in the hospital from a doctor's
bad call. How could this be happening? The world was spinning around me.
Instead of welcoming my sweet heir, I had to arrange a funeral. A tiny,
delicate funeral was in our stars.
 |
| Christina, Alex, and Baba |
Only a few days passed and Max, baby Zyon and I
flew to Wales to begin the next recording with Sepultura and Andy Wallace. We
arranged for all the kids, Christina and Alex also, to join us. Maybe it would
break this depression! It didn't feel right but hope was our companion, for
lack of another solution.
Sepultura had considered working with Garth
Richardson, who had just done the Rage Against the Machine record. He came to
Phoenix to meet everyone. Bob Rock was also interested but he looked so much
like a surfer and we didn't really want to be associated with Bon Jovi, that it
made us all laugh! In the end, it was legendary Andy Wallace who travelled to
Phoenix for rehearsals. He sat in the jampad and made notes on each track. This
impressed all of us! He suggested we record in Wales at Rockfield Studios. The
place was such a legend, how could we resist?
 |
| Me arriving at the studio |
This was the first record Max had written music
for using a 4-track machine at home. He made tapes which he took to the jam pad
to show the guys. Refuse, Resist, Propaganda and parts of Territory were all
birthed in this manner. Some months before, on an Australian tour, Max called
Andreas to our room and asked him to write with him in this new manner. Max
played him an instrumental he had just written. Andreas was very quiet and
somber. "We don't write like this," he commented and left the room.
"Yes, I do," Max replied to deaf ears. The instrumental was to become
Soulfly I, but of course, we never realized this at the time.
 |
| Andreas and Iggor moving in |
 |
| Iggor |
 |
| Paulo |
Rockfield was like a compound out in the Welsh
countryside. A courtyard surrounded by ancient brick walls...little rooms
enclosed, all in a row. Max and I took a 2 level, one bedroom apartment. It was
the exact room Freddie Mercury, Robert Plant and Ozzy had all stayed in when
they created their masterpieces. We were all speechless from amazement! They
brought us a little baby bed for Zyon and we placed it under the bedroom
skylight. We all settled in.
 |
| Andreas livin' large! |
 |
| Baby Z |
The catering was frikken great! What can I say?
Traditional English food three times a day. The team of cooks were all
fantastic women who worked morning to night, serving us delectables from the
cookbooks of the UK!! Fresh cafeterias of coffee with English breakfast,
English cheeses and meats for lunch and steamy hot slabs of English lamb or
cottage pie for dinner. This was the rockstar life!! We were sampling it all!! Rockers
need energy!!
 |
| Me and baby Z |
 |
| Catering ladies |
The first morning came and the guys started
getting their tones. Andy's excitement and professionalism was infecting each
of us. This was gonna be sick!! The first release on Epic Records was also the
first record with high expectations to shatter the Metal world. There were a
few internal problems beginning, Max and I could feel it. We chose to push our
concerns away...surely we were wrong. How could anyone be unhappy about small
ridiculous points when everything was so perfect??
 |
| Studio time |
 |
| Max |
 |
| Max and Andy |
You will find out…
Next week...recording is a locomotive running
free!!
Class dismissed....
This was the first record Max had written music
for using a 4-track machine at home. He made tapes which he took to the jam pad
to show the guys. Refuse, Resist, Propaganda and parts of Territory were all
birthed in this manner. Some months before, on an Australian tour, Max called
Andreas to our room and asked him to write with him in this new manner. Max
played him an instrumental he had just written. Andreas was very quiet and
somber. "We don't write like this," he commented and left the room.
"Yes, I do," Max replied to deaf ears. The instrumental was to become
Soulfly I, but of course, we never realized this at the time.
