Friday, May 30, 2014

ATTITUDE...THE SCANDAL!!!

May 30th is Dana DLOW'S birthday, coming just after I discovered a scandal associated with the "Attitude" video. Time always uncovers everything, doesn't it, my dear Students? Let's continue...


Dana with Zyon
As you know, Max and Dana were very close, especially in 2 things, their love of yours truly and our family, and their shared love of music. They would sit for hours and listen to music, all the while talking about new bands and their music. Dana was always digging deep and introduced Max to baby bands like the Deftones, Korn, Unwritten Law, Downset, among scores of others. In fact, it was Dana who introduced Max and me to Chino!

While the rest of Sepultura were in Brazil, Max and Dana were sitting at our kitchen table going through some tracks Max had written on his 4-track machine. Earlier in the day, Dana had shown me some lyrics scrawled on a flier. They were cool and I said it was okay to show to Max. Max loved them right away and penned the song Attitude from the notes Dana had made. They were the lyrics of youth, of living in the '90s in an alternative lifestyle family..ours. They were reality!

"LIVE YOUR LIFE, NOT THE WAY THEY TAUGHT YOU! DO WHAT YOU FEEL".....this powerful sentence became the song you all love to sing along too!

IT BECAME AN ATTITUDE THAT WOULD SWEEP THE GLOBE!!!

In May of 1996, Max and I were on tour in Europe and realized Dana's 21st birthday was only a few days away. We called Dana's house in Venice, California and told him to pack a bag and get to the airport. There was a ticket with his name on it, to fly to Amsterdam. He about passed out from surprise and before you knew it he was in Holland, turning 21!


At night, quite late, Dana called our hotel room, excited about an idea he had for the Attitude video..."Who better than the Gracies, Mom?' He knew he had to convince me before I passed the phone to Popalos. And he did!! His idea was brilliant, full of Attitude!!
Max listened intently, as he had serious thoughts to consider..but soon he was smiling too. The idea to make a boxing ring, to incorporate the Gracies, to use a specific director..yes, it was all Dana's ideas.
Max knew the others would turn it down, no matter if it was a spectacular idea. The climate was getting muggy between everyone. Max could feel a tension that he had never felt before. I wasn't feeling it as I had seen it coming for the last few years. Spending 7 years with people and caring for every detail, you get to know the substance of a person very well. I had seen the envy growing silently like an ear of corn, a shaft of wheat, silently till it could grow no more. Max was always no-confrontational, choosing to be diplomatic. This can lead to a blindness. Now it was different though. We both knew something was brewing in the kitchen.
Max chose to say it was his idea, in order to get things approved. Of course, everyone loved the idea and before we knew it, the video was being shot and we were all standing in front of the boxing ring, cameras as our borders.
The most memorable moments for me were when I met all the Gracies, even the Father who invented ultimate fighting! Their gorgeous, super fit wives were there also. What a collection of badasses! And were those Gracie men ever refined and damn good looking too! And also, Dana introducing me to his friend, Danny Trejo! What a day!!

Max, Royce Gracie, and Myself
The filming went on all day from scene to scene. Our friends and Dana were in the pit throwing down and shizzle was poppin'!
There was a scene where a businessman fights an Indigenous man and a scene where a jock fights a stoner.  Dana was the stoner swinging the backpack. This was in sarcasm of the police who arrested us in the past year and let the jocks who shot at us get away.
Allin all the day was a riot from start to finish!
Dana died a short time after the filming of the video and never got to see it completed....,if I recall the timing. Things were heavy between his death and launching the Roots record. Being the Mother of many Dragons, I was able to handle it all. But now when I look back, for the love of God, I don't know how I did it. If I had known I would never see my loving son again, I would have held him much tighter and longer, that last time in the doorway...
The Attitude video was done and included on the Sepultura home video, WE ARE WHAT WE ARE. The official video is there for all to see, along with the stressful interviews where you can see the silent separation of the band and Max.

Real "Official Attitude" Video (Dana can be seen swinging a backpack at a jock at around 3:40 - 3:43)

As we all know well, Max and I walked away on December 16, 1996, after Dana'a death became the catalyst for an occupation of Sepultura. Silly them, they thought Max would stay. But...once you lose a child and the resulting love you receive from your team is like dominoes crashing all around you...you know the meaning of Life. You see through the green envy wrapping paper that was beginning to choke you anyway. Walking into the fresh air...that was life. This was the real meaning of freedom. This was attitude and respect.
A couple weeks ago rechecking my blog, I decided to review the Attitude video at the end. Imagine my surprise when i saw the video did not contain Dana anywhere! I looked on YouTube and saw this was the"official" video with over a million views!!! I searched and found the original video and began to understand. This was the climate at the time. A young man is murdered no less and you take his image out after his death? You tell the fans this is the "official" YouTube video. Classy. Cold. Hateful. That is exactly what we left. And so, dear Students, the joke has been on us all...But the proof speaks for itself.

Fake "Official Attitude Video" where Dana should be seen swinging a backpack at a jock at around 3:40 - 3:43. But isn't...
Oh and to the people who had heard "In America, it is legal to collect another mother's son's body,".....guess what, it isn't........it is a felony with a nice prison term....especially when you steal someone's Social Security Number."
Happy birthday, my dear son. We miss you with every sun that shines, every breeze that blows, every attitude that gains strength. This class is for you....

Class dismissed...

Friday, May 23, 2014

KILLER BE KILLED...AT LAST!!!


Many of you know the Killer Be Killed cd has just come out!! I don't usually repost but thought you may like to see the blog I made a year and half ago about the roots of KBK. January 10th of 2013, we were all getting together and rehearsing in Long Beach. There was excitement swirling around us every time we all got together. With the addition of Troy Sanders, the complete circle was connected.

In September 2013, we connected again in LA, this time joining forces with Josh Wilbur to record. The build-up to this moment was like walking up a mountain and finally reaching the top! Smiles and music filled each moment of every day. I would sit in the lounge with Kendog, working and hear the cake baking in the chambers behind the wooden doors!!
Me and Josh Wilbur
I took up the task of cooking the meals for the guys. There was a complete kitchen and not many places to eat around the studio. Every day I would plan a menu that was healthy and not heavy, to weigh the guys down. It was fun to see them come out of the room starving and see my creations on the kitchen island.

Lunch by Me!!
Monte Conner, Ryan Downey and Nick John joined in some days and they were also enjoying the freedom of not having to order take-out or starving all day. We walked through this KBK garden together and I would like to thank everyone for allowing me to be a part of this creation!!!
Me, Josh, and Killer Be Killed!



Enjoy the following.....the roots of KBK!!
CONTINUED: How We Made A Band! - Gloria Cavalera  >>

Thursday, May 15, 2014

MARY POPPINS OF METAL...EVERY FAMILY NEEDS ONE!!

Raising a family of 7 children, managing crisis' and many bands, was not easy, believe me! To this day I never sleep over 5 hours a night. In the years that the children were babies, my dearest friend-whose name I will protect because she is a very private person-was my support. In all ways she was my confidant and I can truly say I could not have accomplished the task of keeping the family united and our home sturdy without her.

When the boys grew up, it was another story. My friend was busy with many things in our home and the boys needed a man to show them the ropes. I hired one of Dana's friends named Joey Nugent to help with them when the time came for them to morph from children to young boys and eventually teenagers.


Joey and Igor's preschool class...


Joey and Igor with his bird

Joey was an eccentric! He was funny, creative, sporty and loyal. He learned Igor's diabetic needs and cared for all the things a woman could not...boy things. He travelled with them and shared their love of music, which was silently growing inside them from birth. Yes, they inherited Max's musical talent and my management and thinking skills. Sports, books and music all flowed from them! I admit they cuss and have a funny dark humor from my Father...put this together and you have our family life! Dad cussed and joked 24/7 and it seeped into them in my womb!


Igor and Joey

As they got older and Joey got more creative, he was involved in bands that were far ahead of the time. FKR and the Walnuts.....Joey was a marketing genius!! Once even the police facebooked him that he was putting too many stickers and fliers around Arizona and they were going to take him out for it! You couldn't go through a drive-through or stop at a stop sign in the state without seeing some sort of advertising attached.

Joey and Zyon on the drum machine

His concerts were erratic and you spent most of the time oohing and ahhhing at the shocking set and the antics on stage! The kids were soaking this all up and also at home watching and cataloging in their memory. When it was time for Joey to move on and the boys grew up, I didn't realize at the time what they would carry on from him! Bravery to try new things and fearlessness to present it to the public... It was first exhibited in Moldbreaker and then in Lody Kong. People still cannot put a name on their music!! I was also surprised at the evolution of their art and realized quickly that it was a new form of music, not Metal!!



When Joey approached them to make a video, we all knew not to expect the normal performance video. After 3 months and various shooting sessions, "Monkeys Always Look" came out and it was just what I expected...revolutionary!! Far into the future, with a black twist of humor...it is a video beyond videos. Many times Max has remarked that he is a bit envious of their video achievements. I am now holding the new Some Pulp video which will be released in the womb of their new recording and trust me, you will not be disappointed!! Check out The Butter Lab and you will meet the mind of our personal Mary Poppins!! Yes, the Sound of Music always filled our home...but with a bit of a twist...


Joey



Class dismissed....

Friday, May 9, 2014

MY BLOODY ROOTS...

Family history..we all have one, but is it always so bloody? In honor of Mother's Day, and being the Mother of Dragons and the Mother of our Tribe, I would like to dedicate this week's blog to all Mothers and give my Students a bit of my story. This class is not about music...it is about my Mother....and my bloody roots.

Mom and Me
My mother's roots began in Russia. Her mother's family was a long line of priests, serving the Russian Orthodox Church. During the Russian Revolution which began in 1918, the country fell into turmoil...brother against brother sometimes.....Red vs. White. My grandmother, Sofia, joined the White Russian army as a nurse. At some point in time, she married an officer in the White Army. He was murdered in a battle and she soon found herself in a battle of her own, trying to survive on the Black Sea, fighting the Bolsheviks. She was rescued by a ship from Turkey, and luckily lived to board it.

On the ship was a Russian priest from the Crimea. He had a stack of marriage licenses and began marrying the young nurses to soldiers who had also boarded the ship. "You young women do not want to get off the boat alone, in Turkey! You will not be safe on your own!" He recommended all women get attached to someone, and do it quickly. On this boat, Sofia married my grandfather, Jakov. He was a lieutenant and a nobleman, as she was from nobility too; it was a perfect solution!


When the boat docked the survivors were taken to a refugee camp called White Tent City. I am not sure how long they resided there but at some point in time, they began their next journey and walked to Yugoslavia, crossing Greece on foot. Yugoslavia was a haven for Russians and seemed the best place to hide.
Mom - 15yrs old - Borchene, Kosovo
Why hide? Murder...that's why! Sofia had the news that her father, Father Alexi, had been murdered along with his son, her brother. The Reds had captured the two men and murdered them both with an ax!! Their body parts were thrown in the woods near the Church of St Nikita, in Tsarizan, Russia. During the dark of night, the people from the church gathered the body parts and buried them under the church. Before this happened, her brother had written a book denouncing Communism and had been imprisoned. He was tortured and even had part of his foot cut off in prison. And now, after being freed, he was murdered with her Father!

Jakov and Sofia walked to Borchene, Kosovo, eventually. On this path, children were born. Walking across countries takes time and Jakov and Sofia would stop in small villages to have a child. After the birth of a daughter and then a son, my Mother, Evrosina, was eventually born in Darkovatz, Yugoslavia, on this trek.

Life was pristine in Borchene. Located at the top of a mountain peak, Max and I once travelled there to find my roots. It is more like a tribe, with people living in the same few houses built in the 1850's. My Grandmother, who had a good education in Russia, was the village teacher and nurse. They lived in this village for many years.

On April 8, 1935, my grandfather, suffering from a fever, died as he cleaned a shotgun. My Mother was trying to take the gun from his hands when it went off. She told me how he fell and she sat in his blood, trying to rebuild his skull and make him come back to life. Youth is so innocent! He was buried in the grave of a person who commits suicide, but she always swore to me that it was an accident.

Life soon changed when the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia in the late 1930's. One morning, waking in the village, Mother looked outside the schoolhouse/home and saw the Nazi flag on the flagpole instead of the normal Yugoslavian flag that waved there previously. The Nazis heard there was a Russian family in Borchene and sent men to fetch them. They walked to Kosovo Mitrovistia and tried to hide, but were forced into labor. They cleaned barracks,stacked tobacco leaves, hunted for turtles for the German's meals and cleaned the streets. They were paid one kilo of bread for 6 hours of work.

In 1943 or '44, the family was taken by truck to Budapest, Hungary and camped by the Danube River for a day. They were boarded next on a train to Vienna. From Vienna, they were sent to a Concentration Camp in the mountains called Mao Hausen. They lived in a tent with other Russians but did not know it was a concentration camp. They were fed strange sausages that they later believed to be human meat. People disappeared each day and there was always a pit with smoke and ashes billowing up. They could not figure out what it was. It was here that my Mother first saw Americans. Young men, captured by the Nazis would peer out at the young girls and say "Baby, Baby!" My Mother's first English word...

Eventually, the family and some other healthy people were transported to a forced labor cap in Nuremberg, Germany. My Mother made the pin for hand grenades and her Mother made a part that goes in a gas mask. One day, they were so hungry, a friend stole a SS's cat and cooked it for them. Life was a constant struggle for them.
Mom and others cleaning rubble in Nuremberg

doorway of their home in the labor camp 

Mom on a rooftop in Nuremberg
In 1945, my Mother saw the American troops invade the city and eventually the war was over! Freedom at last! On the first free New Year's Eve, she wandered into the Grande Hotel after hearing the celebration and she met a young man, Frederick Kaltenegger. He fell in love with her and life began to change quickly!


They were married and he got a job translating at the Nuremberg Trials. He was able to allow my Mother to view the Trial from the small balcony. It was at this trial that my Mother found out they had been in a Concentration Camp. Frederick even took her down to the war criminal's cells and let her peak in the windows of each cell, viewing the famous, notorious prisoners. She told me Goering was overweight, sitting in his cell wearing a wife beater tee.

The marriage did not work out after a family member swiped their personal belongings as they were relocating to America and my Mother arrived in Kansas, on her own. Frederick had arranged the transport and immigration for her Mother, Sofia, and many of her brothers and sisters, as part of the divorce agreement, and soon they were all reunited.


My Mother met my Father.....but that is another story.... They had 4 children. And was was yours truly...the Mother of the Soulfly Tribe...

God bless all Mothers...


Class dismissed...


Friday, May 2, 2014

GLORIA CAVALERA...YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT..

After Igor was born in July of 1995, Max and I took a couple months off and enjoyed our family and home life, in Phoenix. The touring for Chaos was quite extensive and the rest of Sepultura returned to Brazil. Iggor was getting married on the day our Igor was born, so consequently, Max didn't attend the wedding. Max, of course, never stops writing and during this time,he wrote most of the ROOTS record. (yes, people, we have the 4 track tapes, so please, no comments about who wrote what....). This didn't stop us from having fun, though!! We worked all the time and it was normal for us. No vacations from art in this home!
Dana holding Igor

Me and max, with Zyon and Igor
One night, we heard Rage Against the Machine was playing at a club called The Grind, so we rustled up our friends, Mark Corona and Mouse (our designated driver); grabbed Dana and headed out.
R.A.T.M.
I admit we all drank a bit too much and had too much fun. When I took my shoes off and threw them at the bartender for not serving Max any more, we were kindly asked to leave.

We were laughing our butts off, crossing the street to our car, when a car pulled up next to us and began yelling insults and obscenities at us. We all gave them a big "F#$%@ You" and kept walking to our car. We must have looked a sight...I was wearing a Dead Horse shirt with cut-off sleeves, short-ass jean shorts and fishnet stockings-which were ripped from wearing no shoes.. The back of the shirt said SATAN KISSED MY DOG. Oh yeah, let's not forget the green hair topping this all off!

After our shout out, we were shocked to see the small car flip a u-turn and pull up next to Dana, in the middle of the cross walk. We could see the car was full of jocks. Dana bent down and said "whats up?" In no time at all, the passenger got out with a metal bar and whacked Dana in the elbow, knocking him to the ground! I screamed and Mark went to his aid. Mark got the bar on the middle of his head, knocking him down! Max who was helping also, got the whack of the bar across the middle of his back, flattening him to the ground. I was standing screaming and next someone in the car fired a gun, but luckily, the bullet went into a parked car. The jocks flipped a u-ey and took off.

Max got to his feet and picked up a brick that was conveniently in the median and heaved it at the car. As luck would have it, the brick hit ANOTHER car of jocks in a convertible, that had just turned onto the street. The cars stops and the driver starts yelling. Max, full of adrenalin, punched the dude in the face! It was getting majorly out of control!!

Sirens wailing, the police flew around the corner and soon we were all in separate squad cars, being verbally battered by the police. We all tried to tell them they had let the culprits go, but it took at least and hour and a half before they believed us. They never called an ambulance for the guy's injuries. They were all badly injured.

The officer came to me and said he was letting me go and that Max was going to be deported. Max had no US passport at the time and the officer was just verbally abusing me, most likely, since he wasn't a judge and had no idea what would happen to Max. I promised I would not do anything crazy and they let me out. I promptly shoved the cop, once I was freed and tried to run to Max's car. I wanted to say "call me!" I didn't anticipate being body slammed and thrown in the police car with Max, but that is what happened next!

A night spent in jail, in the women's section, was not much fun. Crazy girls cat-fighting with each other seemed normal there. The poise gawked at me throughout the night, because of my hair. I woke up once on a slab of metal, with a chick hugging me. One chick, looking at my appearance, asked if I was a Satanist!!


When court came up for bail, I was handed jail attire because "the judge was not going to like my appearance." Max was freed first and I was freed several hours later.
We went home and grabbed Dana and Mark and went to the doctor. Max had a bar imprint on his back. Mark's head was the size of a watermelon and Dana could not bend his super swollen elbow.
Mark and Dana and friends 
Max and Mark
Court came and no charges were filed against Max. I had a charge of hitting an officer. Yes, I arrived in full blown glorious green hair. The prosecutor tried to give me 30 days in jail. The kind judge asked me to approach the bench. I was a tiny thing in those days and he asked "You hit an officer in uniform?" "Yes," I replied. "Why?" " I was mad at how my husband was threatened!" "NO jail time and $100 fine!" The gavel cracked loudly and we walked out. I guess he liked my honesty, but I really don't know.


In a few months the Attitude video was shot. Dana can be seen swinging a backpack at a jock at around 3:40 - 3:43 . Now you know why...


Class dismissed.....