Bevar Sea – this Stoner/Doom band from Bangalore needs no introduction. Having been around for quite some time now, Bevar Sea came out with their highly acclaimed self-titled debut record this year and a major show stopping performance during the inaugural Doom Over Bangalore. Currently working on their music video and their new album, we caught up with the band for a little chat before their performance in the inaugural Echoes From Beneath:
Eight Octaves: Ahoy stoners! So we meet again! How have you been?
Srikanth: We’ve taken the time off since the Bombay gig in June end to be busy with other projects, duties to fill on the bass, producing other bands, writing new music, or drawing more cool things – depending on whom you ask in the band. But we’re back to playing gigs starting with Echoes from Beneath. The rest of the year’s calendar is looking busier than the first seven months, so fuck yeah!
Eight Octaves: You guys are working on a full-length album, if I’m not wrong. Tell us more about what to expect from the album?
Srikanth: We’re just writing as of now. The next song I’ve written sounds more classic doom metal than anything else. One song is slower and more oppressive than anything on the first album, and another is faster and more up-tempo than anything on the first album. Deepak even wants to bring out the double bass. So it’s going to be a mixed bag, just like the first album was but in a different way. Hopefully we don’t need two years to put this one out. We’re halfway through it, and my goal is to have the entire album’s worth material written, arranged, and ready for pre-production by the end of the year.
Eight Octaves: (For Ganesh) It was a busy last month for you, starting with Doom Over Bangalore, then filling in for Nolan for Kryptos’ Chennai gig, doing double duties – vocals for Bevar Sea and then for Kryptos in Mumbai, and lastly, filling in for Jayawant in Kryptos’ Europe tour. How physically demanding was the switching over and adjusting with Kryptos; especially during the Mumbai gig, where you did back to back vocals for Bevar Sea and Kryptos?
Ganesh: It was not a breeze, but it was not a ‘demand’ either. I am good friends with the band and really dig (The) Coils (of Apollyon) and that took a lot of weight off. Also, we downed a couple of shots of some unholy brew. I’d have loved to do a longer set with them!!
Eight Octaves: (For Ganesh) How was the feeling of playing in the grandest stage of all, the Mecca of Metal – Wacken Open Air, that too along with your old band Kryptos?
Ganesh: Well for starters it was something Nolan and I used to dream of when we were putting the band together back-in-the-day. Everything about Wacken is so fucking pro. From artist check-in to stage/monitor/FOH management. There’s beer at every step, the best people in the business, great backline, blah blah blah. What it made worthwhile was seeing some friends we’d made over our time in Germany in the front row banging head. So, it isn’t possible to to attach one feeling to the experience. It was a fucking dream, and it has been realised. Time to realise the next few. Now, where’s that weiss beer?
Eight Octaves: Let’s have a sort of quick-fire round of 5 questions. The first thing that comes to your mind just put it down.
- One band you want to perform with?
Srikanth: Pentagram (US)
- Favourite Bevar Sea song to perform live?
Srikanth: Universal Sleeper, because it’s got a constant groove going for almost ten minutes.
- The most memorable Bevar Sea concert?
Srikanth: The first Bangalore Open Air. Also the one where we opened for Anathema in IIT Madras earlier this year was great for us.
- One song you would love to cover live?
Srikanth: Not one, but we’d love to do a full set of Rush and Thin Lizzy songs someday.
- One festival/gig you would die to perform in?
Srikanth: Roadburn. I don’t want to die yet though.
Eight Octaves: You have a new music video coming up soon; you were looking for a villa type setup to shoot it. Can you give us a preview of what’s it is going to be like? What kind of atmosphere are you trying to create in the video?
Srikanth: Yup. Chacko and I have been working on a video for the first album song Universal Sleeper. The idea is simple really – it’s a farm house party where things go completely wrong for us metalheads. There’s going to be a lot of gore. I’ve had the idea in mind for as long as Bevar Sea has been playing live, and it’s cool to finally seeing it done. Chacko has done a great job converting that into a script and he’s added a lot of details as well. Munz will be shooting the whole thing, and we’re getting help from a few friends to do everything else. We hope to shoot this over a weekend soon, once we work out all the logistics.
Eight Octaves: Any other gigs planned this year, as of now? Or are you taking some time off to work on the album?
Srikanth: Not really – we’re up for gigging anywhere this year, and we’re working on putting a crew together to make this easy for us when we play out. We’re soon going to be in a position where we can freely travel with a killer sound and light show, and things produced exactly to our needs. We’re really looking to play more outside the comforts of our hometown for sure. Writing new material is just something that I need to finish on the side, but the live dates will go on. We’ve got a few dates confirmed already, but we’ll just wait for the official announcements. One thing I can tell you already is, we’re excited about the big stages we’re going to play this year. I think that’s where our best shows have been so far, and more of that is always welcome.
Eight Octaves: Okay, last question for the day. What are your expectations from Echoes From Beneath? And what can the crowd expect from you?
Srikanth: Echoes from Beneath is one of the most badass line-ups we’ve been part of so far. It has a great balance between super furious black/thrash of Witchgoat and Manifestator, and the slow heaviness of Djinn & Miskatonic and Shepherd. We’ll play second last, after Manifestator, and the audience can relax a bit during our set and get all charged up for the awesome Genocide Shrines again.
I think getting down the killer live acts from the Asian neighbourhood is a great way forward for us. The local scene is still up and coming and we can’t keep doing shows with the same line-ups over and over. It’s more fun with outside bands added, and the local and outside bands learn from each other. The audience always gets to watch fresh bands playing alongside their local favourites at gigs. The word has already spread, and our gigs have automatically become more special in the underground scene internationally, and we’ve already been flooded with requests from more killer bands to come down for our future gigs. We intend to keep this purely old school and we plan to do 3-4 of these shows every year. We’re flying the Lankans down, we take care of their stay and food, and we’re doing it all without sponsors. The crowd needs to pay a little premium for these shows we’re doing, but it’s still a way better deal than paying 2-3k for a 50 band line-up when you’re really only into just a couple. Our line-ups are programmed to be way tighter, and if you like one band, chances are, you’re going to like almost all the bands on the line-up. 700 bucks is not that much – just a little more than an IMAX ticket, but you get to see killer underground bands that you never get to see otherwise.
Speaking for Bevar Sea though, we’re really looking forward to playing some new material alongside the tunes the crowd already knows. The party will also spill over to the next day with the Lankans for sure. This shall rule ass!
Abishtu Playthrough video:
