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Friday, May 19, 2017

GROWING UP GREEN!!!! HOW MAX NAMED SOULFLY

In 1997, Max was a writing machine. He crafted Eye For An Eye, Primitive, Tribe, No, and a whole slew of songs, that are unreleased and buried in the back of the archives. A pirate treasure chest full of songs with vocals, sleeps calmly. I stashed them for Zyon and Igor and the rest of the kids to discover, one day in the future. The lyrics to many of them were too heavy for our weary backs, at the time...



One of the songs was a rough version of Head Up. Max had thrown some grunts into the music and added the words SOUL FLY. When the Deftones asked Max to collaborate on a track about Dana (who was a good friend of theirs), we flew to Seattle. Terry Date was at the helm and the 7 of them crafted the track.


Once home, and after we had secured a record contract for Max's unnamed infant, I asked Max for a band name. People had been suggesting crazy names and Max was going through several books of foreign words, but I didn't agree to any of them. It reminded me of him looking for Zyon's name, when I was pregnant. Once we heard Head Up, I suggested he use the name Soulfly. We were thick with emotions from Dana's death. Soulfly was a word with no genre. I could hear the crowd chanting it. It was Max's word...and we all know Max is the Master of Combining Words Not Normally Used Together! When he discussed it with Roadrunner, he was met with much negativity. It swayed him to keep searching. Gradually other people around us started suggesting the same. When his sister, Kira, suggested he use it, he agreed.


Max and I travelled to France for a TV show. We were met by a Roadrunner rep, who accompanied us to the station. Max had it planned to announce the name, because France had supported his departure more than any other country. They even chose him as the Artist of the year for 1997, and he had no band! He let it out during the filming and I saw the RR rep wince. Max and I chuckled later, but knew it was the beginning of the New Beginning. If you close your eyes, you can hear it...Soulfly! Soulfly!! Soulfly!!


Class dismissed.......