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Friday, October 28, 2016

HOW WE RETURNED TO OUR ROOTS!!


This photo was taken January 30, in London, when Uncle Iggor arrived at the Soulfly gig to visit us. Earlier, we had all been hanging with him, Auntie Laima, and their kids, Raissa and Antonio, in the dressing room. During the show, Zyon hopped off the kit for Roots and Iggor took over. I have always wondered how the heck he gets that fantastic, sonic booming drum sound. When Iggor hits the skins, it doesn't sound like other drummers! It is a powerful Hammer of Thor sound. I have never heard another drummer duplicate this sound. I have studied Iggor's technique plenty and still cannot figure it out. Is it how he hits? Or where he hits? No, it's something outer worldly. Therefore, I have determined it's magic and he was the recipient of this gift!! My intense studies also taught me that when Zyon drums, he makes the exact same face as his Uncle. It's amazing what we inherit!




Although you can't see me, I am sitting on the side of the stage as I took this photo. I was happily watching the excitement, joy and surprise on the faces of the crowd, as Max announced his brother would guest on stage. I began to think to myself..."Look how happy everyone is. They love seeing Max play with his son, Zyon, and they love seeing him play with his brother, Iggor." And it popped in my head....Why can't they give the fans what they want? Why should I feel that they can't play their songs? It was their history, too! So many thoughts began swirling....

I sent our North American agent, Dan Rozenblom, a text from the side of the stage. "I have an idea. This is the 20th anniversary of the Roots record. Do you think we could do a tour and the guys play the entire Roots' record? The fans really love it when the guys play Roots, maybe they would like the whole record?" He immediately shot me a reply, "let me ask around. Give me a couple days."

After the show, I mentioned my idea to Max, and one day later, I had my answer. Apparently, Max brought it up in an interview, just a simple interview, but it blew around the world like a hurricane force gust!! In no time at all, I was mobbed with emails from promoters, fans and journalists wanting to talk about it! My kids even got calls from promoters trying to book the show!! I had my answer and to was YES!!!

The Amnesia Fest in Canada was our "Sticking our toes in the water" gig, and it went great! After that, the world was ours and I could barely keep up with all the requests for interviews and concert dates. I realized many things on this tour. Number one, the new fans are cool!! They don't care who is playing; they don't whine about the reunion. They are Metal to the core and want to hear the record from A to Z, and they want it to sound like the record. They want to see the 2 brothers playing, and they want a great bass player and a sick guitarist. We gave them what they wanted and they gave us back what we had all dreamed of! This tour is one of the biggest sing a long tours I have ever been on!! I must say, these moshers did their homework!!






Class dismissed.....