SEPULTURA Frontman Says President BUSH Is A 'Political Idiot'

Sweden's Metalshrine.se recently conducted an interview with SEPULTURA frontman Derrick Green. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Metalshrine.se: I guess you´re into politics as well?

Derrick: "Yeah! I think politics affects everyone and even if you don´t know that much about it affects your life in many, many different ways. The feeling and sentiment of America and how people feel about Americans is affected by this idiot president that we have. A lot of people go, 'Ah, so you're an American and na na na...' and they jump to the wrong conclusions because of this political idiot that's in the White House (laughs). Unfortunately I kind of have to defend myself, my views at least. I don't ever jump on the patriotic bandwagon...but I always defend my views, going 'Look, I don't believe in anything this guy is saying!' and I feel that I want to and that I should since, I am an American, that I wanna show my side instead of the media's side or the side that people see on TV."

Metalshrine.se: I get a feeling that a lot of Americans that you meet feel the same way and the funny thing is that he got re-elected. Everybody seems to not like that guy, so I'm just fascinated by the whole Bush thing.

Derrick: "It's tiresome for Americans, especially a lot of Americans, believe it or not, don't travel that much. I mean, 80% of the Americans don't have a passport. A lot of people are sick of the Bushes. We've had like so many terms...we've had two Bushes and it's hard on the people (laughs). It's like 'Enough already!' They're slowly starting to realize. Like 'Wait a minute! There are things happening in America that are really fucked up and why is that?"

Metalshrine.se: Do you see any major differences between living in Brazil and the U.S.? I mean, Brazil is in many ways sometimes a chaotic country as well.

Derrick: "Extremely chaotic with many problems, like most countries. There's definitely a difference. Moving there and living there changed a lot of my life and my personality and as far as...with people, it was bizarre for me to live in a place or situation where most of the people know what I do and recognize me. It was really bizarre for me and I can't say I really liked that much attention, like doing laundry or getting my groceries and learning the language and the culture. I don't have a problem with learning languages, it's just a difficult language and living in a different culture and environment and being away from your family and some really good friends, a lot of these things really affected me and even my self-confidence or my self-esteem. I kind of resorted back to being childlike, like 'What am I going to do here? Is he really my friend? Is he my friend because I'm in a band?' Things I never, ever imagined would come about from being in a band and moving to Brazil. But I prefer living in Brazil much more than living in...New York or the United States."

Metalshrine.se: I read that you also recorded two cover songs, one being JUDAS PRIEST's "Screaming for vengeance". Is that stuff you grew up with?

Derrick: "We were offered to do a cover song for a tribute album to JUDAS PRIEST, so they came to us with a list of songs that bands hadn't done yet and 'Screaming for Vengeance' was one we all agreed on. I hadn't heard it in such a long time, so it was fun and we did our own version. Almost like a hardcore style or SEPULTURA-style version of 'Screaming for Vengeance'. And SICK OF IT ALL, we've been friends with for a really long time and that was another tribute album and the saved the song 'Scratch the Surface' for us, because they felt that when they wrote that song it was in the vibe of SEPULTURA. I love these guys and it was an honor to do one of their songs."

Metalshrine.se: And this stuff is gonna end up on b-sides, or what?

Derrick: "We're not really sure. I know the JUDAS PRIEST song is on that tribute album, but I'm not sure when it's coming out. SICK OF IT ALL we´re still waiting to hear when that's gonna be released. But if nothing comes about we can definitely use it as b-sides."

Read the entire interview at Metalshrine.se.